OET-RV LEV Chapter 25

25 Then on Mt. Sinai, Yahweh told Mosheh:[ref]

2 Tell the Israelis that when you all enter the land that I’m giving you, the land must observe a rest year for Yahweh. 3 You can plant your crops, prune your grapevines, and harvest all its produce for six years, 4 but during the seventh year, you must allow the land to rest to honour Yahweh. You mustn’t plant any crops or prune any grapevines. 5 Don’t systematically harvest the self-sown crops or the grapes from the untrimmed vines. It must be a rest year for the land. 6 However, during the rest year, the land will provide food for you and your servants, and for your hired workers and the foreigners who are living among you, 7 as well as your livestock and the wild animals across the land. Any produce from the land can be eaten.

8 Count off seven rest years, so seven times seven which is forty-nine years, 9 then after that, sound loud horn blasts on the 10th of the seventh month to announce throughout the land that it’s the day for making things right with Yahweh. 10 Then you all must declare that fiftieth year to be sacred. It’ll be a restoration celebration year when you announce freedom for all the inhabitants of the country—everyone can be free to return to their families, and all families can be free to return to their originally inherited land. 11 That fiftieth year will be a restoration celebration year. You all mustn’t plant crops and don’t systematically harvest the self-sown crops or the grapes from the untrimmed vines, 12 because it’s a restoration celebration year. You all must treat it as sacred and just eat what you take directly from the countryside.

13 In that restoration celebration year, you all should return to your inherited land. 14 In the other years when you buy or sell from your fellow citizens, you mustn’t cheat them 15 because the value of the land will depend on the number of years after the restoration celebration year, i.e., you must take into account the number of years of produce—16 if there’s many years to go, the price will increase, and if the next rest year is close, the price will decrease because you’re selling the number of crops. 17 So don’t cheat eat other—you must respect and obey your god, because I am your god Yahweh.

18 You all must follow all my instructions and maintain my values—keeping them so that you’ll be able to live securely on the land. 19 The land will yield its crops and you’ll all have plenty to eat, and you’ll be able to live there securely.

20 But if you all wonder what you’ll eat in that seventh year when you’ll neither plant crops or do organised harvests, 21 well I’ll send my blessing to you all in the sixth year, and it’ll produce enough for three years 22 so you all can still eat that stored food while you plant crops in the eighth year to feed you all through the ninth year.

23 The land can not be irrevocably sold, because it belongs to me and you all are foreigners and temporary residents on my land. 24 so for all the land that you take possession of, there must be a way to get back the family land. 25 For example, if an Israeli man becomes poor and sells off some of his inherited land, then a close relative must have the right to go and buy back that land. 26 Even if he didn’t have a relative who could do that, and he prospers again in the future and is able to raise enough money, 27 then he can calculate the value of the years until the restoration celebration, and then for that amount he must be allowed to buy the land back from the person he’d sold it to. 28 However, if the original owner wasn’t able to raise enough money, then that piece of land that was sold will remain under the control of the buyer until the restoration celebration year when it must be returned anyway.

29 If a house inside a walled city is sold, then the right to buy it back will last until one full year after the sale. 30 If it’s not bought back by the original family within that year, then that house in the walled city will then belong permanently to the buyer—it won’t be returned in the restoration celebration year. 31 On the contrary, village houses will be considered as part of the family land, so they’ll be able to be bought back by the family, otherwise they’ll be returned in the restoration celebration year.

32 The Levites’ cities and houses will belong to them permanently—the Levites must always be able to buy them back, 33 but even if they don’t buy them back, they must be returned in the restoration celebration year because the Levites’ houses are their only possession among the Israelis. 34 In addition, they may not sell the pastureland around their cities because that’s their permanent possession.

35 If a fellow citizen becomes poor and is unable to survive beside you, then you must support that person and allow him to live with you like a foreigner might.[ref] 36 You mustn’t charge that person any interest or make a profit from him, but you must respect and obey your god, and your fellow citizen can continue to live with you. 37 If you loan him money, don’t charge interest or make a profit from his food.[ref] 38 I am your god Yahweh who brought you all out of Egypt (Heb. Mitsrayim) to give you the Kanaan region and to be your god.

39 If a fellow citizen becomes poor and selling himself to you, don’t force him to work like a slave—[ref] 40 treat him like a hired worker or a temporary resident. He can work with you until the restoration celebration year 41 when he must be released along with his children, and he can return to his family, and to his clan’s land, 42 because they are my slaves that I brought out of Egypt so they mustn’t be sold again as slaves. 43 Don’t rule harshly over them but rather, respect and obey your god. 44 If you want to have male or female slaves, they you can buy them from the surrounding countries, 45 or else from the children or clans of the foreigners who are living among you—you all can own them 46 and then pass them on to your children to own as their inheritance. You all can make them work indefinitely for you, but you mustn’t harshly oppress your fellow Israelis.

47 If a foreigner living among you becomes wealthy, yet your fellow citizen becomes poor and sells himself to that resident foreigner or to a member of their clan, 48 then there’s always the right of redemption even after he’s sold himself, so one of his brothers can buy him back, 49 or his uncle or cousin or another relative from the clan can pay to free him. In fact, he might even be able to buy his own way out. 50 He must work out with his master how many years from when he sold himself, until the restoration celebration year, and figure out the price according to the wages of a hired worker for that many years. 51 If there’s still a lot of years to go, he’d need to repay most of what he sold himself for, 52 but if it’s only a few years to go, the price for his freedom would be proportionally smaller. 53 While he works for the foreign master, he must be treated like an annual hired worker. You others must ensure that he’s not treated harshly. 54 Then even if he’s not bought out, he and his children must be released in the restoration celebration year 55 because the Israelis are my slaves—my slaves because I brought them out of Egypt. I am your god Yahweh.