Leviticus 25-27

1Then the LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai,

2“Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land itself must observe a Sabbath to the LORD.

3For six years you may sow your field and prune your vineyard and gather its crops.

4But in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of complete rest for the land—a Sabbath to the LORD. You are not to sow your field or prune your vineyard.

5You are not to reap the aftergrowth of your harvest or gather the grapes of your untended vines. The land must have a year of complete rest.

6Whatever the land yields during the Sabbath year shall be food for you—for yourself, your manservant and maidservant, the hired hand or foreigner who stays with you,

7and for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. All its growth may serve as food.

8And you shall count off seven Sabbaths of years—seven times seven years—so that the seven Sabbaths of years amount to forty-nine years.

9Then you are to sound the horn far and wide on the tenth day of the seventh month, the Day of Atonement. You shall sound it throughout your land.

10So you are to consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty in the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be your Jubilee, when each of you is to return to his property and to his clan.

11The fiftieth year will be a Jubilee for you; you are not to sow the land or reap its aftergrowth or harvest the untended vines.

12For it is a Jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You may eat only the crops taken directly from the field.

13In this Year of Jubilee, each of you shall return to his own property.

14If you make a sale to your neighbor or a purchase from him, you must not take advantage of each other.

15You are to buy from your neighbor according to the number of years since the last Jubilee; he is to sell to you according to the number of harvest years remaining.

16You shall increase the price in proportion to a greater number of years, or decrease it in proportion to a lesser number of years; for he is selling you a given number of harvests.

17Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your God; for I am the LORD your God.

18You are to keep My statutes and carefully observe My judgments, so that you may dwell securely in the land.

19Then the land will yield its fruit, so that you can eat your fill and dwell in safety in the land.

20Now you may wonder, ‘What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not sow or gather our produce?’

21But I will send My blessing upon you in the sixth year, so that the land will yield a crop sufficient for three years.

22While you are sowing in the eighth year, you will be eating from the previous harvest, until the ninth year’s harvest comes in.

23The land must not be sold permanently, because it is Mine, and you are but foreigners and residents with Me.

24Thus for every piece of property you possess, you must provide for the redemption of the land.

25If your brother becomes impoverished and sells some of his property, his nearest of kin may come and redeem what his brother has sold.

26Or if a man has no one to redeem it for him, but he prospers and acquires enough to redeem his land,

27he shall calculate the years since its sale, repay the balance to the man to whom he sold it, and return to his property.

28But if he cannot obtain enough to repay him, what he sold will remain in possession of the buyer until the Year of Jubilee. In the Jubilee, however, it is to be released, so that he may return to his property.

29If a man sells a house in a walled city, he retains his right of redemption until a full year after its sale; during that year it may be redeemed.

30If it is not redeemed by the end of a full year, then the house in the walled city is permanently transferred to its buyer and his descendants. It is not to be released in the Jubilee.

31But houses in villages with no walls around them are to be considered as open fields. They may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the Jubilee.

32As for the cities of the Levites, the Levites always have the right to redeem their houses in the cities they possess.

33So whatever belongs to the Levites may be redeemed—a house sold in a city they possess—and must be released in the Jubilee, because the houses in the cities of the Levites are their possession among the Israelites.

34But the open pastureland around their cities may not be sold, for this is their permanent possession.

35Now if your countryman becomes destitute and cannot support himself among you, then you are to help him as you would a foreigner or stranger, so that he can continue to live among you.

36Do not take any interest or profit from him, but fear your God, that your countryman may live among you.

37You must not lend him your silver at interest or sell him your food for profit.

38I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.

39If a countryman among you becomes destitute and sells himself to you, then you must not force him into slave labor.

40Let him stay with you as a hired worker or temporary resident; he is to work for you until the Year of Jubilee.

41Then he and his children are to be released, and he may return to his clan and to the property of his fathers.

42Because the Israelites are My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt, they are not to be sold as slaves.

43You are not to rule over them harshly, but you shall fear your God.

44Your menservants and maidservants shall come from the nations around you, from whom you may purchase them.

45You may also purchase them from the foreigners residing among you or their clans living among you who are born in your land. These may become your property.

46You may leave them to your sons after you to inherit as property; you can make them slaves for life. But as for your brothers, the Israelites, no man may rule harshly over his brother.

47If a foreigner residing among you prospers, but your countryman dwelling near him becomes destitute and sells himself to the foreigner or to a member of his clan,

48he retains the right of redemption after he has sold himself. One of his brothers may redeem him:

49either his uncle or cousin or any close relative from his clan may redeem him. Or if he prospers, he may redeem himself.

50He and his purchaser will then count the time from the year he sold himself up to the Year of Jubilee. The price of his sale will be determined by the number of years, based on the daily wages of a hired hand.

51If many years remain, he must pay for his redemption in proportion to his purchase price.

52If only a few years remain until the Year of Jubilee, he is to calculate and pay his redemption according to his remaining years.

53He shall be treated like a man hired from year to year, but a foreign owner must not rule over him harshly in your sight.

54Even if he is not redeemed in any of these ways, he and his children shall be released in the Year of Jubilee.

55For the Israelites are My servants. They are My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.

1“You must not make idols for yourselves or set up a carved image or sacred pillar; you must not place a sculpted stone in your land to bow down to it. For I am the LORD your God.

2You must keep My Sabbaths and have reverence for My sanctuary. I am the LORD.

3If you follow My statutes and carefully keep My commandments,

4I will give you rains in their season, and the land will yield its produce, and the trees of the field will bear their fruit.

5Your threshing will continue until the grape harvest, and the grape harvest will continue until sowing time; you will have your fill of food to eat and will dwell securely in your land.

6And I will give peace to the land, and you will lie down with nothing to fear. I will rid the land of dangerous animals, and no sword will pass through your land.

7You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you.

8Five of you will pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you.

9I will turn toward you and make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will establish My covenant with you.

10You will still be eating the old supply of grain when you need to clear it out to make room for the new.

11And I will make My dwelling place among you, and My soul will not despise you.

12I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be My people.

13I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians. I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk in uprightness.

14If, however, you fail to obey Me and to carry out all these commandments,

15and if you reject My statutes, despise My ordinances, and neglect to carry out all My commandments, and so break My covenant,

16then this is what I will do to you: I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting disease, and fever that will destroy your sight and drain your life. You will sow your seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it.

17And I will set My face against you, so that you will be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when no one pursues you.

18And if after all this you will not obey Me, I will proceed to punish you sevenfold for your sins.

19I will break down your stubborn pride and make your sky like iron and your land like bronze,

20and your strength will be spent in vain. For your land will not yield its produce, and the trees of the land will not bear their fruit.

21If you walk in hostility toward Me and refuse to obey Me, I will multiply your plagues seven times, according to your sins.

22I will send wild animals against you to rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and reduce your numbers, until your roads lie desolate.

23And if in spite of these things you do not accept My discipline, but continue to walk in hostility toward Me,

24then I will act with hostility toward you, and I will strike you sevenfold for your sins.

25And I will bring a sword against you to execute the vengeance of the covenant. Though you withdraw into your cities, I will send a plague among you, and you will be delivered into the hand of the enemy.

26When I cut off your supply of bread, ten women will bake your bread in a single oven and dole out your bread by weight, so that you will eat but not be satisfied.

27But if in spite of all this you do not obey Me, but continue to walk in hostility toward Me,

28then I will walk in fury against you, and I, even I, will punish you sevenfold for your sins.

29You will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters.

30I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars, and heap your lifeless bodies on the lifeless remains of your idols; and My soul will despise you.

31I will reduce your cities to rubble and lay waste your sanctuaries, and I will refuse to smell the pleasing aroma of your sacrifices.

32And I will lay waste the land, so that your enemies who dwell in it will be appalled.

33But I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out a sword after you as your land becomes desolate and your cities are laid waste.

34Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths all the days it lies desolate, while you are in the land of your enemies. At that time the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths.

35As long as it lies desolate, the land will have the rest it did not receive during the Sabbaths when you lived in it.

36As for those of you who survive, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies, so that even the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to flight. And they will flee as one flees the sword, and fall when no one pursues them.

37They will stumble over one another as before the sword, though no one is behind them. So you will not be able to stand against your enemies.

38You will perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies will consume you.

39Those of you who survive in the lands of your enemies will waste away in their iniquity and will decay in the sins of their fathers.

40But if they will confess their iniquity and that of their fathers in the unfaithfulness that they practiced against Me, by which they have also walked in hostility toward Me—

41and I acted with hostility toward them and brought them into the land of their enemies—and if their uncircumcised hearts will be humbled and they will make amends for their iniquity,

42then I will remember My covenant with Jacob and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.

43For the land will be abandoned by them, and it will enjoy its Sabbaths by lying desolate without them. And they will pay the penalty for their iniquity, because they rejected My ordinances and abhorred My statutes.

44Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject or despise them so as to destroy them and break My covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God.

45But for their sake I will remember the covenant with their fathers, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am the LORD.”

46These are the statutes, ordinances, and laws that the LORD established between Himself and the Israelites through Moses on Mount Sinai.

1Then the LORD said to Moses,

2“Speak to the Israelites and say to them, ‘When someone makes a special vow to the LORD involving the value of persons,

3if the valuation concerns a male from twenty to sixty years of age, then your valuation shall be fifty shekels of silver, according to the sanctuary shekel.

4Or if it is a female, then your valuation shall be thirty shekels.

5And if the person is from five to twenty years of age, then your valuation for the male shall be twenty shekels, and for the female ten shekels.

6Now if the person is from one month to five years of age, then your valuation for the male shall be five shekels of silver, and for the female three shekels of silver.

7And if the person is sixty years of age or older, then your valuation shall be fifteen shekels for the male and ten shekels for the female.

8But if the one making the vow is too poor to pay the valuation, he is to present the person before the priest, who shall set the value according to what the one making the vow can afford.

9If he vows an animal that may be brought as an offering to the LORD, any such animal given to the LORD shall be holy.

10He must not replace it or exchange it, either good for bad or bad for good. But if he does substitute one animal for another, both that animal and its substitute will be holy.

11But if the vow involves any of the unclean animals that may not be brought as an offering to the LORD, the animal must be presented before the priest.

12The priest shall set its value, whether high or low; as the priest values it, the price will be set.

13If, however, the owner decides to redeem the animal, he must add a fifth to its value.

14Now if a man consecrates his house as holy to the LORD, then the priest shall value it either as good or bad. The price will stand just as the priest values it.

15But if he who consecrated his house redeems it, he must add a fifth to the assessed value, and it will belong to him.

16If a man consecrates to the LORD a parcel of his land, then your valuation shall be proportional to the seed required for it—fifty shekels of silver for every homer of barley seed.

17If he consecrates his field during the Year of Jubilee, the price will stand according to your valuation.

18But if he consecrates his field after the Jubilee, the priest is to calculate the price in proportion to the years left until the next Year of Jubilee, so that your valuation will be reduced.

19And if the one who consecrated the field decides to redeem it, he must add a fifth to the assessed value, and it shall belong to him.

20If, however, he does not redeem the field, or if he has sold it to another man, it may no longer be redeemed.

21When the field is released in the Jubilee, it will become holy, like a field devoted to the LORD; it becomes the property of the priests.

22Now if a man consecrates to the LORD a field he has purchased, which is not a part of his own property,

23then the priest shall calculate for him the value up to the Year of Jubilee, and the man shall pay the assessed value on that day as a sacred offering to the LORD.

24In the Year of Jubilee the field shall return to the one from whom it was bought—the original owner of the land.

25Every valuation will be according to the sanctuary shekel, twenty gerahs to the shekel.

26But no one may consecrate a firstborn of the livestock, because a firstborn belongs to the LORD. Whether it is an ox or a sheep, it is the LORD’s.

27But if it is among the unclean animals, then he may redeem it according to your valuation and add a fifth of its value. If it is not redeemed, then it shall be sold according to your valuation.

28Nothing that a man sets apart to the LORD from all he owns—whether a man, an animal, or his inherited land—can be sold or redeemed; everything so devoted is most holy to the LORD.

29No person set apart for destruction may be ransomed; he must surely be put to death.

30Thus any tithe from the land, whether from the seed of the land or the fruit of the trees, belongs to the LORD; it is holy to the LORD.

31If a man wishes to redeem part of his tithe, he must add a fifth to its value.

32Every tenth animal from the herd or flock that passes under the shepherd’s rod will be holy to the LORD.

33He must not inspect whether it is good or bad, and he shall not make any substitution. But if he does make a substitution, both the animal and its substitute shall become holy; they cannot be redeemed.’”

34These are the commandments that the LORD gave to Moses for the Israelites on Mount Sinai.