The law of the seventh and of the fiftieth year of jubilee.
25:1. And the Lord spoke to Moses in mount Sinai, saying:
25:2. Speak to the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them: When
you shall have entered into the land which I will give you, observe the
rest of the sabbath of the Lord.
25:3. Six years thou shalt sow thy field and six years thou shalt prune
thy vineyard, and shalt gather the fruits thereof.
25:4. But in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath to the land, of
the resting of the Lord. Thou shalt not sow thy field, nor prune thy
vineyard.
25:5. What the ground shall bring forth of itself, thou shalt not reap:
neither shalt thou gather the grapes or the firstfruits as a vintage.
For it is a year of rest to the land.
25:6. But they shall be unto you for meat, to thee and to thy
manservant, to thy maidservant and thy hireling, and to the strangers
that sojourn with thee.
25:7. All things that grow shall be meat to thy beasts and to thy
cattle.
25:8. Thou shalt also number to thee seven weeks of years: that is to
say, seven times seven, which together make forty-nine years.
25:9. And thou shalt sound the trumpet in the seventh month, the tenth
day of the month, in the time of the expiation in all your land.
25:10. And thou shalt sanctify the fiftieth year, and shalt proclaim
remission to all the inhabitants of thy land: for it is the year of
jubilee. Every man shall return to his possession, and every one shall
go back to his former family:
Remission.... That is, a general release and discharge from debts and
bondage, and a reinstating of every man in his former possessions.
25:11. Because it is the jubilee and the fiftieth year. You shall not
sow, nor reap the things that grow in the field of their own accord,
neither shall you gather the firstfruits of the vines,
25:12. Because of the sanctification of the jubilee. But as they grow
you shall presently eat them.
25:13. In the year of the jubilee all shall return to their
possessions.
25:14. When thou shalt sell any thing to thy neighbour, or shalt buy of
him: grieve not thy brother. But thou shalt buy of him according to the
number of years from the jubilee.
25:15. And he shall sell to thee according to the computation of the
fruits.
25:16. The more years remain after the jubilee, the more shall the
price increase: and the less time is counted, so much the less shall
the purchase cost. For he shall sell to thee the time of the fruits.
25:17. Do not afflict your countrymen: but let every one fear his God.
Because I am the Lord your God.
25:18. Do my precepts, and keep my judgments, and fulfil them: that you
may dwell in the land without any fear.
25:19. And the ground may yield you its fruits, of which you may eat
your fill, fearing no man’s invasion.
25:20. But if you say: What shall we eat the seventh year, if we sow
not, nor gather our fruits?
25:21. I will give you my blessing the sixth year: and it shall yield
the fruits of three years.
25:22. And the eighth year you shall sow, and shall eat of the old
fruits, until the ninth year: till new grow up, you shall eat the old
store.
25:23. The land also shall not be sold for ever: because it is mine,
and you are strangers and sojourners with me.
25:24. For which cause all the country of your possession shall be
under the condition of redemption.
25:25. If thy brother being impoverished sell his little possession,
and his kinsman will: he may redeem what he had sold.
25:26. But if he have no kinsman, and he himself can find the price to
redeem it:
25:27. The value of the fruits shall be counted from that time when he
sold it. And the overplus he shall restore to the buyer, and so shall
receive his possession again.
25:28. But if his hands find not the means to repay the price, the
buyer shall have what he bought, until the year of the jubilee. For in
that year all that is sold shall return to the owner, and to the
ancient possessor.
25:29. He that selleth a house within the walls of a city, shall have
the liberty to redeem it, until one year be expired.
25:30. If he redeem it not, and the whole year be fully out, the buyer
shall possess it, and his posterity for ever, and it cannot be
redeemed, not even in the jubilee.
25:31. But if the house be in a village, that hath no walls, it shall
be sold according to the same law as the fields. If it be not redeemed
before, in the jubilee it shall return to the owner.
25:32. The houses of Levites, which are in cities, may always be
redeemed.
25:33. If they be not redeemed, in the jubilee they shall all return to
the owners: because the houses of the cities of the Levites are for
their possessions among the children of Israel.
25:34. But let not their suburbs be sold, because it is a perpetual
possession.
25:35. If thy brother be impoverished, and weak of hand, and thou
receive him as a stranger and sojourner, and he live with thee:
25:36. Take not usury of him nor more than thou gavest. Fear thy God,
that thy brother may live with thee.
25:37. Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury: nor exact of him
any increase of fruits.
25:38. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of
Egypt, that I might give you the land of Chanaan, and might be your
God.
25:39. If thy brother constrained by poverty, sell himself to thee:
thou shalt not oppress him with the service of bondservants.
25:40. But he shall be as a hireling, and a sojourner: he shall work
with thee until the year of the jubilee.
25:41. And afterwards he shall go out with his children: and shall
return to his kindred and to the possession of his fathers.
25:42. For they are my servants, and I brought them out of the land of
Egypt: let them not be sold as bondmen.
25:43. Afflict him not by might: but fear thy God.
25:44. Let your bondmen, and your bondwomen, be of the nations that are
round about you:
25:45. And of the strangers that sojourn among you, or that were born
of them in your land. These you shall have for servants:
25:46. And by right of inheritance shall leave them to your posterity,
and shall possess them for ever. But oppress not your brethren the
children of Israel by might.
25:47. If the hand of a stranger or a sojourner grow strong among you,
and thy brother being impoverished sell himself to him, or to any of
his race:
25:48. After the sale he may be redeemed. He that will of his brethren
shall redeem him:
25:49. Either his uncle, or his uncle’s son, or his kinsman, by blood,
or by affinity. But if he himself be able also, he shall redeem
himself:
25:50. Counting only the years from the time of his selling unto the
year of the jubilee: and counting the money that he was sold for,
according to the number of the years and the reckoning of a hired
servant.
25:51. If there be many years that remain until the jubilee, according
to them shall he also repay the price.
25:52. If few, he shall make the reckoning with him according to the
number of the years: and shall repay to the buyer of what remaineth of
the years.
25:53. His wages being allowed for which he served before: he shall not
afflict him violently in thy sight.
25:54. And if by these means he cannot be redeemed, in the year of the
jubilee he shall go out with his children.
25:55. For the children of Israel are my servants, whom I brought forth
out of the land of Egypt.