The Seventh Year
And the LORD spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying,
“Speak to the sons of Israel, and say to them: When you come into the land that I am giving you, the land shall rest — a sabbath to the LORD.
Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in its produce.
But in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of complete rest for the land, a sabbath to the LORD: your field you shall not sow, and your vineyard you shall not prune.
What grows of itself from your harvest you shall not reap, and the grapes of your untended vines you shall not gather; a year of complete rest it shall be for the land.
And the sabbath of the land shall be food for you — for you, and for your male slave and your female slave, and for your hired worker and your resident stranger who sojourn with you;
and for your beasts and for the wild animals that are in your land all its produce shall be, to eat.
The Year of Jubilee
And you shall count for yourself seven sabbaths of years — seven years, seven times — so that the days of the seven sabbaths of years amount for you to forty-nine years.
And you shall sound a blasting horn in the seventh month, on the tenth of the month; on the Day of Atonement you shall sound the horn throughout all your land.
And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty in the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you: and you shall return, each man to his holding, and each man to his family you shall return.
A Jubilee that fiftieth year shall be for you: you shall not sow, and you shall not reap what grows of itself, and you shall not gather from the untended vines.
For it is a Jubilee; it shall be holy to you. From the field you shall eat its produce.
Return of Property
In this year of Jubilee you shall return, each man to his holding.
And when you sell something to your fellow, or buy from your fellow’s hand, you shall not wrong one another.
By the number of years after the Jubilee you shall buy from your fellow; by the number of years of harvests he shall sell to you.
According to the greater number of the years you shall increase its price, and according to the fewer years you shall decrease its price — for it is a number of harvests he is selling you.
And you shall not wrong one another — and you shall fear your God. For I am the LORD your God.
The Blessing of Obedience
And you shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments and do them — and you shall dwell on the land in security.
And the land shall give its fruit, and you shall eat your fill, and dwell in security on it.
And when you say, ‘What shall we eat in the seventh year? Look — we may not sow, and we may not gather our produce’ —
I will command my blessing for you in the sixth year, and it will yield produce for the three years.
And you shall sow in the eighth year, and eat from the old produce; until the ninth year, until its produce comes in, you shall eat the old.
The Law of Redemption
And the land shall not be sold permanently — for the land is mine; for you are sojourners and resident strangers with me.
And in all the land of your holding you shall grant redemption for the land.
When your brother grows poor and sells some of his holding, then his redeemer nearest to him shall come and redeem what his brother sold.
And when a man has no redeemer, but his hand reaches enough and he finds sufficient for his redemption,
then he shall count the years since its sale, and return the balance to the man to whom he sold it — and he shall return to his holding.
But if his hand has not found enough to get it back, then what he sold shall stay in the hand of its buyer until the year of Jubilee; and in the Jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his holding.
And when a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, his right of redemption shall last until the completion of the year of its sale; for a full year he shall have the right of redemption.
But if it is not redeemed before a whole year is complete for him, then the house that is in the walled city shall be established permanently for its buyer, throughout his generations; it shall not be released in the Jubilee.
But the houses of the villages that have no wall around them shall be counted as the open field of the land: there shall be redemption for them, and in the Jubilee they shall be released.
As for the cities of the Levites — the houses of the cities of their holding — the Levites shall have a right of redemption forever.
And whatever one redeems from the Levites — the sale of a house in the city of his holding — shall be released in the Jubilee; for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their holding in the midst of the sons of Israel.
But the fields of the pastureland of their cities shall not be sold — for that is their holding forever.
Redemption of the Poor
And when your brother grows poor and his hand falters beside you, then you shall take hold of him — sojourner or resident stranger — and he shall live with you.
Do not take interest or increase from him — and you shall fear your God — and your brother shall live with you.
Your silver you shall not give him at interest, and your food you shall not give for increase.
I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, to be your God.
Redemption of Bondmen
And when your brother grows poor beside you and is sold to you, you shall not make him serve the labor of a slave.
Like a hired worker, like a resident stranger, he shall be with you; until the year of Jubilee he shall serve with you.
And then he shall go out from you — he and his sons with him — and return to his family; and to the holding of his fathers he shall return.
For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves are sold.
You shall not rule over him with crushing harshness — and you shall fear your God.
And your male slave and your female slave that you may have — from the nations that are around you, from them you may buy male slave and female slave.
And also from the sons of the resident strangers who sojourn with you — from them you may buy, and from their families that are with you, whom they have fathered in your land; and they shall be your holding.
And you may pass them on as an inheritance to your sons after you, to hold as a possession; you may make them serve forever. But over your brothers, the sons of Israel — no man shall rule over his brother with crushing harshness.
Redemption of Servants
And when the hand of a sojourner or resident stranger beside you reaches wealth, and your brother beside him grows poor and is sold to a sojourner or resident stranger beside you, or to a member of a sojourner’s family,
after he is sold there shall be redemption for him; one of his brothers may redeem him,
or his uncle or his uncle’s son may redeem him, or any close relative of his flesh from his family may redeem him — or if his own hand reaches enough, he may be redeemed.
And he shall reckon with his buyer from the year he was sold to him until the year of Jubilee; and the silver of his sale shall be according to the number of years — as the days of a hired worker he shall be with him.
If there are still many years, in proportion to them he shall return the price of his redemption out of the silver of his purchase.
And if few years remain until the year of Jubilee, then he shall reckon with him; according to his years he shall return the price of his redemption.
As a worker hired year by year he shall be with him; he shall not rule over him with crushing harshness before your eyes.
And if he is not redeemed in any of these ways, then he shall go out in the year of Jubilee — he and his sons with him.
For to me the sons of Israel are servants. They are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.