Leviticus 25
Big idea: Every seventh year the land itself keeps a Sabbath — no sowing, no pruning, and whatever grows of itself feeds the owner, his servants, his hired workers, the foreigner, his livestock and the wild animals alike. Every fiftieth year the trumpet sounds on the Day of Atonement and liberty is proclaimed throughout the land: every family returns to its property, every Israelite slave goes free. The reason is a claim about ownership stated in the middle of the chapter: the land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and live as foreigners with me. Everything that follows — redemption of fields, houses in walled cities and villages, no interest on loans to a poor brother, no ruling over him with harshness — flows from tenancy. A people bought out of slavery may not rebuild it.
Chapter 25 spells out life in the land God owns. Chapter 26 states the two ways that life can go, and what happens to the land itself if Israel refuses.
25:1–7 — A Sabbath for the land
Spoken on Mount Sinai: when they come into the land, the land shall keep a Sabbath to Yahweh. Six years of sowing, pruning and gathering; in the seventh, a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land — no sowing, no pruning, and what grows of itself is not reaped, the undressed vine not gathered. But the year's growth is food: for you, your servant, your maid, your hired servant, the foreigner living with you, your livestock, and the wild animals in your land.
1 Yahweh said to Moses on Mount Sinai, 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a Sabbath to Yahweh. 3 You shall sow your field six years, and you shall prune your vineyard six years, and gather in its fruits; 4 but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to Yahweh. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. 5 What grows of itself in your harvest you shall not reap, and you shall not gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. 6 The Sabbath of the land shall be for food for you; for yourself, for your servant, for your maid, for your hired servant, and for your stranger, who lives as a foreigner with you. 7 For your livestock also, and for the animals that are in your land, shall all its increase be for food.
25:8–17 — Proclaim liberty in the fiftieth year
Count seven sevens of years — forty-nine — and then sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month, the Day of Atonement, throughout all the land. Make the fiftieth year holy and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants: each returns to his own property and to his family. It is a jubilee; no sowing, no reaping of volunteer growth, no gathering from undressed vines — eat of its increase out of the field. Because land returns in the jubilee, sales are priced by the number of harvests remaining: more years, higher price; fewer years, lower. And twice: you shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God.
8 “‘You shall count off seven Sabbaths of years, seven times seven years; and there shall be to you the days of seven Sabbaths of years, even forty-nine years. 9 Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land. 10 You shall make the fiftieth year holy, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee to you; and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family. 11 That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee to you. In it you shall not sow, neither reap that which grows of itself, nor gather from the undressed vines. 12 For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat of its increase out of the field. 13 “‘In this Year of Jubilee each of you shall return to his property. 14 “‘If you sell anything to your neighbor, or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another. 15 According to the number of years after the Jubilee you shall buy from your neighbor. According to the number of years of the crops he shall sell to you. 16 According to the length of the years you shall increase its price, and according to the shortness of the years you shall diminish its price; for he is selling the number of the crops to you. 17 You shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am Yahweh your God.
25:18–24 — What shall we eat? — and the land is mine
Do my statutes and you shall dwell in the land in safety; the land will yield its fruit and you will eat your fill. Then the question anyone would ask is put in their mouths: what shall we eat in the seventh year, if we do not sow or gather? The answer is a promise — I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, and it shall bear fruit for three years; you will sow in the eighth and eat from the old store until the ninth. Then the chapter's centre: the land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and live as foreigners with me. In all your possession you shall grant a redemption for the land.
18 “‘Therefore you shall do my statutes, and keep my ordinances and do them; and you shall dwell in the land in safety. 19 The land shall yield its fruit, and you shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety. 20 If you said, “What shall we eat the seventh year? Behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase;” 21 then I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, and it shall bear fruit for the three years. 22 You shall sow the eighth year, and eat of the fruits from the old store until the ninth year. Until its fruits come in, you shall eat the old store. 23 “‘The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and live as foreigners with me. 24 In all the land of your possession you shall grant a redemption for the land.
25:25–34 — Redeeming what was sold
If your brother becomes poor and sells part of his possession, his nearest kinsman comes and redeems it. If he has no redeemer but prospers, he reckons the years since the sale, restores the surplus, and returns to his property; if he cannot, what he sold stays with the buyer until the jubilee, when it is released. A house in a walled city may be redeemed within a year, after which it becomes the buyer's in perpetuity and is not released in the jubilee; houses in unwalled villages count as fields and are released. Levites may redeem their city houses at any time and always get them back in the jubilee, and their pasture lands may never be sold at all.
25 “‘If your brother becomes poor, and sells some of his possessions, then his kinsman who is next to him shall come, and redeem that which his brother has sold. 26 If a man has no one to redeem it, and he becomes prosperous and finds sufficient means to redeem it, 27 then let him reckon the years since its sale, and restore the surplus to the man to whom he sold it; and he shall return to his property. 28 But if he isn’t able to get it back for himself, then what he has sold shall remain in the hand of him who has bought it until the Year of Jubilee. In the Jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his property. 29 “‘If a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it has been sold. For a full year he shall have the right of redemption. 30 If it isn’t redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be made sure in perpetuity to him who bought it, throughout his generations. It shall not be released in the Jubilee. 31 But the houses of the villages which have no wall around them shall be accounted for with the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the Jubilee. 32 “‘Nevertheless, in the cities of the Levites, the Levites may redeem the houses in the cities of their possession at any time. 33 The Levites may redeem the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, and it shall be released in the Jubilee; for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel. 34 But the field of the pasture lands of their cities may not be sold, for it is their perpetual possession.
25:35–46 — No interest, and no harshness
If your brother becomes poor and cannot support himself, you shall uphold him; he lives with you like an alien and a temporary resident. Take no interest or profit from him — fear your God, that your brother may live among you — and do not lend money at interest or give food for profit. I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of Egypt. If he grows poor and sells himself to you, do not make him serve as a slave: he serves as a hired servant until the jubilee, then goes out with his children and returns to his family and his fathers' possession. For they are my servants, whom I brought out of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves. You shall not rule over him with harshness, but shall fear your God.
35 “‘If your brother has become poor, and his hand can’t support himself among you, then you shall uphold him. He shall live with you like an alien and a temporary resident. 36 Take no interest from him or profit; but fear your God, that your brother may live among you. 37 You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit. 38 I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God. 39 “‘If your brother has grown poor among you, and sells himself to you, you shall not make him to serve as a slave. 40 As a hired servant, and as a temporary resident, he shall be with you; he shall serve with you until the Year of Jubilee. 41 Then he shall go out from you, he and his children with him, and shall return to his own family, and to the possession of his fathers. 42 For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. They shall not be sold as slaves. 43 You shall not rule over him with harshness, but shall fear your God. 44 “‘As for your male and your female slaves, whom you may have from the nations that are around you, from them you may buy male and female slaves. 45 Moreover, of the children of the aliens who live among you, of them you may buy, and of their families who are with you, which they have conceived in your land; and they will be your property. 46 You may make them an inheritance for your children after you, to hold for a possession. Of them you may take your slaves forever, but over your brothers the children of Israel you shall not rule, one over another, with harshness.
25:47–55 — Redeemed from a foreigner
If a resident foreigner grows rich and an Israelite grows poor and sells himself to him, he may be redeemed: by a brother, an uncle, a cousin, any close relative, or by himself if he prospers. The price is reckoned from the year of sale to the jubilee, calculated as the wage of a hired servant — many years remaining means more to repay, few years means less. He is treated as a servant hired year by year, and the foreigner shall not rule with harshness over him in your sight. If he is not redeemed by any of these means, he goes free in the jubilee, he and his children. For to me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought out of Egypt.
47 “‘If an alien or temporary resident with you becomes rich, and your brother beside him has grown poor, and sells himself to the stranger or foreigner living among you, or to a member of the stranger’s family, 48 after he is sold he may be redeemed. One of his brothers may redeem him; 49 or his uncle, or his uncle’s son, may redeem him, or any who is a close relative to him of his family may redeem him; or if he has grown rich, he may redeem himself. 50 He shall reckon with him who bought him from the year that he sold himself to him to the Year of Jubilee. The price of his sale shall be according to the number of years; he shall be with him according to the time of a hired servant. 51 If there are yet many years, according to them he shall give back the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for. 52 If there remain but a few years to the year of jubilee, then he shall reckon with him; according to his years of service he shall give back the price of his redemption. 53 As a servant hired year by year shall he be with him. He shall not rule with harshness over him in your sight. 54 If he isn’t redeemed by these means, then he shall be released in the Year of Jubilee: he and his children with him. 55 For to me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God.
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).