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Lord said to Moses on Mount Sinai, 2 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am giving you, the land itself must observe a sabbath to the Lord. 3 You may sow your fields for six years, and for six years you may prune your vineyards and gather their crops. 4 But in the seventh year the land must have a sabbath of complete rest, a sabbath to the Lord, when you must not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. 5 You must not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. It must be a year of complete rest for the land. 6 Whatever the land produces during the sabbath year can be food for you—for yourself, your male and female slaves, and the hired worker or foreigner who stays with you, 7 as well as for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. Whatever the land produces can be used for food.
8 ‘You are to count off seven sabbatical years, seven times seven years, so that the seven sabbaths of years amount to a period of forty-nine years. 9 Then you are to sound the trumpet loudly on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement you must sound the trumpet throughout your land. 10 You are to consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you; and each of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan. 11 The fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee for you; you are not to sow or reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. 12 For it is the Jubilee; it will be holy to you. You may only eat what is taken directly from the fields.
13 ‘In this Year of Jubilee, each of you is to return to his own property.
14 ‘If you sell land to your neighbour or buy any from him, you must not deal unfairly with each other. 15 You are to make the purchase from your neighbour based on the number of years since the Jubilee. He also is to sell to you based on the number of years left for harvesting crops. 16 When the years are many, you are to increase the price, and when the number of years is fewer, you are to decrease the price, because what he is really selling to you is the number of harvests that remain until the next Jubilee. 17 You must not deal unfairly with each other, but fear your God. I am the Lord your God.
18 ‘You must keep My statutes and ordinances and carefully perform them, and you will live safely in the land. 19 Then the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live securely in the land.
20 ‘And if you should ask, “What can we eat in the seventh year if we do not sow or harvest our crops?” 21 I will order My blessing on you in the sixth year, so that it will yield a crop sufficient for three years. 22 When you sow in the eighth year, you will still be eating from the previous crop until the ninth year. You will continue eating this until the ninth year when the harvest comes in.
23 ‘The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is Mine and you are only foreign residents and tenants with Me. 24 Throughout the land that you hold as a possession, you must provide for the redemption of the land.
25 ‘If your brother becomes poor and sells part of his property, then his closest relative is to come and redeem what his brother has sold. 26 If, however, a man has no one to redeem it, but he prospers and finds sufficient means to redeem it, 27 he may calculate the years since its sale and refund the balance to the man to whom he sold it, and then he can return to his property. 28 But if he does not acquire sufficient means to repay him, then what he sold will remain in its purchaser until the Year of Jubilee. It is to be returned in the Jubilee, and then he can go back to his property.
29 ‘If a man sells a house in a walled city, he retains the right of redemption until a full year has passed since it was sold; his right of redemption will remain for one year. 30 If it is not redeemed before a year has passed, then the house in the walled city shall permanently belong to the purchaser and his descendants throughout the generations. It is not to be returned in the Jubilee. 31 But the houses in villages that have no walls around them are to be considered as open country. They can be redeemed, and they are to be released at the Jubilee.
32 ‘Concerning the cities of the Levites, the Levites always have the right to redeem their houses in the cities of their possession. 33 So whatever property belongs to the Levites may be redeemed, and a house sold in a city they possess must be released in the Jubilee, because the houses in the cities of the Levites are their possession among the Israelites. 34 But the open fields around their cities must not be sold, for they are their permanent possession.
35 ‘If one of your brothers becomes poor and is unable to support himself among you, then you are to sustain him as you would for a foreigner or a temporary resident, so that your brother can continue to live among you. 36 Do not charge interest or otherwise make a profit from him, but fear your God and let your brother live among you. 37 You must not lend him money at interest or sell him food at a profit. 38 I 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.
39 ‘If one of your brothers becomes poor among you and sells himself to you, you must not force him to work as a slave. 40 He is to be treated by you as a hired worker or a temporary resident; he may work for you until the Year of Jubilee. 41 Then he must be released from you along with his children, and he can go back to his own clan and to his ancestral property. 42 Because they are My servants, whom I brought of the land of Egypt, they must not be sold as slaves. 43 You must not rule over them harshly, but fear your God.
44 ‘Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may purchase male and female slaves. 45 You may also purchase them from the foreigners living among you, or from members of their clans born in your land, and they will become your property. 46 You can leave them to your children as inherited property and retain them as slaves for life. But concerning your fellow Israelites, you must not rule over one another harshly.
47 ‘If a foreigner or temporary resident among you prospers and your brother becomes poor and sells himself to the foreigner or temporary resident living among you, or to a member of the foreigner’s clan, 48 he will retain the right of redemption after he has sold himself. One of his brothers may redeem him. 49 An uncle or cousin may redeem him, or any close relative of his own clan may redeem him. Or if he prospers, he may redeem himself. 50 He and the one who bought him are to count out the years from the time he sold himself up to the Year of Jubilee. The price of his sale is to be based on the rate paid to a hired servant for that number of years. 51 If there are still many years remaining, he must calculate the cost of his redemption in proportion to the price paid for him. 52 If only a few years remain until the Year of Jubilee, then he is to calculate that as the basis of the price of his redemption. 53 Like a hired servant he will remain under the authority of the foreign owner from year to year; however you must see to it that his owner does not rule over him harshly.
54 ‘Even if he is not redeemed in any of these ways, he and his children must be released in the Year of Jubilee, 55 for the Israelites belong to Me as My servants. They are My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God’.”