Leviticus 25 · Parashat Behar

And the Lord spoke to Moshe in mount Sinay, saying,

Speak to the children of Yisra᾽el, and say to them, When you come to the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath to the Lord.

Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in its fruit;

but in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath for the Lord: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.

That which grows of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, nor gather the grapes of thy undressed vine: for it shall be a year of rest for the land.

And the sabbath produce of the land shall be food for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourns with thee,

and for thy cattle, and for the beast in thy land, shall all its increase be food.

And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years to thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be to thee forty nine years.

Then shalt thou cause the shofar to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, on the day of atonement shall you sound the shofar throughout all your land.

And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants: it shall be a jubilee for you; and you shall return every man to his possession, and you shall return every man to his family.

A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be to you: you shall not sow, neither reap that which grows of itself in it, nor gather in it the grapes of thy undressed vine.

For it is the jubilee; it shall be holy to you: you shall eat its increase out of the field.

In the year of this jubilee you shall return every man to his possession.

And if thou sell aught to thy neighbour, or buy aught of thy neighbour’s hand, you shall not defraud one another:

according to the number of years after the jubilee thou shalt buy of thy neighbour, and according to the number of years of the fruits he shall sell to thee:

according to the multitude of years thou shalt increase its price, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it: for what he sells thee is a number of years of produce.

You shall not therefore defraud one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am the Lord your God.

And you shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and you shall dwell in the land in safety.

And the land shall yield her fruit, and you shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety.

And if you shall say, What shall we eat in the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase:

then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years.

And you shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year; until her fruits come in, you shall eat of the old store.

The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with me.

And in all the land of your possession you shall grant a redemption for the land.

If thy brother become poor, and has sold away some of his possession, then shall his near kinsman come to redeem it, and shall redeem that which his brother sold.

And if the man have none to redeem it, and himself be able to redeem it;

then let him count the years of the sale of it, and restore the overplus to the man to whom he sold it; that he may return to his possession.

But if his means do not suffice to regain it, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of him who has bought it until the year of jubilee: and in the jubilee it shall go out, and he shall return to his possession.

And if a man sell a dwelling house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; within a full year may he redeem it.

And if it be not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall become the permanent property of him that bought it throughout his generations: it shall not go out in the jubilee.

But the houses of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be counted as the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubilee.

But the cities of the Levites, and the houses of the cities of their possession, may the Levites redeem at any time.

And if a man purchase of the Levites, then the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, shall go out in the year of jubilee: for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Yisra᾽el.

But the field of the pasture lands of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession.

And if thy brother grow poor, and his means fail with thee; then thou shalt relieve him: though he be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee.

Take thou no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee.

Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy foodstuffs for increase.

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Miżrayim, to give you the land of Kena῾an, and to be your God.

And if thy brother who dwells by thee be grown poor, and be sold to thee; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant:

but as a hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee until the year of jubilee:

and then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him, and shall return to his own family, and to the possession of his fathers shall he return.

For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Miżrayim: they shall not be sold as bondmen.

Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour; but shalt fear thy God.

Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, whom thou shalt have, shall be of the nations that are round about you; of them may you buy bondmen and bondmaids.

Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall you buy, and of their families that are with you, whom they have begotten in your land: and they shall be your possession.

And you shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen for ever: but over your brethren the children of Yisra᾽el, you shall not rule one over another with rigour.

And if a sojourner or stranger grow rich by thee, and thy brother that dwells by him grows poor, and sell himself to the stranger or sojourner by thee, or to the offspring of a stranger’s family:

after he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of his brethren may redeem him:

either his uncle, or his uncle’s son, may redeem him, or any that is near of kin to him of his family may redeem him; or if his means suffice, he may redeem himself.

And he shall reckon with him who bought him from the year that he was sold to him to the year of jubilee: and the price of his sale shall be according to the number of years, according to the time of a hired servant shall it be with him.

If there are yet many years, according to them he shall restore the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for.

And if there remain but few years until the year of jubilee, then he shall count with him, and according to his years shall he restore the price of his redemption.

As a yearly hired servant shall he be with him: and the other shall not rule with rigour over him in thy sight.

And if he be not redeemed in these years, then he shall go out in the year of jubilee, both he, and his children with him.

For to me the children of Yisra᾽el are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Miżrayim: I am the Lord your God.