The Sabbath Year

25 ^wThe Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into ^xthe land that I give you, the land shall keep a Sabbath to the Lord. 3 For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard 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 the Lord. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. 5 ^yYou shall not reap what grows of itself in your harvest, or gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. 6 The Sabbath of the land¹ shall provide food for you, for yourself and for your male and female slaves² and for your hired worker and the sojourner who lives with you, 7 and for your cattle and for the wild animals that are in your land: ^zall its yield shall be for food.

The Year of Jubilee

8 “You shall count seven weeks³ of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall give you forty-nine years. 9 Then you shall sound ^athe loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. ^bOn the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land. 10 And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and ^cproclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of ^dyou shall return to his clan. 11 That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; in it ^eyou shall neither sow nor reap ^ywhat grows of itself nor gather the grapes from the undressed vines. 12 For it is a jubilee. It shall be holy to you. ^fYou may eat the produce of the field.⁴

13 ^d“In this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his property. 14 And if you make a sale to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, ^gyou shall not wrong one another. 15 ^hYou shall pay your neighbor according to the number of years after the jubilee, and he shall sell to you according to the number of years for crops. 16 If the years are many, you shall increase the price, and if the years are few, you shall reduce the price, for it is the number of the crops that he is selling to you. 17 ⁱYou shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God, for I am the Lord your God.

18 ^j“Therefore you shall do my statutes and keep my rules and perform them, and then ^kyou will dwell in the land securely. 19 ^lThe land will yield its fruit, and ^myou will eat your fill ^kand dwell in it securely. 20 And if you say, ⁿ‘What shall we eat in the seventh year, if ^owe may not sow or gather in our crop?’ 21 I will ^pcommand my blessing on you in the sixth year, so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years. 22 ^qWhen you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating some of ^rthe old crop; you shall eat the old until the ninth year, when its crop arrives.

Redemption of Property

23 “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for ^sthe land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me. 24 And in all the country you possess, you shall allow a redemption of the land.

25 “If your brother becomes poor and sells part of his property, ^tthen his nearest redeemer shall come and redeem what his brother has sold. 26 If a man has no one to redeem it and then himself becomes prosperous and finds sufficient means to redeem it, 27 let ^uhim calculate the years since he sold it and pay back the balance to the man to whom he sold it, and then return to his property. 28 But if he does not have sufficient means to recover it, then what he sold shall remain in the hand of the buyer until the year of jubilee. In the jubilee it shall ^vbe released, and ^whe shall return to his property.

29 “If a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, he may redeem it within a year of its sale. For a full year he shall have the right of redemption. 30 If it is not redeemed within a full year, then the house in the walled city shall belong in perpetuity to the buyer, throughout his generations; ^vit shall not be released in the jubilee. 31 But the houses of the villages that have no wall around them shall be classified with the fields of the land. They may be redeemed, and ^vthey shall be released in the jubilee. 32 As for ^xthe cities of the Levites, the Levites may redeem at any time the houses in the cities they possess. 33 And if one of the Levites exercises his right of redemption, then the house that was sold in a city they possess shall be released in the jubilee. For the houses in the cities of the Levites are their possession among the people of Israel. 34 But the fields ^yof pastureland belonging to their cities may not be sold, for that is their possession forever.

Kindness for Poor Brothers

35 “If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, ^zyou shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you. 36 ^aTake no interest from him or profit, but ^bfear your God, that your brother may live beside you. 37 ^aYou shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit. 38 ^cI 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 ^d“If your brother becomes poor beside you and sells himself to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave: 40 he shall be with you as a hired worker and as a sojourner. He shall serve with you until the year of the jubilee. 41 ^vThen he shall go out from you, ^ehe and his children with him, and go back to his own clan and return ^fto the possession of his fathers. 42 For they are ^gmy servants,⁵ whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves. 43 ^hYou shall not rule over him ⁱruthlessly but ^jshall fear your God. 44 As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are around you. 45 ^kYou may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their clans that are with you, who have been born in your land, and they may be your property. 46 You may bequeath them to your sons after you to inherit as a possession forever. You may make slaves of them, but over your brothers the people of Israel ^lyou shall not rule, one over another ruthlessly.

Redeeming a Poor Man

47 “If a stranger or sojourner with you becomes rich, and ^myour brother beside him becomes poor and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner with you or to a member of the stranger’s clan, 48 then after he is sold he may be redeemed. One of his brothers may redeem him, 49 or his uncle or his cousin may ⁿredeem him, or a close relative from his clan may redeem him. Or if he ^ogrows rich he may redeem himself. 50 He shall calculate with his buyer from the year when he sold himself to him until the year of jubilee, and the price of his sale shall vary with the number of years. The time he was with his owner shall be ^prated as the time of a hired worker. 51 If there are still many years left, he shall pay proportionately for his redemption some of his sale price. 52 If there remain but a few years until the year of jubilee, he shall calculate and pay for his redemption in proportion to his years of service. 53 He shall treat him as a worker hired year by year. ^lHe shall not rule ruthlessly over him in your sight. 54 And if he is not redeemed by these means, then ^qhe and his children with him shall be released in the year of jubilee. 55 For it is ^rto me that the people of Israel are servants.⁶ They are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

Blessings for Obedience

26 “You shall not make ^sidols for yourselves or erect an ^timage or ^upillar, and you shall not set up a ^vfigured stone in your land to bow down to it, for I am the Lord your God. 2 ^wYou shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.

3 ^x“If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, 4 then ^yI will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. 5 ^zYour threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing. And ^ayou shall eat your bread to the full and ^bdwell in your land securely. 6 ^cI will give peace in the land, and ^dyou shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. And ^eI will remove harmful beasts from the land, ^fand the sword shall not go through your land. 7 You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. 8 ^gFive of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand, and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. 9 ^hI will turn to you and ⁱmake you fruitful and multiply you and will confirm my covenant with you. 10 You shall eat ^jold store long kept, and you shall clear out the old to make way for the new. 11 ^kI will make my dwelling¹ among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. 12 ^lAnd I ^mwill walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people. 13 ⁿI am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves. ^oAnd I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.

Punishment for Disobedience

14 ^p“But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments, 15 if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but ^qbreak my covenant, 16 then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with ^rwasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache. And ^syou shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. 17 I will ^tset my face against you, and ^uyou shall be struck down before your enemies. ^vThose who hate you shall rule over you, and ^wyou shall flee when none pursues you. 18 And if in spite of this you will not listen to me, then I will discipline you again ^xsevenfold for your sins, 19 and I will break ^ythe pride of your power, and I ^zwill make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. 20 And ^ayour strength shall be spent in vain, for ^byour land shall not yield its increase, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit.

21 ^c“Then if you walk contrary to me and will not listen to me, I will continue striking you, sevenfold for your sins. 22 And ^dI will let loose the wild beasts against you, which shall bereave you of your children and destroy your livestock and make you few in number, so that ^eyour roads shall be deserted.

23 “And ^fif by this discipline you are not turned to me ^cbut walk contrary to me, 24 ^gthen I also will walk contrary to you, and I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins. 25 And ^hI will bring a sword upon you, that shall execute vengeance for the covenant. And if you gather within your cities, ⁱI will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. 26 ^jWhen I break your supply² of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in a single oven and shall dole out your bread again by weight, and ^kyou shall eat and not be satisfied.

27 “But ^lif in spite of this you will not listen to me, but walk contrary to me, 28 then I will walk contrary to you ^min fury, and I myself will discipline you ^xsevenfold for your sins. 29 ⁿYou shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters. 30 And ^oI will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars and ^pcast your dead bodies upon the dead bodies of your idols, and my soul will abhor you. 31 And I will ^qlay your cities waste and will ^rmake your sanctuaries desolate, and ^sI will not smell your pleasing aromas. 32 And ^tI myself will devastate the land, so that your enemies who settle in it shall be ^uappalled at it. 33 And ^vI will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.

34 ^w“Then the land shall enjoy³ its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate, while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land shall rest, and enjoy its Sabbaths. 35 As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, the rest that it did not have on your Sabbaths when you were dwelling in it. 36 And as for those of you who are left, ^xI will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The ^ysound of a ^zdriven leaf shall put them to flight, and they shall flee as one flees from the sword, and they shall fall when none pursues. 37 They shall stumble over one another, as if to escape a sword, though none pursues. And ^ayou shall have no power to stand before your enemies. 38 And you shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. 39 And those of you who are left shall ^brot away in your enemies’ lands because of their iniquity, and also because of the iniquities of their fathers they shall rot away like them.

40 “But if ^cthey confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers in their treachery that they ^dcommitted against me, and also in walking contrary to me, 41 so that I walked contrary to them and brought them into the land of their enemies—if then their ^euncircumcised heart is ^fhumbled and they make amends for their iniquity, 42 then I will ^gremember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will ^hremember the land. 43 But ^wthe land shall be abandoned by them and enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate without them, and they shall make amends for their iniquity, because they spurned my rules and their soul abhorred my statutes. 44 Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, ⁱI will not spurn them, neither will I abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and ^jbreak my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God. 45 But I will for their sake remember the covenant with their forefathers, ^kwhom I brought out of the land of Egypt ^lin the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am the Lord.”

46 ^mThese are the statutes and rules and laws that the Lord made between himself and the people of Israel through Moses ⁿon Mount Sinai.

Laws About Vows

27 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, If anyone ^omakes a special vow to the Lord involving the valuation of persons, 3 then the valuation of a male from twenty years old up to sixty years old shall be fifty shekels¹ of silver, according to the ^pshekel of the sanctuary. 4 If the person is a female, the valuation shall be thirty shekels. 5 If the person is from five years old up to twenty years old, the valuation shall be for a male twenty shekels, and for a female ten shekels. 6 If the person is from a month old up to five years old, the valuation shall be for a male five shekels of silver, and for a female the valuation shall be three shekels of silver. 7 And if the person is sixty years old or over, then the valuation for a male shall be fifteen shekels, and for a female ten shekels. 8 And if someone is too poor to pay the valuation, then he shall be made to stand before the priest, and the priest shall value him; the priest shall value him according to what the vower can afford.

9 “If the vow² is an animal that may be offered as an offering to the Lord, all of it that he gives to the Lord is holy. 10 ^qHe shall not exchange it or make a substitute for it, good for bad, or bad for good; and if he does in fact substitute one animal for another, then both it and the substitute shall be holy. 11 And if it is any unclean animal that may not be offered as an offering to the Lord, then he shall stand the animal before the priest, 12 and the priest shall value it as either good or bad; as the priest values it, so it shall be. 13 ^rBut if he wishes to redeem it, he shall add a ^sfifth to the valuation.

14 “When a man dedicates his house as a holy gift to the Lord, the priest shall value it as either good or bad; as the priest values it, so it shall stand. 15 ^tAnd if the donor wishes to redeem his house, he shall add a ^sfifth to the valuation price, and it shall be his.

16 “If a man dedicates to the Lord part of the land that is his possession, then the valuation shall be in proportion to its seed. A homer³ of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver. 17 If he dedicates his field from the year of jubilee, the valuation shall stand, 18 but if he dedicates his field after the jubilee, then the priest shall ^ucalculate the price according to the years that remain until the year of jubilee, and a deduction shall be made from the valuation. 19 ^vAnd if he who dedicates the field wishes to redeem it, then he shall add a ^sfifth to its valuation price, and it shall remain his. 20 But if he does not wish to redeem the field, or if he has sold the field to another man, it shall not be redeemed anymore. 21 But the field, ^wwhen it is released in the jubilee, shall be a holy gift to the Lord, like a field that has been ^xdevoted. The priest shall be in ^ypossession of it. 22 If he dedicates to the Lord a field that he has bought, ^zwhich is not a part of his possession, 23 ^athen the priest shall calculate the amount of the valuation for it up to the year of jubilee, and the man shall give the valuation on that day as a holy gift to the Lord. 24 ^bIn the year of jubilee the field shall return to him from whom it was bought, to whom the land belongs as a possession. 25 Every valuation shall be according to ^cthe shekel of the sanctuary: ^dtwenty gerahs⁴ shall make a shekel.

26 “But a ^efirstborn of animals, which as a firstborn belongs to the Lord, no man may dedicate; whether ox or sheep, it is the Lord’s. 27 And if it is an unclean animal, then he shall buy it back at the valuation, ^fand add a fifth to it; or, if it is not redeemed, it shall be sold at the valuation.

28 “But ^gno devoted thing that a man devotes to the Lord, of anything that he has, whether man or beast, or of his inherited field, shall be sold or redeemed; every devoted thing is most holy to the Lord. 29 ^hNo one devoted, who is to be devoted for destruction⁵ from mankind, shall be ransomed; he shall surely be put to death.

30 ⁱ“Every tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is the Lord’s; it is holy to the Lord. 31 If a man wishes to redeem some of his tithe, he shall add a fifth to it. 32 And every tithe of herds and flocks, every tenth animal of all that ^jpass under the herdsman’s staff, shall be holy to the Lord. 33 One shall not differentiate between good or bad, ^kneither shall he make a substitute for it; and if he does substitute for it, then both it and the substitute shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed.”