Christmas Day
free while helping to build churches and support pastors in Uganda.
Click here to learn more!
Read the Bible
Updated Bible Version
Leviticus 25
1 And Yahweh spoke to Moses in mount Sinai, saying,2 Speak to the sons of Israel, and say to them, When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a Sabbath to Yahweh.3 Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in the fruits thereof;4 but in the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to Yahweh: you shall neither sow your field, nor prune your vineyard.5 That which grows of itself of your harvest you shall not reap, and the grapes of your undressed vine you shall not gather: it shall be a year of solemn rest for the land.6 And the Sabbath of the land shall be for food for you; for you, and for your male slave and for your female slave, and for your hired worker and for your stranger, who sojourn with you.7 And for your cattle, and for the beasts that are in your land, shall all the increase thereof be for food.
8 And you shall number seven Sabbaths of years to yourself, seven times seven years; and there shall be to you the days of seven Sabbaths of years, even forty and nine years.9 Then you shall send abroad the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month; in the day of atonement you shall send abroad the trumpet throughout all your land.10 And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee to you; and you shall return every man to his possession, and you shall return every man to his family.11 A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be to you: you shall not sow, neither reap that which grows of itself in it, nor gather [the grapes] in it of the undressed vines.12 For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you: you shall eat the increase thereof out of the field.13 In this year of jubilee you shall return every man to his possession.14 And if you sell anything to your neighbors, or buy of your neighbor's hand, you shall not wrong one another.15 According to the number of years after the jubilee you shall buy of your neighbor, [and] according to the number of years of the crops he shall sell to you.16 According to the multitude of the years you shall increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of the years you shall diminish the price of it; for the number of the crops he sells to you.17 And you shall not wrong one another; but you shall fear your God: for I am Yahweh your God.18 Therefore you shall do my statutes, and keep my ordinances and do them; and you shall dwell in the land in safety.19 And the land shall yield its fruit, and you shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety.20 And if you shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? Look, 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 bring forth fruit for the three years.22 And you shall sow the eighth year, and eat of the fruits, the old store; until the ninth year, until its fruits come in, you shall eat the old store.
23 And the land shall not be sold in perpetuity; for the land is mine: for you are strangers and sojourners with me.24 And in all the land of your possession you shall grant a redemption for the land.25 If your brother is waxed poor, and sells some of his possession, then his kinsman that is next to him shall come, and shall redeem that which his brother has sold.26 And if a man has no one to redeem it, and he is waxed rich and finds enough to redeem it;27 then let him reckon the years of the sale thereof, and restore the surplus to the man to whom he sold it; and he shall return to his possession.28 But if he is not able to get it back for himself, then that which he has sold shall remain in the hand of him that has bought it until the year of jubilee: and in the jubilee it shall go out, and he shall return to his possession.29 And if a man sells a dwelling-house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; for a full year he shall have the right of redemption.30 And if it is not 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 that bought it, throughout his generations: it shall not go out in the jubilee.31 But the houses of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be reckoned with the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubilee.32 Nevertheless the cities of the Levites, the houses of the cities of their possession, the Levites may redeem at any time.33 And when one of the Levites redeems, the house that was sold, in the the city of his possession, shall go out in the jubilee; for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the sons of Israel.34 But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession.35 And if your brother is waxed poor, and his hand fails with you; then you shall uphold him: [as] a stranger [who is a] sojourner he shall live with you.36 Take no interest of him or increase, but fear your God; that your brother may live with you.37 You shall not give him your money on interest, nor give him your victuals for increase.38 I am Yahweh your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, [and] to be your God.
39 And if your brother is waxed poor with you, and sells himself to you; you shall not make him to serve as a slave.40 As a hired worker, and as a sojourner, he shall be with you; he shall serve with you to the year of jubilee:41 and then he shall go out from you, he and his sons with him, and then shall return to his own family, and to the possession of his fathers he shall return.42 For they are my slaves, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as a slave.43 You shall not rule over him with rigor, but shall fear your God.44 And as for your male slave, and your female slave, whom you shall have; of the nations that are round about you, of them you shall buy a male slave and a female slave.45 Moreover of the sons of the strangers that sojourn among you, of them you shall buy, and of their families that are with you, which they have begotten in your land: and they shall be your possession.46 And you shall make them an inheritance for your sons after you, to hold for a possession; of them you shall take your slaves forever: but over your brothers the sons of Israel you shall not rule, one over another, with rigor.47 And if a stranger [who is a] sojourner with you is waxed rich, and your brother is waxed poor beside him, and sells himself to a stranger [who is a] sojourner with you, or to the stock 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 that is near of kin to him of his family may redeem him; or if he is waxed rich, he may redeem himself.50 And he shall reckon with him that bought him from the year that he sold himself 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 worker he shall be with him.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 And if there remain but few years to the year of jubilee, then he shall reckon with him; according to his years he shall give back the price of his redemption.53 As a worker hired year by year he shall be with him: he shall not rule with rigor over him in your sight.54 And if he is not redeemed by these [means], then he shall go out in the year of jubilee, he, and his sons with him.55 For to me the sons of Israel are slaves; they are my slaves whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am Yahweh your God.
Updated Bible Version
Scripture quotations are from the UPDV® Updated Bible Version 1.9, Copyright © 2003-4 by Updated Publishers. Used by permission. All Rights Reserved.