1The LORD spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai. He said,
2"Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: When you come into the land that I give you, then the land must 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 fruit."
4"But in the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath of rest, a sabbath for the LORD. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard."
5"You shall not reap what grows by itself after your harvest, and you shall not gather the grapes of your untended vine. It is a year of rest for the land."
6"The sabbath of the land shall give food for you: for you, for your manservant, for your maidservant, for your hired servant, and for the stranger who stays with you,"
7"and for your cattle, and for the wild animals in your land. All that the land produces shall be food."
8"You shall count seven sabbaths of years, seven times seven years. The time of the seven sabbaths of years shall be forty-nine years for you."
9"Then on the tenth day of the seventh month you shall sound the trumpet of the jubile. On the day of atonement you shall sound the trumpet through all your land."
10"You shall make the fiftieth year holy, and proclaim liberty through all the land to all who live in it. It shall be a jubile for you. Each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his own family."
11"That fiftieth year shall be a jubile for you. You shall not sow, and you shall not reap what grows by itself, and you shall not gather the grapes of your untended vine."
12"For it is the jubile; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat what the field produces."
13"In the year of this jubile each of you shall return to his own property."
14"If you sell anything to your neighbour, or buy anything from your neighbour's hand, you shall not wrong one another."
15"You shall buy from your neighbour by counting the years since the jubile, and he shall sell to you by counting the years of harvests that are left."
16"When the years are many, you shall raise the price; when the years are few, you shall lower the price. For it is a number of harvests that he is selling to you."
17"So you shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God. For I am the LORD your God."
18"So you shall carry out my laws, and keep my judgments and do them. Then you will live in the land in safety."
19"The land shall yield its fruit, and you shall eat your fill, and live there in safety."
20"And if you say, 'What shall we eat in the seventh year? Look, we may not sow or gather in our crops,'"
21"then I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, and it will bring forth enough fruit for three years."
22"You shall sow in the eighth year, and still eat from the old crop until the ninth year. Until its harvest comes in, you shall eat from the old store."
23"The land shall not be sold for ever, for the land is mine. You are strangers and visitors with me."
24"In all the land you own, you shall allow the land to be bought back."
25"If your brother becomes poor and has sold away some of his property, then one of his relatives may come to buy it back. He shall buy back what his brother sold."
26"If a man has no one to buy it back, but he himself becomes able to buy it back,"
27"then let him count the years since the sale, and pay back what is left over to the man he sold it to. Then he may return to his property."
28"But if he is not able to pay him back, then what he sold shall stay in the hand of the buyer until the year of jubile. In the jubile it shall go free, and he shall return to his property."
29"If a man sells a house to live in inside a walled city, then he may buy it back within a whole year after it is sold. Within a full year he may buy it back."
30"If it is not bought back within a full year, then the house in the walled city shall belong for ever to the man who bought it, and to his descendants. It shall not go free in the jubile."
31"But houses in villages that have no wall around them shall be counted as fields of the country. They may be bought back, and they shall go free in the jubile."
32"But the cities of the Levites, and the houses in the cities they own, the Levites may buy back at any time."
33"If a man buys a house from the Levites, then the house that was sold, in the city they own, shall go free in the year of jubile. For the houses in the cities of the Levites are the property they own among the children of Israel."
34"But the fields around their cities may not be sold, for they are their property for ever."
35"If your brother becomes poor and cannot support himself among you, then you shall help him. Yes, even if he is a stranger or a visitor, so that he may live with you."
36"Take no interest from him, and no profit. But fear your God, so that your brother may live with you."
37"You shall not lend him your money at interest, or lend him your food to make 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 your brother who lives near you becomes poor and sells himself to you, you shall not force him to serve as a slave."
40"He shall be with you as a hired servant and as a visitor, and he shall serve you until the year of jubile."
41"Then he shall leave you, he and his children with him, and he shall return to his own family and to the property 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 harshly, but you shall fear your God."
44"Your slaves, both men and women, shall come from the nations around you. From them you may buy slaves, both men and women."
45"You may also buy from the children of the strangers who stay among you, and from their families who are with you, whom they have fathered in your land. They shall be your property."
46"You shall pass them on as an inheritance to your children after you, for them to own as property. They shall be your slaves for ever. But over your brothers, the children of Israel, you shall not rule harshly, one over another."
47"If a visitor or stranger among you grows rich, and your brother who lives near him becomes poor, and sells himself to that stranger or visitor among you, or to a member of the stranger's family,"
48"then after he is sold he may be bought back. One of his brothers may buy him back:"
49"his uncle, or his uncle's son, may buy him back, or any close relative from his family may buy him back. Or if he becomes able, he may buy himself back."
50"He shall settle the account with the man who bought him, from the year he was sold to him until the year of jubile. The price of his sale shall be counted by the number of years, as the time of a hired servant."
51"If there are still many years left, he shall pay back for his freedom a matching part of the money he was bought for."
52"And if only a few years remain until the year of jubile, then he shall settle the account with him, and pay back for his freedom according to those years."
53"He shall be with him like a servant hired by the year. The other shall not rule over him harshly in your sight."
54"If he is not bought back in these years, then he shall go free in the year of jubile, he and his children with him."
55"For the children of Israel are servants to me. They are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God."