Leviticus 25

1 The LORD spoke to Moshe in Mount Sinai, saying,
2 Speak to the children of Yisra'el, and tell them, When you come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a Shabbat to the LORD.
3 Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in the fruits of it;
4 but in the seventh year shall be a Shabbat of solemn rest for the land, a Shabbat to the LORD: 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 The Shabbat of the land shall be for food for you; for you, and for your servant and for your maid, and for your hired servant and for your stranger, who sojourn with you.
7 For your cattle, and for the animals that are in your land, shall all the increase of it be for food.
8 You shall number seven Shabbatot of years to you, seven times seven years; and there shall be to you the days of seven Shabbatot of years, even forty-nine years.
9 Then shall you send abroad the loud shofar on the tenth day of the seventh month; in Yom Kippur shall you send abroad the shofar throughout all your land.
10 You shall make the fiftieth year holy, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants of it: 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 of it out of the field.
13 In this year of jubilee you shall return every man to his possession.
14 If you sell anything to your neighbor, 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 length of the years you shall increase the price of it, and according to the shortness of the years you shall diminish the price of it; for the number of the crops does he sell to you.
17 You shall not wrong one another; but you shall fear your God: for I am the LORD 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 The land shall yield its fruit, and you shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety.
20 If you shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? Behold, 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 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 The land shall not be sold in perpetuity; for the land is mine: for you are strangers and sojourners with me.
24 In all the land of your possession you shall grant a redemption for the land.
25 If your brother be grew poor, and sell some of his possession, then shall his kinsman who is next to him come, and shall redeem that which his brother has sold.
26 If a man have no one to redeem it, and he be grew rich and find sufficient to redeem it;
27 then let him reckon the years of the sale of it, and restore the surplus to the man to whom he sold it; and he shall return to his possession.
28 But if he isn't able to get it back for himself, then that which he has 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.
29 If a man sell a dwelling-house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; for a full year shall he have the right of redemption.
30 If it isn't 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 who 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, may the Levites redeem at any time.
33 If one of the Levites redeem, then the house that was sold, and 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 children of Yisra'el.
34 But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession.
35 If your brother has grown poor, and his hand fail with you; then you shall uphold him: [as] a stranger and a sojourner shall he 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 the LORD your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Mitzrayim, to give you the land of Kana`an, [and] to be your God.
39 If your brother has grown poor with you, and sell himself to you; you shall not make him to serve as a bond-servant.
40 As a hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with you; he shall serve with you to the year of jubilee:
41 then shall he go out from you, he and his children with him, and shall return to his own family, and to the possession of his fathers shall he return.
42 For they are my servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Mitzrayim: they shall not be sold as bondservants.
43 You shall not rule over him with rigor, but shall fear your God.
44 As for your bondservants, and your bondmaids, whom you shall have; of the nations that are round about you, of them shall you buy bondservants and bondmaids.
45 Moreover of the children of the strangers who sojourn among you, of them shall you buy, and of their families who are with you, which they have conceived in your land: and they shall be your possession.
46 You shall make them an inheritance for your children after you, to hold for a possession; of them shall you take your bondservants forever: but over your brothers the children of Yisra'el you shall not rule, one over another, with rigor.
47 If a stranger or sojourner with you has grown rich, and your brother has grown poor beside him, and sell himself to the stranger [or] sojourner with you, or to the stock of the stranger's family;
48 after that 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 who is a close relative to him of his family may redeem him; or if he has grown rich, he may redeem himself.
50 He shall reckon with him who 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 servant shall he be with him.
51 If there be 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 If there remain but few years to the year of jubilee, then he shall reckon with him; according to his years shall he give back the price of his redemption.
53 As a servant hired year by year shall he be with him: he shall not rule with rigor over him in your sight.
54 If he isn't redeemed by these [means], then he shall go out in the year of jubilee, he, and his children with him.
55 For to me the children of Yisra'el are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Mitzrayim: I am the LORD your God.

Leviticus 25 Commentary

Chapter 25

The sabbath of rest for the land in the seventh year. (1-7) The jubilee of the fiftieth year, Oppression forbidden. (8-22) Redemption of the land and houses. (23-34) Compassion towards the poor. (35-38) Laws respecting bondmen, Oppression forbidden. (39-55)

Verses 1-7 All labour was to cease in the seventh year, as much as daily labour on the seventh day. These statues tell us to beware of covetousness, for a man's life consists not in the abundance of his possessions. We are to exercise willing dependence on God's providence for our support; to consider ourselves the Lord's tenants or stewards, and to use our possessions accordingly. This year of rest typified the spiritual rest which all believers enter into through Christ. Through Him we are eased of the burden of wordly care and labour, both being sanctified and sweetened to us; and we are enabled and encouraged to live by faith.

Verses 8-22 The word "jubilee" signifies a peculiarly animated sound of the silver trumpets. This sound was to be made on the evening of the great day of atonement; for the proclamation of gospel liberty and salvation results from the sacrifice of the Redeemer. It was provided that the lands should not be sold away from their families. They could only be disposed of, as it were, by leases till the year of jubilee, and then returned to the owner or his heir. This tended to preserve their tribes and families distinct, till the coming of the Messiah. The liberty every man was born to, if sold or forfeited, should return at the year of jubilee. This was typical of redemption by Christ from the slavery of sin and Satan, and of being brought again to the liberty of the children of God. All bargains ought to be made by this rule, "Ye shall not oppress one another," not take advantage of one another's ignorance or necessity, "but thou shalt fear thy God." The fear of God reigning in the heart, would restrain from doing wrong to our neighbour in word or deed. Assurance was given that they should be great gainers, by observing these years of rest. If we are careful to do our duty, we may trust God with our comfort. This was a miracle for an encouragement to all neither sowed or reaped. This was a miracle for an encouragement to all God's people, in all ages, to trust him in the way of duty. There is nothing lost by faith and self-denial in obedience. Some asked, What shall we eat the seventh year? Thus many Christians anticipate evils, questioning what they shall do, and fearing to proceed in the way of duty. But we have no right to anticipate evils, so as to distress ourselves about them. To carnal minds we may appear to act absurdly, but the path of duty is ever the path of safety.

Verses 23-34 If the land were not redeemed before the year of jubilee, it then returned to him that sold or mortgaged it. This was a figure of the free grace of God in Christ; by which, and not by any price or merit of our own, we are restored to the favour of God. Houses in walled cities were more the fruits of their own industry than land in the country, which was the direct gift of God's bounty; therefore if a man sold a house in a city, he might redeem it only within a year after the sale. This encouraged strangers and proselytes to come and settle among them.

Verses 35-38 Poverty and decay are great grievances, and very common; the poor ye have always with you. Thou shalt relieve him; by sympathy, pitying the poor; by service, doing for them; and by supply, giving to them according to their necessity, and thine ability. Poor debtors must not be oppressed. Observe the arguments here used against extortion: "Fear thy God." Relieve the poor, "that they may live with thee;" for they may be serviceable to thee. The rich can as ill spare the poor, as the poor can the rich. It becomes those that have received mercy to show mercy.

Verses 39-55 A native Israelite, if sold for debt, or for a crime, was to serve but six years, and to go out the seventh. If he sold himself, through poverty, both his work and his usage must be such as were fitting for a son of Abraham. Masters are required to give to their servants that which is just and equal, Col. 4:1 . At the year of jubilee the servant should go out free, he and his children, and should return to his own family. This typified redemption from the service of sin and Satan, by the grace of God in Christ, whose truth makes us free, ( John 8:32 ) . We cannot ransom our fellow-sinners, but we may point out Christ to them; while by his grace our lives may adorn his gospel, express our love, show our gratitude, and glorify his holy name.

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO LEVITICUS 25

In this chapter the Israelites are directed, when come into the land of Canaan, to observe every seventh year as a sabbatical year, in which there was to be no tillage of the land, and yet there would be a sufficiency for man and beast, Le 25:1-7; and every fiftieth year as a year of jubilee, in which also there was to be no tillage of the land, and every man was to return to his possession or estate, which had been sold to another any time before this, Le 25:8-17; and a promise of safety and plenty in the seventh year is made to encourage the observance of it, Le 25:18-22; and several laws and rules are delivered out concerning the sale of lands, the redemption of them, and their return to their original owner in the year of jubilee, Le 25:23-28; and the sale of houses, and the redemption of them, and the difference between those in walled cities and those in villages, with respect thereunto, Le 25:29-31; and also concerning the houses of the cities of the Levites, and the fields of the suburbs of them, Le 25:32-34; to which are added some instructions about relieving decayed, persons, and lending and giving to them, without taking usury of them, Le 25:34-38; and other laws concerning the release of such Israelites as had sold themselves for servants to the Israelites, in the year of jubilee, since none but Heathens were to be bondmen and bondmaids for ever, Le 25:39-46; and of such who were sold to proselytes, Le 25:47-55.

Leviticus 25 Commentaries

The Hebrew Names Version is in the public domain.