Leviticus 25:15-25

15 According to the number of years after the jubilee, you shall buy from your neighbor, and according to the number of years for crops he shall sell to you.
16 If the years are many you shall increase the price, and if the years are few you shall diminish the price, for it is the number of the crops that he is selling 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 perform them; so you will dwell in the land securely.
19 The land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill, and dwell in it securely.
20 And if you say, 'What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we may not sow or gather in our crop?'
21 I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, so that it will bring forth fruit for three years.
22 When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating old produce; until the ninth year, when its produce comes in, you shall eat the old.
23 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 country you possess, you shall grant a redemption of the land.
25 "If your brother becomes poor, and sells part of his property, then his next of kin shall come and redeem what his brother has sold.

Leviticus 25:15-25 Meaning and Commentary

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.

Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.