Leviticus 25:38-48

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;

Leviticus 25:38-48 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.