Leviticus 25:13-28

Return of Property

13 In this Year of Jubilee, each of you shall return to his own property.

14 If you make a sale to your neighbor or a purchase from him, you must not take advantage of each other.

15 You are to buy from your neighbor according to the number of years since the last Jubilee; he is to sell to you according to the number of harvest years remaining.

16 You shall increase the price in proportion to a greater number of years, or decrease it in proportion to a lesser number of years; for he is selling you a given number of harvests.

17 Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your God; for I am the LORD your God.

The Blessing of Obedience

18 You are to keep My statutes and carefully observe My judgments, so that you may dwell securely in the land. ¹

19 Then the land will yield its fruit, so that you can eat your fill and dwell in safety in the land.

20 Now you may wonder, ‘What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not sow or gather our produce?’

21 But I will send My blessing upon you in the sixth year, so that the land will yield a crop sufficient for three years.

22 While you are sowing in the eighth year, you will be eating from the previous harvest, until the ninth year’s harvest comes in.

The Law of Redemption

23 The land must not be sold permanently, because it is Mine, and you are but foreigners and residents with Me.

24 Thus for every piece of property you possess, you must provide for the redemption of the land.

25 If your brother becomes impoverished and sells some of his property, his nearest of kin may come and redeem what his brother has sold.

26 Or if a man has no one to redeem it for him, but he prospers and acquires enough to redeem his land,

27 he shall calculate the years since its sale, repay the balance to the man to whom he sold it, and return to his property.

28 But if he cannot obtain enough to repay him, what he sold will remain in possession of the buyer until the Year of Jubilee. In the Jubilee, however, it is to be released, so that he may return to his property.

Leviticus 25:13-28 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.

Cross References

• 1. (Deuteronomy 28:1–14)