Leviticus 25:39-55

39 ¹“If your brother becomes poor beside you and sells himself to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave:

40 he shall be with you as a hired worker and as a sojourner. He shall serve with you until the year of the jubilee.

41 ²Then he shall go out from you, ³he and his children with him, and go back to his own clan and return ⁴to the possession of his fathers.

42 For they are ⁵my servants, ^[a] whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves.

43 ⁶You shall not rule over him ⁷ruthlessly but ⁸shall fear your God.

44 As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are around you.

45 ⁹You may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their clans that are with you, who have been born in your land, and they may be your property.

46 You may bequeath them to your sons after you to inherit as a possession forever. You may make slaves of them, but over your brothers the people of Israel ¹⁰you shall not rule, one over another ruthlessly.

Redeeming a Poor Man

47 “If a stranger or sojourner with you becomes rich, and ¹¹your brother beside him becomes poor and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner with you or to a member of the stranger’s clan,

48 then after he is sold he may be redeemed. One of his brothers may redeem him,

49 or his uncle or his cousin may ¹²redeem him, or a close relative from his clan may redeem him. Or if he ¹³grows rich he may redeem himself.

50 He shall calculate with his buyer from the year when he sold himself to him until the year of jubilee, and the price of his sale shall vary with the number of years. The time he was with his owner shall be ¹⁴rated as the time of a hired worker.

51 If there are still many years left, he shall pay proportionately for his redemption some of his sale price.

52 If there remain but a few years until the year of jubilee, he shall calculate and pay for his redemption in proportion to his years of service.

53 He shall treat him as a worker hired year by year. ¹⁵He shall not rule ruthlessly over him in your sight.

54 And if he is not redeemed by these means, then ¹⁶he and his children with him shall be released in the year of jubilee.

55 For it is ¹⁷to me that the people of Israel are servants. ^[b] They are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

Leviticus 25:39-55 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. 25:39 Ex. 21:2; Deut. 15:12; 1 Kgs. 9:22; 2 Kgs. 4:1; Neh. 5:5
• 2. 25:41 [See ver. 28 above]
• 3. 25:41 [Ex. 21:3]
• 4. 25:41 ver. 13, 28
• 5. 25:42 ver. 55; [Rom. 6:22; 1 Cor. 7:23]
• 6. 25:43 [Eph. 6:9; Col. 4:1]
• 7. 25:43 Ex. 1:13, 14; Ezek. 34:4
• 8. 25:43 ver. 17, 36
• 9. 25:45 Isa. 14:1, 2; 56:3, 6
• 10. 25:46 Ex. 1:13, 14; Ezek. 34:4
• 11. 25:47 ver. 25, 35, 39
• 12. 25:49 See Neh. 5:1-5
• 13. 25:49 ver. 26, 47
• 14. 25:50 Job 7:1; Isa. 16:14; 21:16
• 15. 25:53 [See ver. 46 above]
• 16. 25:54 ver. 41; Ex. 21:2, 3
• 17. 25:55 ver. 42

Footnotes

• [a] 25:42 Hebrew 'slaves'
• [b] 25:55 Or 'slaves'