Leviticus 25:23-54

23 Your land must not be sold on a permanent basis, because you do not own it; it belongs to God, and you are like foreigners who are allowed to make use of it.

24 When land is sold, the right of the original owner to buy it back must be recognized.

25 If any of you Israelites become poor and are forced to sell your land, your closest relative is to buy it back.

26 If you have no relative to buy it back, you may later become prosperous and have enough to buy it back yourself.

27 In that case you must pay to the one who bought it a sum that will make up for the years remaining until the next Year of Restoration, when you would in any event recover your land.

28 But if you do not have enough money to buy the land back, it remains under the control of the one who bought it until the next Year of Restoration. In that year it will be returned to its original owner.

29 If you sell a house in a walled city, you have the right to buy it back during the first full year from the date of sale.

30 But if you do not buy it back within the year, you lose the right of repurchase, and the house becomes the permanent property of the purchasers and their descendants; it will not be returned in the Year of Restoration.

31 But houses in unwalled villages are to be treated like fields; the original owner has the right to buy them back, and they are to be returned in the Year of Restoration.

32 However, Levites have the right to buy back at any time their property in the cities assigned to them.

33 If a house in one of these cities is sold by a Levite and is not bought back, it must be returned in the Year of Restoration, because the houses which the Levites own in their cities are their permanent property among the people of Israel.

34 But the pasture land around the Levite cities shall never be sold; it is their property forever.

35 If any Israelites living near you become poor and cannot support themselves, you must provide for them as you would for a hired worker, so that they can continue to live near you. ¹

36 Do not charge Israelites any interest, but obey God and let them live near you.

37 Do not make them pay interest on the money you lend them, and do not make a profit on the food you sell them. ²

38 This is the command of the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt in order to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.

39 If any Israelites living near you become so poor that they sell themselves to you as a slave, you shall not make them do the work of a slave. ³

40 They shall stay with you as hired workers and serve you until the next Year of Restoration.

41 At that time they and their children shall leave you and return to their family and to the property of their ancestors.

42 The people of Israel are the Lord's slaves, and he brought them out of Egypt; they must not be sold into slavery.

43 Do not treat them harshly, but obey your God.

44 If you need slaves, you may buy them from the nations around you.

45 You may also buy the children of the foreigners who are living among you. Such children born in your land may become your property,

46 and you may leave them as an inheritance to your children, whom they must serve as long as they live. But you must not treat any Israelites harshly.

47 Suppose a foreigner living with you becomes rich, while some Israelites become poor and sell themselves as slaves to that foreigner or to a member of that foreigner's family.

48 After they are sold, they still have the right to be bought back. A brother

49 or an uncle or a cousin or another close relative may buy them back; or if they themselves earn enough, they may buy their own freedom.

50 They must consult the one who bought them, and they must count the years from the time they sold themselves until the next Year of Restoration and must set the price for their release on the basis of the wages paid hired workers.

51 They must refund a part of the purchase price according to the number of years left,

53 as if they had been hired on an annual basis. Their master must not treat them harshly.

54 If they are not set free in any of these ways, they and their children must be set free in the next Year of Restoration.

Leviticus 25:23-54 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. 25.35Deuteronomy 15.7, 8.
• 2. 25.37Exodus 22.25;Deuteronomy 23.19, 20.
• 3. 25.39-46Exodus 21.2-6;Deuteronomy 15.12-18.

Footnotes

• [a] [Probable text] If a house . . . Restoration; [Hebrew unclear.]