New Revised Standard NRS
The Message Bible MSG
1 The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying:
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God spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai,
2 Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land shall observe a sabbath for the Lord.
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"Speak to the People of Israel. Tell them: When you enter the land which I am going to give you, the land will observe a Sabbath to God.
3 Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in their yield;
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Sow your fields, prune your vineyards, and take in your harvests for six years.
4 but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of complete rest for the land, a sabbath for the Lord: you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard.
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But the seventh year the land will take a Sabbath of complete and total rest, a Sabbath to God; you will not sow your fields or prune your vineyards.
5 You shall not reap the aftergrowth of your harvest or gather the grapes of your unpruned vine: it shall be a year of complete rest for the land.
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Don't reap what grows of itself; don't harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land gets a year of complete and total rest.
6 You may eat what the land yields during its sabbath—you, your male and female slaves, your hired and your bound laborers who live with you;
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But you can eat from what the land volunteers during the Sabbath year - you and your men and women servants, your hired hands, and the foreigners who live in the country,
7 for your livestock also, and for the wild animals in your land all its yield shall be for food.
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and, of course, also your livestock and the wild animals in the land can eat from it. Whatever the land volunteers of itself can be eaten. "The Fiftieth Year Shall Be a Jubilee for You"
8 You shall count off seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the period of seven weeks of years gives forty-nine years.
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"Count off seven Sabbaths of years - seven times seven years: Seven Sabbaths of years adds up to forty-nine years.
9 Then you shall have the trumpet sounded loud; on the tenth day of the seventh month—on the day of atonement—you shall have the trumpet sounded throughout all your land.
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Then sound loud blasts on the ram's horn on the tenth day of the seventh month, the Day of Atonement. Sound the ram's horn all over the land.
10 And you shall hallow the fiftieth year and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you: you shall return, every one of you, to your property and every one of you to your family.
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Sanctify the fiftieth year; make it a holy year. Proclaim freedom all over the land to everyone who lives in it - a Jubilee for you: Each person will go back to his family's property and reunite with his extended family.
11 That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you: you shall not sow, or reap the aftergrowth, or harvest the unpruned vines.
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The fiftieth year is your Jubilee year: Don't sow; don't reap what volunteers itself in the fields; don't harvest the untended vines
12 For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you: you shall eat only what the field itself produces.
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because it's the Jubilee and a holy year for you. You're permitted to eat from whatever volunteers itself in the fields.
13 In this year of jubilee you shall return, every one of you, to your property.
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"In this year of Jubilee everyone returns home to his family property.
14 When you make a sale to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not cheat one another.
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"If you sell or buy property from one of your countrymen, don't cheat him.
15 When you buy from your neighbor, you shall pay only for the number of years since the jubilee; the seller shall charge you only for the remaining crop years.
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Calculate the purchase price on the basis of the number of years since the Jubilee. He is obliged to set the sale price on the basis of the number of harvests remaining until the next Jubilee.
16 If the years are more, you shall increase the price, and if the years are fewer, you shall diminish the price; for it is a certain number of harvests that are being sold to you.
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The more years left, the more money; you can raise the price. But the fewer years left, the less money; decrease the price. What you are buying and selling in fact is the number of crops you're going to harvest.
17 You shall not cheat one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am the Lord your God.
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Don't cheat each other. Fear your God. I am God, your God.
18 You shall observe my statutes and faithfully keep my ordinances, so that you may live on the land securely.
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"Keep my decrees and observe my laws and you will live secure in the land.
19 The land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live on it securely.
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The land will yield its fruit; you will have all you can eat and will live safe and secure.
20 Should you ask, "What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we may not sow or gather in our crop?"
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Do I hear you ask, 'What are we going to eat in the seventh year if we don't plant or harvest?'
21 I will order my blessing for you in the sixth year, so that it will yield a crop for three years.
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I assure you, I will send such a blessing in the sixth year that the land will yield enough for three years.
22 When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating from the old crop; until the ninth year, when its produce comes in, you shall eat the old.
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While you plant in the eighth year, you will eat from the old crop and continue until the harvest of the ninth year comes in.
23 The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; with me you are but aliens and tenants.
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"The land cannot be sold permanently because the land is mine and you are foreigners - you're my tenants.
24 Throughout the land that you hold, you shall provide for the redemption of the land.
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You must provide for the right of redemption for any of the land that you own.
25 If anyone of your kin falls into difficulty and sells a piece of property, then the next of kin shall come and redeem what the relative has sold.
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"If one of your brothers becomes poor and has to sell any of his land, his nearest relative is to come and buy back what his brother sold.
26 If the person has no one to redeem it, but then prospers and finds sufficient means to do so,
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If a man has no one to redeem it but he later prospers and earns enough for its redemption,
27 the years since its sale shall be computed and the difference shall be refunded to the person to whom it was sold, and the property shall be returned.
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he is to calculate the value since he sold it and refund the balance to the man to whom he sold it; he can then go back to his own land.
28 But if there are not sufficient means to recover it, what was sold shall remain with the purchaser until the year of jubilee; in the jubilee it shall be released, and the property shall be returned.
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If he doesn't get together enough money to repay him, what he sold remains in the possession of the buyer until the year of Jubilee. In the Jubilee it will be returned and he can go back and live on his land.
29 If anyone sells a dwelling house in a walled city, it may be redeemed until a year has elapsed since its sale; the right of redemption shall be one year.
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"If a man sells a house in a walled city, he retains the right to buy it back for a full year after the sale. At any time during that year he can redeem it.
30 If it is not redeemed before a full year has elapsed, a house that is in a walled city shall pass in perpetuity to the purchaser, throughout the generations; it shall not be released in the jubilee.
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But if it is not redeemed before the full year has passed, it becomes the permanent possession of the buyer and his descendants. It is not returned in the Jubilee.
31 But houses in villages that have no walls around them shall be classed as open country; they may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the jubilee.
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However, houses in unwalled villages are treated the same as fields. They can be redeemed and have to be returned at the Jubilee.
32 As for the cities of the Levites, the Levites shall forever have the right of redemption of the houses in the cities belonging to them.
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"As to the Levitical cities, houses in the cities owned by the Levites are always subject to redemption.
33 Such property as may be redeemed from the Levites—houses sold in a city belonging to them—shall be released in the jubilee; because the houses in the cities of the Levites are their possession among the people of Israel.
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Levitical property is always redeemable if it is sold in a town that they hold and reverts to them in the Jubilee, because the houses in the towns of the Levites are their property among the People of Israel.
34 But the open land around their cities may not be sold; for that is their possession for all time.
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The pastures belonging to their cities may not be sold; they are their permanent possession.
35 If any of your kin fall into difficulty and become dependent on you, you shall support them; they shall live with you as though resident aliens.
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"If one of your brothers becomes indigent and cannot support himself, help him, the same as you would a foreigner or a guest so that he can continue to live in your neighborhood.
36 Do not take interest in advance or otherwise make a profit from them, but fear your God; let them live with you.
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Don't gouge him with interest charges; out of reverence for your God help your brother to continue to live with you in the neighborhood.
37 You shall not lend them your money at interest taken in advance, or provide them food at a profit.
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Don't take advantage of his plight by running up big interest charges on his loans, and don't give him food for profit.
38 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, to be your God.
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I am your God who brought you out of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.
39 If any who are dependent on you become so impoverished that they sell themselves to you, you shall not make them serve as slaves.
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"If one of your brothers becomes indigent and has to sell himself to you, don't make him work as a slave.
40 They shall remain with you as hired or bound laborers. They shall serve with you until the year of the jubilee.
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Treat him as a hired hand or a guest among you. He will work for you until the Jubilee,
41 Then they and their children with them shall be free from your authority; they shall go back to their own family and return to their ancestral property.
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after which he and his children are set free to go back to his clan and his ancestral land.
42 For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves are sold.
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Because the People of Israel are my servants whom I brought out of Egypt, they must never be sold as slaves.
43 You shall not rule over them with harshness, but shall fear your God.
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Don't tyrannize them; fear your God.
44 As for the male and female slaves whom you may have, it is from the nations around you that you may acquire male and female slaves.
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"The male and female slaves which you have are to come from the surrounding nations; you are permitted to buy slaves from them.
45 You may also acquire them from among the aliens residing with you, and from their families that are with you, who have been born in your land; and they may be your property.
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You may also buy the children of foreign workers who are living among you temporarily and from their clans which are living among you and have been born in your land. They become your property.
46 You may keep them as a possession for your children after you, for them to inherit as property. These you may treat as slaves, but as for your fellow Israelites, no one shall rule over the other with harshness.
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You may will them to your children as property and make them slaves for life. But you must not tyrannize your brother Israelites.
47 If resident aliens among you prosper, and if any of your kin fall into difficulty with one of them and sell themselves to an alien, or to a branch of the alien's family,
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"If a foreigner or temporary resident among you becomes rich and one of your brothers becomes poor and sells himself to the foreigner who lives among you or to a member of the foreigner's clan,
48 after they have sold themselves they shall have the right of redemption; one of their brothers may redeem them,
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he still has the right of redemption after he has sold himself. One of his relatives may buy him back.
49 or their uncle or their uncle's son may redeem them, or anyone of their family who is of their own flesh may redeem them; or if they prosper they may redeem themselves.
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An uncle or cousin or any close relative of his extended family may redeem him. Or, if he gets the money together, he can redeem himself.
50 They shall compute with the purchaser the total from the year when they sold themselves to the alien until the jubilee year; the price of the sale shall be applied to the number of years: the time they were with the owner shall be rated as the time of a hired laborer.
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What happens then is that he and his owner count out the time from the year he sold himself to the year of Jubilee; the buy-back price is set according to the wages of a hired hand for that number of years.
51 If many years remain, they shall pay for their redemption in proportion to the purchase price;
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If many years remain before the Jubilee, he must pay back a larger share of his purchase price,
52 and if few years remain until the jubilee year, they shall compute thus: according to the years involved they shall make payment for their redemption.
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but if only a few years remain until the Jubilee, he is to calculate his redemption price accordingly.
53 As a laborer hired by the year they shall be under the alien's authority, who shall not, however, rule with harshness over them in your sight.
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He is to be treated as a man hired from year to year. You must make sure that his owner does not tyrannize him.
54 And if they have not been redeemed in any of these ways, they and their children with them shall go free in the jubilee year.
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"If he is not redeemed in any of these ways, he goes free in the year of Jubilee, he and his children,
55 For to me the people of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
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because the People of Israel are my servants, my servants whom I brought out of Egypt. I am God, your God.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, 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.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.