Leviticus 25:9-19

9 On the tenth day of the seventh month, the special day for the payment for sin, sound rams' horns throughout the country.

10 Set apart the fiftieth year as holy, and proclaim liberty to everyone living in the land. This is your jubilee year. Every slave will be freed in order to return to his property and to his family.

11 That fiftieth year will be your jubilee year. Don't plant or harvest what grows by itself or pick grapes from the vines in the land.

12 The jubilee [year] will be holy to you. You will eat what the field itself produces.

13 "In this jubilee year every slave will be freed in order to return to his property.

14 If you sell anything to your neighbor or buy anything from him, don't take advantage of him.

15 When you buy property from your neighbor, take into account the number of years since the jubilee. Your neighbor must sell it to you taking into account the number of crops [until the next jubilee].

16 If there are still many years [until the jubilee], you will pay more for it. If there are only a few years [until the jubilee], you will pay less for it because he is selling you only the number of crops.

17 Never take advantage of each other. Fear your God, because I am the LORD your God.

18 "Obey my laws, and carefully follow my rules. Then you will live securely in the land.

19 The land will give you its products, and you will eat all you want and live there securely.

Leviticus 25:9-19 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.