Bible Time

¹AND Yahvah spoke to Moses on mount Sinai, saying, ²Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land which I give you for an inheritance, then the land will keep a sabbath to Yahvah. ³6 years you will sow your fields and 6 years you will prune your vineyards and 6 years you will gather in your produce; ⁴But the 7th year will be a sabbath rest to the land, and it will be to you a sabbath for Yahvah; you will not sow your fields nor prune your vineyards. ⁵That which grows of itself of your harvest you will not reap, nor gather the grapes of your undressed vine; for it is the year of rest to the land. ⁶And the sabbath of the land will be food for you, for yourself and for your servants and for your maids and for your hired laborers and for the stranger that resides temporarily with you ⁷And for your cattle and for the animals that are in your land will all its increase be for food to you.

⁸And you will count 7 sabbaths of years to you, 7 times 7 years; and the space of the 7 sabbaths of years will be to you 49 years. ⁹Then you will cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the 10th day of the 7th month; on the day of atonement you will sound the trumpet throughout all your land. ¹⁰And you will hallow the 50th year and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants; it will be a jubilee to you; and you will return every man to his own possession, and you will return every man to his family. ¹¹A jubilee will that 50th year be to you; you will not sow, nor reap that which grows of itself in it, nor gather the grapes from the undressed vine. ¹²For it is the jubilee; it will be holy to you; you will eat the produce out of the field. ¹³In this year of jubilee you will return every man to his own possession. ¹⁴And if you sell to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you will not defraud one another: ¹⁵According to the number of years after the jubilee you will buy from your neighbor, and according to the number of years of the produce he will sell to you; ¹⁶In proportion to the multitude of years you will increase its price, and in proportion to the fewness of years you will decrease the price of it; for according to the number of the years of produce he sells to you. ¹⁷You will not therefore defraud one another; but you will fear your God; for I am Yahvah your God. ¹⁸Therefore, you will do my commandments and keep my judgments and do them; and you will live in the land in safety. ¹⁹And the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live in it in safety. ²⁰And if you will say, What will we eat in the 7th year? For we will not sow, nor gather in its produce; ²¹Then I will send my blessings on you in the 6th year, and it will bring forth fruit for 3 years. ²²And you will sow in the 8th year, and eat yet of old produce until the 9th year; until the new produce comes in, you will eat of the old produce.

²³Surely the land will not be sold outright; for the land is mine; you are strangers and temporary residents with me. ²⁴And in all the land of your possession you will grant a redemption for the land. ²⁵If your brother becomes poor and sells some of his possession, then his nearest kin will come and redeem that which his brother has sold. ²⁶And if the man has no one to redeem it, and himself has sufficient means and is able to redeem it, ²⁷Then let him count the years from its sale and refund the overage to the man to whom he sold it, that he may return to his possession. ²⁸But if he cannot afford to pay him back, then that which he sold will remain secure in the hand of him who has bought it until the year of jubilee; and in the jubilee it will be released, and he will return to his possession. ²⁹If a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; within a full year he may redeem it. ³⁰And if it is not redeemed within a full year, then the house that is in the walled city will be confirmed forever to him who bought it throughout his generations; it will not be released in the jubilee. ³¹But the houses of the villages which have no walls around them will be counted as the fields of the country; they may be redeemed, and they will be released in the jubilee. ³²Notwithstanding the cities of the Levites, and the houses which are in the cities of their possession, the Levites will have the right to redeem forever. ³³And if a man purchases of the Levites, then the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, will be released in the year of jubilee; for the houses in the cities of the Levites are their possessions among the children of Israel. ³⁴But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession. ³⁵And if your brother becomes poor and stretches out his hand for help, you will not look on him as a stranger or a temporary resident; he will live with you. ³⁶You will not take a discount of him or usury; but fear your God, that your brother may live with you. ³⁷You will not lend him your money with a discount nor give him your food with usury. ³⁸I am Yahvah your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.

³⁹And if your brother becomes poor and be sold to you, you will not compel him to serve as a bondservant; ⁴⁰But as a hired laborer, and as a temporary resident, he will be with you, and will serve you until the year of jubilee; ⁴¹And then he will depart from you, both he and his children with him, and will return to his own family, and to the possession of his fathers he will return. ⁴²For they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt; they will not be sold as bondmen. ⁴³You will not compel them to do hard work; but will fear your God. ⁴⁴But as for your male servants and your female servants whom you may have from among the people that are around you, they you will buy as bondmen and as bondwomen. ⁴⁵Moreover, of the children of the strangers who have temporarily resided among you, of them you will buy, and of their families that are with you, who have been born in your land; and they will be your possession. ⁴⁶And you will bequeath them to your children after you, to inherit them as a possession; you may make slaves of them forever; but as for your brothers the children of Israel, you will not compel them to do hard work. ⁴⁷And if a temporary resident or stranger who lives with you becomes rich, and your brother who lives with him becomes poor and is sold to the stranger or temporary resident who lives with you or to a native born of the stranger's family who lives with you, ⁴⁸After that he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of his brothers may redeem him; ⁴⁹Either his uncle or his uncle's son may redeem him, or any of his near kin belonging to his family may redeem him; or if he can afford it, he may redeem himself. ⁵⁰He will reckon with him who bought him from the year that he was sold to the year of jubilee; and the price of his sale will be according to the number of years, according to the time of a hired servant it will be with him. ⁵¹If there are still many years remaining, according to them he will give the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for. ⁵²And if there remain but a few years to the year of jubilee, then he will count with him, and according to his years he will give him the price of his redemption again. ⁵³As a yearly hired servant he will be to him; and he will not subject him to hard labor in your sight. ⁵⁴And if he is not redeemed in any of these ways, then he will go out in the year of jubilee, both he and his children with him. ⁵⁵For to me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt; I am Yahvah your God.