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Leviticus 25

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And the Lord spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying,

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Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the Lord.

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Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof;

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But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the Lord: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.

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That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land.

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And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee,

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And for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat.

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And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.

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Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.

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And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.

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A jubile shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed.

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For it is the jubile; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field.

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In the year of this jubile ye shall return every man unto his possession.

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And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbour, or buyest ought of thy neighbour’s hand, ye shall not oppress one another:

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According to the number of years after the jubile thou shalt buy of thy neighbour, and according unto the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee:

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According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it: for according to the number of the years of the fruits doth he sell unto thee.

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Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am the Lord your God.

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Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety.

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And the land shall yield her fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety.

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And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase:

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Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years.

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And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year; until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store.

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The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.

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And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land.

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If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold.

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And if the man have none to redeem it, and himself be able to redeem it;

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Then let him count the years of the sale thereof, and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it; that he may return unto his possession.

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But if he be not able to restore it to him, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it until the year of jubile: and in the jubile it shall go out, and he shall return unto his possession.

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And if a man sell a dwelling house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; within a full year may he redeem it.

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And if it be not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be established for ever to him that bought it throughout his generations: it shall not go out in the jubile.

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But the houses of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be counted as the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubile.

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Notwithstanding the cities of the Levites, and the houses of the cities of their possession, may the Levites redeem at any time.

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And if a man purchase of the Levites, then the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, shall go out in the year of jubile: for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel.

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But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession.

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And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him: yea, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee.

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Take thou no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee.

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Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase.

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I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.

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And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant:

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But as an hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of jubile:

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And then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return.

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For they are my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondmen.

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Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour; but shalt fear thy God.

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Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids.

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Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession.

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And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen for ever: but over your brethren the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigour.

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And if a sojourner or stranger wax rich by thee, and thy brother that dwelleth by him wax poor, and sell himself unto the stranger or sojourner by thee, or to the stock of the stranger’s family:

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After that he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of his brethren may redeem him:

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Either his uncle, or his uncle’s son, may redeem him, or any that is nigh of kin unto him of his family may redeem him; or if he be able, he may redeem himself.

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And he shall reckon with him that bought him from the year that he was sold to him unto the year of jubile: and the price of his sale shall be according unto the number of years, according to the time of an hired servant shall it be with him.

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If there be yet many years behind, according unto them he shall give again the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for.

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And if there remain but few years unto the year of jubile, then he shall count with him, and according unto his years shall he give him again the price of his redemption.

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And as a yearly hired servant shall he be with him: and the other shall not rule with rigour over him in thy sight.

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And if he be not redeemed in these years, then he shall go out in the year of jubile, both he, and his children with him.

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For unto me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

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Leviticus 25

The sabbatical year and Jubilee regulations — uniquely grounded at Mount Sinai — extend the Sabbath principle from the weekly day to the seventh year (when the land rests completely from agriculture) and to the fiftieth year (the Jubilee), when all sold land returns to the original family and all Israelite debt-slaves are released. The theological foundation is the most radical ownership claim in the Torah: the land is mine, and you reside in my land as foreigners and strangers. The Jubilee transforms every land sale into a time-limited lease priced by the remaining years until the next Jubilee; property dedicated to God through a herem vow becomes permanently irrevocable. The kinsman-redeemer (goel) provision allows family members to buy back sold land before the Jubilee. Israelite debt-slaves must be treated as hired workers or temporary residents rather than permanent slaves, released with their children at the Jubilee; the theological rationale is the Exodus: the Israelites are my servants, whom I brought out of Egypt. Isaiah 61:1–2 announces a year of the Lord's favor — the Jubilee — which Jesus applies to himself in Luke 4:18–19 as the inaugural proclamation of his ministry.

Leviticus 25:1

The Lord said to Moses on Mount Sinai. The sabbatical year and Jubilee regulations are uniquely grounded at Mount Sinai — the only regulations in the Holiness Code explicitly located at Sinai. The Sinai grounding communicates the foundational character of these regulations: the sabbatical and Jubilee principles are as fundamental to the covenant as the Ten Commandments and the covenant law. Isaiah 61:1–2 announces a year of the Lord's favor — the Jubilee imagery — which Jesus applies to himself in Luke 4:18–19 as the inaugural proclamation of his ministry.

Leviticus 25:2

Speak to the Israelites and say to them: when you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a sabbath to the Lord. The sabbatical year for the land — the land must observe a sabbath to the Lord — extends the Sabbath principle from the weekly rhythm to the agricultural year. The land that produces the community's food is itself given a year of rest. The land observing a Sabbath to the Lord communicates the theological claim: the land belongs to the Lord who rested on the seventh day. The community that rests every seventh day also rests the land every seventh year.

Leviticus 25:3

For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. The six-year agricultural activity that precedes the sabbatical year mirrors the six days of work that precede the weekly Sabbath. Six years of full agricultural production — sowing, pruning, harvesting — establishes the context of the seventh-year rest. The productivity of the six years is not negated by the seventh-year rest but fulfilled by it: the Sabbath that follows the six years of faithful work is the covenant's celebration of the work that preceded it.

Leviticus 25:4

But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. The seventh year is a Sabbath for the land: no sowing, no pruning, no organized agricultural activity. The land's rest is not primarily for ecological renewal (though that is a real benefit) but for theological acknowledgment: the land rests because the land belongs to the God who rested on the seventh day. The covenant community's agricultural rest is the acknowledgment that they are stewards, not owners, of the land.

Leviticus 25:5

Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. It is a year of sabbath rest for the land. The prohibition on harvesting the spontaneous growth of the sabbatical year communicates the completeness of the land's rest: even what grows without human cultivation is not harvested for personal benefit during the sabbatical year. The spontaneous growth belongs to the community for gleaning (verse 6) but cannot be organized for commercial harvest. The sabbatical year's rest is comprehensive: no agricultural industry, even of what grows by itself.

Leviticus 25:6

Whatever the land yields during the sabbath year will be food for you — for yourself, your male and female servants, and the hired worker and temporary resident who live among you. The spontaneous growth of the sabbatical year is not wasted but available for consumption: the household (owner, servants, workers) and the resident foreigners can eat from what grows. The equitable access to the sabbatical year's spontaneous growth — owner and servant eating the same uncultivated food — communicates the leveling character of the sabbatical year: the social distinctions of ordinary agriculture are suspended for a year of equal access.

Leviticus 25:7

Your animals and the wild animals in your land may eat whatever the land produces. The animals — domestic and wild — also share in the sabbatical year's spontaneous produce. The comprehensive access of all living creatures to the sabbatical year's growth communicates the ecological generosity of the covenant's land theology: the seventh year belongs not only to the human community but to every creature that inhabits the land. The God who created the animals also provides for them through the sabbatical year's open access.

Leviticus 25:8

Count off seven sabbath years — seven times seven years — so that the seven sabbath years amount to a period of forty-nine years. The Jubilee is built on the seven-times-seven sabbatical structure: seven Sabbath years of seven years each produce forty-nine years, and the fiftieth year is the Jubilee. The mathematical structure mirrors the Feast of Weeks' seven-times-seven-day structure leading to the fiftieth day of Pentecost. The Jubilee is to the agricultural calendar what Pentecost is to the festival calendar: the completion of a seven-times-seven cycle leading to the fiftieth-day beginning of something new.

Leviticus 25:9

Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. The Jubilee is proclaimed on Yom Kippur — the Day of Atonement — with the trumpet blast throughout the land. The Jubilee that restores economic freedom begins on the day that restores covenant cleanness: the community that has been atoned for on the Day of Atonement is ready to receive the Jubilee's liberation. The trumpet of the Day of Atonement proclaims the Jubilee — both sounds call the community to freedom from what has burdened them.

Leviticus 25:10

Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each of you is to return to your family property and to your own clan. The Jubilee's proclamation: liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. The return to family property and to one's own clan is the covenant's provision for the economic reset that prevents the permanent concentration of land and wealth in a few families across generations. Leviticus 25:10 is the verse inscribed on the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia — the covenant's proclamation of economic freedom became the symbol of national political freedom.

Leviticus 25:11

The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. The Jubilee year follows the same agricultural rest regulations as the sabbatical year: no sowing, no reaping of spontaneous growth, no harvesting of untended vines. The Jubilee year is simultaneously the fiftieth year of the Jubilee cycle and (potentially) the forty-ninth year of a seven-year sabbatical cycle — a double-rest year that communicates the extraordinary character of the Jubilee.

Leviticus 25:12

For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields. The Jubilee year is holy — the same holiness designation as the Sabbath and the festivals. The eating of what is taken directly from the fields — the spontaneous growth — is the Jubilee community's provision. The community that cannot harvest for commercial storage or sale lives from what the land gives freely, equally available to all. The Jubilee's agricultural rest is the material expression of the social leveling that the land-return provision accomplishes.

Leviticus 25:13

In this Year of Jubilee everyone is to return to their own property. The Jubilee's most fundamental provision: everyone returns to their own property. The property that was sold due to economic necessity during the fifty-year cycle is returned to the original family without additional payment. The Jubilee is not a transaction but a restoration: what economic distress removed is returned by covenant right. The community that knows that land returns in the Jubilee knows that land sale is always temporary — a lease, not a permanent transfer.

Leviticus 25:14

If you sell land to any of your own people or buy land from them, do not take advantage of each other. The land transactions of the Jubilee cycle must be done without exploitation: the Jubilee principle that land returns means that every land sale is actually a sale of the remaining years' use. The prohibition on taking advantage communicates that the Jubilee's transparency — everyone knows the land will return — must produce fair dealing, not strategic exploitation. The seller who knows the buyer knows the land will return must price honestly; the buyer who knows the land will return must offer fairly.

Leviticus 25:15

You are to buy from your own people on the basis of the number of years since the Jubilee. They are to sell to you on the basis of the number of years left for harvesting crops. The pricing principle for land sales: the number of years remaining until the next Jubilee determines the price. The more years remaining, the higher the price (more harvests to be enjoyed); the fewer years remaining, the lower the price (fewer harvests). The Jubilee-adjusted pricing creates a transparent market where the covenant principle determines the price. The land is never actually sold — only its harvests are, for a limited period.

Leviticus 25:16

When the years are many, you are to increase the price, and when the years are few, you are to decrease it, because what is really being sold to you is the number of crops. The explicit statement of the Jubilee pricing principle: you are buying crops, not land. The covenant community's understanding of land ownership is theological, not commercial: the land belongs to God (verse 23), the family holds it in trust, and the sale is always a temporary transfer of use-rights. The number of crops determines the price; the Jubilee determines the limit.

Leviticus 25:17

Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your God. I am the Lord your God. The exploitation prohibition is repeated with the fear your God motivation. The Jubilee system that creates transparent pricing does not automatically prevent exploitation — it requires the community's willing compliance grounded in the fear of God. I am the Lord your God grounds the honest dealing in the covenant identity: the God who owns the land is the God who requires that its transactions be honest.

Leviticus 25:18

Follow my decrees and be careful to obey my laws, and you will live safely in the land. The covenant's land-provision promise: keep the decrees and laws, and you will live safely in the land. The Jubilee regulations that protect equitable land distribution are the decrees and laws whose obedience produces the safe living that the land promise includes. The community that implements the Jubilee lives safely in the land that the Jubilee protects.

Leviticus 25:19

Then the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live there in safety. The fruitful land as the covenant blessing for the obedient community: eat your fill, live in safety. The Jubilee's agricultural rest and land-return provision are the means by which the land's fruitfulness is sustained for the long-term: the community that does not exploit the land or exploit each other sustains the land's capacity to nourish them.

Leviticus 25:20

You may ask, what will we eat in the seventh year if we do not plant or harvest our crops? The anticipated objection to the sabbatical year: what will we eat? The community's practical anxiety about the sabbatical year's agricultural rest is anticipated and addressed. The covenant God who commands the rest also provides the means for surviving it. The anxiety is understandable; the answer is the provision of the sixth year's abundance.

Leviticus 25:21

I will send you such a blessing in the sixth year that the land will yield enough for three years. The divine provision for the sabbatical year's rest: a triple harvest in the sixth year. The miraculous provision that God promises for the sabbatical year is the agricultural equivalent of the manna's double portion on the sixth day before the Sabbath: God provides for the rest He commands. Obedience to the rest is not economically destructive but covenant-enabled: the God who commands the rest provides the abundance that makes the rest sustainable.

Leviticus 25:22

While you plant during the eighth year, you will eat from the old crop and will continue to eat from it until the harvest of the ninth year comes in. The provision extends through the transition period: the eighth year's planting is sustained by the sixth year's abundance until the ninth year's harvest produces new food. The three-year provision covers the sabbatical year (year 7), the planting year (year 8), and the first harvest year (year 9). The covenant community that trusts the sabbatical command receives the provision that makes the trust possible.

Leviticus 25:23

The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you reside in my land as foreigners and strangers. The theological foundation of the entire Jubilee system: the land is mine — God's declaration of permanent ownership of the promised land. The covenant community resides in the land as foreigners and strangers — tenants in the landlord's property. The Jubilee is not a human legal convention but the expression of the landlord's rights: God who owns the land establishes the terms of its use, and those terms include the Jubilee return. Psalm 24:1 says the earth is the Lord's and everything in it — the land-ownership theology of Leviticus 25:23 is the specific application of the universal principle.

Leviticus 25:24

Throughout the land that you hold, you must provide for the redemption of the land. The redemption principle for the land — the mechanism by which sold land can be returned before the Jubilee — communicates the covenant's flexibility within the Jubilee's structure. The Jubilee is the automatic restoration; the redemption is the voluntary restoration that can happen earlier. The redemption right protects the original family's claim on the land even within the years before the Jubilee.

Leviticus 25:25

If one of your fellow Israelites becomes poor and sells some of their property, their nearest relative is to come and redeem what they have sold. The kinsman-redeemer principle for land — the nearest relative who has the resources and the obligation to buy back the sold land for the impoverished family member. Ruth 2–4 records the kinsman-redeemer provision in narrative form: Boaz who redeems Ruth and Naomi's land and family. The kinsman-redeemer's redemption of the impoverished family's land is the human expression of the divine redemption that the Jubilee ultimately provides.

Leviticus 25:26

If, however, there is no one to redeem it for them but later on they prosper and acquire sufficient means to redeem it themselves. The self-redemption option: if the original seller prospers and can afford to buy back the land themselves, they may do so without waiting for the Jubilee or a kinsman-redeemer. The self-redemption communicates the personal accountability of the original family for their own economic restoration when circumstances allow.

Leviticus 25:27

They are to determine the value for the years since they sold it and refund the balance to the one to whom they sold it; they can then go back to their own property. The pricing principle for self-redemption: pay for the remaining years of use that the buyer purchased minus the years already enjoyed. The Jubilee-adjusted pricing applies to self-redemption as well as to the original sale. The transparent covenant economics of the Jubilee system protect both the seller who redeems and the buyer who sells back.

Leviticus 25:28

But if they do not acquire the means to repay, what was sold will remain in the possession of the buyer until the Year of Jubilee. It will be returned in the Jubilee, and they can then go back to their property. The Jubilee as the ultimate guarantee: if the impoverished seller cannot afford self-redemption and has no kinsman-redeemer, the land returns at the Jubilee automatically. The Jubilee is the covenant's provision for those who have no other recourse. The community that cannot recover economically on its own receives the covenant's structural provision at the appointed time.

Leviticus 25:29

Anyone who sells a house in a walled city retains the right of redemption a full year after its sale. During that time the seller may redeem it. The walled-city house regulation distinguishes urban real estate from agricultural land: the house in a walled city can be redeemed within one year of the sale, but if not redeemed within a year, it passes permanently to the buyer. The one-year redemption window for urban property reflects the different character of urban real estate: unlike agricultural land (which is the family's covenant inheritance and economic base), urban housing is more commercial in nature.

Leviticus 25:30

If it is not redeemed before a full year has passed, the house in the walled city shall belong permanently to the buyer and the buyer's descendants. It is not to be returned in the Jubilee. The permanent transfer of the urban house after the one-year window — it does not return in the Jubilee — communicates the different theological status of urban property versus agricultural land. The land outside the city is the covenant inheritance; the house within the walled city is commercial property that follows ordinary economic rules. The Jubilee's land-return principle applies to the agricultural covenant inheritance, not to urban commercial real estate.

Leviticus 25:31

But houses in villages without walls around them are to be considered as open country. They can be redeemed, and they are to be returned in the Jubilee. The village houses without walls — houses in agricultural communities — are treated like agricultural land for Jubilee purposes: they can be redeemed and return in the Jubilee. The distinction between the walled city and the unwalled village communicates that the Jubilee's protection is specifically for the agricultural community and the land-based covenant inheritance. The agricultural community's housing is part of the agricultural inheritance that the Jubilee protects.

Leviticus 25:32

The Levites always have the right to redeem their houses in the Levitical towns, which they possess. The Levite exception for the Jubilee city-house rules: the Levites can always redeem their houses in the Levitical towns, and the houses return in the Jubilee. The Levites are the one group that has no agricultural inheritance — their inheritance is the Lord himself (Numbers 18:20) and the Levitical cities that are scattered throughout the land. The protection of the Levites' houses in their assigned cities is the covenant's provision for the tribe that has no land-inheritance: the Jubilee protects what the Levites do have since they cannot have what the other tribes have.

Leviticus 25:33

So the property of the Levites is redeemable — that is, a house sold in any town they hold — and is to be returned in the Jubilee, because the houses in the towns of the Levites are their property among the Israelites. The Levitical towns are the Levites' equivalent of the agricultural land: the Jubilee return of their town houses is the equivalent of the return of agricultural land to the other tribes. The covenant equity of the Jubilee extends to the Levites through the specific application of the Jubilee principle to their unique situation.

Leviticus 25:34

But the pastureland belonging to their towns must not be sold; it is their permanent possession. The pastureland of the Levitical towns — the grazing land surrounding the cities that supports the Levites' animals — cannot be sold at all. The permanent possession of the pastureland is the one category of the Jubilee's land theology that admits no sale or redemption: the Levites' pastureland is entirely outside the economic transactions that the rest of the Jubilee system manages.

Leviticus 25:35

If any of your fellow Israelites become poor and are unable to support themselves among you, help them as you would a foreigner and stranger, so they can continue to live among you. The poverty assistance regulation extends the Jubilee's economic protection into the ongoing obligations of the covenant community toward its impoverished members. The help them as you would a foreigner and stranger communicates the hospitable welcome owed to the impoverished community member: the economically vulnerable covenant member is to receive the same care as the vulnerable foreigner.

Leviticus 25:36

Do not take interest or any profit from them, but fear your God, so that they may continue to live among you. The prohibition on charging interest to the impoverished fellow Israelite — the same interest-prohibition that Exodus 22:25 establishes — is grounded in the fear of God. The interest-free loan is the covenant community's provision for the impoverished member who needs assistance without exploitation. The one who lends to the poor and charges no interest expresses the covenant's character: the community that fears God cannot exploit the God's image-bearers who are in distress.

Leviticus 25:37

You must not lend them money at interest or sell them food at a profit. The interest and profit prohibitions apply to both money loans and food sales to the impoverished: the community member who is poor enough to need to borrow money or buy food on credit receives the full protection of the covenant's anti-exploitation provisions. The prohibition on food profit for the poor communicates the covenant's priority: the life of the poor community member takes precedence over the profit of the wealthy one.

Leviticus 25:38

I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God. The Exodus and the land gift ground the interest-prohibition in the covenant narrative: the God who brought Israel out of Egypt — who freed them from the exploitation of slavery — is the God who prohibits the exploitation of fellow community members through interest. The covenant community that experienced liberation from exploitation is the community commanded not to exploit others. I am the Lord your God closes the poverty assistance regulations with the same formula that grounds the entire Holiness Code.

Leviticus 25:39

If any of your fellow Israelites become poor and sell themselves to you, do not make them work as slaves. The Israelite debt-slave regulation: the impoverished fellow Israelite who sells themselves in slavery is not to be treated as a permanent slave. The sell themselves communicates the depth of the poverty that the Jubilee system addresses — the community member who has lost land, home, and freedom through economic distress. The not to be treated as a slave qualification begins the graduated protection that the following verses elaborate.

Leviticus 25:40

They are to be treated as hired workers or temporary residents among you; they are to work for you until the Year of Jubilee. The Israelite debt-slave is treated as a hired worker or temporary resident — not as a permanent slave. The work-until-the-Jubilee provision makes the Jubilee the maximum period of Israelite debt-service: no Israelite can be held in debt-slavery beyond the Jubilee year, regardless of the debt amount or the length of service.

Leviticus 25:41

Then they and their children are to be released, and they will go back to their own clans and to the property of their ancestors. The Jubilee releases the Israelite debt-slave and their children — the family unit is released together, preserving the family's covenant integrity. The return to their own clans and ancestral property is the debt-slave's equivalent of the sold land's return: the Jubilee restores both the property and the person who sold it. The Jubilee is the comprehensive reset of the covenant community's economic life.

Leviticus 25:42

Because the Israelites are my servants, whom I brought out of Egypt, they must not be sold as slaves. The theological foundation of the Israelite debt-slave regulations: the Israelites are my servants — God's servants — and therefore cannot be permanent slaves to other humans. The Exodus liberation that made Israel God's servants excluded them from permanent human slavery: you cannot permanently enslave those who belong to God. The covenant community's members are God's property, and God's ownership supersedes all human ownership claims.

Leviticus 25:43

Do not rule over them ruthlessly, but fear your God. The prohibition on ruling ruthlessly over the Israelite debt-slave is grounded in the fear of God: the one who fears God cannot treat God's servant ruthlessly. The same ruthlessness prohibition (the same word) appears in Exodus 1:13–14 to describe Egypt's treatment of Israel — the covenant community is commanded not to be Egypt. The Exodus community that experienced ruthless labor exploitation is commanded to provide its indentured servants with the opposite.

Leviticus 25:44

Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. The foreign slave provision acknowledges the institution of slavery in the ancient world while restricting the covenant community's enslavement of its own members. The foreign slaves who can be bought from the surrounding nations are subject to different regulations than the Israelite debt-slave. The distinction between the treatment of Israelite indentured servants and foreign slaves communicates the covenant community's particular obligation to its own members — an obligation rooted in their shared covenant identity rather than in a universal anti-slavery principle.

Leviticus 25:45

You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property. The temporary residents who become property through purchase are subject to the property regulations that apply to foreign slaves. The covenant community's ownership of foreign slaves is acknowledged as legitimate within the Levitical system without the anti-slavery principle that protects Israelite covenant members.

Leviticus 25:46

You can bequeath them to your children as inherited property and can make them slaves for life, but you must not rule over your fellow Israelites ruthlessly. The inheritance of foreign slaves and the permanent slavery for life communicate the different status of foreign slaves versus Israelite debt-servants: the former can be permanent, inheritable property; the latter must be released at the Jubilee. The but you must not rule over your fellow Israelites ruthlessly closes the contrast: the Israelite community member's protection from ruthless treatment is the covenant's specific provision for those who share the covenant identity.

Leviticus 25:47

If a foreigner residing among you becomes rich and any of your fellow Israelites become poor and sell themselves to the foreigner or to a member of the foreigner's clan. The reverse situation: the wealthy foreigner who purchases an Israelite debt-slave. The Israelite who sells themselves to a foreigner receives the same protections as the Israelite who sells themselves to a fellow Israelite: the Jubilee provisions and the redemption rights apply regardless of the master's identity.

Leviticus 25:48

They retain the right of redemption after they have sold themselves. One of their relatives may redeem them. The Israelite sold to a foreigner retains the kinsman-redeemer option: a relative can buy back the sold person's freedom. The redemption right that protects the sold land also protects the sold person: the Israelite who has sold themselves into foreign service can be redeemed by a relative who has the means. The personal redemption parallels the land redemption — both express the covenant's commitment to the restoration of Israelite freedom and inheritance.

Leviticus 25:49

An uncle or a cousin or any blood relative in their clan may redeem them. Or if they prosper, they may redeem themselves. The kinsman-redeemer's expanded range for the person sold to a foreigner: uncle, cousin, or any blood relative with the means. The self-redemption option (if the sold person prospers while in service) also applies. The comprehensive redemption options — relative or self — ensure that the Israelite sold to a foreigner has multiple paths to freedom before the Jubilee.

Leviticus 25:50

They and their buyer are to count the time from the year they sold themselves up to the Year of Jubilee. The price for their freedom is to be based on the rate paid to a hired worker for that number of years. The Jubilee-adjusted pricing for the personal redemption: the cost of buying back one's freedom is based on the remaining years until the Jubilee at the rate of a hired worker. The same transparent pricing that applies to land sales applies to personal redemption: the time remaining determines the cost, not the master's market power.

Leviticus 25:51

If many years remain, they must pay for their redemption a larger share of the price paid for them. The more years remaining until the Jubilee, the higher the redemption price — consistent with the land pricing principle. The Jubilee-adjusted personal redemption pricing prevents the exploitation of the desperate: the redemption cost is determined by the objective years remaining, not by the master's leverage over a desperate buyer.

Leviticus 25:52

If only a few years remain until the Year of Jubilee, they are to compute that and pay for their redemption accordingly. The fewer years remaining until the Jubilee, the lower the redemption cost. The consistent application of the Jubilee-adjusted pricing protects both the sold person and the redeemer: the cost is fair, determined by the covenant's calendar rather than by the market's pressures.

Leviticus 25:53

They are to be treated as workers hired from year to year; you must see to it that those who own them do not rule over them ruthlessly. The Israelite sold to a foreigner must be treated as an annual worker — not as a permanent slave. The ruthlessness prohibition applied to the foreign master communicates the covenant community's responsibility to enforce the Israelite debt-slave's protections: you must see to it. The covenant community has a responsibility to ensure that its own members receive the covenant's protections even when those members are in foreign service.

Leviticus 25:54

Even if someone is not redeemed in any of these ways, they and their children are to be released in the Year of Jubilee. The Jubilee as the ultimate guarantee for the personal redemption, just as it is the ultimate guarantee for the land redemption: if no kinsman-redeemer acts and no self-redemption occurs, the Jubilee releases the Israelite and their children. The covenant community member cannot be held permanently by any master, foreign or native, beyond the Jubilee year.

Leviticus 25:55

For the Israelites belong to me as servants. They are my servants, whom I brought out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. The final theological grounding of the entire Jubilee chapter: the Israelites belong to me as servants — they are God's servants, not permanent human property. The Exodus liberation that established this divine ownership is the foundation of every Jubilee provision. I am the Lord your God closes the chapter as it closes every section of the Holiness Code: the covenant identity grounds the covenant's most radical economic provision. The God who owns the land and owns the people is the God who establishes the terms of their use and treatment.