Leviticus 25-27

Leviticus 25

¹And the Lord said to Moses on Mount Sinai,

²Say to the children of Israel, When you come into the land which I will give you, let the land keep a Sabbath to the Lord.

³For six years put seed into your land, and for six years give care to your vines and get in the produce of them;

⁴But let the seventh year be a Sabbath of rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord; do not put seed into your land or have your vines cut.

⁵That which comes to growth of itself may not be cut, and the grapes of your uncared-for vines may not be taken off; let it be a year of rest for the land.

⁶And the Sabbath of the land will give food for you and your man-servant and your woman-servant and those working for payment, and for those of another country who are living among you;

⁷And for your cattle and the beasts on the land; all the natural increase of the land will be for food.

⁸And let seven Sabbaths of years be numbered to you, seven times seven years; even the days of seven Sabbaths of years, that is forty-nine years;

⁹Then let the loud horn be sounded far and wide on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the day of taking away sin let the horn be sounded through all your land.

¹⁰And let this fiftieth year be kept holy, and say publicly that everyone in the land is free from debt: it is the Jubilee, and every man may go back to his heritage and to his family.

¹¹Let this fiftieth year be the Jubilee: no seed may be planted, and that which comes to growth of itself may not be cut, and the grapes may not be taken from the uncared-for vines.

¹²For it is the Jubilee, and it is holy to you; your food will be the natural increase of the field.

¹³In this year of Jubilee, let every man go back to his heritage.

¹⁴And in the business of trading goods for money, do no wrong to one another.

¹⁵Let your exchange of goods with your neighbours have relation to the number of years after the year of Jubilee, and the number of times the earth has given her produce.

¹⁶If the number of years is great, the price will be increased, and if the number of years is small, the price will be less, for it is the produce of a certain number of years which the man is giving you.

¹⁷And do no wrong, one to another, but let the fear of your God be before you; for I am the Lord your God.

¹⁸So keep my rules and my decisions and do them, and you will be safe in your land.

¹⁹And the land will give her fruit, and you will have food in full measure and be safe in the land.

²⁰And if you say, Where will our food come from in the seventh year, when we may not put in seed, or get in the increase

²¹Then I will send my blessing on you in the sixth year, and the land will give fruit enough for three years.

²²And in the eighth year you will put in your seed, and get your food from the old stores, till the fruit of the ninth year is ready.

²³No exchange of land may be for ever, for the land is mine, and you are as my guests, living with me for a time.

²⁴Wherever there is property in land, the owner is to have the right of getting it back.

²⁵If your brother becomes poor, and has to give up some of his land for money, his nearest relation may come and get back that which his brother has given up.

²⁶And if he has no one to get it back for him, and later he himself gets wealth and has enough money to get it back;

²⁷Then let him take into account the years from the time when he gave it up, and make up the loss for the rest of the years to him who took it, and so get back his property.

²⁸But if he is not able to get it back for himself, then it will be kept by him who gave a price for it, till the year of Jubilee; and in that year it will go back to its first owner and he will have his property again.

²⁹And if a man gives his house in a walled town for money, he has the right to get it back for the space of a full year after he has given it up.

³⁰And if he does not get it back by the end of the year, then the house in the town will become the property of him who gave the money for it, and of his children for ever; it will not go from him in the year of Jubilee.

³¹But houses in small unwalled towns will be the same as property in the country; they may be got back, and they will go back to their owners in the year of Jubilee.

³²But the houses in the towns of the Levites may be got back by the Levites at any time.

³³And if a Levite does not give money to get back his property, his house in the town which was exchanged for money will come back to him in the year of Jubilee. For the houses of the towns of the Levites are their property among the children of Israel.

³⁴But the land on the outskirts of their towns may not be exchanged for money, for it is their property for ever.

³⁵And if your brother becomes poor and is not able to make a living, then you are to keep him with you, helping him as you would a man from another country who is living among you.

³⁶Take no interest from him, in money or in goods, but have the fear of your God before you, and let your brother make a living among you.

³⁷Do not take interest on the money which you let him have or on the food which you give him.

³⁸I am the Lord your God, who took you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, that I might be your God.

³⁹And if your brother becomes poor and gives himself to you for money, do not make use of him like a servant who is your property;

⁴⁰But let him be with you as a servant working for payment, till the year of Jubilee;

⁴¹Then he will go out from you, he and his children with him, and go back to his family and to the property of his fathers.

⁴²For they are my servants whom I took out from the land of Egypt; they may not become the property of another.

⁴³Do not be a hard master to him, but have the fear of God before you.

⁴⁴But you may get servants as property from among the nations round about; from them you may take men-servants and women-servants.

⁴⁵And in addition, you may get, for money, servants from among the children of other nations who are living with you, and from their families which have come to birth in your land; and these will be your property.

⁴⁶And they will be your children's heritage after you, to keep as their property; they will be your servants for ever; but you may not be hard masters to your countrymen, the children of Israel.

⁴⁷And if one from another nation living among you gets wealth, and your countryman, at his side, becomes poor and gives himself for money to the man from another nation or to one of his family;

⁴⁸After he has given himself he has the right to be made free, for a price, by one of his brothers,

⁴⁹Or his father's brother, or the son of his father's brother, or any near relation; or if he gets money, he may make himself free.

⁵⁰And let the years be numbered from the time when he gave himself to his owner till the year of Jubilee, and the price given for him will be in relation to the number of years, on the scale of the payment of a servant.

⁵¹If there is still a long time, he will give back, on account of it, a part of the price which was given for him.

⁵²And if there is only a short time, he will take account of it with his master, and in relation to the number of years he will give back the price of making him free.

⁵³And he will be with him as a servant working for payment year by year; his master is not to be cruel to him before your eyes.

⁵⁴And if he is not made free in this way, he will go out in the year of Jubilee, he and his children with him.

⁵⁵For the children of Israel are servants to me; they are my servants whom I took out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

Leviticus 26

¹Do not make images of false gods, or put up an image cut in stone or a pillar or any pictured stone in your land, to give worship to it; for I am the Lord your God.

²Keep my Sabbaths and give honour to my holy place: I am the Lord.

³If you are guided by my rules, and keep my laws and do them,

⁴Then I will give you rain at the right time, and the land will give her increase and the trees of the field will give their fruit;

⁵And the crushing of the grain will overtake the cutting of the grapes, and the cutting of the grapes will overtake the planting of the seed, and there will be bread in full measure, and you will be living in your land safely.

⁶And I will give you peace in the land, and you will take your rest and no one will give you cause for fear; and I will put an end to all evil beasts in the land, and no sword of war will go through your land.

⁷And you will put to flight those who are against you, and they will be put to death by your swords.

⁸Then five of you will put to flight a hundred, and a hundred of you will put to flight ten thousand, and all who are against you will be put to death by your swords.

⁹And I will have pleasure in you and make you fertile and greater in number; and I will keep my agreement with you.

¹⁰And old stores long kept will be your food, and you will take out the old because of the new;

¹¹And I will put my holy House among you, and my soul will not be turned away from you in disgust.

¹²And I will be present among you and will be your God and you will be my people.

¹³I am the Lord your God, who took you out of the land of Egypt so that you might not be servants to them; by me the cords of your yoke were broken and I made you go upright.

¹⁴But if you do not give ear to me, and do not keep all these my laws;

¹⁵And if you go against my rules and if you have hate in your souls for my decisions and you do not do all my orders, but go against my agreement;

¹⁶This will I do to you: I will put fear in your hearts, even wasting disease and burning pain, drying up the eyes and making the soul feeble, and you will get no profit from your seed, for your haters will take it for food.

¹⁷And my face will be turned from you, and you will be broken before those who are against you, and your haters will become your rulers, and you will go in flight when no man comes after you.

¹⁸And if, even after these things, you will not give ear to me, then I will send you punishment seven times more for your sins.

¹⁹And the pride of your strength will be broken, and I will make your heaven as iron and your earth as brass;

²⁰And your strength will be used up without profit; for your land will not give her increase and the trees of the field will not give their fruit.

²¹And if you still go against me and will not give ear to me, I will put seven times more punishments on you because of your sins.

²²I will let loose the beasts of the field among you, and they will take away your children and send destruction on your cattle, so that your numbers will become small and your roads become waste.

²³And if by these things you will not be turned to me, but still go against me;

²⁴Then I will go against you, and I will give you punishment, I myself, seven times for all your sins.

²⁵And I will send a sword on you to give effect to the punishment of my agreement; and when you come together into your towns I will send disease among you and you will be given up into the hands of your haters.

²⁶When I take away your bread of life, ten women will be cooking bread in one oven, and your bread will be measured out by weight; you will have food but never enough.

²⁷And if, after all this, you do not give ear to me, but go against me still,

²⁸Then my wrath will be burning against you, and I will give you punishment, I myself, seven times for your sins.

²⁹Then you will take the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters for food;

³⁰And I will send destruction on your high places, overturning your perfume altars, and will put your dead bodies on your broken images, and my soul will be turned from you in disgust.

³¹And I will make your towns waste and send destruction on your holy places; I will take no pleasure in the smell of your sweet perfumes;

³²And I will make your land a waste, a wonder to your haters living in it.

³³And I will send you out in all directions among the nations, and my sword will be uncovered against you, and your land will be without any living thing, and your towns will be made waste.

³⁴Then will the land take pleasure in its Sabbaths while it is waste and you are living in the land of your haters; then will the land have rest.

³⁵All the days while it is waste will the land have rest, such rest as it never had in your Sabbaths, when you were living in it.

³⁶And as for the rest of you, I will make their hearts feeble in the land of their haters, and the sound of a leaf moved by the wind will send them in flight, and they will go in flight as from the sword, falling down when no one comes after them;

³⁷Falling on one another, as before the sword, when no one comes after them; you will give way before your haters.

³⁸And death will overtake you among strange nations, and the land of your haters will be your destruction.

³⁹And those of you who are still living will be wasting away in their sins in the land of your haters; in the sins of their fathers they will be wasting away.

⁴⁰And they will have grief for their sins and for the sins of their fathers, when their hearts were untrue to me, and they went against me;

⁴¹So that I went against them and sent them away into the land of their haters: if then the pride of their hearts is broken and they take the punishment of their sins,

⁴²Then I will keep in mind the agreement which I made with Jacob and with Isaac and with Abraham, and I will keep in mind the land.

⁴³And the land, while she is without them, will keep her Sabbaths; and they will undergo the punishment of their sins, because they were turned away from my decisions and in their souls was hate for my laws.

⁴⁴But for all that, when they are in the land of their haters I will not let them go, or be turned away from them, or give them up completely; my agreement with them will not be broken, for I am the Lord their God.

⁴⁵And because of them I will keep in mind the agreement which I made with their fathers, whom I took out of the land of Egypt before the eyes of the nations, to be their God: I am the Lord.

⁴⁶These are the rules, decisions, and laws, which the Lord made between himself and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai, by the hand of Moses.

Leviticus 27

¹And the Lord said to Moses,

²Say to the children of Israel, If a man makes a special oath, you will give your decision as to the value of the persons for the Lord.

³And you will put the value of a male from twenty years to sixty years old at fifty shekels of silver, by the scale of the holy place.

⁴And if it is a female, the value will be thirty shekels.

⁵And if the person is from five to twenty years old, the value will be twenty shekels for a male, and ten for a female.

⁶And if the person is from one month to five years old, then the value for a male will be five shekels of silver, and for a female three shekels.

⁷And for sixty years old and over, for a male the value will be fifteen shekels, and for a female, ten.

⁸But if he is poorer than the value which you have put on him, then let him be taken to the priest, and the priest will put a value on him, such as it is possible for him to give.

⁹And if it is a beast of which men make offerings to the Lord, whatever any man gives of such to the Lord will be holy.

¹⁰It may not be changed in any way, a good given for a bad, or a bad for a good; if one beast is changed for another, the two will be holy.

¹¹And if it is any unclean beast, of which offerings are not made to the Lord, then let him take the beast before the priest;

¹²And let the priest put a value on it, if it is good or bad; whatever value the priest puts on it, so will it be.

¹³But if he has a desire to get it back for himself, let him give a fifth more than your value.

¹⁴And if a man has given his house as holy to the Lord, then the priest will put a value on it, if it is good or bad; as the priest gives decision so will the value be fixed.

¹⁵And if the owner has a desire to get back his house, let him give a fifth more than your value, and it will be his.

¹⁶And if a man gives to the Lord part of the field which is his property, then let your value be in relation to the seed which is planted in it; a measure of barley grain will be valued at fifty shekels of silver.

¹⁷If he gives his field from the year of Jubilee, the value will be fixed by your decision.

¹⁸But if he gives his field after the year of Jubilee, the amount of the money will be worked out by the priest in relation to the number of years till the coming year of Jubilee, and the necessary amount will be taken off your value.

¹⁹And if the man who has given the field has a desire to get it back, let him give a fifth more than the price at which it was valued and it will be his.

²⁰But if he has no desire to get it back, or if he has given it for a price to another man, it may not be got back again.

²¹But the field, when it becomes free at the year of Jubilee, will be holy to the Lord, as a field given under oath: it will be the property of the priest.

²²And if a man gives to the Lord a field which he has got for money from another, which is not part of his heritage;

²³Then the value fixed by you up to the year of Jubilee will be worked out for him by the priest, and in that day he will give the amount of your value as holy to the Lord.

²⁴In the year of Jubilee the field will go back to him from whom he got it, that is, to him whose heritage it was.

²⁵And let all your values be based on the shekel of the holy place, that is, twenty gerahs to the shekel.

²⁶But a man may not give by oath to the Lord the first-fruits of cattle which are offered to the Lord: if it is an ox or a sheep it is the Lord's.

²⁷And if it is an unclean beast, then the owner of it may give money to get it back, in agreement with the value fixed by you, by giving a fifth more; or if it is not taken back, let it be given for money in agreement with your valuing.

²⁸But nothing which a man has given completely to the Lord, out of all his property, of man or beast, or of the land which is his heritage, may be given away or got back in exchange for money; anything completely given is most holy to the Lord.

²⁹Any man given completely to the Lord may not be got back: he is certainly to be put to death.

³⁰And every tenth part of the land, of the seed planted, or of the fruit of trees, is holy to the Lord.

³¹And if a man has a desire to get back any of the tenth part which he has given, let him give a fifth more.

³²And a tenth part of the herd and of the flock, whatever goes under the rod of the valuer, will be holy to the Lord.

³³He may not make search to see if it is good or bad, or make any changes in it; and if he makes exchange of it for another, the two will be holy; he will not get them back again.

³⁴These are the orders which the Lord gave to Moses for the children of Israel in Mount Sinai.