Text -- Leviticus 25:8-55 (NET)

Regulations for the Jubilee Year of Release

25:8 “‘You must count off seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, and the days of the seven weeks of years will amount to forty-nine years. 25:9 You must sound loud horn blasts– in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, on the Day of Atonement– you must sound the horn in your entire land. 25:10 So you must consecrate the fiftieth year, and you must proclaim a release in the land for all its inhabitants. That year will be your jubilee; each one of you must return to his property and each one of you must return to his clan. 25:11 That fiftieth year will be your jubilee; you must not sow the land, harvest its aftergrowth, or pick the grapes of its unpruned vines. 25:12 Because that year is a jubilee, it will be holy to you– you may eat its produce from the field.

Release of Landed Property

25:13 “‘In this year of jubilee you must each return to your property. 25:14 If you make a sale to your fellow citizen or buy from your fellow citizen, no one is to wrong his brother. 25:15 You may buy it from your fellow citizen according to the number of years since the last jubilee; he may sell it to you according to the years of produce that are left. 25:16 The more years there are, the more you may make its purchase price, and the fewer years there are, the less you must make its purchase price, because he is only selling to you a number of years of produce. 25:17 No one is to oppress his fellow citizen, but you must fear your God, because I am the Lord your God. 25:18 You must obey my statutes and my regulations; you must be sure to keep them so that you may live securely in the land. 25:19 “‘The land will give its fruit and you may eat until you are satisfied, and you may live securely in the land. 25:20 If you say, ‘What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not sow and gather our produce?’ 25:21 I will command my blessing for you in the sixth year so that it may yield the produce for three years, 25:22 and you may sow the eighth year and eat from that sixth year’s produce– old produce. Until you bring in the ninth year’s produce, you may eat old produce. 25:23 The land must not be sold without reclaim because the land belongs to me, for you are foreigners and residents with me. 25:24 In all your landed property you must provide for the right of redemption of the land. 25:25 “‘If your brother becomes impoverished and sells some of his property, his near redeemer is to come to you and redeem what his brother sold. 25:26 If a man has no redeemer, but he prospers and gains enough for its redemption, 25:27 he is to calculate the value of the years it was sold, refund the balance to the man to whom he had sold it, and return to his property. 25:28 If he has not prospered enough to refund a balance to him, then what he sold will belong to the one who bought it until the jubilee year, but it must revert in the jubilee and the original owner may return to his property.

Release of Houses

25:29 “‘If a man sells a residential house in a walled city, its right of redemption must extend until one full year from its sale; its right of redemption must extend to a full calendar year. 25:30 If it is not redeemed before the full calendar year is ended, the house in the walled city will belong without reclaim to the one who bought it throughout his generations; it will not revert in the jubilee. 25:31 The houses of villages, however, which have no wall surrounding them must be considered as the field of the land; they will have the right of redemption and must revert in the jubilee. 25:32 As for the cities of the Levites, the houses in the cities which they possess, the Levites must have a perpetual right of redemption. 25:33 Whatever someone among the Levites might redeem– the sale of a house which is his property in a city– must revert in the jubilee, because the houses of the cities of the Levites are their property in the midst of the Israelites. 25:34 Moreover, the open field areas of their cities must not be sold, because that is their perpetual possession.

Debt and Slave Regulations

25:35 “‘If your brother becomes impoverished and is indebted to you, you must support him; he must live with you like a foreign resident. 25:36 Do not take interest or profit from him, but you must fear your God and your brother must live with you. 25:37 You must not lend him your money at interest and you must not sell him food for profit. 25:38 I am the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan– to be your God. 25:39 “‘If your brother becomes impoverished with regard to you so that he sells himself to you, you must not subject him to slave service. 25:40 He must be with you as a hired worker, as a resident foreigner; he must serve with you until the year of jubilee, 25:41 but then he may go free, he and his children with him, and may return to his family and to the property of his ancestors. 25:42 Since they are my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt, they must not be sold in a slave sale. 25:43 You must not rule over him harshly, but you must fear your God. 25:44 “‘As for your male and female slaves who may belong to you– you may buy male and female slaves from the nations all around you. 25:45 Also you may buy slaves from the children of the foreigners who reside with you, and from their families that are with you, whom they have fathered in your land, they may become your property. 25:46 You may give them as inheritance to your children after you to possess as property. You may enslave them perpetually. However, as for your brothers the Israelites, no man may rule over his brother harshly. 25:47 “‘If a resident foreigner who is with you prospers and your brother becomes impoverished with regard to him so that he sells himself to a resident foreigner who is with you or to a member of a foreigner’s family, 25:48 after he has sold himself he retains a right of redemption. One of his brothers may redeem him, 25:49 or his uncle or his cousin may redeem him, or anyone of the rest of his blood relatives– his family– may redeem him, or if he prospers he may redeem himself. 25:50 He must calculate with the one who bought him the number of years from the year he sold himself to him until the jubilee year, and the cost of his sale must correspond to the number of years, according to the rate of wages a hired worker would have earned while with him. 25:51 If there are still many years, in keeping with them he must refund most of the cost of his purchase for his redemption, 25:52 but if only a few years remain until the jubilee, he must calculate for himself in keeping with the remaining years and refund it for his redemption. 25:53 He must be with the one who bought him like a yearly hired worker. The one who bought him must not rule over him harshly in your sight. 25:54 If, however, he is not redeemed in these ways, he must go free in the jubilee year, he and his children with him, 25:55 because the Israelites are my own servants; they are my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Lev 25:8

¹ tn Heb “And you shall count off for yourself.”

² tn Heb “seven years seven times.”

³ tn Heb “and they shall be for you, the days of the seven Sabbaths of years, forty-nine years.”

NET Notes: Lev 25:9

¹ sn On the “loud horn blasts” see the note on Lev 23:24, but unlike the language there, the Hebrew term for “horn” (שׁוֹפָר, shofar) actually appears here in this verse (twice).

NET Notes: Lev 25:10

¹ tn Heb “the year of the fifty years,” or perhaps “the year, fifty years” (GKC 435 §134.o, note 2).

² tn Cf. KJV, ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV “liberty”; TEV, CEV “freedom.” The characteristics of this “release” are detailed in the following verses. For substantial summaries and bibliography on the biblical and ancient Near Eastern material regarding such a “release” see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 427-34, and B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 270-74.

³ tn Heb “A jubilee that shall be to you.” Although there has been some significant debate about the original meaning of the Hebrew word translated “jubilee” (יוֹבֵל, yovel; see the summary in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 434), the term most likely means “ram” and can refer also to a “ram’s horn.” The fiftieth year would, therefore, be called the “jubilee” because of the associated sounding of the “ram’s horn” (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 172, and the literature cited there).

⁴ tn Heb “you [plural] shall return, a man.”

NET Notes: Lev 25:11

¹ tn Heb “you shall not sow and you shall not…and you shall not….”

sn See v. 5 above and the notes there.

NET Notes: Lev 25:12

¹ tn That is, the produce of the land (fem.; cf. v. 7 above).

NET Notes: Lev 25:13

¹ tn Heb “you [plural] shall return, a man.”

NET Notes: Lev 25:14

¹ tn Heb “sell a sale.”

² tn Or “to one of your countrymen” (NIV); NASB “to your friend.”

³ tn The Hebrew infinitive absolute קָנֹה (qanoh, “buying”) substitutes for the finite verb here in sequence with the previous finite verb “sell” at the beginning of the verse (see GKC 345 §113.z).

⁴ tn Heb “do not oppress a man his brother.” Here “brother” does not refer only to a sibling, but to a fellow Israelite.

NET Notes: Lev 25:15

¹ tn Heb “in the number of years after.”

² tn The words “that are left” are not in the Hebrew text, but are implied.

sn The purchaser is actually buying only the crops that the land will produce until the next jubilee, since the land will revert to the original owner at that time. The purchaser, therefore, is not actually buying the land itself.

NET Notes: Lev 25:16

¹ tn Heb “To the mouth of the many years.”

² tn Heb “to the mouth of the few years.”

³ tn Heb “a number of produce”; the words “years of” are implied. As an alternative this could be translated “a number of harvests” (cf. NRSV, NLT).

NET Notes: Lev 25:17

¹ tn Heb “And you shall not oppress a man his fellow citizen.”

NET Notes: Lev 25:18

¹ tn Heb “And you shall keep and do them.” This appears to be a kind of verbal hendiadys, where the first verb is a modifier of the action of the second verb (see GKC 386 §120.d, although שָׁמַר [shamar, “to keep”] is not cited there; cf. Lev 20:8, etc.).

² tn Heb “and you shall dwell on the land to security.”

NET Notes: Lev 25:19

¹ tn Heb “eat to satisfaction”; KJV, ASV “ye shall eat your fill.”

NET Notes: Lev 25:21

¹ tn Heb “and it [i.e., the land] shall make the produce.” The Hebrew term וְעָשָׂת (vÿ’asat, “and it shall make”) is probably an older third feminine singular form of the verb (GKC 210 §75.m). Smr has the normal form.

² tn Smr and LXX have “its produce” (cf. 25:3, 7, etc.) rather than “the produce.”

NET Notes: Lev 25:22

¹ tn Heb “the produce,” referring to “the produce” of the sixth year of v. 21. The words “sixth year” are supplied for clarity.

² tn Heb “until the ninth year, until bringing [in] its produce.”

NET Notes: Lev 25:23

¹ tn The term rendered “without reclaim” means that the land has been bought for the full price and is, therefore, not subject to reclaim under any circumstances. This was not to be done with land in ancient Israel (contrast the final full sale of houses in v. 30; see the evidence cited in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 174).

² tn That is, the Israelites were strangers and residents who were attached to the Lord’s household. They did not own the land. Note the parallel to the “priest’s lodger” in Lev 22:10.

NET Notes: Lev 25:24

¹ tn Heb “And in all the land of your property.”

² tn Heb “right of redemption you shall give to the land”; NAB “you must permit the land to be redeemed.”

NET Notes: Lev 25:25

¹ tn Heb “the sale of his brother.”

NET Notes: Lev 25:26

¹ tn Heb “and his hand reaches.”

² tn Heb “and he finds as sufficiency of its redemption.”

NET Notes: Lev 25:27

¹ tn Heb “and he shall calculate its years of sale.”

² tn Heb “and return the excess.”

NET Notes: Lev 25:28

¹ tn Heb “And if his hand has not found sufficiency of returning.” Although some versions take this to mean that he has not made enough to regain the land (e.g., NASB, NRSV; see also B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 176), the combination of terms in Hebrew corresponds to the portion of v. 27 that refers specifically to refunding the money (cf. v. 27; see NIV and G. J. Wenham, Leviticus [NICOT], 315).

² tn Heb “his sale.”

³ tn Heb “will be in the hand of.” This refers to the temporary control of the one who purchased its produce until the next year of jubilee, at which time it would revert to the original owner.

⁴ tn Heb “it shall go out” (so KJV, ASV; see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 176).

⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the original owner of the land) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

NET Notes: Lev 25:29

¹ tn Heb “a house of a residence of a walled city.”

² tn Heb “shall be.”

³ tn Heb “of its sale.”

⁴ tn Heb “days its right of redemption shall be” (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 176).

NET Notes: Lev 25:30

¹ tn Heb “until fulfilling to it a complete year.’

² tn Heb “the house which [is] in the city which to it [is] a wall.” The Kethib has לֹא (lo’, “no, not”) rather than לוֹ (lo, “to it”) which is the Qere.

³ tn See the note on v. 23 above.

NET Notes: Lev 25:31

¹ tn Heb “And the houses of the villages.”

² tn Heb “which there is not to them a wall.”

³ tn Heb “on the field.”

NET Notes: Lev 25:32

¹ tn Heb “And.”

² tn Heb “the houses of the cities of their property.”

NET Notes: Lev 25:33

¹ tn Heb “And which he shall redeem from the Levites shall go out, sale of house and city, his property in the jubilee.” Although the end of this verse is clear, the first part is notoriously difficult. There are five main views. (1) The first clause of the verse actually attaches to the previous verse, and refers to the fact that their houses retain a perpetual right of redemption (v. 32b), “which any of the Levites may exercise” (v. 33a; J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 418, 421). (2) It refers to property that one Levite sells to another Levite, which is then redeemed by still another Levite (v. 33a). In such cases, the property reverts to the original Levite owner in the jubilee year (v. 33b; G. J. Wenham, Leviticus [NICOT], 321). (3) It refers to houses in a city that had come to be declared as a Levitical city but had original non-Levitical owners. Once the city was declared to belong to the Levites, however, an owner could only sell his house to a Levite, and he could only redeem it back from a Levite up until the time of the first jubilee after the city was declared to be a Levitical city. In this case the first part of the verse would be translated, “Such property as may be redeemed from the Levites” (NRSV, NJPS). At the first jubilee, however, all such houses became the property of the Levites (v. 33b; P. J. Budd, Leviticus [NCBC], 353). (4) It refers to property “which is appropriated from the Levites” (not “redeemed from the Levites,” v. 33a) by those who have bought it or taken it as security for debts owed to them by Levites who had fallen on bad times. Again, such property reverts back to the original Levite owners at the jubilee (B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 177). (5) It simply refers to the fact that a Levite has the option of redeeming his house (i.e., the prefix form of the verb is taken to be subjunctive, “may or might redeem”), which he had to sell because he had fallen into debt or perhaps even become destitute. Even if he never gained the resources to do so, however, it would still revert to him in the jubilee year. The present translation is intended to reflect this latter view.

NET Notes: Lev 25:34

¹ tn Heb “And.”

² sn This refers to the region of fields just outside and surrounding the city where cattle were kept and garden crops were grown (B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 177).

NET Notes: Lev 25:35

¹ tn It is not clear to whom this refers. It is probably broader than “sibling” (cf. NRSV “any of your kin”; NLT “any of your Israelite relatives”) but some English versions take it to mean “fellow Israelite” (so TEV; cf. NAB, NIV “countrymen”) and others are ambiguous (cf. CEV “any of your people”).

² tn Heb “and his hand slips with you.”

³ tn Heb “strengthen”; NASB “sustain.”

⁴ tn The form וָחַי (vakhay, “and shall live”) looks like the adjective “living,” but the MT form is simply the same verb written as a double ayin verb (see HALOT 309 s.v. חיה qal, and GKC 218 §76.i; cf. Lev 18:5).

⁵ tn Heb “a foreigner and resident,” which is probably to be combined (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 170-71).

NET Notes: Lev 25:36

¹ tn The meaning of the terms rendered “interest” and “profit” is much debated (see the summaries in P. J. Budd, Leviticus [NCBC], 354-55 and B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 178). Verse 37, however, suggests that the first refers to a percentage of money and the second percentage of produce (see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 421).

² tn In form the Hebrew term וְחֵי (vÿkhey, “shall live”) is the construct plural noun (i.e., “the life of”), but here it is used as the finite verb (cf. v. 35 and GKC 218 §76.i).

NET Notes: Lev 25:37

¹ tn Heb “your money” and “your food.” With regard to “interest” and “profit” see the note on v. 36 above.

NET Notes: Lev 25:38

¹ tn Heb “to be to you for a God.”

NET Notes: Lev 25:39

¹ tn Heb “you shall not serve against him service of a slave.” A distinction is being made here between the status of slave and indentured servant.

NET Notes: Lev 25:40

¹ tn See the note on Lev 25:6 above.

NET Notes: Lev 25:41

¹ tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have adversative force here.

² tn Heb “may go out from you.”

³ tn Heb “fathers.”

NET Notes: Lev 25:42

¹ tn Or perhaps reflexive Niphal rather than passive, “they shall not sell themselves [as in] a slave sale.”

NET Notes: Lev 25:43

¹ tn Heb “You shall not rule in him in violence”; cf. NASB “with severity”; NIV “ruthlessly.”

NET Notes: Lev 25:44

¹ tn Heb “And your male slave and your female slave.” Smr has these as plural terms, “slaves,” not singular.

² tn Heb “ from the nations which surround you, from them you shall buy male slave and female slave.”

NET Notes: Lev 25:45

¹ tn The word “slaves” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied here.

² tn Heb “family which is” (i.e., singular rather than plural).

NET Notes: Lev 25:46

¹ tn Heb “and your brothers, the sons of Israel, a man in his brother you shall not rule in him in violence.”

NET Notes: Lev 25:47

¹ tn Heb “And if the hand of a foreigner and resident with you reaches” (cf. v. 26 for this idiom).

² tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.

³ tn Heb “offshoot, descendant.”

NET Notes: Lev 25:48

¹ tn Heb “right of redemption shall be to him.”

NET Notes: Lev 25:49

¹ tn Heb “the son of his uncle.”

² tn Heb “or from the remainder of his flesh from his family.”

³ tc The LXX, followed by the Syriac, actually has “if,” which is not in the MT.

NET Notes: Lev 25:50

¹ tn Heb “the years.”

² tn Heb “as days of a hired worker he shall be with him.” For this and the following verses see the explanation in P. J. Budd, Leviticus (NCBC), 358-59.

NET Notes: Lev 25:51

¹ tn Heb “to the mouth of them.”

NET Notes: Lev 25:52

¹ tn Heb “but if a little remains in the years.”

NET Notes: Lev 25:53

¹ tn Heb “be with him”; the referent (the one who bought him) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tn Heb “As a hired worker year in year.”

³ tn Heb “He”; the referent (the one who bought him) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

NET Notes: Lev 25:54

¹ tn Heb “And if.”

² tn Heb “go out.”

NET Notes: Lev 25:55

¹ tn Heb “because to me the sons of Israel are servants.”