1Yahweh spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai,
2“Speak to the people of Israel and tell them, ‘When you enter the land I am giving you, the land must observe a Sabbath rest for Yahweh.
3For six years you may plant your fields and prune your vineyards and gather their produce.
4But the seventh year must be a year of complete rest for the land—a Sabbath for Yahweh. You must not plant your fields or prune your vineyards.
5Do not harvest what grows on its own, and do not pick grapes from your untended vines. It will be a year of complete rest for the land.
6The Sabbath produce of the land will be food for you—for yourself, your male and female servants, your hired workers, and the foreigners living with you.
7It will also be food for your livestock and for the wild animals in your land.'
8“‘You are to count seven Sabbath years, seven times seven years, totaling forty-nine years.
9Then, on the tenth day of the seventh month, you must sound the ram’s horn loudly. On the Day of Atonement, sound the horn throughout all your land.
10You must make the fiftieth year holy and proclaim freedom throughout the land for all its inhabitants. It will be a Jubilee for you; each of you is to return to your family property and to your own clan.
11That fiftieth year will be a Jubilee for you; you must not plant, nor harvest what grows on its own, nor gather grapes from the untended vines.
12Because it is a Jubilee, it must be holy to you; you may eat what grows naturally in the field.
13“‘In this Year of Jubilee, each of you must return to your own property.
14“‘If you sell anything to your neighbor or buy anything from your neighbor, you must not cheat each other.
15You must buy from your neighbor based on the number of years since the Jubilee, and he must sell to you based on the number of years of harvests remaining.
16If there are many years left, you will increase the price, but if there are few years left, you will lower the price, because it is the number of harvests he is selling to you.
17You must not cheat each other, but you must fear your God, for I am Yahweh your God.
18“‘Therefore, you must obey my rules and keep my laws and follow them; then you will live securely in the land.
19The land will produce its crops, and you will eat your fill and live there safely.
20If you ask, “What will we eat in the seventh year if we don’t plant or gather our crops?”'
21Then I will send my blessing on you in the sixth year, and that year's harvest will be enough for three years.
22You will plant in the eighth year, and you will eat from the stored harvest until the ninth year, until that year’s crops come in.
23The land must not be sold permanently, because the land belongs to me. You are only foreigners and temporary residents with me.
24Throughout the land you own, you must allow the possibility for land to be bought back.
25If your fellow Israelite becomes poor and sells some of his property, then his closest relative must come and buy back what his relative sold.
26If a man has no one to buy it back for him, but he later becomes prosperous and has enough money to buy it back himself,
27then he must calculate the number of years since the sale, and pay back the extra amount to the person who bought it. Then he can return to his property.
28But if he does not have enough money to buy it back himself, then what he sold will remain with the buyer until the Year of Jubilee. In the Jubilee, it will be released, and he can return to his property.
29If a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, he may buy it back within one full year after it was sold. He has the right to buy it back for a full year.
30If it is not bought back within a full year, then the house in the walled city will belong permanently to the buyer and his descendants. It will not be released in the Jubilee.
31But houses in villages that have no walls around them will be treated like country fields: they can be bought back, and they will be released in the Jubilee.
32Nonetheless, the Levites can buy back their city houses, the houses in the cities they own, at any time.
33The Levites can buy back a house that was sold, and the city of their possession will be released in the Jubilee, because the houses in the Levite cities are their permanent property among the people of Israel.
34But the pastureland around their cities must not be sold, because it is their permanent possession.
35If your fellow Israelite becomes poor and cannot support himself among you, then you must help him. He should live with you like a foreigner and a temporary resident.
36Do not charge him interest or make a profit from him. Instead, fear your God, so that your fellow Israelite may live among you.
37You must not lend him money at interest, nor give him food for a profit.
38I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.
39If your fellow Israelite becomes poor among you and sells himself to you, you must not make him serve as a slave.
40He must stay with you as a hired worker and a temporary resident; he will serve you until the Year of Jubilee.
41then he and his children will leave you and return to his own family and the property of his ancestors.
42For they are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they must not be sold as slaves.
43You must not treat him harshly, but show respect for your God.
44“‘Regarding your male and female slaves, you may buy them from the nations around you.
45You may also buy them from the children of foreigners who live among you, including their families born in your land, and they will become your property.
46You may pass them down as an inheritance to your children after you, to own them permanently. But you must not treat your fellow Israelites harshly.
47“‘Should a foreigner or temporary resident among you become rich, and your fellow Israelite become poor and sell himself to this foreigner, or to a member of the foreigner’s family,
48he may be bought back after he has been sold. One of his brothers may buy him back,
49or his uncle or his uncle’s son may buy him back, or any close relative from his family may buy him back. Or if he becomes rich, he may buy himself back.
50He must calculate with his buyer the time from the year he sold himself until the Year of Jubilee. The price of his sale will be based on the number of years, treating his time with the buyer like that of a hired worker.
51If there are many years remaining, he must refund a larger portion of his purchase price as his redemption payment.
52If only a few years remain until the Year of Jubilee, he must calculate with him accordingly, refunding the redemption price based on his years of service.
53He must be treated like a worker hired year by year. You must not allow anyone to treat him harshly.
54If he is not redeemed by these means, then he and his children will be set free in the Year of Jubilee.
55For the Israelites are my servants; they are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God.