Leviticus 25 · WEB
The Sabbath Year and the Year of Jubilee
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Yahweh spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying,
2"Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, 'When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a Sabbath to Yahweh.
3Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in its fruits;
4but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to Yahweh. You shall not sow your field, and you shall not prune your vineyard.
5What grows of itself in your harvest you shall not reap, and the grapes of your undressed vine you shall not gather. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land.
6The Sabbath of the land shall be for food for you; for yourself, and for your servant, your maid, your hired servant, and for the stranger living as a foreigner with you.
7For your livestock also, and for the animals that are in your land, shall all its increase be food.
8"'You shall count off seven Sabbaths of years, seven times seven years; and there shall be to you the days of seven Sabbaths of years, even forty-nine years.
9Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land.
10You shall make the fiftieth year holy, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee to you; and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family.
11That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee to you. In it you shall not sow, neither reap that which grows of itself, nor gather from the undressed vines.
12For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat of its increase out of the field.
13"'In this Year of Jubilee each of you shall return to his property.
14"'If you sell anything to your neighbor, or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another.
15According to the number of years after the Jubilee you shall buy from your neighbor. According to the number of years of crops he shall sell to you.
16According to the length of years you shall increase its price, and according to the shortness of years you shall diminish its price; for he is selling the number of crops to you.
17You shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am Yahweh your God.
18"'You shall do my statutes, and keep my ordinances and do them; and you shall dwell in the land in safety.
19The land shall yield its fruit, and you shall eat your fill, and dwell there in safety.
20If you said, "What shall we eat the seventh year? Behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase;"
21then I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years.
22You shall sow the eighth year, and eat of the fruits, the old store; until the ninth year, until its fruits come in, you shall eat the old store.
23"'The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and live as foreigners with me.
24In all the land of your possession you shall grant a redemption for the land.
25"'If your brother becomes poor, and sells some of his property, then his near kinsman shall come, and shall redeem that which his brother has sold.
26If a man has no one to redeem it, and he becomes prosperous and finds sufficient means to redeem it,
27then let him count the years since its sale, and restore the surplus to the man to whom he sold it; and he shall return to his property.
28But if he isn't able to get it back for himself, then what he has sold shall remain in the hand of him who has bought it until the Year of Jubilee. In the Jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his property.
29"'If a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it has been sold. For a full year he shall have the right of redemption.
30If it isn't redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be made sure in perpetuity to him who bought it, throughout his generations. It shall not be released in the Jubilee.
31But the houses of the villages which have no wall around them shall be considered as the fields of the country. They may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the Jubilee.
32"'Nevertheless the cities of the Levites, the houses of the cities of their possession, the Levites may redeem at any time.
33If a man purchases from the Levites, then the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, shall be released in the Jubilee; for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel.
34But the fields of the common land of their cities shall not be sold; for that is their perpetual possession.
35"'If your brother has become poor, and his hand can't support him among you, then you shall uphold him. He shall live with you like a foreigner and a sojourner.
36Take no interest or profit from him, but fear your God; that your brother may live among you.
37You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for 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.
39"'If your brother has become poor among you, and sells himself to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave.
40As a hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with you; he shall serve with you until the Year of Jubilee.
41Then he shall go out from you, he and his children with him, and shall return to his own family, and to the possession of his fathers.
42For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. They shall not be sold as slaves.
43You shall not rule over him with harshness, but shall fear your God.
44"'Your male slave and your female slave, whom you shall have, shall be from the nations that are around you. From them you may buy slaves.
45Moreover of the children of the strangers who live as foreigners among you, of them you may buy, and of their families who are with you, which they have conceived in your land; and they shall be your property.
46You may make them an inheritance for your children after you, to hold for a possession. Of these you may take your slaves forever, but over your brothers the children of Israel you shall not rule, one over another, with harshness.
47"'If a stranger living as a foreigner among you becomes rich, and your brother beside him has become poor, and sells himself to the stranger who is sojourning among you, or to a member of the stranger's family,
48after he is sold he may be redeemed. One of his brothers may redeem him;
49or his uncle, or his uncle's son, may redeem him, or anyone who is a close relative of his family may redeem him; or if he has become rich, he may redeem himself.
50He shall reckon with him who bought him from the year that he sold himself to him until the Year of Jubilee. The price of his sale shall be according to the number of years; according to the time of a hired servant shall he be with him.
51If there are yet many years, according to them he shall give back the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for.
52If there remain but a few years until the Year of Jubilee, then he shall reckon with him; according to his years of service he shall give back the price of his redemption.
53As a servant hired year by year shall he be with him. He shall not rule with harshness over him in your sight.
54If he isn't redeemed by any of these means, then he shall be released in the Year of Jubilee, he, and his children with him.
55For to me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God.'"
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Summary
Chapter 25 establishes two of the most radical economic laws in ancient history: the Sabbath year (every seventh year the land rests from cultivation) and the Year of Jubilee (every fiftieth year, all land returns to its original family owners and all indentured Israelite servants go free). The theological foundation is God's ownership: "The land is mine; for you are strangers and live as foreigners with me" (v. 23). Between Jubilees, land is not sold in perpetuity but leased, with the price adjusted by how many years remain. The chapter also forbids charging interest to a poor brother Israelite and provides a kinsman-redeemer system for those who have sold themselves into indentured service.
Themes
- God's ownership of the land — Israel holds it in stewardship, not absolute ownership
- Structural provisions against permanent poverty and permanent inequality
- The Exodus determines Israel's economics — redeemed people must not permanently enslave one another
- Rest and liberation are built into the fabric of time
Key verses
- Lev 25:10 — “You shall make the fiftieth year holy, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee to you.”
- Lev 25:23 — “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and live as foreigners with me.”
- Lev 25:55 — “For to me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God.”
Context & background
These laws were given on Mount Sinai (modern Sinai Peninsula, Egypt) — uniquely identified as such in verse 1. The Jubilee was announced on the Day of Atonement (v. 9), linking economic restoration to spiritual reconciliation. The inscription on the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia — "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants thereof" — is taken directly from Leviticus 25:10. Jesus' inaugural sermon in Luke 4 quotes Isaiah 61, which is written in Jubilee language, suggesting that his ministry inaugurated the ultimate Jubilee. There is debate among historians about whether Jubilee was ever fully implemented in Israel's history, but its vision shaped biblical prophetic ideals of justice and restoration.
Cross-references
- 2 Cor 8:9 — "He became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich" — Christ as the ultimate Jubilee redeemer
- Deut 15:1-11 — The parallel Sabbath year law, with emphasis on lending to the poor
- Isa 61:1-2 — Isaiah's Jubilee language, quoted by Jesus at the beginning of his ministry
- Luke 4:18-19 — Jesus reads Isaiah 61 and declares "today this Scripture has been fulfilled"
- Ruth 4 — Boaz acts as kinsman-redeemer, applying the redemption principles of this chapter