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Leviticus 25

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1 God spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai,
2 "Speak to the People of Israel. Tell them: When you enter the land which I am going to give you, the land will observe a Sabbath to God.
3 Sow your fields, prune your vineyards, and take in your harvests for six years.
4 But the seventh year the land will take a Sabbath of complete and total rest, a Sabbath to God; you will not sow your fields or prune your vineyards.
5 Don't reap what grows of itself; don't harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land gets a year of complete and total rest.
6 But you can eat from what the land volunteers during the Sabbath year - you and your men and women servants, your hired hands, and the foreigners who live in the country,
7 and, of course, also your livestock and the wild animals in the land can eat from it. Whatever the land volunteers of itself can be eaten. "The Fiftieth Year Shall Be a Jubilee for You"
8 "Count off seven Sabbaths of years - seven times seven years: Seven Sabbaths of years adds up to forty-nine years.
9 Then sound loud blasts on the ram's horn on the tenth day of the seventh month, the Day of Atonement. Sound the ram's horn all over the land.
10 Sanctify the fiftieth year; make it a holy year. Proclaim freedom all over the land to everyone who lives in it - a Jubilee for you: Each person will go back to his family's property and reunite with his extended family.
11 The fiftieth year is your Jubilee year: Don't sow; don't reap what volunteers itself in the fields; don't harvest the untended vines
12 because it's the Jubilee and a holy year for you. You're permitted to eat from whatever volunteers itself in the fields.
13 "In this year of Jubilee everyone returns home to his family property.
14 "If you sell or buy property from one of your countrymen, don't cheat him.
15 Calculate the purchase price on the basis of the number of years since the Jubilee. He is obliged to set the sale price on the basis of the number of harvests remaining until the next Jubilee.
16 The more years left, the more money; you can raise the price. But the fewer years left, the less money; decrease the price. What you are buying and selling in fact is the number of crops you're going to harvest.
17 Don't cheat each other. Fear your God. I am God, your God.
18 "Keep my decrees and observe my laws and you will live secure in the land.
19 The land will yield its fruit; you will have all you can eat and will live safe and secure.
20 Do I hear you ask, 'What are we going to eat in the seventh year if we don't plant or harvest?'
21 I assure you, I will send such a blessing in the sixth year that the land will yield enough for three years.
22 While you plant in the eighth year, you will eat from the old crop and continue until the harvest of the ninth year comes in.
23 "The land cannot be sold permanently because the land is mine and you are foreigners - you're my tenants.
24 You must provide for the right of redemption for any of the land that you own.
25 "If one of your brothers becomes poor and has to sell any of his land, his nearest relative is to come and buy back what his brother sold.
26 If a man has no one to redeem it but he later prospers and earns enough for its redemption,
27 he is to calculate the value since he sold it and refund the balance to the man to whom he sold it; he can then go back to his own land.
28 If he doesn't get together enough money to repay him, what he sold remains in the possession of the buyer until the year of Jubilee. In the Jubilee it will be returned and he can go back and live on his land.
29 "If a man sells a house in a walled city, he retains the right to buy it back for a full year after the sale. At any time during that year he can redeem it.
30 But if it is not redeemed before the full year has passed, it becomes the permanent possession of the buyer and his descendants. It is not returned in the Jubilee.
31 However, houses in unwalled villages are treated the same as fields. They can be redeemed and have to be returned at the Jubilee.
32 "As to the Levitical cities, houses in the cities owned by the Levites are always subject to redemption.
33 Levitical property is always redeemable if it is sold in a town that they hold and reverts to them in the Jubilee, because the houses in the towns of the Levites are their property among the People of Israel.
34 The pastures belonging to their cities may not be sold; they are their permanent possession.
35 "If one of your brothers becomes indigent and cannot support himself, help him, the same as you would a foreigner or a guest so that he can continue to live in your neighborhood.
36 Don't gouge him with interest charges; out of reverence for your God help your brother to continue to live with you in the neighborhood.
37 Don't take advantage of his plight by running up big interest charges on his loans, and don't give him food for profit.
38 I am your God who brought you out of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.
39 "If one of your brothers becomes indigent and has to sell himself to you, don't make him work as a slave.
40 Treat him as a hired hand or a guest among you. He will work for you until the Jubilee,
41 after which he and his children are set free to go back to his clan and his ancestral land.
42 Because the People of Israel are my servants whom I brought out of Egypt, they must never be sold as slaves.
43 Don't tyrannize them; fear your God.
44 "The male and female slaves which you have are to come from the surrounding nations; you are permitted to buy slaves from them.
45 You may also buy the children of foreign workers who are living among you temporarily and from their clans which are living among you and have been born in your land. They become your property.
46 You may will them to your children as property and make them slaves for life. But you must not tyrannize your brother Israelites.
47 "If a foreigner or temporary resident among you becomes rich and one of your brothers becomes poor and sells himself to the foreigner who lives among you or to a member of the foreigner's clan,
48 he still has the right of redemption after he has sold himself. One of his relatives may buy him back.
49 An uncle or cousin or any close relative of his extended family may redeem him. Or, if he gets the money together, he can redeem himself.
50 What happens then is that he and his owner count out the time from the year he sold himself to the year of Jubilee; the buy-back price is set according to the wages of a hired hand for that number of years.
51 If many years remain before the Jubilee, he must pay back a larger share of his purchase price,
52 but if only a few years remain until the Jubilee, he is to calculate his redemption price accordingly.
53 He is to be treated as a man hired from year to year. You must make sure that his owner does not tyrannize him.
54 "If he is not redeemed in any of these ways, he goes free in the year of Jubilee, he and his children,
55 because the People of Israel are my servants, my servants whom I brought out of Egypt. I am God, your God.
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Leviticus 25 Commentary

Chapter 25

The sabbath of rest for the land in the seventh year. (1-7) The jubilee of the fiftieth year, Oppression forbidden. (8-22) Redemption of the land and houses. (23-34) Compassion towards the poor. (35-38) Laws respecting bondmen, Oppression forbidden. (39-55)

Verses 1-7 All labour was to cease in the seventh year, as much as daily labour on the seventh day. These statues tell us to beware of covetousness, for a man's life consists not in the abundance of his possessions. We are to exercise willing dependence on God's providence for our support; to consider ourselves the Lord's tenants or stewards, and to use our possessions accordingly. This year of rest typified the spiritual rest which all believers enter into through Christ. Through Him we are eased of the burden of wordly care and labour, both being sanctified and sweetened to us; and we are enabled and encouraged to live by faith.

Verses 8-22 The word "jubilee" signifies a peculiarly animated sound of the silver trumpets. This sound was to be made on the evening of the great day of atonement; for the proclamation of gospel liberty and salvation results from the sacrifice of the Redeemer. It was provided that the lands should not be sold away from their families. They could only be disposed of, as it were, by leases till the year of jubilee, and then returned to the owner or his heir. This tended to preserve their tribes and families distinct, till the coming of the Messiah. The liberty every man was born to, if sold or forfeited, should return at the year of jubilee. This was typical of redemption by Christ from the slavery of sin and Satan, and of being brought again to the liberty of the children of God. All bargains ought to be made by this rule, "Ye shall not oppress one another," not take advantage of one another's ignorance or necessity, "but thou shalt fear thy God." The fear of God reigning in the heart, would restrain from doing wrong to our neighbour in word or deed. Assurance was given that they should be great gainers, by observing these years of rest. If we are careful to do our duty, we may trust God with our comfort. This was a miracle for an encouragement to all neither sowed or reaped. This was a miracle for an encouragement to all God's people, in all ages, to trust him in the way of duty. There is nothing lost by faith and self-denial in obedience. Some asked, What shall we eat the seventh year? Thus many Christians anticipate evils, questioning what they shall do, and fearing to proceed in the way of duty. But we have no right to anticipate evils, so as to distress ourselves about them. To carnal minds we may appear to act absurdly, but the path of duty is ever the path of safety.

Verses 23-34 If the land were not redeemed before the year of jubilee, it then returned to him that sold or mortgaged it. This was a figure of the free grace of God in Christ; by which, and not by any price or merit of our own, we are restored to the favour of God. Houses in walled cities were more the fruits of their own industry than land in the country, which was the direct gift of God's bounty; therefore if a man sold a house in a city, he might redeem it only within a year after the sale. This encouraged strangers and proselytes to come and settle among them.

Verses 35-38 Poverty and decay are great grievances, and very common; the poor ye have always with you. Thou shalt relieve him; by sympathy, pitying the poor; by service, doing for them; and by supply, giving to them according to their necessity, and thine ability. Poor debtors must not be oppressed. Observe the arguments here used against extortion: "Fear thy God." Relieve the poor, "that they may live with thee;" for they may be serviceable to thee. The rich can as ill spare the poor, as the poor can the rich. It becomes those that have received mercy to show mercy.

Verses 39-55 A native Israelite, if sold for debt, or for a crime, was to serve but six years, and to go out the seventh. If he sold himself, through poverty, both his work and his usage must be such as were fitting for a son of Abraham. Masters are required to give to their servants that which is just and equal, Col. 4:1 . At the year of jubilee the servant should go out free, he and his children, and should return to his own family. This typified redemption from the service of sin and Satan, by the grace of God in Christ, whose truth makes us free, ( John 8:32 ) . We cannot ransom our fellow-sinners, but we may point out Christ to them; while by his grace our lives may adorn his gospel, express our love, show our gratitude, and glorify his holy name.

Taken from Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (Concise)

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO LEVITICUS 25

In this chapter the Israelites are directed, when come into the land of Canaan, to observe every seventh year as a sabbatical year, in which there was to be no tillage of the land, and yet there would be a sufficiency for man and beast, Le 25:1-7; and every fiftieth year as a year of jubilee, in which also there was to be no tillage of the land, and every man was to return to his possession or estate, which had been sold to another any time before this, Le 25:8-17; and a promise of safety and plenty in the seventh year is made to encourage the observance of it, Le 25:18-22; and several laws and rules are delivered out concerning the sale of lands, the redemption of them, and their return to their original owner in the year of jubilee, Le 25:23-28; and the sale of houses, and the redemption of them, and the difference between those in walled cities and those in villages, with respect thereunto, Le 25:29-31; and also concerning the houses of the cities of the Levites, and the fields of the suburbs of them, Le 25:32-34; to which are added some instructions about relieving decayed, persons, and lending and giving to them, without taking usury of them, Le 25:34-38; and other laws concerning the release of such Israelites as had sold themselves for servants to the Israelites, in the year of jubilee, since none but Heathens were to be bondmen and bondmaids for ever, Le 25:39-46; and of such who were sold to proselytes, Le 25:47-55.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Leviticus 25 Commentaries

Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.