Leviticus25

Leviticus 25 outlines God's laws for the Sabbatical year and the Year of Jubilee for the Israelites in the promised land. Every seventh year, the land was to rest, with no sowing or reaping, and its spontaneous produce was for all. After seven Sabbatical cycles, the fiftieth year was the Jubilee, when liberty was proclaimed, and all land and Israelite servants returned to their original families and possessions. These laws ensured economic equity and reminded the people of God's ultimate ownership and provision.

The Sabbath Year for the Land

1
The LORD said to Moses in Mount Sinai,
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 the LORD. ​
3
You shall sow your field six years, and you shall prune your vineyard six years, and gather in its fruits;
4
but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the LORD. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. ​
5
What grows of itself in your harvest you shall not reap, and you shall not gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land.
6
The Sabbath of the land shall be for food for you; for yourself, for your servant, for your maid, for your hired servant, and for your stranger, who lives as a foreigner with you. ​
7
For your livestock also, and for the animals that are in your land, shall all its increase be for food.

The Fiftieth Year of Jubilee

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. ​
9
Then you shall sound the loud shofar on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the shofar throughout all your land. ​
10
You shall make the fiftieth year holy, and proclaim liberty throughout 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. ​
11
That 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.
12
For 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.
15
According to the number of years after the Jubilee you shall buy from your neighbor. According to the number of years of the crops he shall sell to you. ​
16
According to the length of the years you shall increase its price, and according to the shortness of the years you shall diminish its price; for he is selling the number of the crops to you.
17
You shall not wrong one another; but you shall fear your God: for I am the LORD your God. ​

Assurance of Provision in the Land

18
“‘Therefore you shall do my statutes, and keep my ordinances and do them; and you shall dwell in the land in safety.
19
The land shall yield its fruit, and you shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety.
20
If you said, “What shall we eat the seventh year? Behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase”; ​
21
then I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, and it shall bear fruit for the three years. ​
22
You 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.

Redemption of Land and Property

23
“‘The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and live as foreigners with me. ​
24
In 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 possessions, then his kinsman who is next to him shall come, and redeem that which his brother has sold. ​
26
If a man has no one to redeem it, and he becomes prosperous and finds sufficient means to redeem it;
27
then let him reckon the years since its sale, and restore the surplus to the man to whom he sold it; and he shall return to his property.
28
But 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: and 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. ​
30
If 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. ​
31
But the houses of the villages which have no wall around them shall be reckoned with 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 in the cities of their possession, the Levites may redeem at any time. ​
33
The Levites may redeem the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, and it shall be released in the Jubilee; for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel.
34
But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession.

Laws Against Oppression and Usury

35
“‘If your brother has become poor, and his hand can’t support himself among you; then you shall uphold him. He shall live with you like an alien and a temporary resident. ​
36
Take no interest from him or profit, but fear your God; that your brother may live among you. ​
37
You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit.
38
I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God. ​

Laws Concerning Hebrew Servitude

39
“‘If your brother has grown poor among you, and sells himself to you; you shall not make him to serve as a slave. ​
40
As a hired servant, and as a temporary resident, he shall be with you; he shall serve with you until the Year of Jubilee:
41
then 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.
42
For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. They shall not be sold as slaves. ​
43
You shall not rule over him with harshness, but shall fear your God.
44
“‘As for your male and your female slaves, whom you may have; of the nations that are around you, from them you may buy male and female slaves. ​
45
Moreover of the children of the aliens who live among you, of them you may buy, and of their families who are with you, which they have conceived in your land; and they will be your property.
46
You may make them an inheritance for your children after you, to hold for a possession; of them may you take your slaves forever; but over your brothers the children of Israel you shall not rule, one over another, with harshness.

Redemption from a Foreign Owner

47
“‘If an alien or temporary resident with you becomes rich, and your brother beside him has grown poor, and sells himself to the stranger or foreigner living among you, or to a member of the stranger’s family; ​
48
after he is sold he may be redeemed. One of his brothers may redeem him;
49
or his uncle, or his uncle’s son, may redeem him, or any who is a close relative to him of his family may redeem him; or if he has grown rich, he may redeem himself.
50
He shall reckon with him who bought him from the year that he sold himself to him to the Year of Jubilee. The price of his sale shall be according to the number of years; he shall be with him according to the time of a hired servant. ​
51
If 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.
52
If there remain but a few years to 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.
53
As a servant hired year by year shall he be with him. He shall not rule with harshness over him in your sight.
54
If he isn’t redeemed by these means, then he shall be released in the Year of Jubilee, he, and his children with him. ​
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 the LORD your God. ​

Study Notes for Leviticus 25

Verse 2

These laws are contingent upon Israel entering and possessing the Promised Land, establishing that the covenant requirements apply specifically within the context of the Holy Land.

Verse 4

The sabbatical rest (Shemitah) served as a practical test of faith, requiring the people to trust God for provision, while also demonstrating that the land ultimately belongs to the Creator.

Verse 6

The spontaneous yield of the seventh year was to be shared equally among all—owners, servants, hired workers, and even animals—promoting social equality and minimizing economic stratification.

Verse 8

The Jubilee cycle is based on seven cycles of the sabbatical year (7x7=49), emphasizing the ultimate completion and restoration implied by the number seven.

Verse 9

The Jubilee (Yovel) was inaugurated on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), linking economic and social restoration to national spiritual cleansing and reconciliation with God.

Verse 10

This verse is the theological and social pinnacle of the chapter. The command to 'proclaim liberty' ensures that alienated ancestral lands are returned and indentured servants are freed, preventing permanent poverty and maintaining tribal integrity.

Verse 15

Land transfer was not a permanent sale of ownership but rather a lease of the remaining harvests until the next Jubilee. The price was calculated based on the number of years left, ensuring fairness.

Verse 17

The prohibition on oppression is enforced by the fear of God (reverence) rather than just civil law, emphasizing that economic injustice is a violation of the covenant relationship.

Verse 20

This section anticipates and addresses the Israelites' likely practical anxiety over the agricultural impact of resting the land for two consecutive years (Sabbatical and Jubilee).

Verse 21

God promises a supernatural triple yield in the sixth year, providing provision for the sixth, seventh (Sabbatical), and eighth (sowing) years, demonstrating divine faithfulness.

Verse 23

This verse provides the theological foundation for all land laws: God maintains ultimate ownership. Israel is merely resident on His property ('strangers and sojourners'), preventing the permanent alienation of tribal inheritances.

Verse 25

This introduces the institution of the *go'el* (kinsman redeemer), a relative who has the right and duty to buy back family property or personhood lost due to poverty.

Verse 29

A distinction is made between rural land (which must return in Jubilee) and urban dwelling houses in walled cities. Urban houses were treated differently because their value lay in the structure, not the agricultural production.

Verse 30

If not redeemed within a year, a house in a walled city became the permanent possession of the buyer, reflecting the emergent, non-agricultural economy of city life.

Verse 32

The properties of the Levites, who received no typical territorial inheritance, were given special protection, allowing them perpetual right of redemption or automatic return at Jubilee.

Verse 35

The requirement to relieve poverty extends even to resident strangers, showing that the covenant community had a universal ethical obligation to care for those in need among them.

Verse 36

Usury (taking interest) from a needy Israelite was forbidden because it capitalized on a brother's misfortune, violating the communal ethic of the covenant.

Verse 38

The Exodus is cited as the basis for these laws; God's redemption of Israel obligates them to live justly and maintain the social order He established.

Verse 39

A poor Israelite who sold himself into service could not be treated as chattel or a permanent slave (*bondservant*), but only as a temporary hired hand.

Verse 42

The reason for limited servitude is theological: since God redeemed Israel from Egyptian slavery, they belong exclusively to Him and cannot be permanently subjugated by another human master.

Verse 44

This passage permits the acquisition of slaves from surrounding foreign nations, a practice common in the ANE, but strictly distinguishes this permanent, inheritable bondage from the temporary indentured service of fellow Israelites.

Verse 47

This addresses the scenario where an Israelite is forced by poverty to sell himself to a wealthy resident alien (a non-Israelite living within the land).

Verse 50

The redemption price is calculated based on the remaining years until the Jubilee, treating the service as a prepaid lease, consistent with the land sale calculation (vv. 15-16).

Verse 54

This verse provides the final fail-safe: even if no kinsman redeems the servant, the Jubilee automatically grants freedom, ensuring the covenant promise of liberty is fulfilled.

Verse 55

The chapter concludes with a powerful reiteration of God’s claim over Israel, emphasizing that their identity as 'my servants' (redeemed from Egypt) is the ultimate justification for all these laws of liberty and restoration.

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