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or foreigner among you who blasphemes the
Name of the Lord must be put to death.
17 “Anyone who takes another person’s life
must be put to death.
18 “Anyone who kills another person’s animal
must pay for it in full—a live animal for the animal that was killed.
19 “Anyone who injures another person
must be dealt with according to the injury inflicted—20 a fracture for a fracture, an eye for an
eye, a tooth for a tooth. Whatever anyone does
to injure another person must be paid back
in kind.
21 “Whoever kills an animal must pay for it in
full, but whoever kills another person must be
put to death.
22 “This same standard applies both to native-born Israelites and to the foreigners living
among you. I am the Lord your God.”
23 After Moses gave all these instructions to
the Israelites, they took the blasphemer outside
the camp and stoned him to death. The Israelites did just as the Lord had commanded Moses.
The Sabbath Year
While Moses was on Mount Sinai, the
Lord said to him, 2 “Give the following
instructions to the people of Israel. When you
have entered the land I am giving you, the land
itself must observe a Sabbath rest before the
Lord every seventh year. 3 For six years you may
plant your fields and prune your vineyards and
harvest your crops, 4 but during the seventh year
the land must have a Sabbath year of complete
rest. It is the Lord’s Sabbath. Do not plant your
fields or prune your vineyards during that year.
5 And don’t store away the crops that grow on
their own or gather the grapes from your unpruned vines. The land must have a year of
complete rest. 6 But you may eat whatever the
land produces on its own during its Sabbath.
This applies to you, your male and female servants, your hired workers, and the temporary
residents who live with you. 7 Your livestock and
the wild animals in your land will also be allowed to eat what the land produces.
25
The Year of Jubilee
8 “In addition, you must count off seven Sabbath years, seven sets of seven years, adding up
to forty-nine years in all. 9 Then on the Day of
Atonement in the fiftieth year,* blow the ram’s
horn loud and long throughout the land. 10 Set
this year apart as holy, a time to proclaim freedom throughout the land for all who live there.
It will be a jubilee year for you, when each of
you may return to the land that belonged to
your ancestors and return to your own clan.
11 This fiftieth year will be a jubilee for you. During that year you must not plant your fields or
25:9 Hebrew on the tenth day of the seventh month, on the
Day of Atonement; see 23:27a and the note there.
L EVITICUS 25
store away any of the crops that grow on their
own, and don’t gather the grapes from your
unpruned vines. 12 It will be a jubilee year for
you, and you must keep it holy. But you may
eat whatever the land produces on its own. 13 In
the Year of Jubilee each of you may return to the
land that belonged to your ancestors.
14 “When you make an agreement with your
neighbor to buy or sell property, you must not
take advantage of each other. 15 When you buy
land from your neighbor, the price you pay must
be based on the number of years since the last
jubilee. The seller must set the price by taking
into account the number of years remaining
until the next Year of Jubilee. 16 The more years
until the next jubilee, the higher the price; the
fewer years, the lower the price. After all, the
person selling the land is actually selling you a
certain number of harvests. 17 Show your fear of
God by not taking advantage of each other. I am
the Lord your God.
18 “If you want to live securely in the land, follow my decrees and obey my regulations. 19 Then
the land will yield large crops, and you will eat
your fill and live securely in it. 20 But you might
ask, ‘What will we eat during the seventh year,
since we are not allowed to plant or harvest
crops that year?’ 21 Be assured that I will send
my blessing for you in the sixth year, so the land
will produce a crop large enough for three years.
22 When you plant your fields in the eighth year,
you will still be eating from the large crop of the
sixth year. In fact, you will still be eating from
that large crop when the new crop is harvested
in the ninth year.
Redemption of Property
23 “The land must never be sold on a permanent
basis, for the land belongs to me. You are only
foreigners and tenant farmers working for me.
24 “With every purchase of land you must
grant the seller the right to buy it back. 25 If one
of your fellow Israelites falls into poverty and
is forced to sell some family land, then a close
relative should buy it back for him. 26 If there is
no close relative to buy the land, but the person
who sold it gets enough money to buy it back,
27 he then has the right to redeem it from the one
who bought it. The price of the land will be discounted according to the number of years until
the next Year of Jubilee. In this way the original
owner can then return to the land. 28 But if the
original owner cannot afford to buy back the
land, it will remain with the new owner until
the next Year of Jubilee. In the jubilee year, the
land must be returned to the original owners so
they can return to their family land.
29 “Anyone who sells a house inside a walled
town has the right to buy it back for a full year
after its sale. During that year, the seller retains
the right to buy it back. 30 But if it is not bought