Study Desk

'So ^(C1)you shall not ^(F1)wrong one another, but you shall ^(F2)fear your God; for I am the LORD your God.

'You shall therefore ^(F1)follow My statutes and keep My judgments so as to carry them out, so that ^(C1)you may live securely on the land.

'Then the land will yield its produce, so that you can eat your fill and live securely on it.

'But if you say, "^(C1)What are we going to eat in the seventh year if we do not sow nor gather in our produce?"

then ^(C1)I will so order My blessing for you in the sixth year that it will bring forth the produce for three years.

'When you are sowing the eighth year, you can still eat ^(C1)old things from the produce, eating the old until the ninth year when its produce comes in.

'The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, because ^(C1)the land is Mine; for ^(C2)you are only strangers and residents with Me.

'So for every ^(F1)piece of your property, you are to provide for the redemption of the land.

'^(C1)If a fellow countryman of yours becomes so poor that he sells part of his property, then his closest ^(F1)redeemer is to come and buy back what his relative has sold.

'Or in case someone has no redeemer, but ^(F1)recovers to find sufficient means for its redemption,

^(C1)then he shall calculate the years since its sale and refund the balance to the man to whom he sold it, and so return to his property.

'But if ^(F1)he has not found sufficient means to get it back for himself, then what he has sold shall remain in the hands of its purchaser until the year of jubilee; but at the jubilee it shall ^(F2)revert, so that ^(C1)he may return to his property.

'Likewise, if a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, then his redemption right remains valid until a full year after its sale; his right of redemption lasts a full year.

'But if it is not bought back for him within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city passes permanently to its purchaser throughout his generations; it does not ^(F1)revert in the jubilee.

'The houses of the villages, however, which have no surrounding wall, shall be regarded ^(F1)as open fields; they have redemption rights and ^(F2)revert in the jubilee.

'As for the ^(C1)cities of the Levites, the Levites have a permanent right of redemption for the houses of the cities which are their possession.

'What, therefore, ^(F1)belongs to the Levites may be redeemed, and a house sale ^(F2)in the city of this possession ^(F3)reverts in the jubilee, because the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the sons of Israel.

'^(C1)But pasture fields of their cities shall not be sold, for that is their permanent possession.

'^(C1)Now in case a countryman of yours becomes poor and his ^(F1)means among you falter, then you are to sustain him, like a stranger or a resident, so that he may live with you.

'^(C1)Do not take ^(F1)any kind of interest from him, but ^(F2)fear your God, so that your countryman may live with you.

'You shall not give him your silver at interest, nor your food ^(F1)for profit.

'^(C1)I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, and ^(C2)to be your God.

'Now ^(C1)if a countryman of yours becomes so poor with regard to you that he sells himself to you, you shall not subject him to a slave's service.

'He shall be with you as a hired worker, ^(C1)as if he were a foreign resident; he shall serve with you up to the year of jubilee.

'He shall then leave you, he and his sons with him, and shall go back to his family, so that he may return to the property of his forefathers.

'For they are My servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt; they are not to be sold in a slave sale.

'^(C1)You shall not rule over him with ^(F1)severity, but are to revere your God.