“ ‘Count off seven groups of seven years, or forty-nine years. During that time there will be seven years of rest for the land. On the Day of Cleansing, you must blow the horn of a male sheep; this will be on the tenth day of the seventh month. You must blow the horn through the whole country. Make the fiftieth year a special year, and announce freedom for all the people living in your country. This time will be called Jubilee. You will each go back to your own property, each to your own family and family group. The fiftieth year will be a special time for you to celebrate. Don’t plant seeds, or harvest the crops that grow by themselves, or gather grapes from the vines that are not trimmed. That year is Jubilee; it will be a holy time for you. You may eat only the crops that come from the field. In the year of Jubilee you each must go back to your own property.
“ ‘If you sell your land to your neighbor, or if you buy land from your neighbor, don’t cheat each other. If you want to buy your neighbor’s land, count the number of years since the last Jubilee, and use that number to decide the right price. If your neighbor sells the land to you, count the number of years left for harvesting crops, and use that number to decide the right price. If there are many years, the price will be high. But if there are only a few years, lower the price, because your neighbor is really selling only a few crops to you. You must not cheat each other, but you must respect your God. I am the LORD your God.
“ ‘Remember my laws and rules, and obey them so that you will live safely in the land. The land will give good crops to you, and you will eat as much as you want and live safely in the land.
“ ‘But you might ask, “If we don’t plant seeds or gather crops, what will we eat the seventh year?” I will send you such a great blessing during the sixth year that the land will produce enough crops for three years. When you plant in the eighth year, you will still be eating from the old crop; you will eat the old crop until the harvest of the ninth year.
“ ‘The land really belongs to me, so you can’t sell it for all time. You are only foreigners and travelers living for a while on my land. People might sell their land, but it must always be possible for the family to get its land back. If a person in your country becomes very poor and sells some land, then close relatives must come and buy it back. If there is not a close relative to buy the land back, but if the person makes enough money to be able to buy it back, the years must be counted since the land was sold. That number must be used to decide how much the first owner should pay back the one who bought it. Then the land will belong to the first owner again. But if there is not enough money to buy it back, the one who bought it will keep it until the year of Jubilee. During that celebration, the land will go back to the first owner’s family.
“ ‘If someone sells a home in a walled city, for a full year after it is sold, the person has the right to buy it back. But if the owner does not buy back the house before a full year is over, it will belong to the one who bought it and to his future sons. The house will not go back to the first owner at Jubilee. But houses in small towns without walls are like open country; they can be bought back, and they must be returned to their first owner at Jubilee.
“ ‘The Levites may always buy back their houses in the cities that belong to them. If someone buys a house from a Levite, that house in the Levites’ city will again belong to the Levites in the Jubilee. This is because houses in Levite cities belong to the people of Levi; the Israelites gave these cities to them. Also the fields and pastures around the Levites’ cities cannot be sold, because those fields belong to the Levites forever.
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