Leviticus 25:23-38

“ ‘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. “ ‘If anyone from your country becomes too poor to support himself, help him to live among you as you would a stranger or foreigner. Do not charge him any interest on money you loan to him, but respect your God; let the poor live among you. Don’t lend him money for interest, and don’t try to make a profit from the food he buys. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give the land of Canaan to you and to become your God.