1 And there, on mount Sinai, the Lord spoke to Moses, 2 bidding him give these commands to the sons of Israel. When you reach the land I mean to make yours, there will be times of repose to be kept in the Lord’s honour. 3 For six years thou mayest sow thy land, for six years thou mayest prune thy vineyard, and gather in its fruit; 4 in the seventh year the land must have rest, lie fallow in the Lord’s honour; no field must be sown, no vineyard pruned. 5 Thou shalt not make a harvest of the land’s aftergrowth, or hoard up, at vintage time, the dedicated grapes, in this year when all is repose;[1] 6 thou shalt leave them to be sustenance, as need arises, for thyself, thy slaves and slave-women, thy hired labourers, and the aliens in thy household; 7 for thy beasts of burden, too, and for thy cattle, the aftergrowth shall provide food enough.
1 Locutusque est Dominus ad Moysen in monte Sinai, dicens: 2 Loquere filiis Israël, et dices ad eos: Quando ingressi fueritis terram quam ego dabo vobis, sabbatizes sabbatum Domino. 3 Sex annis seres agrum tuum, et sex annis putabis vineam tuam, colligesque fructus ejus: 4 septimo autem anno sabbatum erit terræ, requietionis Domini: agrum non seres, et vineam non putabis. 5 Quæ sponte gignet humus, non metes: et uvas primitiarum tuarum non colliges quasi vindemiam: annus enim requietionis terræ est: 6 sed erunt vobis in cibum, tibi et servo tuo, ancillæ et mercenario tuo, et advenæ qui peregrinantur apud te: 7 jumentis tuis et pecoribus, omnia quæ nascuntur præbebunt cibum.
8 Of these cycles of seven years thou shalt count seven, forty-nine years in all, 9 and then, on the tenth day of the seventh month, the day of atonement, there shall be sounding of trumpets all through the land. 10 The fiftieth year thou shalt set apart, by proclaiming release to all that dwell in thy country; it is the year of jubilee, in which every man comes into his own lands again, and is restored to his old home. 11 In this fiftieth year, the year of jubilee, thou shalt neither sow crops nor make a harvest of the aftergrowth, nor gather in the dedicated grapes; 12 that would profane the jubilee; all must be eaten as it comes to hand.
8 Numerabis quoque tibi septem hebdomadas annorum, id est, septies septem, quæ simul faciunt annos quadraginta novem: 9 et clanges buccina mense septimo, decima die mensis, propitiationis tempore, in universa terra vestra. 10 Sanctificabisque annum quinquagesimum, et vocabis remissionem cunctis habitatoribus terræ tuæ: ipse est enim jubilæus. Revertetur homo ad possessionem suam, et unusquisque rediet ad familiam pristinam: 11 quia jubilæus est, et quinquagesimus annus. Non seretis neque metetis sponte in agro nascentia, et primitias vindemiæ non colligetis, 12 ob sanctificationem jubilæi: sed statim oblata comedetis.
13 In the year of jubilee, everyone will come into his own lands again. 14 If, then, thou art selling land to one of thy fellow-countrymen, or buying it from him, do not drive a hard bargain with him. If thou art buying, take into account the number of years since the jubilee, 15 and pay him according to what value there is in the remaining harvests. 16 If many years are still to run before the next jubilee, the price will be higher; if few, the price must be brought down. It is but the succession of so many harvests that he is selling thee. 17 Do not take advantage of your own fellow-countrymen; each of you has a divine vengeance to reckon with; the vengeance of the Lord, your God.
13 Anno jubilæi, redient omnes ad possessiones suas. 14 Quando vendes quippiam civi tuo, vel emes ab eo, ne contristes fratrem tuum, sed juxta numerum annorum jubilæi emes ab eo, 15 et juxta supputationem frugum vendet tibi. 16 Quanto plures anni remanserint post jubilæum, tanto crescet et pretium: et quanto minus temporis numeraveris, tanto minoris et emptio constabit: tempus enim frugum vendet tibi. 17 Nolite affligere contribules vestros, sed timeat unusquisque Deum suum, quia ego Dominus Deus vester.
18 Do my bidding, remember the decrees I make, and carry them out; so you shall remain secure in your possession of the land; 19 such crops it will bear as shall give you food to your hearts’ content, shall deliver you, come what enemy may, from fear of famine. 20 Would you ask, how you are to live in the seventh year, since you have neither sowed nor gathered in crops? 21 Be assured that in the sixth year my blessing shall be upon the land, and it will yield food for three years to come; 22 you will still be enjoying the old harvest, when you sow in the eighth year, still be enjoying the old harvest, when the ninth year comes and you can reap the new.
18 Facite præcepta mea, et judicia custodite, et implete ea: ut habitare possitis in terra absque ullo pavore, 19 et gignat vobis humus fructus suos, quibus vescamini usque ad saturitatem, nullius impetum formidantes. 20 Quod si dixeritis: Quid comedemus anno septimo, si non severimus, neque collegerimus fruges nostras? 21 dabo benedictionem meam vobis anno sexto, et faciet fructus trium annorum: 22 seretisque anno octavo, et comedetis veteres fruges usque ad nonum annum: donec nova nascantur, edetis vetera.
23 The land must not be sold in perpetuity; it is mine, and you come into it as strangers whom I have settled there. 24 Nothing that is yours must be sold but on the condition that it can be redeemed. 25 If thy brother-Israelite falls on evil days, and must sell thee his little plot of ground, his next of kin, if he will, may redeem what was sold. 26 Or, if he has no near kinsman, but is able to find the money himself, 27 let him pay the sale price, less the value of the crops since the time of the sale, and so recover possession. 28 If he cannot find the money, then the buyer will remain in possession till the year of jubilee comes; that year, all which has been sold comes back to its true master, who held it in earlier days.
23 Terra quoque non vendetur in perpetuum, quia mea est, et vos advenæ et coloni mei estis: 24 unde cuncta regio possessionis vestræ sub redemptionis conditione vendetur. 25 Si attenuatus frater tuus vendiderit possessiunculam suam, et voluerit propinquus ejus, potest redimere quod ille vendiderat. 26 Sin autem non habuerit proximum, et ipse pretium ad redimendum potuerit invenire, 27 computabuntur fructus ex eo tempore quo vendidit: et quod reliquum est, reddet emptori, sicque recipiet possessionem suam. 28 Quod si non invenerit manus ejus ut reddat pretium, habebit emptor quod emerat, usque ad annum jubilæum. In ipso enim omnis venditio redibit ad dominum et ad possessorem pristinum.
29 The man who sells a house within the walls of a city, is free to effect its redemption till a year has passed; 30 if it remains unredeemed at the end of the year, it passes into the possession of the man who bought it, and of his heirs in perpetuity; there is no redeeming it now, even in the year of jubilee. 31 But if the house stands in some unwalled village, there is the same right of redemption as if it were land; it will return to its true master in the year of jubilee, if he has not redeemed it first. 32 The houses which the Levites own in their cities can always be redeemed, 33 and if they are not redeemed they return to their masters in the jubilee year; that is because the Levites have been granted their cities in lieu of lands such as their brethren enjoy. 34 The land round their cities must never be sold; it is their inalienable property.
29 Qui vendiderit domum intra urbis muros, habebit licentiam redimendi, donec unus impleatur annus. 30 Si non redemerit, et anni circulus fuerit evolutus, emptor possidebit eam, et posteri ejus in perpetuum, et redimi non poterit, etiam in jubilæo. 31 Sin autem in villa domus, quæ muros non habet, agrorum jure vendetur: si ante redempta non fuerit, in jubilæo revertetur ad dominum. 32 Ædes Levitarum quæ in urbibus sunt, semper possunt redimi: 33 si redemptæ non fuerint, in jubilæo revertentur ad dominos, quia domus urbium Levitarum pro possessionibus sunt inter filios Israël. 34 Suburbana autem eorum non veneant, quia possessio sempiterna est.
35 If thy brother-Israelite falls on evil days, or his strength fails him, and thou givest him lodging as if he were some alien guest of thine, 36 thou shalt not claim interest over and above what thou hast spent on him. Thou hast the vengeance of thy God to fear; see to it that thy brother has freedom to lodge with thee. 37 It is not for thee to receive interest on what thou spendest, and entertain him to thy own profit. 38 Bethink you how I, the Lord your God, rescued you from Egypt and gave you a home in Chanaan, to make you mine.
35 Si attenuatus fuerit frater tuus, et infirmus manu, et susceperis eum quasi advenam et peregrinum, et vixerit tecum, 36 ne accipias usuras ab eo, nec amplius quam dedisti: time Deum tuum, ut vivere possit frater tuus apud te. 37 Pecuniam tuam non dabis ei ad usuram, et frugum superabundantiam non exiges. 38 Ego Dominus Deus vester, qui eduxi vos de terra Ægypti, ut darem vobis terram Chanaan, et essem vester Deus.
39 And if thy brother-Israelite is brought by poverty to sell his own liberty to thee, do not submit him to bondage with thy slaves; 40 let him work in thy household as if he were a hired servant or a free alien, till the year of jubilee comes. 41 Then, with his children, he must be restored to his kindred and to his ancestral lands. 42 The Israelites know no master but me, their rescuer from Egypt; they must not be bought and sold like slaves; 43 do not use thy power over him, then, to treat him ill, as thou fearest God’s vengeance. 44 Your men-slaves and women-slaves must come from the nations round about you; 45 or they must be aliens who have come to dwell among you, or children of theirs born on your soil; these you may hold as chattels, 46 passing them on to your children by right of inheritance, as belonging to you in perpetuity; but you must not lord it over your brother-Israelites.
39 Si paupertate compulsus vendiderit se tibi frater tuus, non eum opprimes servitute famulorum, 40 sed quasi mercenarius et colonus erit: usque ad annum jubilæum operabitur apud te, 41 et postea egredietur cum liberis suis, et revertetur ad cognationem, ad possessionem patrum suorum. 42 Mei enim servi sunt, et ego eduxi eos de terra Ægypti: non veneant conditione servorum: 43 ne affligas eum per potentiam, sed metuito Deum tuum. 44 Servus et ancilla sint vobis de nationibus quæ in circuitu vestro sunt: 45 et de advenis qui peregrinantur apud vos, vel qui ex his nati fuerint in terra vestra, hos habebitis famulos: 46 et hæreditario jure transmittetis ad posteros, ac possidebitis in æternum: fratres autem vestros filios Israël ne opprimatis per potentiam.
47 If an alien comes to dwell among you and grows rich, and one of thy brother-Israelites sells his liberty to this man, or to some descendant of his, 48 there is still opportunity for him to be redeemed after the sale. He may be redeemed by any of his clan, 49 uncle or cousin or kinsman by blood or kinsman by affinity. Nay, if he can lay hands on the money, he may redeem himself. 50 In doing so, he will reckon up the number of years from the time of his sale to the next jubilee, and divide the price he was sold for by the number of years, as if he was a hireling paid yearly wages. 51 If there are many years to run before the jubilee, he must pay the full price for them; 52 if there are few, he will settle his account by paying his master the value of those few years’ work. 53 Full allowance must be made for the years he has served already; thou shalt not stand by and see him treated unjustly. 54 And if, even so, he cannot find the price of his redemption, in the year of jubilee he and his children shall go free. 55 They are no one’s servants but mine, these sons of Israel whom I rescued from the land of Egypt.
47 Si invaluerit apud vos manus advenæ atque peregrini, et attenuatus frater tuus vendiderit se ei, aut cuiquam de stirpe ejus: 48 post venditionem potest redimi. Qui voluerit ex fratribus suis, redimet eum, 49 et patruus, et patruelis, et consanguineus, et affinis. Sin autem et ipse potuerit, redimet se, 50 supputatis dumtaxat annis a tempore venditionis suæ usque ad annum jubilæum: et pecunia, qua venditus fuerat, juxta annorum numerum, et rationem mercenarii supputata. 51 Si plures fuerint anni qui remanent usque ad jubilæum, secundum hos reddet et pretium: 52 si pauci, ponet rationem cum eo juxta annorum numerum, et reddet emptori quod reliquum est annorum, 53 quibus ante servivit mercedibus imputatis: non affliget eum violenter in conspectu tuo. 54 Quod si per hæc redimi non potuerit, anno jubilæo egredietur cum liberis suis. 55 Mei enim sunt servi filii Israël, quos eduxi de terra Ægypti.
[1] ‘Dedicated grapes’; in the Latin version, ‘the first-fruits of the grapes’, in the Hebrew text, ‘the Nazirite grapes’. The man who took a Nazirite vow must grow his hair long; and to this, by a metaphor, the unpruned vines of the sabbatical year are compared.
