Leviticus 25

God gives Israel a rhythm of rest and restoration: every seventh year the land rests, and every fiftieth year is a Jubilee when land returns to its family and bonded servants go free. Underneath it all is one truth. The land belongs to God, and His people are His freed servants, so they must treat one another with fairness and mercy.

Leviticus 25:1-2

God speaks to Moses at Sinai about life in the land Israel has not yet entered. The land itself is to keep a Sabbath, a rest that belongs to the LORD. Rest is not only for people and animals. The soil is included in God’s rhythm.

BSA: Sabbath (“day of rest, worship”): The land’s rest is an act of worship, not just a farming break.

Hebrew: שַׁבָּת (shabbat, H7673) — “rest, ceasing.” The word means to stop. The land is told to cease from being worked, just as people stop on the weekly Sabbath.

See also: Exodus 23:10-11.

Leviticus 25:3-5

For six years the Israelites may sow, prune and harvest. In the seventh year they must do none of it, and they must not gather what grows on its own. The field is left alone, and the farmer learns that the harvest is a gift, not only his own labor.

BSA: untended (“uncared for, undressed”): The vines are left unpruned, as if set apart and handed back to God. aftergrowth (“self-sown crop, volunteer plants”): What grows by itself is not to be harvested for storing or selling.

Leviticus 25:6-7

Though no one farms the land, it still feeds everyone. Owners, servants, hired workers, foreign residents, livestock and wild animals may all eat what grows by itself. The Sabbath year shares God’s provision widely, so nobody is shut out.

BSA: foreigner (“a resident alien”): Even outsiders living among Israel are included in God’s provision.

Leviticus 25:8

Israel is to count seven cycles of seven years, forty-nine years in all. The count looks forward to something greater than the seventh year, a fiftieth year of fresh beginning. Waiting and counting build hope.

BSA: count off (“number, reckon”): The people must deliberately keep track of the years, so the coming release is something they expect and prepare for.

Leviticus 25:9

On the Day of Atonement in the fiftieth year, a horn is blown across the whole land. The sound of release is tied to the day when sin is covered. Freedom and forgiveness belong together.

BSA: Day of Atonement (“a day of reconciliation, and forgiveness”): The release of the Jubilee begins on the day God deals with the people’s sin.

Hebrew: שׁוֹפָר (shofar, H7782) — “ram’s horn trumpet.” The shofar was used to announce great moments to the whole community. Here it announces freedom.

See also: Leviticus 16:29-30.

Leviticus 25:10

The fiftieth year is set apart as holy. Liberty is proclaimed to everyone in the land, and families go back to their own property and clan. It is a reset that undoes the long damage of debt and loss.

BSA: liberty (“freedom, release from debt”): The release is practical: debts are lifted and people are set free from bondage. Jubilee (“a year of restoration, a time of trumpet blasts”): The name comes from the horn that announces the year, and the year restores what was lost.

Hebrew: דְּרוֹר (deror, H1865) — “liberty, release.” This word is used for a free flowing, like a bird going free. Isaiah and Jesus later use the same hope for spiritual freedom.

See also: Isaiah 61:1-2; Luke 4:18-19.

Leviticus 25:11-12

Like the seventh year, the Jubilee is a year of rest from sowing and reaping. The people may eat only what the field gives without labor. The year is holy, a time to trust God’s provision rather than their own effort.

BSA: holy (“set apart, sacred”): The year is set aside for God, not for ordinary business.

Leviticus 25:13

The command is repeated and made personal: each man returns to his own property. No family is meant to be landless forever. God does not let hardship and bad luck become a permanent sentence.

BSA: return (“turn back, come back”): The word suggests coming home, a restoring of what belongs to each family.

Leviticus 25:14-16

Because the land returns at the Jubilee, a sale is really a sale of harvests, not of the land itself. The price must rise or fall with the years remaining. The seller must not be cheated, and the buyer must not overpay.

BSA: take advantage (“wrong, oppress or exploit”): God forbids using a neighbor’s need or ignorance to profit at his expense. harvests (“crops, produce, fruit of the land”): What is bought is a set number of crops, not the land itself.

Leviticus 25:17

The law of fair dealing is repeated and rooted in the fear of God. Where no judge can see a cheating deal, the Lord still sees. Honest business flows from reverence for Him.

BSA: fear (“revere, stand in awe of”): This is not terror but a deep respect that shapes how a person treats others.

Leviticus 25:18-19

God ties obedience to safety in the land. If the people keep His laws, the land will give its fruit and they will eat their fill and live without fear. Following His ways is the path to a secure life.

BSA: securely (“in safety, with confidence”): The security promised is a calm, settled confidence, not just the absence of danger.

Hebrew: לָבֶטַח (lavetach, H983) — “in trust, securely.” The word is related to trusting. Safety in the land comes from trusting God, not from walls or stores.

Leviticus 25:20-22

God answers the farmer’s worry before it is spoken: what will we eat in the seventh year? He promises a blessing in the sixth year that will give a crop for three years. The rest year is an act of faith that God will supply.

BSA: blessing (“gift of prosperity, divine favor”): The extra harvest is God’s favor given to those who trust Him.

Hebrew: וְצִוִּיתִי (vetsivviti, H6680) — “and I will command.” God says He will command His blessing, as a king gives an order. The harvest will come because He has said so.

See also: Deuteronomy 28:8.

Leviticus 25:23

Land cannot be sold for good, because God owns it. Israel lives on it as guests and tenants. This reminds every family that they are stewards, not final owners, of what they hold.

BSA: foreigners (“strangers, sojourners”): Even in the promised land, God’s people live as travelers under His care. permanently (“forever, to extinction”): A family’s claim to its land must never be ended for good.

Hebrew: גֵּרִים וְתוֹשָׁבִים (gerim vetoshavim, H1481) — “resident strangers and settlers.” These words describe people living on land that is not theirs. God puts Israel in that position before Him.

See also: Psalm 24:1; 1 Chronicles 29:15.

Leviticus 25:24

Wherever Israelites own land, the right to buy it back must be built into every sale. The land was never to leave the family beyond recovery. Restoration is part of the law itself.

BSA: redemption (“right of buying back, restoration”): A way back is always kept open for the family that lost its land.

Leviticus 25:25

If a man becomes poor and sells some land, his nearest relative may buy it back for him. Family is meant to be a safety net, and the one who steps in carries the poor man’s loss as his own.

BSA: redeem (“buy back, restore”): To redeem is to pay a price to bring back what was lost. nearest of kin (“close family, relative”): The rescuer has to be a close family member who has the right and duty to act.

Hebrew: גָּאַל (ga’al, H1350) — “to redeem, act as family rescuer.” The word is used of a close relative who steps in to rescue. The same word is later used of God as Israel’s Redeemer.

See also: Ruth 4:4-6.

Leviticus 25:26-28

If there is no relative to redeem, the man himself may buy the land back when he can, paying for the years remaining. If he never can, the land goes back to him at the Jubilee. Either way, he is not shut out forever.

BSA: released (“set free, returned”): At the Jubilee the land is freed from the sale and goes back to the family.

Leviticus 25:29-30

Houses inside walled cities are treated differently from farmland. A seller has one full year to buy back his house. After that the sale is permanent and does not end at the Jubilee. Town houses were not tied to a family’s share of the land.

BSA: walled (“surrounded by a wall, protected”): A walled town was a separate commercial place, so its houses were not covered by the Jubilee.

Leviticus 25:31

Houses in unwalled villages count as part of the open countryside. They can be redeemed at any time and return to the family at the Jubilee. Village homes stay tied to the family’s land.

BSA: open fields (“unwalled lands, countryside”): A village without walls is treated like the farmland around it.

Leviticus 25:32-34

The Levites received towns instead of a tribal share of land. Their houses can always be redeemed and return to them at the Jubilee, and their pastureland can never be sold. God protects those who serve Him in worship.

BSA: pastureland (“field, grazing area”): The open grazing land around their towns supported the Levites’ animals and so their livelihood.

See also: Numbers 35:1-5.

Leviticus 25:35-37

If a fellow Israelite falls into need, help him as you would a foreign guest, so that he can stay among you. Do not charge him interest or make a profit from his food. Need is a call for generosity, not a business chance.

BSA: interest (“usury, excessive profit”): Charging for a loan to a poor neighbor turns his misfortune into your gain. destitute (“waxen poor, impoverished”): The word pictures a man who has grown steadily poorer until he cannot stand on his own.

Hebrew: נֶשֶׁךְ (neshek, H5392) — “interest, literally a bite.” The word for interest comes from a word meaning to bite. It pictures a debt that takes a bite out of the poor man every day.

See also: Exodus 22:25; Deuteronomy 15:7-8.

Leviticus 25:38

God gives His reason: He brought Israel out of Egypt to give them Canaan and to be their God. Those whom God has freed and provided for must treat others with the same grace.

See also: Exodus 20:2.

Leviticus 25:39-41

If an Israelite sells himself to pay his debts, he is not to be treated as a slave but as a hired worker. He serves until the Jubilee, and then he and his children go free and return to the family land. Poverty cannot become lifelong bondage.

BSA: hired (“hired servant, paid worker”): He is to be treated as someone employed for a term, not as property. slave (“bondservant, servant”): The law limits what an owner may do, so that a fellow Israelite is not reduced to servitude.

Leviticus 25:42-43

Israelites belong to God, who freed them from Egypt, so no one else may own them for good. They must not be ruled harshly. The reminder of Egypt makes the point: God’s people must not become oppressors.

BSA: servants (“whom I freed from slavery, My slaves”): Israel is God’s own people, so no human master can own them for good. harshly (“with severity, rigor, or cruelty”): The word describes the crushing treatment Israel suffered in Egypt.

Hebrew: בְּפָרֶךְ (befarekh, H6531) — “with harshness, crushing labor.” This is the same word used of Egypt’s cruel work on Israel in Exodus 1:13. God warns His people not to do to others what was done to them.

See also: Exodus 1:13.

Leviticus 25:44-46

Israelites could buy servants from the surrounding nations and from foreigners living among them, and keep them as property. This reflects the ancient world, and Christians read it alongside the Bible’s wider teaching. What the passage stresses is that fellow Israelites must never be ruled harshly.

BSA: nations (“Gentiles, heathen”): Servants of this kind came from outside the covenant people, so the Jubilee release did not apply in the same way.

Leviticus 25:47-49

If an Israelite sells himself to a rich foreigner living nearby, he keeps his right to be redeemed. An uncle, cousin or close relative may buy him back, or he may redeem himself if he prospers. His family must not leave him there.

BSA: redeem (“buy back, free”): The relative pays the price to bring the person out of servitude.

Leviticus 25:50-52

The price of redemption is fair and exact: the years until the Jubilee are counted and priced at a hired worker’s wages. Many years left means a higher price, few years a lower one. The man pays for what he owes, and no more.

BSA: daily wages (“pay, compensation”): The price is measured by what a hired worker would earn, so he is treated as a worker, not as an object.

Leviticus 25:53-55

Even in a foreigner’s household, the man is to be treated like a hired worker, and no cruelty is to be allowed. If no one redeems him, he and his children go free at the Jubilee. God ends with His claim: they are His servants, brought out of Egypt.

BSA: released (“set free, go out”): The word means going out, echoing the great going out from Egypt.

See also: Galatians 5:1.