Behar-Behukkotai

Chapter 25

¹ The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai: ² Speak to the Israelite people and say to them:

When you enter the land that I assign to you, the land shall observe a sabbath of the Lord. ³ Six years you may sow your field and six years you may prune your vineyard and gather in the yield. ⁴ But in the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath of complete rest, a sabbath of the Lord: you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. ⁵ You shall not reap the aftergrowth of your harvest or gather the grapes of your untrimmed vines; it shall be a year of complete rest for the land. ⁶ But you may eat whatever the land during its sabbath will produce — you, your male and female slaves, the hired and bound laborers who live with you, ⁷ and your cattle and the beasts in your land may eat all its yield.

⁸ You shall count off seven weeks of years — seven times seven years — so that the period of seven weeks of years gives you a total of forty-nine years. ⁹ Then you shall sound the horn loud; in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month — the Day of Atonement — you shall have the horn sounded throughout your land ¹⁰ and you shall hallow the fiftieth year. You shall proclaim release throughout the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you: each of you shall return to his holding and each of you shall return to his family. ¹¹ That fiftieth year shall be a jubileefor you: youshall not sow, neither shall you reap the aftergrowth or harvest the untrimmed vines, ¹² for it is a jubilee. It shall be holy to you: you may only eat the growth direct from the field.

¹³ In this year of jubilee, each of you shall return to his holding. ¹⁴ When you sell property to your neighbor, or buy any from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another. ¹⁵ In buying from your neighbor, you shall deduct only for the number of years since the jubilee; and in selling to you, he shall charge you only for the remaining crop years: 16 the more such years, the higher the price you pay; the fewer such years, the lower the price; for what he is selling you is a number of harvests. ¹⁷ Do not wrong one another, but fear your God; for I the Lord am your God.

¹⁸ You shall observe My laws and faithfully keep My rules, that you may live upon the land in security; ¹⁹ the land shall yield its fruit and you shall eat your fill, and you shall live upon it in security. ²⁰ And should you ask, “What are we to eat in the seventh year, if we may neither sow nor gather in our crops?” ²¹ I will ordain My blessing for you in the sixth year, so that it shall yield a crop sufficient for three years. ²² When you sow in the eighth year, you will still be eating old grain of that crop; you will be eating the old until the ninth year, until its crops come in.

²³ But the land must not be sold beyond reclaim, for the land is Mine; you are but strangers resident with Me. ²⁴ Throughout the land that you hold, you must provide for the redemption of the land.

²⁵ If your kinsman is in straits and has to sell part of his holding, his nearest redeemer shall come and redeem what his kinsman has sold. ²⁶ If a man has no one to redeem for him, but prospers and acquires enough to redeem with, ²⁷ he shall compute the years since its sale, refund the difference to the man to whom he sold it, and return to his holding. ²⁸ If he lacks sufficient means to recover it, what he sold shall remain with the purchaser until the jubilee; in the jubilee year it shall be released, and he shall return to his holding.

²⁹ If a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, it may be redeemed until a year has elapsed since its sale; the redemption period shall be a year. ³⁰ If it is not redeemed before a full year has elapsed, the house in the walled city shall pass to the purchaser beyond reclaim throughout the ages; it shall not be released in the jubilee. ³¹ But houses in villages that have no encircling walls shall be classed as open country: they may be redeemed, and they shall be released through the jubilee. ³² As for the cities of the Levites, the houses in the cities they hold — the Levites shall forever have the right of redemption. ³³ Such property as may be redeemed from the Levites — houses sold in a city they hold — shall be released through the jubilee; for the houses in the cities of the Levites are their holding among the Israelites. ³⁴ But the unenclosed land about their cities cannot be sold, for that is their holding for all time.

³⁵ If your kinsman, being in straits, comes under your authority, and you hold him as though a resident alien, let him live by your side: ³⁶ do not exact from him advance or accrued interest, but fear your God. Let him live by your side as your kinsman. ³⁷ Do not lend him your money at advance interest, or give him your food at accrued interest. ³⁸ I the Lord am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, to be your God.

³⁹ If your kinsman under you continues in straits and must give himself over to you, do not subject him to the treatment of a slave. ⁴⁰ He shall remain with you as a hired or bound laborer; he shall serve with you only until the jubilee year. ⁴¹ Then he and his children with him shall be free of your authority; he shall go back to his family and return to his ancestral holding. — ⁴² For they are My servants, whom I freed from the land of Egypt; they may not give themselves over into servitude. — ⁴³ You shall not rule over him ruthlessly; you shall fear your God. ⁴⁴ Such male and female slaves as you may have — it is from the nations round about you that you may acquire male and female slaves. ⁴⁵ You may also buy them from among the children of aliens resident among you, or from their families that are among you, whom they begot in your land. These shall become your property: ⁴⁶ you may keep them as a possession for your children after you, for them to inherit as property for all time. Such you may treat as slaves. But as for your Israelite kinsmen, no one shall rule ruthlessly over the other.

⁴⁷ If a resident alien among you has prospered, and your kinsman being in straits, comes under his authority and gives himself over to the resident alien among you, or to an offshoot of an alien’s family, ⁴⁸ he shall have the right of redemption even after he has given himself over. One of his kinsmen shall redeem him, ⁴⁹ or his uncle or his uncle’s son shall redeem him, or anyone of his family who is of his own flesh shall redeem him; or, if he prospers, he may redeem himself. ⁵⁰ He shall compute with his purchaser the total from the year he gave himself over to him until the jubilee year; the price of his sale shall be applied to the number of years, as though it were for a term as a hired laborer under the other’s authority. ⁵¹ If many years remain, he shall pay back for his redemption in proportion to his purchase price; ⁵² and if few years remain until the jubilee year, he shall so compute: he shall make payment for his redemption according to the years involved. ⁵³ He shall be under his authority as a laborer hired by the year; he shall not rule ruthlessly over him in your sight. ⁵⁴ If he has not been redeemed in any of those ways, he and his children with him shall go free in the jubilee year. ⁵⁵ For it is to Me that the Israelites are servants: they are My servants, whom I freed from the land of Egypt, I the Lord your God.

Chapter 26
¹ You shall not make idols for yourselves, or set up for yourselves carved images or pillars, or place figured stones in your land to worship upon, for I the Lord am your God. ² You shall keep My sabbaths and venerate My sanctuary, Mine, the Lord’s.

³ If you follow My laws and faithfully observe My commandments, ⁴ I will grant your rains in their season, so that the earth shall yield its produce and the trees of the field their fruit. ⁵ Your threshing shall overtake the vintage, and your vintage shall overtake the sowing; you shall eat your fill of bread and dwell securely in your land.

⁶ I will grant peace in the land, and you shall lie down untroubled by anyone; I will give the land respite from vicious beasts, and no sword shall cross your land. ⁷ You shall give chase to your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. ⁸ Five of you shall give chase to a hundred, and a hundred of you shall give chase to ten thousand; your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.

⁹ I will look with favor upon you, and make you fertile and multiply you; and I will maintain My covenant with you. ¹⁰ You shall eat old grain long stored, and you shall have to clear out the old to make room for the new.

¹¹ I will establish My abode in your midst, and I will not spurn you. ¹² I will be ever present in your midst: I will be your God, and you shall be My people. ¹³ I the Lord am your God who brought you out from the land of the Egyptians to be their slaves no more, who broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.

¹⁴ But if you do not obey Me and do not observe all these commandments, ¹⁵ if you reject My laws and spurn My rules, so that you do not observe all My commandments and you break My covenant, ¹⁶ I in turn will do this to you: I will wreak misery upon you — consumption and fever, which cause the eyes to pine and the body to languish; you shall sow your seed to no purpose, for your enemies shall eat it. ¹⁷ I will set My face against you: you shall be routed by your enemies, and your foes shall dominate you. You shall flee though none pursues.

¹⁸ And if, for all that, you do not obey Me, I will go on to discipline you sevenfold for your sins, ¹⁹ and I will break your proud glory. I will make your skies like iron and your earth like copper, ²⁰ so that your strength shall be spent to no purpose. Your land shall not yield its produce, nor shall the trees of the land yield their fruit.

²¹ And if you remain hostile toward Me and refuse to obey Me, I will go on smiting you sevenfold for your sins. ²² I will loose wild beasts against you, and they shall bereave you of your children and wipe out your cattle. They shall decimate you, and your roads shall be deserted.

²³ And if these things fail to discipline you for Me, and you remain hostile to Me, ²⁴ I too will remain hostile to you: I in turn will smite you sevenfold for your sins. ²⁵ I will bring a sword against you to wreak vengeance for the covenant; and if you withdraw into your cities, I will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into enemy hands. ²⁶ When I break your staff of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in a single oven; they shall dole out your bread by weight, and though you eat, you shall not be satisfied.

²⁷ But if, despite this, you disobey Me and remain hostile to Me, ²⁸ I will act against you in wrathful hostility; I, for My part, will discipline you sevenfold for your sins. ²⁹ You shall eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters. ³⁰ I will destroy your cult places and cut down your incense stands, and I will heap your carcasses upon your lifeless fetishes. I will spurn you. ³¹ I will lay your cities in ruin and make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not savor your pleasing odors. ³² I will make the land desolate, so that your enemies who settle in it shall be appalled by it. ³³ And you I will scatter among the nations, and I will unsheath the sword against you. Your land shall become a desolation and your cities a ruin.

³⁴ Then shall the land make up for its sabbath years throughout the time that it is desolate and you are in the land of your enemies; then shall the land rest and make up for its sabbath years. ³⁵ Throughout the time that it is desolate, it shall observe the rest that it did not observe in your sabbath years while you were dwelling upon it. ³⁶ As for those of you who survive, I will cast a faintness into their hearts in the land of their enemies. The sound of a driven leaf shall put them to flight. Fleeing as though from the sword, they shall fall though none pursues. ³⁷ With no one pursuing, they shall stumble over one another as before the sword. You shall not be able to stand your ground before your enemies, ³⁸ but shall perish among the nations; and the land of your enemies shall consume you.

³⁹ Those of you who survive shall be heartsick over their iniquity in the land of your enemies; more, they shall be heartsick over the iniquities of their fathers; ⁴⁰ and they shall confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, in that they trespassed against Me, yea, were hostile to Me. ⁴¹ When I, in turn, have been hostile to them and have removed them into the land of their enemies, then at last shall their obdurate heart humble itself, and they shall atone for their iniquity. ⁴² Then will I remember My covenant with Jacob; I will remember also My covenant with Isaac, and also My covenant with Abraham; and I will remember the land.

⁴³ For the land shall be forsaken of them, making up for its sabbath years by being desolate of them, while they atone for their iniquity; for the abundant reason that they rejected My rules and spurned My laws. ⁴⁴ Yet, even then, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them or spurn them so as to destroy them, annulling My covenant with them: for I the Lord am their God. ⁴⁵ I will remember in their favor the covenant with the ancients, whom I freed from the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God: I, the Lord.

⁴⁶ These are the laws, rules, and instructions that the Lord established, through Moses on Mount Sinai, between Himself and the Israelite people. 

Chapter 27
¹ The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

² Speak to the Israelite people and say to them: When anyone explicitly vows to the Lord the equivalent for a human being, ³ the following scale shall apply: If it is a male from twenty to sixty years of age, the equivalent is fifty shekels of silver by the sanctuary weight; ⁴ if it is a female, the equivalent is thirty shekels. 5 If the age is from five years to twenty years, the equivalent is twenty shekels for a male and ten shekels for a female. ⁶ If the age is from one month to five years, the equivalent for a male is five shekels of silver, and the equivalent for a female is three shekels of silver. ⁷ If the age is sixty years or over, the equivalent is fifteen shekels in the case of a male and ten shekels for a female. ⁸ But if one cannot afford the equivalent, he shall be presented before the priest, and the priest shall assess him; the priest shall assess him according to what the vower can afford.

⁹ If [the vow concerns] any animal that may be brought as an offering to the Lord, any such that may be given to the Lord shall be holy. ¹⁰ One may not exchange or substitute another for it, either good for bad, or bad for good; if one does substitute one animal for another, the thing vowed and its substitute shall both be holy. ¹¹ If [the vow concerns] any unclean animal that may not be brought as an offering to the Lord, the animal shall be presented before the priest, ¹² and the priest shall assess it. Whether high or low, whatever assessment is set by the priest shall stand; ¹³ and if he wishes to redeem it, he must add one-fifth to its assessment.

¹⁴ If anyone consecrates his house to the Lord, the priest shall assess it. Whether high or low, as the priest assesses it, so it shall stand; ¹⁵ and if he who has consecrated his house wishes to redeem it, he must add one-fifth to the sum at which it was assessed, and it shall be his.

¹⁶ If anyone consecrates to the Lord any land that he holds, its assessment shall be in accordance with its seed requirement: fifty shekels of silver to a homer of barley seed. ¹⁷ If he consecrates his land as of the jubilee year, its assessment stands. ¹⁸ But if he consecrates his land after the jubilee, the priest shall compute the price according to the years that are left until the jubilee year, and its assessment shall be so reduced; ¹⁹ and if he who consecrated the land wishes to redeem it, he must add one-fifth to the sum at which it was assessed, and it shall pass to him. ²⁰ But if he does not redeem the land, and the land is sold to another, it shall no longer be redeemable: ²¹ when it is released in the jubilee, the land shall be holy to the Lord, as land proscribed; it becomes the priest’s holding.

²² If he consecrates to the Lord land that he purchased, which is not land of his holding, ²³ the priest shall compute for him the proportionate assessment up to the jubilee year, and he shall pay the assessment as of that day, a sacred donation to the Lord. ²⁴ In the jubilee year the land shall revert to him from whom it was bought, whose holding the land is. ²⁵ All assessments shall be by the sanctuary weight, the shekel being twenty gerahs.

²⁶ A firstling of animals, however, which — as a firstling — is the Lord’s, cannot be consecrated by anybody; whether ox or sheep, it is the Lord’s. ²⁷ But if it is of unclean animals, it may be ransomed as its assessment, with one-fifth added; if it is not redeemed, it shall be sold at its assessment.

²⁸ But of all that anyone owns, be it man or beast or land of his holding, nothing that he has proscribed for the Lord may be sold or redeemed; every proscribed thing is totally consecrated to the Lord. ²⁹ No human being who has been proscribed can be ransomed: he shall be put to death.

³⁰ All tithes from the land, whether seed from the ground or fruit from the tree, are the Lord’s; they are holy to the Lord. ³¹ If anyone wishes to redeem any of his tithes, he must add one-fifth to them. ³² All tithes of the herd or flock — of all that passes under the shepherd’s staff, every tenth one — shall be holy to the Lord. ³³ He must not look out for good as against bad, or make substitution for it. If he does make substitution for it, then it and its substitute shall both be holy: it cannot be redeemed.

³⁴ These are the commandments that the Lord gave Moses for the Israelite people on Mount Sinai.