Leviticus 25 Summary

The LORD instructs Moses at Mount Sinai concerning the sabbath of the land: every seventh year the land must rest, with no sowing or pruning, and its natural produce is available to all inhabitants and animals. After seven sabbath cycles (forty-nine years), the fiftieth year is declared a jubilee, proclaimed by trumpet on the Day of Atonement, in which liberty is announced throughout the land, all land reverts to its original families, and no agricultural labor is performed. The chapter then sets out detailed rules for the fair pricing of land sales based on years remaining until jubilee, the redemption of land and property by kinsmen or by the seller himself, and special provisions for walled-city houses, village houses, and Levitical cities. Finally, God commands that impoverished Israelites must be supported without charging usury, that a fellow Israelite sold into service must be treated as a hired servant and released at jubilee with his children, and that Israelites may not be sold as permanent bondservants because they are the LORD's own servants whom He brought out of Egypt.