Leviticus 25:22-47

²²As you sow in the eighth year, you will still be eating from that harvest, which will last until your harvest in the ninth year.

²³Land must not be permanently sold, because it really belongs to me. To me you are only foreigners and travelers passing through.

²⁴So whatever land you buy to own, you must make arrangements so it can be returned to its original owner.

²⁵If one of your people becomes poor and sells you some of their land, their close family can come and buy back what they have sold.

²⁶However, if they don't have anyone who can buy it back, but in the meantime their financial situation improves and they have enough to buy back the land,

²⁷they will work how many years it has been since the sale, and pay back the balance to the person who bought it, and go back to their property

²⁸If they can't raise enough to pay the person back for the land, the buyer will remain its owner until the Jubilee Year. But in the Jubilee the land will be returned so that the original owner can so that they can go back to their property.

²⁹If someone sells a house located in a walled town, they have the right to buy it back for a full year after selling it. It can be bought back any time during that year.

³⁰If it isn't bought back be the end of a full year, then ownership of the house in the walled town is permanently transferred to the one who bought it and their descendants. It won't be returned in the Jubilee.

³¹But houses in villages that don't have walls around them are to be treated as located in the fields. They can be bought back, and will be returned in the Jubilee.

³²However, the Levites always have the right to buy back their houses in the towns that belong to them.

³³Whatever the Levites own can be bought back, even houses sold in their towns, and must be returned in the Jubilee. That's because the houses in the towns of the Levites are what they were given to own as their share among the Israelites.

³⁴However, the fields surrounding their towns must not be sold because they belong to the Levites permanently.

³⁵If any of your people become poor and can't survive, you must help them in the same way you would help a foreigner or a stranger, so that they can go on living in your neighborhood.

³⁶Don't make them pay you any interest or demand more than they borrowed, but respect your God so that they can remain living in your area.

³⁷Don't lend them silver with interest or sell them food at an inflated price.

³⁸Remember, I am the Lord your God who led you out of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.

³⁹If any of your people become poor and have to sell themselves to work for you, don't force them to work as a slave.

⁴⁰Have them live with you like a paid worker who is staying with you for a while. They are to work for you until the Jubilee Year.

⁴¹Then they and their children must be freed, and they can go back to their family and to their family's property.

⁴²Israelites are not to be sold as slaves because they belong to me as my slaves—I led them out of Egypt.

⁴³Don't treat them with brutality. Have respect for your God.

⁴⁴Buy your male and female slaves from the surrounding nations.

⁴⁵You can also buy them from foreigners who have come to live among you, or from their descendants born in your land. You can treat them as your property.

⁴⁶You can pass them on to your children to inherit as property after you die. You can make them slaves for life, but you must not brutally treat any of your own people, the Israelites, as a slave.

⁴⁷If a foreigner among you becomes successful, and one of your people living nearby becomes poor and sells themselves to the foreigner or to a member of the foreigner's family,