14“When you make an agreement with your neighbor to buy or sell property, you must not take advantage of each other.

15When you buy land from your neighbor, the price you pay must be based on the number of years since the last jubilee. The seller must set the price by taking into account the number of years remaining until the next Year of Jubilee.

16The more years until the next jubilee, the higher the price; the fewer years, the lower the price. After all, the person selling the land is actually selling you a certain number of harvests.

17Show your fear of God by not taking advantage of each other. I am the Lord your God.

18“If you want to live securely in the land, follow my decrees and obey my regulations.

19Then the land will yield large crops, and you will eat your fill and live securely in it.

20But you might ask, ‘What will we eat during the seventh year, since we are not allowed to plant or harvest crops that year?’

21Be assured that I will send my blessing for you in the sixth year, so the land will produce a crop large enough for three years.

22When you plant your fields in the eighth year, you will still be eating from the large crop of the sixth year. In fact, you will still be eating from that large crop when the new crop is harvested in the ninth year.

24“With every purchase of land you must grant the seller the right to buy it back.

25If one of your fellow Israelites falls into poverty and is forced to sell some family land, then a close relative should buy it back for him.

26If there is no close relative to buy the land, but the person who sold it gets enough money to buy it back,

27he then has the right to redeem it from the one who bought it. The price of the land will be discounted according to the number of years until the next Year of Jubilee. In this way the original owner can then return to the land.

28But if the original owner cannot afford to buy back the land, it will remain with the new owner until the next Year of Jubilee. In the jubilee year, the land must be returned to the original owners so they can return to their family land.

29“Anyone who sells a house inside a walled town has the right to buy it back for a full year after its sale. During that year, the seller retains the right to buy it back.

30But if it is not bought back within a year, the sale of the house within the walled town cannot be reversed. It will become the permanent property of the buyer. It will not be returned to the original owner in the Year of Jubilee.

31But a house in a village—a settlement without fortified walls—will be treated like property in the countryside. Such a house may be bought back at any time, and it must be returned to the original owner in the Year of Jubilee.

32“The Levites always have the right to buy back a house they have sold within the towns allotted to them.

33And any property that is sold by the Levites—all houses within the Levitical towns—must be returned in the Year of Jubilee. After all, the houses in the towns reserved for the Levites are the only property they own in all Israel.

34The open pastureland around the Levitical towns may never be sold. It is their permanent possession.

39“If one of your fellow Israelites falls into poverty and is forced to sell himself to you, do not treat him as a slave.

40Treat him instead as a hired worker or as a temporary resident who lives with you, and he will serve you only until the Year of Jubilee.

41At that time he and his children will no longer be obligated to you, and they will return to their clans and go back to the land originally allotted to their ancestors.

42The people of Israel are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt, so they must never be sold as slaves.

43Show your fear of God by not treating them harshly.

44“However, you may purchase male and female slaves from among the nations around you.

45You may also purchase the children of temporary residents who live among you, including those who have been born in your land. You may treat them as your property,

46passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance. You may treat them as slaves, but you must never treat your fellow Israelites this way.

47“Suppose a foreigner or temporary resident becomes rich while living among you. If any of your fellow Israelites fall into poverty and are forced to sell themselves to such a foreigner or to a member of his family,

48they still retain the right to be bought back, even after they have been purchased. They may be bought back by a brother,

49an uncle, or a cousin. In fact, anyone from the extended family may buy them back. They may also redeem themselves if they have prospered.

50They will negotiate the price of their freedom with the person who bought them. The price will be based on the number of years from the time they were sold until the next Year of Jubilee—whatever it would cost to hire a worker for that period of time.

51If many years still remain until the jubilee, they will repay the proper proportion of what they received when they sold themselves.

52If only a few years remain until the Year of Jubilee, they will repay a small amount for their redemption.

53The foreigner must treat them as workers hired on a yearly basis. You must not allow a foreigner to treat any of your fellow Israelites harshly.

54If any Israelites have not been bought back by the time the Year of Jubilee arrives, they and their children must be set free at that time.

55For the people of Israel belong to me. They are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.