Leviticus 25

Translator Notes

1. The specific location 'on Mount Sinai' (behar sinai) is significant — most Levitical laws are introduced without specifying the location. The explicit Sinai setting anchors the land-sabbath and Jubilee legislation in the same covenant-making context as the Ten Commandments and the Book of the Covenant. This is not secondary legislation but foundational covenantal instruction about the land itself.

Translator Notes

1. The phrase veshavetah ha'arets shabbat laYHWH ('the land shall keep a sabbath to the LORD') applies sabbath language — previously reserved for human rest (Exodus 20:8-11) — directly to the land itself. The land is personified as a sabbath-keeper. The verb form is feminine singular (shavetah) matching the feminine noun erets (land), treating the land as the subject who rests. This is not merely a human decision to stop farming — the land is granted its own sabbath by God.

Translator Notes

1. The six-year work cycle mirrors the six days of labor before the weekly sabbath (Exodus 20:9). Two types of agriculture are named: grain farming (tizra sadekha — 'sow your field') and viticulture (tizmor karmekha — 'prune your vineyard'). Together they represent the full scope of Israelite agriculture.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. The superlative phrase shabbat shabbaton ('sabbath of complete rest') uses the intensified form — the same phrase applied to Yom Kippur (23:32) and the weekly sabbath (Exodus 31:15). The land receives the same quality of rest that God commands for His people and His holiest day. The prohibitions are specific: no sowing (grain agriculture) and no pruning (vineyard management). The land rests from human cultivation.

Translator Notes

1. The sefiach ('aftergrowth, volunteer crop') is grain that sprouts from fallen seeds of the previous harvest without intentional planting. The nezirekha ('your untended vine' — literally 'your nazir-vine,' a vine that has not been pruned) produces grapes without human intervention. Even these unplanned yields are not to be harvested commercially. The point is not that the produce goes to waste — verse 6 clarifies it may be eaten — but that organized agricultural commerce ceases entirely.

Translator Notes

1. The sabbatical year's produce is available to everyone equally: the landowner (lekha), servants (avdekha va'amatekha), hired laborers (sekhirekha), and resident foreigners (toshavekha haggarim immakh). During the sabbath year, the social distinctions between these groups dissolve regarding access to the land's produce. The food is not owned by the landowner but belongs to all. This is a radical leveling of economic hierarchy.

Translator Notes

1. The sabbatical provision extends beyond human society to livestock (behemah — domestic animals) and even wild animals (chayyah — wildlife). All creatures share equally in the land's rest. The section marker (samekh) closes the sabbatical year legislation. What follows (vv 8-55) is the Jubilee — a sabbath of sabbaths.

Translator Notes

1. The Jubilee cycle is built on the sabbatical structure: seven cycles of seven years, totaling forty-nine years. The repetition of 'seven' (sheva) three times — seven sabbaths of years, seven years, seven times — emphasizes the completeness and sacred geometry of the cycle. Just as the seventh day is holy within the week, and the seventh year is holy within the agricultural cycle, the fiftieth year (following the seventh-seventh) is supremely holy.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. The Jubilee begins not on New Year's Day but on Yom Kippur — the Day of Atonement (yom hakkippurim). The convergence of Jubilee and Atonement is theologically deliberate: the year of liberation and restoration begins on the day when the entire nation's sins are atoned for. Forgiveness of debt begins with forgiveness of sin. The shofar teru'ah ('ram's horn of loud blasting') is the same instrument used at Sinai (Exodus 19:16) and in warfare — it signals a decisive divine intervention.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. Three actions define the Jubilee: (1) consecration (vekiddashtem — the fiftieth year is set apart as holy), (2) proclamation of deror ('release' — a comprehensive cancellation of debts, land transfers, and servitude), and (3) return (veshavtem — everyone goes back to their ancestral property and family). The verb tashuvu ('you shall return') echoes the root sh-u-v, which also carries the theological weight of repentance and restoration.
2. This verse is inscribed on the American Liberty Bell: 'Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.' The English word 'jubilee' derives from the Hebrew yovel through the Latin jubilaeus.

Translator Notes

1. The Jubilee year has the same agricultural restrictions as the sabbatical year (vv 4-5). If the Jubilee falls in the year after a sabbatical year, this would mean two consecutive years without sowing — a severe test of trust in God's provision (addressed in vv 20-22).

Translator Notes

1. The Jubilee is declared qodesh ('holy' — set apart for God). The provision min hasadeh ('from the field') means the produce may be consumed directly where it grows, without commercial harvesting and storage. This equalizes access — during the Jubilee, no one can monopolize the land's output.

Translator Notes

1. The verb tashuvu ('you shall return') is emphatic — this is a command, not a suggestion. The achuzzah ('property, possession, inheritance') refers to the tribal land allocation from Joshua's time. The Jubilee principle is that the original divine distribution of land to the tribes and families cannot be permanently overridden by economic transactions.

Translator Notes

1. The verb tonu ('wrong, exploit, take advantage of') from the root y-n-h prohibits economic exploitation in transactions. The relationship terms are significant: amitekha ('your fellow, your associate') and achiw ('his brother') frame commercial relationships within the language of kinship and community solidarity. Business ethics in Israel are covenantal obligations, not merely market norms.

Translator Notes

1. This verse establishes the crucial economic principle of the Jubilee: land cannot be sold permanently. What is actually being sold is not the land itself but the number of harvests (shenei-tevu'ot — 'years of produce') until the next Jubilee. The price must reflect only the remaining crop years. This redefines land transactions as temporary leases, not permanent transfers of ownership.

Translator Notes

1. The economic logic is explicit: the price is a function of remaining harvests (mispar tevu'ot — 'the number of produce-years'). The closing clause ki mispar tevu'ot hu mokher lakh ('for he is selling you a number of harvests') is a legal clarification that redefines what appears to be a land sale as a produce lease. The land itself belongs to God (v 23) and cannot be sold.

Translator Notes

1. The phrase veyare'ta me'Elohekha ('you shall fear your God') is a conscience clause — it appears in Leviticus specifically where the exploitation would be difficult to detect or prosecute (see also 19:14, 19:32). When the law cannot catch the violator, the fear of God serves as the enforcement mechanism. The self-identification formula ani YHWH Eloheikhem ('I am the LORD your God') reinforces that God Himself is the guarantor of economic justice.

Translator Notes

1. The conditional promise: obedience to the sabbatical and Jubilee laws is the condition for secure dwelling (vishavtem al ha'arets lavetach — 'you shall dwell on the land securely'). The word betach ('security, safety, confidence') is economic and military — no invaders, no famine, no anxiety about provision. The land's rest and the people's security are causally linked.

Translator Notes

1. The land is again personified — it 'gives' (natnah) its fruit as a subject performing an action. The promise of eating lasova ('to satisfaction, to fullness') directly addresses the fear that motivates disobedience to the sabbatical law: 'What will we eat?' (v 20). God promises not mere survival but abundance.

Translator Notes

1. God anticipates the practical objection before it is raised. The question mah nokhal ('what will we eat?') is the voice of reasonable anxiety — it is not condemned but addressed directly. The sabbatical year requires trusting God for provision in a way that goes against agricultural prudence. The system demands faith that God can provide through means other than human labor.

Translator Notes

1. God's answer to the provision question is a promise of miraculous abundance: the sixth year's harvest will be large enough to sustain the people through the seventh year (sabbatical), the eighth year (when sowing resumes but the new crop has not yet come in), and into the ninth year (when the new crop is harvested). The verb tsivviti ('I will command') treats blessing as something God dispatches by sovereign order — He commands the earth to produce three years' worth of food in one year.

Translator Notes

1. The timeline is precise: sow in year eight, but eat from the sixth year's stored surplus (yashan — 'old, stored') until the new crop of year nine arrives. God's provision is not hand-to-mouth but abundant — the stored food bridges the gap between sabbath rest and new production.

Translator Notes

1. This verse is the theological cornerstone of the Jubilee. The word litsmitut ('permanently, in perpetuity') is negated — no permanent land sale is possible. The reason is stated as a first-person divine claim: ki li ha'arets ('for the land is Mine'). The Israelites are gerim vetoshavim ('strangers and sojourners') — the same terms used for landless foreigners living in Israel. Before God, even the native-born Israelite in his ancestral territory is a tenant, not an owner.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. The Hebrew ge'ullah ('redemption') introduces the key legal concept that governs the rest of the chapter: the right of redemption. Every land sale must include the possibility of ge'ullah — the family's right to buy the land back. This right is not optional but mandatory: titnu ('you shall provide') is an imperative. The section marker (samekh) sets this verse apart as the heading principle for all the specific cases that follow.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. The go'alo haqqarov elav ('his nearest kinsman-redeemer') introduces the go'el — the relative closest in kinship who bears the duty of redemption. The verb ga'al ('to redeem') is used three times in verses 25-26 (go'alo, vega'al, ge'ullah), emphasizing that this is the central legal concept. The go'el does not choose to redeem out of generosity; he is obligated by kinship. Failure to act as go'el is a failure of family duty.
2. This is the same go'el institution that drives the plot of Ruth: Boaz acts as go'el for Naomi's family, redeeming their land and marrying Ruth to preserve the family name.

Translator Notes

1. The phrase lo yihyeh lo go'el ('he has no go'el') describes a person without close relatives — a devastating situation in a kinship-based society. However, self-redemption is possible if his economic situation improves (hissigah yado — 'his hand reaches,' the idiom for achieving financial capacity). Even without family support, the right of redemption remains.

Translator Notes

1. The redemption price is not the full original sale price but the remaining value — the buyer keeps the value of the harvests he has already received, and the redeemer pays only for the years remaining until the Jubilee. The system is fair to both parties: the buyer receives the agreed-upon value of his purchase period, and the original family recovers their land.

Translator Notes

1. The Jubilee is the ultimate safety net: even if neither a kinsman-redeemer nor the person himself can afford to redeem the land, the Jubilee automatically returns it. The verb yatsa ('go out, be released') is the same verb used for the exodus from Egypt — the land 'goes out' from the buyer's control just as Israel 'went out' from Pharaoh's control. The section marker (samekh) closes this land-redemption case.

Translator Notes

1. Houses in walled cities follow different rules than agricultural land. The redemption window is limited to one full year (yamim — literally 'days,' meaning a complete year). After that, the sale becomes permanent (v 30). The distinction reflects economic reality: city houses are not part of the tribal land allocation in the same way that agricultural land is. Urban property is more commercially oriented.

Translator Notes

1. The phrase latsmitut ('permanently, in perpetuity') — the same word denied to agricultural land in verse 23 — is permitted for urban houses. Walled-city houses are the only property in Israel that can be sold permanently and that are exempt from Jubilee release. This creates a two-tier system: agricultural land (God's domain, subject to Jubilee) and urban property (commercial, subject to market). The textual note [lo/lo] reflects a qere/ketiv variation in the Hebrew manuscript tradition regarding the spelling of 'which has' (lo) versus 'not' (lo) — a wall.

Translator Notes

1. The distinction turns on the wall (chomah): walled cities have permanent sales; unwalled villages have Jubilee-eligible sales. Village houses (batei hachatserim — 'houses of the settlements') are classified as agricultural land (al sedeh ha'arets — 'as the field of the land') because they are part of the agricultural landscape, not separate urban zones. This classification preserves the Jubilee principle for rural communities.

Translator Notes

1. The Levites receive a special provision: ge'ullat olam ('permanent redemption right') — their redemption right never expires. Since the Levites received no tribal land allocation (Numbers 18:20-24), their city houses are their only real property. If even these were subject to the one-year walled-city limit, Levites could lose everything permanently. The olam ('permanent, perpetual') ge'ullah protects them.

Translator Notes

1. Even without active redemption, Levitical city houses revert at the Jubilee — the opposite of the walled-city rule in verse 30. The reasoning is explicit: ki batei arei halevi'im hi achuzzatam ('because the houses of the Levitical cities are their inheritance'). Since Levites have no agricultural land, their houses are equivalent to other tribes' farmland and must be protected by the Jubilee.

Translator Notes

1. The Levitical pasturelands (sedeh migrash — 'open land of the pasture') cannot be sold under any circumstances — not even temporarily. The phrase achuzzat olam ('permanent possession') is the strongest property protection in the entire chapter. The Levitical system ensures that those who serve the sanctuary always have a place to live and pasture their animals. The section marker (samekh) closes the property-redemption section.

Translator Notes

1. The phrase umatah yado ('his hand has fallen, his hand falters') is a vivid idiom for economic collapse — the hand that should work and produce has failed. The response commanded is vehechezaqta bo ('you shall strengthen him, you shall support him'). The protection extends beyond Israelites to gerim vetoshavim ('resident foreigners and sojourners') — the same terms applied to Israelites before God in verse 23. Economic support is universal within the community.

Translator Notes

1. Two types of financial extraction are prohibited: neshekh ('interest' — literally 'bite,' from the root n-sh-kh, 'to bite') and tarbit ('increase, profit'). Charging interest on loans to a poor Israelite is equated with biting into their sustenance. The fear-of-God clause (veyare'ta me'Elohekha) appears again, as in verse 17 — interest-charging in private is undetectable by human courts but visible to God.

Translator Notes

1. The prohibition covers both monetary loans (kaspo — 'your money') and food-based credit (okhlekha — 'your food, your provisions'). Both forms of lending to the poor — cash and kind — must be interest-free. In an agricultural economy, food loans at 'increase' (marbith — the food equivalent of interest) could be as devastating as monetary interest.

Translator Notes

1. The exodus formula anchors economic ethics in salvation history. God's purpose in the exodus was twofold: to give the land (latet lakhem et erets Kena'an) and to be their God (lihyot lakhem le'Elohim). The covenant formula binds land-gift and divine relationship together — how Israel treats the land and its poor is inseparable from their relationship with the God who freed them. The section marker (samekh) closes the interest-prohibition unit.

Translator Notes

1. The descent into poverty escalates: from land sale (v 25), to financial dependency (v 35), to debt-servitude (v 39). Each stage has its protective legislation. The prohibition lo ta'avod bo avodat aved ('you shall not work him as a slave's work') distinguishes between indentured service and chattel slavery. An Israelite in debt-servitude retains his dignity — the work required of him must be different from what would be imposed on a permanent slave.

Translator Notes

1. The Israelite debt-servant's legal status is explicitly defined: kesakir ketoshav ('like a hired worker, like a resident laborer') — not an owned slave but a worker with rights. His service is temporary — only until the Jubilee — and his treatment must match that of a free laborer. The phrasing ya'avod immakh ('he shall work with you') uses the preposition im ('with'), not the preposition le ('for'), suggesting a relationship of cooperation rather than domination.

Translator Notes

1. The Jubilee releases the debt-servant and his entire family (hu uvanav immo — 'he and his children with him'). He returns to two things: his family (mishpachto) and his ancestral property (achuzzat avotav). The double return (veshav... yashuv) emphasizes completeness — the person is fully restored to both relational and economic standing.

Translator Notes

1. The theological foundation for Israelite labor rights: ki avadai hem ('for they are My servants'). An Israelite already belongs to God — he cannot also belong to a human master. God's prior claim on Israel, established by the exodus, overrides any subsequent economic arrangement. The phrase mimkeret aved ('the sale of a slave') describes the commercial transaction of chattel slavery — Israelites may not be sold in this manner.

Translator Notes

1. The word perekh ('harshness, severity, rigor') appears only six times in the Hebrew Bible: here, in verse 46, in verse 53, and three times in Exodus 1 describing Egyptian treatment of Israelite slaves (Exodus 1:13-14). The verbal echo is intentional: treating an Israelite debt-servant with perekh would replicate the very oppression from which God freed Israel. The fear-of-God clause appears for the third time in this chapter.

Translator Notes

1. The text permits acquiring slaves from surrounding nations (haggoyim asher sevivoteikhem). The distinction between the treatment of Israelite debt-servants (vv 39-43) and foreign slaves (vv 44-46) is stark and morally difficult for modern readers. The text does not critique the institution of foreign slavery; it limits and regulates it. The Israelite is protected by covenant identity — 'My servants' (v 42) — but this protection does not extend to foreigners in the same way.

Translator Notes

1. The permission extends to children of resident foreigners (benei hatoshavim haggarim immakhem) — those born in the land to non-Israelite families. The term achuzzah ('property, possession') applied to human beings is deeply uncomfortable. The text reflects the widespread ancient Near Eastern institution of slavery while creating a distinct tier of protection for Israelite covenant members.

Translator Notes

1. The contrast between foreign slaves (le'olam bahem ta'avodu — 'permanently you may use them as workers') and Israelite brothers (uve'acheikhem benei Yisra'el... lo tirdeh bo beferekh — 'over your brothers the children of Israel... you shall not rule with harshness') is the chapter's most morally complex passage. The repeated word perekh ('harshness') ties back to Egyptian slavery. The section marker (samekh) closes this unit.

Translator Notes

1. The scenario reverses the expected power dynamic: a foreigner (ger vetoshav) becomes wealthy while an Israelite (achikha — 'your brother') becomes poor enough to sell himself to the foreigner. This case is the most vulnerable situation — an Israelite in servitude to a non-Israelite, potentially beyond the reach of Israelite community norms. The legislation that follows (vv 48-55) ensures that even in this extreme case, the kinsman-redeemer system and the Jubilee protect the Israelite.

Translator Notes

1. The ge'ullah right extends to persons, not just land. The phrase ge'ullah tihyeh lo ('a redemption right shall exist for him') establishes that even after sale to a foreigner, an Israelite retains the inalienable right to be redeemed. The kinsman system (echad me'echav — 'one of his brothers') is activated.

Translator Notes

1. The hierarchy of potential redeemers is specified: uncle (dodo), uncle's son (ben dodo), any close blood relative (mishe'er besaro mimishpachto — 'from the flesh of his flesh, from his family'). The list moves from closest to broader kinship circles. Self-redemption (venig'al — 'he shall be redeemed,' reflexive) is the final option if the person's own finances recover.

Translator Notes

1. The redemption price is calculated as the equivalent of a hired worker's wages for the remaining years until the Jubilee. The phrase kimei sakhir yihyeh immo ('as the days of a hired worker he shall be with him') reframes the servitude as a labor contract, not as ownership of a person. Even in calculating the redemption price, the text insists on treating the Israelite as a worker, not property.

Translator Notes

1. When many years remain until the Jubilee, the redemption price is higher — it reflects the greater value of the remaining service years. The principle of proportionality (lefihen — 'according to them,' i.e., according to the years) ensures fairness to the buyer while facilitating the redemption.

Translator Notes

1. Fewer remaining years means a lower redemption price — the closer to the Jubilee, the less expensive it is to redeem the person. The system creates an incentive structure that makes redemption progressively easier as the Jubilee approaches.

Translator Notes

1. Even when sold to a foreigner, the Israelite's treatment is regulated by Israelite law: the foreigner may not use perekh ('harshness'). The phrase le'einekha ('in your sight') places responsibility on the Israelite community — if they see a brother being mistreated in foreign service, they are responsible to intervene. The community cannot look away.

Translator Notes

1. The Jubilee is the final guarantee: regardless of whether redemption occurs through a kinsman-redeemer (v 48-49) or self-redemption (v 49), the person is automatically freed at the Jubilee. No Israelite can remain in permanent servitude. The verb yatsa ('go out, go free') is again the exodus verb — every Jubilee reenacts the liberation from Egypt in miniature.

Translator Notes

1. The chapter ends where it began theologically: with God's sovereign claim. The emphatic repetition — avadai hem, 'they are My servants' — echoes verse 42. The entire Jubilee system rests on a single premise: Israel already belongs to God. Human economic arrangements are subordinate to this prior divine claim. The exodus is the event that established God's ownership, and the Jubilee is the institution that periodically reasserts it. The closing self-identification ani YHWH Eloheikhem ('I am the LORD your God') seals the chapter as divine legislation.