Leviticuschapter 25
55 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
Key verse
And you shall count off seven Sabbaths of years—seven times seven years—so that the seven Sabbaths of years amount to forty-nine years.
It stands in The fiftieth year: liberty proclaimed, verses 8 to 17.
The chapter
Chapter summary
The Sabbatical year and the Jubilee. Every seventh year the land rests. Sown and reaped not; what it yields of itself is common food. Every fiftieth year, on the tenth day of the seventh month (the Day of Atonement), a trumpet sounds, liberty is proclaimed throughout the land. Slaves returned to their families, land returned to its original clans. ‘The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.’ Economic liberty anchored in theological ownership. Jesus in Luke 4 quotes Isa 61, reading the acceptable year of the LORD in the pattern of the Jubilee.
Context
Law · Moses · Leviticus overview
The world behind this chapter
Leviticus 25The history
Verse 1 places the chapter at Mount Sinai. It legislates for a farming country the hearers have not entered, and every rule in it assumes a family holding named ground. The dating follows the book's own setting.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
The people receiving this law had been slaves. Verses 42 and 55 make that the ground of the whole chapter, since a people God brought out of Egypt are his servants and cannot be sold as another man's property.
A first hearer knew what a seventh fallow year cost. Exodus 23:10 and 23:11 had already ordered one for the sake of the poor and the beasts. Here the same year is called a sabbath to the LORD. What grows of itself is left standing for the owner, his servants, the resident foreigner, his cattle and the wild animals on the same terms.
A first hearer knew who the goel was. The word names the nearest relative whose kinship gave him both the right and the duty to buy back what his brother had lost. Ruth 3 and 4 shows the office working as a story. The chapter extends the same right to a man who has sold himself.
A first hearer also knew that land was normally sold outright across the region. Here nobody buys land at all. Every sale is priced by the number of harvests left before the jubilee, so what changes hands is a number of crops rather than a field.
What it meant to them
To a family that could lose everything in one bad year, this chapter set a floor. Poverty could take a man's field and even his freedom, and the fiftieth year gave both back.
To the nation it stated who owned the country. The land is mine at verse 23 makes every Israelite a tenant of God, which is why no sale could be permanent and why a right of redemption covered the whole territory.
Sources cited
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
- Gordon J. Wenham, The Book of Leviticus (NICOT), 1979
- Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch , 1864 to 1870
Where the chapter sits
Leviticus 25 falls in The Holiness Code (chapters 17–26). ‘Ye shall be holy; for I the LORD your God am holy.’ Blood, sexual ethics, neighbor-love, feasts, jubilee, blessings and curses.
The Jubilee. Every fiftieth year, liberty proclaimed; the pattern Jesus claims in Luke 4.
Before it: Day of Atonement, chapters 16. After it: Vows and dedications, chapters 27.
The whole shape of Leviticus→The structure of this chapter
People1
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. A sabbath rest for the land itself
1. (vv. 1-2)
Leviticus 25:1
“The sabbatical year and the year of Jubilee belong to that great sabbatical system which runs through the religious observances of the Law, but rest upon moral rather than upon formally religious ground. It is not, therefore, without reason that they are here set apart from the set times which fell strictly within the sphere of religious observances.”
Leviticus 25:2
“The land keep a Sabbath - See this ordinance explained, Exo 23:11 (note). It may be asked here: if it required all the annual produce of the field to support the inhabitants, how could the people be nourished the seventh year, when no produce was received from the fields? To this it may be answered, that God sent his blessing in an especial manner on the sixth year, (see Lev 25:21, Lev 25:22), and it brought forth fruit for three years. How astonishing and convincing was this miracle! Could there possibly be any deception here? No!”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The chapter is placed at mount Sinai, and the first sabbath it commands belongs to the ground. Exodus 23:10 and 23:11 had already ordered a fallow seventh year for the sake of the poor and the beasts. Here the same year is called a sabbath unto the LORD, so the soil is given a rest of its own and the reason given for it is God rather than need.
2. (vv. 3-5)
Leviticus 25:3
“Six years thou shalt sow thy field,.... Under which is comprehended everything relating to agriculture, both before and after sowing, as dunging the land, ploughing and harrowing it, treading the corn, reaping and gathering it in; see Exo 23:10, and six years thou shall prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; which is not to be restrained to vineyards only, but to be extended to oliveyards, orchards and gardens, and to the planting and cultivating of them, and gathering in the fruits of them.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 25:3
“Vineyard - Rather, fruit-garden. The Hebrew word is a general one for a plantation of fruit-trees.”
Leviticus 25:4
“A sabbath of rest - See Lev 23:3 note. The express prohibition of sowing and reaping, and of pruning and gathering, affords a presumption in favor of the sabbatical year beginning, like the year of Jubilee Lev 25:9, in the first month of the civil year Lev 23:24, the seventh of the sacred year, when the land was cleared of the crops of the preceding year.”
2 more voices on this verse
Leviticus 25:4
“So do we now understand how the law educates us in piety, sharing, justice and humanity? Well? Does it not enjoin that the land lie fallow through the seventh year and invites the poor not to be afraid to use any crops that grow by God's grace, nature acting as farmer for any who will?”
Clement of Alexandria· written before 215· The Stromata Book 2patristic
Leviticus 25:4
“And hence the Jews collect that vulgar tradition that after the world has stood six thousand years (a thousand years being to God as one day) it shall cease, and the eternal sabbath shall succeed--a weak foundation on which to build the fixing of that day and hour which it is God's prerogative to know.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Leviticus 25:5
“Vine undressed - That is, “unpruned”; literally “Nazarite vine”, the figure being taken from the unshorn locks of the Nazarite. Num 6:5.”
Six years of sowing and pruning, and a seventh with neither. The phrase used of the weekly rest at Leviticus 23:3, a sabbath of rest, is used here of a year, so the week that governs a man is laid on his field. What comes up on its own that year is left standing, which means the owner keeps his hands off a crop he did nothing to plant.
3. (vv. 6-7)
Leviticus 25:6
“And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you,...., That is, that which grew up of itself but of the land, or on trees, vines, olives, &c. undressed, should be the meat or food on which they should live that year: and this comprehends everything that is fit for food, and also for drink, and for anointing, and even for the lighting of lamps, as in the Misnah (q): for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid; the owner of the fields and vineyards, he and his family, wife, children, and servants, might eat of the fruits of them in common with others; for whereas it is elsewhere said, Exo 23:11, "that the poor of thy people may eat", this is observed here, lest anyone should think the rich are forbid eating them, as Jarchi remarks: and for thy hired servant, and for the stranger that sojourneth with thee: which the same writer interprets of Gentiles; the food of this year was common to masters and servants, to rich and poor, to Israelites and Gentiles; all had an equal right unto, and share therein; which might be an emblem of the first times of the Gospel, in which all things were had in common, Act 4:32, and typical of the communion of saints in things spiritual; in salvation by Jesus Christ, common to Jews and Gentiles, high and low, bond and free; in the free and full forgiveness of sins by his blood; and in justification by his righteousness, which is unto all, and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference; in the participation of faith, and other graces, which are alike precious, and in the enjoyment of promises, privileges, and ordinances, and even of eternal life itself. (q) Sheviith, c. 8. sect. 2.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 25:6
“The sabbath of the land shall be meat for you - That is, the produce of the untilled land (its “increase,” Lev 25:7) shall be food for the whole of you in common, rich and poor without distinction Exo 23:11.”
Leviticus 25:7
“And for thy cattle, and for the beasts that are in thy land,....”
The fallow year opens the field to everyone standing on it. The owner, his servant, his maid, his hired man, the stranger who lives with him, his cattle and the wild beasts all eat from the same ground on the same terms. For one year in seven the difference between the man who holds the deed and the beast in the hedge is the distance to the food.
B. The fiftieth year: liberty proclaimed
1. (vv. 8-9)
Leviticus 25:8
“Thou shalt number seven Sabbaths of years - This seems to state that the jubilee was to be celebrated on the forty-ninth year; but in Lev 25:10 and Lev 25:11 it is said, Ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and, A jubilee shall this fiftieth year be. Probably in this verse Moses either includes the preceding jubilee, and thus with the forty-ninth makes up the number fifty; or he speaks of proclaiming the jubilee on the forty-ninth, and celebrating it on the fiftieth year current.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 25:8
“Seven sabbaths of weeks were reckoned from the passover to the feast of pentecost (or fiftieth day, for so pentecost signifies), and so seven sabbaths of years from one jubilee to another, and the seventh is called the fiftieth; and all this honour is put upon the sevenths for the sake of God's resting the seventh day from the work of creation.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Leviticus 25:9
“The trumpet was sounded in the close of the day of atonement; thence the jubilee commenced, and very fitly; when they had been humbling and afflicting their souls for sin, then they were made to hear this voice of joy and gladness, Ps. xi.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Seven sabbaths of years are counted out, seven times seven, and the count closes at forty and nine. The trumpet is then sounded on the tenth day of the seventh month, which Leviticus 16:29 fixed as the day of atonement, so liberty is proclaimed on the one day of the year the nation's sin has been carried away. The word jubile occurs here for the first time in Scripture.
2. (vv. 10-11)
Leviticus 25:10
“This was typical of our redemption by Christ from the slavery of sin and Satan, and our restoration to the glorious liberty of the children of God. Some compute that the very year in which Christ died was a year of jubilee, and the last that ever was kept.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 25:10
“Seven weeks of years in ancient times produced the celebrated jubilee, in which the earth kept the sabbath, debts were canceled, slaves were set free and, as it were, a new life was established again, the old one in a certain way attaining its fulfillment in the number seven.”
Basil of Caesarea· written before 379· LETTER 260patristic
Leviticus 25:11
“A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be - The literal meaning of the word jubilee, יובל yobel in Hebrew, and יוביל yobil in the Samaritan, has not been well ascertained. Josephus and the rabbins have caused many to err; the former says the word signifies liberty; Ελευθεριαν δε σημαινει τουνομα, Antiq., l. 3, cap. 12, edit. Haverc., vol. 1, p. 184; but the word liberty signifies rather the intention of the institution, than the meaning of the Hebrew term.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Two returns are commanded in one verse, every man to his possession and every man to his family, so the year restores land and household together. The phrase proclaim liberty occurs here for the first time in Scripture and only twice more in the whole Bible, at Isaiah 61:1 and at Jeremiah 34:8, where Zedekiah proclaims it and the nobles take their servants back again. Luke 4:18 and 4:19 have Jesus reading that Isaiah verse in the synagogue and stopping at the acceptable year of the LORD, and named writers including Chuck Missler read it as jubilee language.
3. (vv. 12-13)
Leviticus 25:12
“For it is the jubilee, it shall be holy,....”
Leviticus 25:13
“This law of entail, by which the right heir could never be excluded, was a provision of great wisdom for preserving families and tribes perfectly distinct, and their genealogies faithfully recorded, in order that all might have evidence to establish their right to the ancestral property. Hence the tribe and family of Christ were readily discovered at his birth.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The year is called holy, and the only activity it lists is eating what the field gives. Whether the trumpet fell on the forty-ninth year or on a fiftieth that followed it is argued among the commentators, since verse 8 ends the count at forty and nine while verses 10 and 11 say fiftieth. The Mishnah, the rabbinic law code compiled around AD 200, works this chapter out in the tractate Arakhin, and the Babylonian Talmud at Arakhin 32b holds that the jubilee ceased to be observed once the tribes were carried away. Scripture itself never narrates a jubilee being kept.
4. (vv. 14-16)
Leviticus 25:14
“In short, the buyer must not give less, nor the seller take more, than the just value of the thing, considered as necessarily returning at the year of jubilee. It must be settled what the clear yearly value of the land was, and then how many years' purchase it was worth till the year of jubilee.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Leviticus 25:15
“The number of years of the fruits - i. e. according to the number of harvests. The average value of a yearly crop might of course be estimated, and the sabbatical years were to be deducted from the series.”
Leviticus 25:16
“According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof,....”
Nobody in Israel buys land. The price is set by the number of harvests left before the jubile, many years raising it and few years lowering it, so every sale is a lease priced by the crops still to come. The command against oppression is laid on both sides of the bargain, the man selling and the man buying, since either one can use the calendar against the other.
5. (v. 17)
Leviticus 25:17
“Ye shall not therefore oppress one another,....”
Leviticus 25:17-19
What holds a man back from squeezing his neighbour here is the fear of God rather than a court. Verse 17 closes with I am the LORD your God, and in this book that sentence carries the weight of a reason. Safety in the land is then promised twice in two verses, and it is fastened to keeping the statutes rather than to walls, treaties or armies.
C. Enough grown for three years
1. (vv. 18-19)
Leviticus 25:18
“Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them,....”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 25:18
“In safety - i. e., secure from famine, Lev 26:5; Deu 12:10.”
Leviticus 25:19
“The word signifies both outward safety and inward security and confidence of spirit, that they should be quiet both from evil and from the fear of evil.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2. (vv. 20-22)
Leviticus 25:20
“What shall we eat the seventh year? - A very natural question, which could only be laid at rest by the sovereign promise in the next verse: I will Command my Blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for Three Years. See on Lev 25:2 (note).”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 25:20
“And ye shall say, what shall ye eat the seventh year?....”
Leviticus 25:21
“None but a legislator who was conscious of acting under divine authority would have staked his character on so singular an enactment as that of the sabbatic year; and none but a people who had witnessed the fulfilment of the divine promise would have been induced to suspend their agricultural preparations on a recurrence of a periodical Jubilee.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Leviticus 25:22
“And ye shall sow the eighth year,....”
The text raises the objection a farmer would raise and answers it in his own words. A blessing on the sixth year is promised to bring fruit for three years, so obedience in the seventh rests on a harvest already in the barn. Leviticus 26:34 and 26:35 say what happens where that trust fails, that the land will enjoy her sabbaths while her people are elsewhere, and 2 Chronicles 36:21 counts the seventy years of exile on exactly that reckoning.
D. The land is mine: how it is redeemed
1. (vv. 23-24)
Leviticus 25:23
“The land shall not be sold for ever--or, "be quite cut off," as the Margin better renders it. The land was God's, and, in prosecution of an important design, He gave it to the people of His choice, dividing it among their tribes and families--who, however, held it of Him merely as tenants-at-will and had no right or power of disposing of it to strangers.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Leviticus 25:24
“These verses express the principle on which the law of Jubilee, as it regards the land, was based. The land belonged to Yahweh, and it was He who allotted it among the families of Israel for their use. No estate could therefore be alienated in perpetuity, by any human authority, from the family to whose lot it might fall. Lev 25:24 Grant a redemption for the land - i. e. grant power to recover the land to the original holder who had parted with it.”
Every property rule in the chapter stands on this sentence. The land is mine, and Israel holds it as strangers and sojourners with its owner, which is the same pair of words the book uses of the resident foreigner living among them. A tenant has nothing to sell in perpetuity, so a right of redemption is granted over the whole territory, and the word redemption occurs here for the first time in Scripture.
2. (vv. 25-26)
Leviticus 25:25
“If thy brother be waxen poor - The Israelites never parted with their land except under the pressure of poverty. Compare the answer of Naboth, 1Ki 21:3.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 25:25
“The kinsman is called Goel, the redeemer ( Num. v. 8; 9 ), to whom belonged the right of redeeming the land. And this typified Christ, who assumed our nature, that he might be our kinsman, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, and, being the only kinsman we have that is able to do it, to him belonged the right of redemption.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Leviticus 25:26
“And if the man have none to redeem it,....”
The poor man's ground is bought back by a relative. The Hebrew calls that relative the goel, the man whose kinship gives him both the right and the duty to recover what his brother lost, and Ruth 3 and 4 works the office out as a story with Boaz standing in it. The English word kinsman first occurs at Numbers 5:8, so the thread runs through the Hebrew word and the act rather than through the English. Job 19:25 and Isaiah 59:20 apply the same word to God.
3. (vv. 27-28)
Leviticus 25:27
“Then let him count the years of the sale thereof,....”
Leviticus 25:28
“It shall go out - i. e. it shall be set free.”
2 more voices on this verse
Leviticus 25:28
“But if he be not able to restore it to him,....”
Leviticus 25:28
“This was a figure of the free grace of God towards us in Christ, by which, and not by any price or merit of our own, we are restored to the favour of God, and become entitled to paradise, from which our first parents, and we in them, were expelled for disobedience. A difference was made between houses in walled cities, and lands in the country, or houses in country villages.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Where no relative acts, the seller may buy his own field back by counting the years and paying the overplus, which is the pricing of verse 15 run backwards. Where he can do neither, the jubile does it for him and he pays nothing. The land comes home because of the year rather than because of the money.
4. (vv. 29-31)
Leviticus 25:29
“Sell a dwelling house in a walled city - A very proper difference is put between houses in a city and houses in the country. If a man sold his house in the city, he might redeem it any time in the course of a year; but if it were not redeemed within that time, it could no more be redeemed, nor did it go out even in the jubilee.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Leviticus 25:30
“Not go out - Because most of the houses in cities were occupied by artificers and traders whose wealth did not consist in lands.”
Leviticus 25:31
“But the houses of the villages, which have no walls round about them,.... As there were many in the days of Joshua, the Scripture speaks of: the Jews suppose that such are meant, even though they were afterwards walled: shall be counted as the fields of the country; and subject to the same law as they: they may be redeemed; at any time before the year of jubilee, and if not, then they shall go out in the jubilee; to the original owners of them, freely, as Jarchi says, without paying anything for them.”
A house inside a walled city is the one property in Israel that can be sold outright. It stays redeemable for twelve months and after that belongs to the buyer through his generations, while houses in unwalled villages count as fields and go out at the jubile. What the law guards is the family's share of ground, so a dwelling with no field under it falls outside the guard.
5. (vv. 32-34)
Leviticus 25:32
“A certain portion of the lands surrounding the Levitical cities was appropriated to them for the pasturage of their cattle and flocks (Nu 35:4, 5). This was a permanent endowment for the support of the ministry and could not be alienated for any time.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Leviticus 25:33
“And if a man purchase of the Levites,....”
Leviticus 25:34
“Even the Egyptians took care to preserve the land of the priests, Gen. xlvii. And there is no less reason for the taking of the maintenance of the gospel ministry under the special protection of Christian governments. A law for the relief of the poor, and the tender usage of poor debtors, and these are of more general and perpetual obligation than the former.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The tribe holding the least land is given the strongest tenure in the chapter. A Levite may redeem his house at any time and it returns at the jubile even when the buyer is another Israelite, and the pasture around the Levitical cities may never be sold at all. Numbers 35:1 to 35:8 assigns them forty and eight cities in place of a tribal inheritance, and Joshua 21 lists them by name, so this rule keeps the men who serve the sanctuary from losing the little ground they hold.
E. Lend to your brother without interest
1. (vv. 35-36)
Leviticus 25:35
“Rather, And if thy brother (an Israelite) becomes poor and falls into decay with thee, thou shalt assist him and let him live with thee like a resident foreigner. He was not to be regarded as an outcast, but was to be treated with the same respect and consideration as a resident foreigner who, like him, could possess no land, but could accumulate property and live in comfort as a free man. See Lev 16:29 note.”
Leviticus 25:36
“Take thou no usury of him - Usury, at present, signifies unlawful interest for money. Properly, it means the reward or compensation given for the use of a thing, but is principally spoken of money. For the definition of the original term, See the note on Exo 22:25.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 25:36
“And thus far this law binds still, but could never be thought binding where money is borrowed for purchase of lands, trade, or other improvements; for there it is reasonable that the lender share with the borrower in the profit. The law here is plainly intended for the relief of the poor, to whom it is sometimes as great a charity to lend freely as to give.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
A brother sliding into poverty is to be relieved before he sells anything, and the standard set for his treatment is the way a resident stranger is treated. Interest on what is lent to him is forbidden outright, and the reason attached is the fear of God. Verse 36 states the purpose plainly, that thy brother may live with thee, which makes the loan an act of keeping a man alive in the community rather than a transaction.
2. (vv. 37-38)
Leviticus 25:37
“Lend him thy victuals for increase - i. e. supply him with food for thy own profit.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 25:37
“Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury,....”
Leviticus 25:38
“I am the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt,....”
2 more voices on this verse
Leviticus 25:38
“Here, and in Lev 25:42, Lev 25:55, is expressed the principle which was to limit and modify the servitude of Hebrew servants.”
Leviticus 25:38
“That a native Israelite should never be made a bondman for perpetuity. If he was sold for debt, or for a crime, by the house of judgment, he was to serve but six years, and to go out the seventh; this was appointed, Exod. xxi.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Money and victuals are both named, so the rule reaches the two things a poor man actually borrows. The reason given is the exodus, that the God speaking brought them out of Egypt and gave them Canaan and is their God. A people handed a country they did not buy are told to lend to each other on the same footing.
3. (vv. 39-41)
Leviticus 25:39
“The law here appears harmoniously to supplement the earlier one in Exo 21:1-6. It was another check applied periodically to the tyranny of the rich. Compare Jer 34:8-17.”
Leviticus 25:40
“But as an hired servant,....”
Leviticus 25:41
“This typified our redemption from the service of sin and Satan by the grace of God in Christ, whose truth makes us free, John vii. The Jewish writers say that, for ten days before the jubilee-trumpet sounded, the servants that were to be discharged by it did express their great joy by feasting, and wearing garlands on their heads: it is therefore called the joyful sound, Ps. lxxxix.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
An Israelite who sells himself is handled as a hired servant and serves until the jubile. Exodus 21:2 had already set six years as the term for a Hebrew servant, and the commentators read the two rules together, the six years running from each sale and the jubile releasing anyone still in service when it sounds. He goes out with his children and returns to the possession of his fathers, so the release restores his ground along with his freedom.
4. (vv. 42-43)
Leviticus 25:42
“For they are my servants - As God redeemed every Israelite out of Egyptian bondage, they were therefore to consider themselves as his property, and that consequently they should not alienate themselves from him. It was in being his servants, and devoted to his work, that both their religious and political service consisted. And although their political liberty might be lost, they knew that their spiritual liberty never could be forfeited except by an utter alienation from God. God therefore claims the same right to their persons which he does to their lands; See the note on Lev 25:23.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 25:42
“God had redeemed them out of Egypt, and therefore they must never be exposed to sale as bondmen. The apostle applies this spiritually ( 1 Cor. vii. 23 ), You are bought with a price, be not the servants of men, that is, "of the lusts of men, no, nor of your own lusts;" for, having become the servants of God, we must not let sin reign in our mortal bodies, Rom. vi.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Leviticus 25:43
“Fear thy God - Yahweh was the Lord and Master of His people. To treat a Hebrew as a slave was therefore to interfere with the rights of Yahweh. Compare Rom 14:4.”
The ground of the rule is a prior ownership. They are my servants is the same claim made over the ground at verse 23, and a man already owned by God is beyond another man's power to sell. Ruling with rigour is forbidden and the fear of God is put in its place, which is the second time in the chapter that the check on the stronger party is what he thinks of God. Paul takes the sentence up at 1 Corinthians 7:23, ye are bought with a price, be not ye the servants of men.
5. (vv. 44-46)
Leviticus 25:44
“Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have,.... Such it seems were allowed them, if they had need of them; but if they had them, they were to be not of the nation of Israel, but of other nations; this is an anticipation of an objection, as Jarchi observes; if so, who shall I have to minister to me?”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 25:44
“Property in foreign slaves is here distinctly permitted. It was a patriarchal custom Gen 17:12. Such slaves might be captives taken in war (Num 31:6 following; Deu 20:14), or those consigned to slavery for their crimes, or those purchased of foreign slave-dealers. The price of a slave is supposed to have varied from thirty to fifty shekels. See Lev 27:3-4, note; Exo 21:32, note; Zec 11:12-13, note; Mat 26:15, note. It was the object of Moses, not at once to do away with slavery, but to discourage and to mitigate it.”
Leviticus 25:45
“Moreover, of the children of the strangers, that do sojourn among you,....”
Leviticus 25:46
“And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you,....”
Modern readers stop here, and the passage says what it says. Bondmen bought from the surrounding nations are held as property and passed to the buyer's children, while an Israelite in the same poverty walks free at the jubile, so the law states two terms and puts them side by side in one paragraph. Exodus 21:16 makes stealing a man a capital crime and Deuteronomy 23:15 and 23:16 forbid handing back a runaway slave, and named writers read the Mosaic legislation as limiting an institution already universal in the ancient world. The New Testament works at the same point, with Paul sending Onesimus back to Philemon as a brother beloved and listing menstealers among the lawless at 1 Timothy 1:10.
F. Buying back one who sold himself
1. (vv. 47-49)
Leviticus 25:47
“A sojourner or stranger - Rather, a foreigner who has settled among you. See Lev 16:29, note; Exo 20:10, note. Lev 25:54 In these years - More properly, by one of these means. The extreme period of servitude in this case was six years, as when the master was a Hebrew Exo 21:2. Looking at the law of the Jubilee from a simply practical point of view, its operation must have tended to remedy those evils which are always growing up in the ordinary conditions of human society.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 25:47
“So the word root is elsewhere used for the branch or progeny growing from it. He seems to note one of a foreign race and country, transplanted into the land of Israel, and there having taken root amongst the people of God, yet even such an one, though he hath some privilege by it, shall not have power to keep an Hebrew servant from the benefit of redemption.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 25:48
“He that had sold himself to an Israelite might, if ever he was able, redeem himself, but his relations had no right to redeem him. "But if a man sold himself to a stranger," the Jews say, "his relations were urged to redeem him; if they did not, it was fit that he should be redeemed at the public charge," which we find done, Neh. v. 8 .”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The redeemer of verse 25 returns, working now on the man instead of the field. The right to buy him back is listed by degrees of nearness, an uncle, an uncle's son, any that is nigh of kin, and last the man himself if he ever gets the means. Nehemiah 5:8 records Jews doing this in practice, buying back brethren who had been sold to the heathen.
2. (vv. 50-52)
Leviticus 25:50
“The ransom money was determined on a most equitable principle. Taking account of the number of years from the proposal to redeem and the Jubilee, of the current wages of labor for that time, and multiplying the remaining years by that sum, the amount was to be paid to the master for his redemption.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 25:50
“According to the time of an hired servant - Allowance shall be made for the time wherein he hath served, proportionable to that which is given to an hired servant for so long service, because his condition is in this like theirs; it is not properly his person, but his work and labour that was sold.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 25:51
“If there be yet many years behind,....”
Leviticus 25:52
“And if there remain but few years unto the year of jubilee,....”
The ransom is arithmetic. Years are counted from the sale to the jubile and priced at the wage of a hired servant, so what changes hands is the value of the work left in him. It is the calculation the chapter used on a field at verses 15 and 16, applied to a person, and it protects the buyer as well as the man being redeemed.
3. (vv. 53-55)
Leviticus 25:53
“And as a yearly hired servant shall he be with him,....”
Leviticus 25:54
“And if he be not redeemed in these years,....”
Leviticus 25:55
“For unto me the children of Israel are servants - The reason of this law we have already seen, (See on Lev 25:42 (note)), but we must look farther to see the great end of it. The Israelites were a typical people; they represented those under the Gospel dispensation who are children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. But these last have a peculiarity of blessing: they are not merely servants, but they are Sons; though they also serve God, yet it is in the newness of the spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The chapter ends where it began, on the question of who owns what. The Israelite in a stranger's house is treated as a man hired by the year, the neighbours are made responsible for watching how he is used, and the jubile takes him out with his children whether or not anyone paid for him. Verse 55 repeats the claim of verse 42, that the children of Israel are servants to God because he brought them out of Egypt, and it closes with I am the LORD your God. Two sentences carry the whole law of this chapter, the land is mine at verse 23 and they are my servants here.
This page carries no textual note on Leviticus 25. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Alfred Edersheim, The Temple: Its Ministry and Services; Andrew Bonar, A Commentary on Leviticus; Chuck Missler, Learn the Bible in 24 Hours; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentary on the Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the Form of a Harmony; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.