Imamat 25:8-34
Konteks25:8 “‘You must count off 1 seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, 2 and the days of the seven weeks of years will amount to forty-nine years. 3 25:9 You must sound loud horn blasts 4 – in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, on the Day of Atonement – you must sound the horn in your entire land. 25:10 So you must consecrate the fiftieth year, 5 and you must proclaim a release 6 in the land for all its inhabitants. That year will be your jubilee; 7 each one of you must return 8 to his property and each one of you must return to his clan. 25:11 That fiftieth year will be your jubilee; you must not sow the land, harvest its aftergrowth, or pick the grapes of its unpruned vines. 9 25:12 Because that year is a jubilee, it will be holy to you – you may eat its produce 10 from the field.
25:13 “‘In this year of jubilee you must each return 11 to your property. 25:14 If you make a sale 12 to your fellow citizen 13 or buy 14 from your fellow citizen, no one is to wrong his brother. 15 25:15 You may buy it from your fellow citizen according to the number of years since 16 the last jubilee; he may sell it to you according to the years of produce that are left. 17 25:16 The more years there are, 18 the more you may make its purchase price, and the fewer years there are, 19 the less you must make its purchase price, because he is only selling to you a number of years of 20 produce. 25:17 No one is to oppress his fellow citizen, 21 but you must fear your God, because I am the Lord your God. 25:18 You must obey my statutes and my regulations; you must be sure to keep them 22 so that you may live securely in the land. 23
25:19 “‘The land will give its fruit and you may eat until you are satisfied, 24 and you may live securely in the land. 25:20 If you say, ‘What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not sow and gather our produce?’ 25:21 I will command my blessing for you in the sixth year so that it may yield 25 the produce 26 for three years, 25:22 and you may sow the eighth year and eat from that sixth year’s produce 27 – old produce. Until you bring in the ninth year’s produce, 28 you may eat old produce. 25:23 The land must not be sold without reclaim 29 because the land belongs to me, for you are foreigners and residents with me. 30 25:24 In all your landed property 31 you must provide for the right of redemption of the land. 32
25:25 “‘If your brother becomes impoverished and sells some of his property, his near redeemer is to come to you and redeem what his brother sold. 33 25:26 If a man has no redeemer, but he prospers 34 and gains enough for its redemption, 35 25:27 he is to calculate the value of the years it was sold, 36 refund the balance 37 to the man to whom he had sold it, and return to his property. 25:28 If he has not prospered enough to refund 38 a balance to him, then what he sold 39 will belong to 40 the one who bought it until the jubilee year, but it must revert 41 in the jubilee and the original owner 42 may return to his property.
25:29 “‘If a man sells a residential house in a walled city, 43 its right of redemption must extend 44 until one full year from its sale; 45 its right of redemption must extend to a full calendar year. 46 25:30 If it is not redeemed before the full calendar year is ended, 47 the house in the walled city 48 will belong without reclaim 49 to the one who bought it throughout his generations; it will not revert in the jubilee. 25:31 The houses of villages, however, 50 which have no wall surrounding them 51 must be considered as the field 52 of the land; they will have the right of redemption and must revert in the jubilee. 25:32 As for 53 the cities of the Levites, the houses in the cities which they possess, 54 the Levites must have a perpetual right of redemption. 25:33 Whatever someone among the Levites might redeem – the sale of a house which is his property in a city – must revert in the jubilee, 55 because the houses of the cities of the Levites are their property in the midst of the Israelites. 25:34 Moreover, 56 the open field areas of their cities 57 must not be sold, because that is their perpetual possession.
[25:8] 1 tn Heb “And you shall count off for yourself.”
[25:8] 2 tn Heb “seven years seven times.”
[25:8] 3 tn Heb “and they shall be for you, the days of the seven Sabbaths of years, forty-nine years.”
[25:9] 4 sn On the “loud horn blasts” see the note on Lev 23:24, but unlike the language there, the Hebrew term for “horn” (שׁוֹפָר, shofar) actually appears here in this verse (twice).
[25:10] 5 tn Heb “the year of the fifty years,” or perhaps “the year, fifty years” (GKC 435 §134.o, note 2).
[25:10] 6 tn Cf. KJV, ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV “liberty”; TEV, CEV “freedom.” The characteristics of this “release” are detailed in the following verses. For substantial summaries and bibliography on the biblical and ancient Near Eastern material regarding such a “release” see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 427-34, and B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 270-74.
[25:10] 7 tn Heb “A jubilee that shall be to you.” Although there has been some significant debate about the original meaning of the Hebrew word translated “jubilee” (יוֹבֵל, yovel; see the summary in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 434), the term most likely means “ram” and can refer also to a “ram’s horn.” The fiftieth year would, therefore, be called the “jubilee” because of the associated sounding of the “ram’s horn” (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 172, and the literature cited there).
[25:10] 8 tn Heb “you [plural] shall return, a man.”
[25:11] 9 tn Heb “you shall not sow and you shall not…and you shall not….”
[25:11] sn See v. 5 above and the notes there.
[25:12] 10 tn That is, the produce of the land (fem.; cf. v. 7 above).
[25:13] 11 tn Heb “you [plural] shall return, a man.”
[25:14] 12 tn Heb “sell a sale.”
[25:14] 13 tn Or “to one of your countrymen” (NIV); NASB “to your friend.”
[25:14] 14 tn The Hebrew infinitive absolute קָנֹה (qanoh, “buying”) substitutes for the finite verb here in sequence with the previous finite verb “sell” at the beginning of the verse (see GKC 345 §113.z).
[25:14] 15 tn Heb “do not oppress a man his brother.” Here “brother” does not refer only to a sibling, but to a fellow Israelite.
[25:15] 16 tn Heb “in the number of years after.”
[25:15] 17 tn The words “that are left” are not in the Hebrew text, but are implied.
[25:15] sn The purchaser is actually buying only the crops that the land will produce until the next jubilee, since the land will revert to the original owner at that time. The purchaser, therefore, is not actually buying the land itself.
[25:16] 18 tn Heb “To the mouth of the many years.”
[25:16] 19 tn Heb “to the mouth of the few years.”
[25:16] 20 tn Heb “a number of produce”; the words “years of” are implied. As an alternative this could be translated “a number of harvests” (cf. NRSV, NLT).
[25:17] 21 tn Heb “And you shall not oppress a man his fellow citizen.”
[25:18] 22 tn Heb “And you shall keep and do them.” This appears to be a kind of verbal hendiadys, where the first verb is a modifier of the action of the second verb (see GKC 386 §120.d, although שָׁמַר [shamar, “to keep”] is not cited there; cf. Lev 20:8, etc.).
[25:18] 23 tn Heb “and you shall dwell on the land to security.”
[25:19] 24 tn Heb “eat to satisfaction”; KJV, ASV “ye shall eat your fill.”
[25:21] 25 tn Heb “and it [i.e., the land] shall make the produce.” The Hebrew term וְעָשָׂת (vÿ’asat, “and it shall make”) is probably an older third feminine singular form of the verb (GKC 210 §75.m). Smr has the normal form.
[25:21] 26 tn Smr and LXX have “its produce” (cf. 25:3, 7, etc.) rather than “the produce.”
[25:22] 27 tn Heb “the produce,” referring to “the produce” of the sixth year of v. 21. The words “sixth year” are supplied for clarity.
[25:22] 28 tn Heb “until the ninth year, until bringing [in] its produce.”
[25:23] 29 tn The term rendered “without reclaim” means that the land has been bought for the full price and is, therefore, not subject to reclaim under any circumstances. This was not to be done with land in ancient Israel (contrast the final full sale of houses in v. 30; see the evidence cited in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 174).
[25:23] 30 tn That is, the Israelites were strangers and residents who were attached to the
[25:24] 31 tn Heb “And in all the land of your property.”
[25:24] 32 tn Heb “right of redemption you shall give to the land”; NAB “you must permit the land to be redeemed.”
[25:25] 33 tn Heb “the sale of his brother.”
[25:26] 34 tn Heb “and his hand reaches.”
[25:26] 35 tn Heb “and he finds as sufficiency of its redemption.”
[25:27] 36 tn Heb “and he shall calculate its years of sale.”
[25:27] 37 tn Heb “and return the excess.”
[25:28] 38 tn Heb “And if his hand has not found sufficiency of returning.” Although some versions take this to mean that he has not made enough to regain the land (e.g., NASB, NRSV; see also B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 176), the combination of terms in Hebrew corresponds to the portion of v. 27 that refers specifically to refunding the money (cf. v. 27; see NIV and G. J. Wenham, Leviticus [NICOT], 315).
[25:28] 40 tn Heb “will be in the hand of.” This refers to the temporary control of the one who purchased its produce until the next year of jubilee, at which time it would revert to the original owner.
[25:28] 41 tn Heb “it shall go out” (so KJV, ASV; see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 176).
[25:28] 42 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the original owner of the land) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[25:29] 43 tn Heb “a house of a residence of a walled city.”
[25:29] 45 tn Heb “of its sale.”
[25:29] 46 tn Heb “days its right of redemption shall be” (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 176).
[25:30] 47 tn Heb “until fulfilling to it a complete year.’
[25:30] 48 tn Heb “the house which [is] in the city which to it [is] a wall.” The Kethib has לֹא (lo’, “no, not”) rather than לוֹ (lo, “to it”) which is the Qere.
[25:30] 49 tn See the note on v. 23 above.
[25:31] 50 tn Heb “And the houses of the villages.”
[25:31] 51 tn Heb “which there is not to them a wall.”
[25:31] 52 tn Heb “on the field.”
[25:32] 54 tn Heb “the houses of the cities of their property.”
[25:33] 55 tn Heb “And which he shall redeem from the Levites shall go out, sale of house and city, his property in the jubilee.” Although the end of this verse is clear, the first part is notoriously difficult. There are five main views. (1) The first clause of the verse actually attaches to the previous verse, and refers to the fact that their houses retain a perpetual right of redemption (v. 32b), “which any of the Levites may exercise” (v. 33a; J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 418, 421). (2) It refers to property that one Levite sells to another Levite, which is then redeemed by still another Levite (v. 33a). In such cases, the property reverts to the original Levite owner in the jubilee year (v. 33b; G. J. Wenham, Leviticus [NICOT], 321). (3) It refers to houses in a city that had come to be declared as a Levitical city but had original non-Levitical owners. Once the city was declared to belong to the Levites, however, an owner could only sell his house to a Levite, and he could only redeem it back from a Levite up until the time of the first jubilee after the city was declared to be a Levitical city. In this case the first part of the verse would be translated, “Such property as may be redeemed from the Levites” (NRSV, NJPS). At the first jubilee, however, all such houses became the property of the Levites (v. 33b; P. J. Budd, Leviticus [NCBC], 353). (4) It refers to property “which is appropriated from the Levites” (not “redeemed from the Levites,” v. 33a) by those who have bought it or taken it as security for debts owed to them by Levites who had fallen on bad times. Again, such property reverts back to the original Levite owners at the jubilee (B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 177). (5) It simply refers to the fact that a Levite has the option of redeeming his house (i.e., the prefix form of the verb is taken to be subjunctive, “may or might redeem”), which he had to sell because he had fallen into debt or perhaps even become destitute. Even if he never gained the resources to do so, however, it would still revert to him in the jubilee year. The present translation is intended to reflect this latter view.
[25:34] 57 sn This refers to the region of fields just outside and surrounding the city where cattle were kept and garden crops were grown (B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 177).
