Add parallel Print Page Options

Regulations for the Sabbatical Year

25 The Lord spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai: “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land must observe a Sabbath[a] to the Lord. Six years you may sow your field, and six years you may prune your vineyard and gather the produce,[b] but in the seventh year the land must have a Sabbath of complete rest[c]—a Sabbath to the Lord. You must not sow your field or[d] prune your vineyard. You must not gather in the aftergrowth of your harvest and you must not pick the grapes of your unpruned vines;[e] the land must have a year of complete rest. You may have the Sabbath produce[f] of the land to eat—you, your male servant, your female servant, your hired worker, the resident foreigner who stays with you,[g] your cattle, and the wild animals that are in your land—all its produce will be for you[h] to eat.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Leviticus 25:2 tn Heb “the land shall rest a Sabbath.”
  2. Leviticus 25:3 tn Heb “its produce,” but the feminine pronoun “its” probably refers to the “land” (a feminine noun in Hebrew; cf. v. 2), not the “field” or the “vineyard,” both of which are normally masculine nouns (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 170).
  3. Leviticus 25:4 tn Heb “and in the seventh year a Sabbath of complete rest shall be to the land.” The expression “a Sabbath of complete rest” is superlative, emphasizing the full and all inclusive rest of the seventh year of the sabbatical cycle. Cf. ASV “a sabbath of solemn rest”; NAB “a complete rest.”
  4. Leviticus 25:4 tn Heb “and.” Here the Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) has an alternative sense (“or”).
  5. Leviticus 25:5 tn Heb “consecrated, devoted, forbidden” (נָזִיר, nazir). The same term is used for the “consecration” of the “Nazirite” (and his hair, Num 6:2, 18, etc.), a designation which, in turn, derives from the very same root.
  6. Leviticus 25:6 tn The word “produce” is not in the Hebrew text but is implied; cf. NASB “the sabbath products.”
  7. Leviticus 25:6 tn A “resident who stays” would be a foreign person who was probably residing as another kind of laborer in the household of a landowner (B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 170-71). See v. 35 below.
  8. Leviticus 25:7 tn The words “for you” are implied.

The Sabbatical Year

25 Yahweh then spoke to Moses [a]at Mount Sinai, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you come into the land which I am giving to you, then the land shall have a sabbath to Yahweh. (A)Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its produce, but during (B)the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath rest, a sabbath to Yahweh; you shall not sow your field nor prune your vineyard. [b]What grows of its own accord from your harvest you shall not reap, and your grapes of untrimmed vines you shall not gather; the land shall have a sabbatical year. (C)And the sabbath produce of the land shall be for food; for you and your male and female slaves and your hired man and your foreign resident, those who sojourn with you. Even your cattle and the beasts that are in your land shall have all its produce to eat.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Leviticus 25:1 Or on
  2. Leviticus 25:5 Lit The growth from spilled kernels