translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: LEV

label: NET translator note

text: Heb “the land shall rest a Sabbath.”


text: 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).


text: 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.”


text: Heb “and.” Here the Hebrew conjunction ו ( vav , “and”) has an alternative sense (“or”).


text: 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.


text: The word “produce” is not in the Hebrew text but is implied; cf. NASB “the sabbath products.”


text: 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.


text: The words “for you” are implied.


text: Heb “And you shall count off for yourself.”


text: Heb “seven years seven times.”


text: Heb “and they shall be for you, the days of the seven Sabbaths of years, forty-nine years.”


text: Heb “the year of the fifty years,” or perhaps “the year, fifty years” (GKC 435 §134. o , note 2).


text: 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.


text: 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).


text: Heb “you [plural] shall return, a man.”


text: Heb “you shall not sow and you shall not…and you shall not….” sn See v. 5 above and the notes there.


text: That is, the produce of the land (fem.; cf. v. 7 above).


text: Heb “sell a sale.”


text: Or “to one of your countrymen” (NIV); NASB “to your friend.”


text: 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 ).


text: Heb “do not oppress a man his brother.” Here “brother” does not refer only to a sibling, but to a fellow Israelite.


text: Heb “in the number of years after.”


text: The words “that are left” are not in the Hebrew text, but are implied. 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.


text: Heb “To the mouth of the many years.”


text: Heb “to the mouth of the few years.”


text: 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).


text: Heb “And you shall not oppress a man his fellow citizen.”


text: 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.).


text: Heb “and you shall dwell on the land to security.”


text: Heb “eat to satisfaction”; KJV, ASV “ye shall eat your fill.”


text: 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.


text: Smr and LXX have “its produce” (cf. 25:3, 7 , etc.) rather than “the produce.”


text: Heb “the produce,” referring to “the produce” of the sixth year of v. 21 . The words “sixth year” are supplied for clarity.


text: Heb “until the ninth year, until bringing [in] its produce.”


text: 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).


text: That is, the Israelites were strangers and residents who were attached to the Lord ’s household. They did not own the land. Note the parallel to the “priest’s lodger” in Lev 22:10 .


text: Heb “And in all the land of your property.”


text: Heb “right of redemption you shall give to the land”; NAB “you must permit the land to be redeemed.”


text: Heb “the sale of his brother.”


text: Heb “and his hand reaches.”


text: Heb “and he finds as sufficiency of its redemption.”


text: Heb “and he shall calculate its years of sale.”


text: Heb “and return the excess.”


text: 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).


text: Heb “his sale.”


text: 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.


text: Heb “it shall go out” (so KJV, ASV; see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 176).


text: Heb “he”; the referent (the original owner of the land) has been specified in the translation for clarity.


text: Heb “a house of a residence of a walled city.”


text: Heb “shall be.”


text: Heb “of its sale.”


text: Heb “days its right of redemption shall be” (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 176).


text: Heb “until fulfilling to it a complete year.’


text: 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 .


text: See the note on v. 23 above.


text: Heb “And the houses of the villages.”


text: Heb “which there is not to them a wall.”


text: Heb “on the field.”


text: Heb “And.”


text: Heb “the houses of the cities of their property.”


text: 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. 32 b), “which any of the Levites may exercise” (v. 33 a; 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. 33 a). In such cases, the property reverts to the original Levite owner in the jubilee year (v. 33 b; 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. 33 b; P. J. Budd, Leviticus [NCBC], 353). (4) It refers to property “which is appropriated from the Levites” (not “ redeemed from the Levites,” v. 33 a) 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.


text: It is not clear to whom this refers. It is probably broader than “sibling” (cf. NRSV “any of your kin”; NLT “any of your Israelite relatives”) but some English versions take it to mean “fellow Israelite” (so TEV; cf. NAB, NIV “countrymen”) and others are ambiguous (cf. CEV “any of your people”).


text: Heb “and his hand slips with you.”


text: Heb “strengthen”; NASB “sustain.”


text: The form וָחַי ( vakhay , “and shall live”) looks like the adjective “living,” but the MT form is simply the same verb written as a double ayin verb (see HALOT 309 s.v. חיה qal, and GKC 218 §76. i ; cf. Lev 18:5 ).


text: Heb “a foreigner and resident,” which is probably to be combined (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 170-71).


text: The meaning of the terms rendered “interest” and “profit” is much debated (see the summaries in P. J. Budd, Leviticus [NCBC], 354-55 and B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 178). Verse 37 , however, suggests that the first refers to a percentage of money and the second percentage of produce (see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 421).


text: In form the Hebrew term וְחֵי ( vÿkhey , “shall live”) is the construct plural noun (i.e., “the life of”), but here it is used as the finite verb (cf. v. 35 and GKC 218 §76. i ).


text: Heb “your money” and “your food.” With regard to “interest” and “profit” see the note on v. 36 above.


text: Heb “to be to you for a God.”


text: Heb “you shall not serve against him service of a slave.” A distinction is being made here between the status of slave and indentured servant.


text: See the note on Lev 25:6 above.


text: Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו ( vav , “and”) can be considered to have adversative force here.


text: Heb “may go out from you.”


text: Heb “fathers.”


text: Or perhaps reflexive Niphal rather than passive, “they shall not sell themselves [as in] a slave sale.”


text: Heb “You shall not rule in him in violence”; cf. NASB “with severity”; NIV “ruthlessly.”


text: Heb “And your male slave and your female slave.” Smr has these as plural terms, “slaves,” not singular.


text: Heb “ from the nations which surround you, from them you shall buy male slave and female slave.”


text: The word “slaves” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied here.


text: Heb “family which is” (i.e., singular rather than plural).


text: Heb “and your brothers, the sons of Israel, a man in his brother you shall not rule in him in violence.”


text: Heb “And if the hand of a foreigner and resident with you reaches” (cf. v. 26 for this idiom).


text: Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו ( vav , “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.


text: Heb “offshoot, descendant.”


text: Heb “right of redemption shall be to him.”


text: Heb “the son of his uncle.”


text: Heb “or from the remainder of his flesh from his family.”


label: NET textual note

text: The LXX, followed by the Syriac, actually has “if,” which is not in the MT.


text: Heb “the years.”


text: Heb “as days of a hired worker he shall be with him.” For this and the following verses see the explanation in P. J. Budd, Leviticus (NCBC), 358-59.


text: Heb “to the mouth of them.”


text: Heb “but if a little remains in the years.”


text: Heb “be with him”; the referent (the one who bought him) has been specified in the translation for clarity.


text: Heb “As a hired worker year in year.”


text: Heb “He”; the referent (the one who bought him) has been specified in the translation for clarity.


text: Heb “And if.”


text: Heb “go out.”


text: Heb “because to me the sons of Israel are servants.”