Leviticus 25:18-23

25:18 You must obey my statutes and my regulations; you must be sure to keep them ¹  so that you may live securely in the land. ² 

25:19 “‘The land will give its fruit and you may eat until you are satisfied, ³  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 ⁴  the produce ⁵  for three years, 25:22 and you may sow the eighth year and eat from that sixth year’s produce ⁶  – old produce. Until you bring in the ninth year’s produce, ⁷  you may eat old produce. 25:23 The land must not be sold without reclaim ⁸  because the land belongs to me, for you are foreigners and residents with me. ⁹ 

[25:18]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Heb “and you shall dwell on the land to security.”

[25:19]  ³ tn Heb “eat to satisfaction”; KJV, ASV “ye shall eat your fill.”

[25:21]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Smr and LXX have “its produce” (cf. 25:3, 7, etc.) rather than “the produce.”

[25:22]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn Heb “until the ninth year, until bringing [in] its produce.”

[25:23]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn 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.