Leviticus 25:23

Leviticus 25:23 in other versions

• King James Version (KJV)The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.
• New International Version (NIV)“ ‘The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you reside in my land as foreigners and strangers.
• English Standard Version (ESV)"The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me.
• New King James Version (NKJV)‘The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with Me.

Context of Leviticus 25:23

21then [this is My answer:] I will order My [special] blessing for you in the sixth year, so that it will produce [sufficient] crops for three years. 22When you are sowing the eighth year, you can still eat old things from the crops, eating the old until the ninth year when its crop comes in. ‘The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; you are [only] foreigners and temporary residents with Me. 24So in all the country that you possess, you are to provide for the redemption of the land [in the Year of Jubilee]. 25‘If a fellow countryman of yours becomes so poor he has to sell some of his property, then his nearest relative is to come and buy back (redeem) what his relative has sold.

Leviticus 25:23 word by word

וְהָאָ֗רֶץ לֹ֤א תִמָּכֵר֙ לִצְמִתֻ֔ת כִּי־לִ֖י הָאָ֑רֶץ כִּֽי־גֵרִ֧ים וְתוֹשָׁבִ֛ים אַתֶּ֖ם עִמָּדִֽי׃Read the interlinear

Words taken from the KJV.

• The landאֶ֫רֶץ'erets · land: country/planetH776
• shall not be soldמָכַרmâkar · to sellH4376
• for everצְמִיתֻתtsemîythûth tsemithûth · finalityH6783
• strangersגֵּרgêr gêyr · sojournerH1616
• and sojournersתּוֹשָׁבtôshâb tôshâb · sojournerH8453

Cross-references for Leviticus 25:23

• Leviticus 25:10And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim freedom [for the slaves] throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee (year of remission) for you, and each of you shall return to his own [ancestral] property [that was sold to another because of poverty], and each of you shall return to his family [from whom he was separated by bondage].
• 1 Kings 21:3But Naboth said to Ahab, “The Lord forbid me that I should give the inheritance of my fathers to you.”
• Ezekiel 48:14And they shall not sell any of it or exchange it, or allow this choice portion of land to pass to others; for it is holy to the Lord.
• Deuteronomy 32:43Rejoice, O nations, with His people; For He will avenge the blood of His servants, And will render vengeance on His adversaries, And will atone for His land and His people.”
• 2 Chronicles 7:20then I will uproot Israel from My land which I have given them; and I will cast this house, which I have consecrated for My Name, out of My sight, and will make it a proverb and an object of scorn among all nations.
• Psalms 24:1The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness of it, The world, and those who dwell in it.
• Psalms 85:1O Lord, You have [at last] shown favor to Your land [of Canaan]; You have restored [from Babylon] the captives of Jacob (Israel).
• Isaiah 8:8Then it will sweep on into Judah; it will overflow and pass through [the hills], Reaching even to the neck [of which Jerusalem is the head], And its outstretched wings (the armies of Assyria) will fill the width of Your land, O Immanuel.
• Hosea 9:3They will not remain in the land of the Lord, But Ephraim will return to [another] Egypt [in bondage] And they will eat [ceremonially] unclean food in Assyria.
• Joel 2:18Then the Lord will be jealous for His land [ready to defend it since it is rightfully and uniquely His] And will have compassion on His people [and will spare them].
• Joel 3:2I will gather together all the [Gentile] nations [that were hostile to My people] And bring them down into the Valley of Jehoshaphat (the Lord has judged). And there I will deal with them and enter into judgment with them there For [their treatment of] My people, My inheritance, Israel, Whom they have scattered among the nations, And [because] they have encroached on My land and divided it up.
• Genesis 47:9Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty. Few and unpleasant have been the years of my life, and they have not reached the years that my fathers lived during the days of their pilgrimage.”
• 1 Chronicles 29:15For we are sojourners before You, and tenants, as all our fathers were; our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no hope [of remaining].
• Psalms 39:12“Hear my prayer, O Lord, and listen to my cry; Do not be silent at my tears; For I am Your temporary guest, A sojourner like all my fathers.
• Psalms 119:19I am a stranger on the earth; Do not hide Your commandments from me.
• Hebrews 11:9By faith he lived as a foreigner in the promised land, as in a strange land, living in tents [as nomads] with Isaac and Jacob, who were fellow heirs of the same promise.

Commentaries on Leviticus 25:23

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 23The land shall not be sold for ever - the land is mine - As God in a miraculous manner gave them possession of this land, they were therefore to consider themselves merely as tenants to him; and on this ground he, as the great landholder or lord of the soil, prescribes to them all the conditions on which they shall hold it. This one circumstance was peculiarly favorable to their advancement in religion, in righteousness, and true holiness; for feeling…Read the comment
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 23These 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. Leviticus 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.Read the comment
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 23-34Verses 23-34 If the land were not redeemed before the year of jubilee, it then returned to him that sold or mortgaged it. This was a figure of the free grace of God in Christ; by which, and not by any price or merit of our own, we are restored to the favour of God. Houses in walled cities were more the fruits of their own industry than land in the country, which was the direct gift of God's bounty; therefore if a man sold a house in a city, he might…Read the comment
• Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 23it is Mine: Israel did not own the land in an absolute way. Their right to live there depended on the covenant, because God himself gave them the land (Deuteronomy 1:8, 39). From this idea of God’s ownership comes the call to care for the land as stewards and to share material resources with others.Read the comment
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 23-2823-28. 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. In necessitous circumstances, individuals might effect a temporary sale. But they possessed the…Read the comment

Topics related to Leviticus 25:23

• Agriculture
• God Continued...
• Jubilee
• Land

In the dictionaries

• Accord
• Compel
• Decay
• Fill
• Increase
• Naboth
• Redeem
• Redemption
• Rest
• Sabbath

Commentaries on Leviticus 25

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
• Tyndale Open Study Notes
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
• Rashi on Tanakh
• Calvin’s Commentaries
• Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
• John Wesley’s Notes
• Darby Translation Notes
• Geneva Bible Translation Notes
• Kingcomments
• Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
• Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
• Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
• Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
• EGW Writings