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

21God will cause a lot of food to grow in the sixth year. They will have food for three more years. 22When a person plants seed in the eighth year he will still be eating the crops that he planted in the sixth year. The next time he will harvest the plants from the fields will be in the ninth year. The people must never sell the land for all time. The land belongs to God. He has said that the people can live on it. 24A person may buy land. But he must remember that he may have to sell it back to the seller. 25If a man becomes poor, he can sell some of his land. A person from his family must buy the land back for the man.

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 25:10The year will be special. It is a Jubilee year. It is a time for every one of my people to become free. Everyone can return to his own land and to his family.
• 1 Kings 21:3Naboth replied to Ahab, ‘The Lord will never allow that to happen! It belongs to me because it belonged to my ancestors.’
• Ezekiel 48:14The special part of the land that belongs to the Lord is the best of the whole land. You must not give his land to anyone else or sell it to anyone else. It is holy and it belongs to the Lord.
• Deuteronomy 32:43So you people of other nations, join with God's people to praise him! He will punish those who have killed his servants. He will punish all his enemies. But he will forgive the sins of his people, and he will make their land clean again.
• 2 Chronicles 7:20I will remove the people from the land that I have given to them. I will turn away from this temple that I have made a special place for my people to worship me. People from all the other nations will insult them and they will laugh at them.
• Psalms 24:1The whole earth belongs to the Lord. Everybody who lives in the world and all the things in it belong to him.
• Psalms 85:1Lord, you have blessed your land. You have made Jacob's descendants strong again.
• Isaiah 8:8Its water will come as a flood into Judah. It will cover the land and it will rise as high as people's necks! He will make his wings very wide to cover all your land, Immanuel.’
• Hosea 9:3The Israelites will not remain in the Lord's land. They will have to return to Egypt. In Assyria, they will have to eat food that is unclean.
• Joel 2:18Then the Lord will be careful for his land. He will be kind to his people.
• Joel 3:2Then I will bring all the nations together. I will bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will judge against them because of what they did to my children, my people Israel. Those nations pushed my people out into other countries. They broke up my land and each took pieces.
• Genesis 47:9Jacob replied, ‘I have been alive for 130 years. My years have been few, and they have been difficult. I have not lived for as long as my ancestors lived.’
• 1 Chronicles 29:15We are like strangers and foreign people who live in your world. Our ancestors also lived in that way. We live here only for a short time and then we disappear, like a shadow. We know that we will die one day.
• Psalms 39:12Lord, please hear my prayer. Listen to me when I call to you for help. Do not turn away from me when I weep. I need your help, like a foreign person who lives away from his home. I live on earth as a stranger, like all my ancestors did.
• Psalms 119:19I live like a stranger here on the earth. Please do not hide your commands from me.
• Hebrews 11:9Because of his faith, Abraham went to live like a stranger in that foreign country. God had promised to give that country to him, but Abraham lived there in tents. Isaac and Jacob also lived there in tents like strangers. God had also promised them that the land would belong to them one day.

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