God’s Word Translation
Leviticus 25:23
23“Land must never be sold permanently, because the land is mine. To me you are strangers without permanent homes.
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
21I will give you my blessing in the sixth year so that the land will produce enough for three years. 22You will plant ⌞again⌟ in the eighth year but live on what the land already produced. You will eat it, even in the ninth year, until the land produces more. “Land must never be sold permanently, because the land is mine. To me you are strangers without permanent homes. 24People must always have the right to buy their property back. 25If your brother becomes poor and sells some of his property, then the one who can assume responsibility, his nearest relative, must buy back what he sold.
Read all of Leviticus 25Leviticus 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.
Cross-references for Leviticus 25:23
- Leviticus 25:10Set apart the fiftieth year as holy, and proclaim liberty to everyone living in the land. This is your jubilee year. Every slave will be freed in order to return to his property and to his family.
- 1 Kings 21:3Naboth told Ahab, “The Lord has forbidden me to give you what I inherited from my ancestors.”
- Ezekiel 48:14They must not sell any of it or trade any of it. They must not let others have the best part of the land, because the land is the Lord’s and it is holy.
- Deuteronomy 32:43Joyfully sing with the Lord’s people, you nations, because he will take revenge for the death of his servants. He will get even with his enemies and make peace for his people’s land.
- 2 Chronicles 7:20then I will uproot Israel from the land I gave them. I will reject this temple that I declared holy for my name. I will make it an example and an object of ridicule for all the people of the world.
- Psalms 24:1The earth and everything it contains are the Lord’s. The world and all who live in it are his.
- Psalms 85:1You favored your land, O Lord. You restored the fortunes of Jacob.
- Isaiah 8:8It will sweep through Judah. It will overflow and pass through; it will be neck-high. Its outspread wings will extend over your whole country, O Immanuel.
- Hosea 9:3The people of Ephraim won’t stay in the Lord’s land. They will return to Egypt, and they will eat unclean food in Assyria.
- Joel 2:18Then the Lord became concerned about his land, and he had pity on his people.
- Joel 3:2I will gather all the nations. I will bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat. I will judge them there. They scattered the Israelites, the people who belong to me, among the nations. They divided my land.
- Genesis 47:9Jacob answered Pharaoh, “The length of my stay on earth has been 130 years. The years of my life have been few and difficult, fewer than my ancestors’ years.”
- 1 Chronicles 29:15To you we are all like our ancestors— foreigners without permanent homes. Our days are as fleeting as shadows on the ground. There’s no hope ⌞for them⌟.
- Psalms 39:12Listen to my prayer, O Lord. Open your ear to my cry for help. Do not be deaf to my tears, for I am a foreign resident with you, a stranger like all my ancestors.
- Psalms 119:19I am a foreigner in this world. Do not hide your commandments from me.
- Hebrews 11:9Faith led Abraham to live as a foreigner in the country that God had promised him. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who received the same promise from God.
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
In the dictionaries
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
God’s Word Translation — © 1995 God’s Word to the Nations Bible Society
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