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Contemporary English Version

Leviticus 25:20

Don't ever worry about what you will eat during the seventh year when you are forbidden to plant or harvest.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Agriculture;   Blessing;   Jubilee;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Feast of Sabbatical Year, the;   Seed;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Jubilee;   Poor;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Sabbatical year;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Jubilee, Year of;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Sabbatical Year;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Festivals;   Leviticus;   Number Systems and Number Symbolism;   Pentateuch;   Year of Jubilee;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Canon of the Old Testament;   Congregation, Assembly;   Crimes and Punishments;   Deuteronomy;   Hexateuch;   Holiness;   Law;   Leviticus;   Poverty;   Priests and Levites;   Sabbatical Year;   Sanctification, Sanctify;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Feasts;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Jubilee;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Jubilee, the Year of;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Weeks;   Year;  

Encyclopedias:

- Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia - Sabbath and Feasts;   International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Agrarian Laws;   Jubilee Year;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Restraints on Alienation;   Sidra;  

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
If you shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? Behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase;
King James Version
And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase:
Lexham English Bible
And if you should say, "What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we do not sow and we do not gather its yield?"
New Century Version
"‘But you might ask, "If we don't plant seeds or gather crops, what will we eat the seventh year?"
New English Translation
If you say, ‘What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not sow and gather our produce?'
Amplified Bible
'And if you say, "What are we going to eat in the seventh year if we do not sow [seed] or gather in our crops?"
New American Standard Bible
'But if you say, "What are we going to eat in the seventh year if we do not sow nor gather in our produce?"
Geneva Bible (1587)
And if ye shall say, What shall we eate the seuenth yeere, for we shall not sowe, nor gather in our increase?
Legacy Standard Bible
But if you say, "What are we going to eat on the seventh year if we do not sow or gather in our produce?"
Complete Jewish Bible
"‘If you ask, "If we aren't allowed to sow seed or harvest what our land produces, what are we going to eat the seventh year?"
Darby Translation
And if ye say, What shall we eat in the seventh year? behold, we may not sow, nor gather in our produce;
Easy-to-Read Version
"But maybe you will say, ‘If we don't plant seeds or gather our crops, we will not have anything to eat during the seventh year.'
English Standard Version
And if you say, ‘What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we may not sow or gather in our crop?'
George Lamsa Translation
And if you shall say, What shall we eat in the seventh year? For we shall not sow, nor gather in the produce thereof;
Good News Translation
But someone may ask what there will be to eat during the seventh year, when no fields are planted and no crops gathered.
Christian Standard Bible®
If you wonder: ‘What will we eat in the seventh year if we don’t sow or gather our produce?’
Literal Translation
And when you say, What shall we eat in the seventh year; for, lo, we may not sow nor gather our increase?
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
And yf ye wolde saye: What shall we eate in the seuenth yeare, in as moch as we shal not sowe, ner gather in oure increase?
American Standard Version
And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase;
Bible in Basic English
And if you say, Where will our food come from in the seventh year, when we may not put in seed, or get in the increase
Bishop's Bible (1568)
And yf ye shall say, what shall we eate the seuenth yere? for we shall not sowe, nor gather in our increase:
JPS Old Testament (1917)
And if ye shall say: 'What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we may not sow, nor gather in our increase';
King James Version (1611)
And if ye shall say, What shall we eate the seuenth yeere? Behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase:
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And if ye should say, What shall we eat in this seventh year, if we do not sow nor gather in our fruits?
English Revised Version
And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase:
Berean Standard Bible
Now you may wonder, 'What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not sow or gather our produce?'
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
That if ye seien, what schulen we ete in the seuenthe yeer, if we sowen not, nether gaderen oure fruytis?
Young's Literal Translation
`And when ye say, What do we eat in the seventh year, lo, we do not sow, nor gather our increase?
Update Bible Version
And if you shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? Look, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase;
Webster's Bible Translation
And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow nor gather in our increase:
World English Bible
If you shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? Behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase;
New King James Version
"And if you say, "What shall we eat in the seventh year, since we shall not sow nor gather in our produce?"
New Living Translation
But you might ask, ‘What will we eat during the seventh year, since we are not allowed to plant or harvest crops that year?'
New Life Bible
If you say, "What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not plant seeds or gather in the food of our field?"
New Revised Standard
Should you ask, "What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we may not sow or gather in our crop?"
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And since ye may say, What shall we eat in the seventh year? Lo! we are not to sow, neither are we to gather our increase!
Douay-Rheims Bible
But if you say: What shall we eat the seventh year, if we sow not, nor gather our fruits?
Revised Standard Version
And if you say, 'What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we may not sow or gather in our crop?'
New American Standard Bible (1995)
'But if you say, "What are we going to eat on the seventh year if we do not sow or gather in our crops?"

Contextual Overview

8 The Lord said to his people: Once every forty-nine years 9 on the tenth day of the seventh month, which is also the Great Day of Forgiveness, trumpets are to be blown everywhere in the land. 10 This fiftieth year is sacred—it is a time of freedom and of celebration when everyone will receive back their original property, and slaves will return home to their families. 11 This is a year of complete celebration, so don't plant any seed or harvest what your fields or vineyards produce. 12 In this time of sacred celebration you may eat only what grows on its own. 13 During this year, all property must go back to its original owner. 14So when you buy or sell farmland, the price is to be determined by the number of crops it can produce before the next Year of Celebration. Don't try to cheat. 16 If it is a long time before the next Year of Celebration, the price will be higher, because what is really being sold are the crops that the land can produce. 17 I am the Lord your God, so obey me and don't cheat anyone. 18If you obey my laws and teachings, you will live safely in the land and enjoy its abundant crops.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Numbers 11:4, Numbers 11:13, 2 Kings 6:15-17, 2 Kings 7:2, 2 Chronicles 25:9, Psalms 78:19, Psalms 78:20, Isaiah 1:2, Matthew 6:25-34, Matthew 8:26, Luke 12:29, Philippians 4:6, Hebrews 13:5, Hebrews 13:6

Reciprocal: Exodus 23:11 - the seventh Leviticus 25:4 - General 2 Kings 19:29 - Ye shall eat Isaiah 37:30 - Ye shall Matthew 6:31 - What shall we eat Matthew 6:33 - and all

Cross-References

Genesis 24:67
Isaac took Rebekah into the tent where his mother had lived before she died, and Rebekah became his wife. He loved her and was comforted over the loss of his mother.
Genesis 25:5
While Abraham was still alive, he gave gifts to the sons of Hagar and Keturah. He also sent their sons to live in the east far from his son Isaac, and when Abraham died, he left everything to Isaac.
Genesis 31:18
for the home of his father Isaac in Canaan. Jacob took all of the flocks, herds, and other property that he had gotten in northern Syria.
Genesis 31:20
Jacob tricked Laban the Aramean by not saying that he intended to leave.
Genesis 31:24
But God appeared to Laban in a dream that night and warned, "Don't say a word to Jacob. Don't make a threat or a promise."
Genesis 35:9
After Jacob came back to the land of Canaan, God appeared to him again. This time he gave Jacob a new name and blessed him by saying: I am God All-Powerful, and from now on your name will be Israel instead of Jacob. You will have many children. Your descendants will become nations, and some of the men in your family will even be kings.
Deuteronomy 26:5
Then, standing there in front of the place of worship, you must pray: My ancestor was homeless, an Aramean who went to live in Egypt. There were only a few in his family then, but they became great and powerful, a nation of many people.
Luke 4:27
During the time of the prophet Elisha, many men in Israel had leprosy. But no one was healed, except Naaman who lived in Syria.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And ye shall say, what shall ye eat the seventh year?.... Such as are of little faith, disbelieve the promise, and distrust the providence of God, and take thought for tomorrow, and indulge an anxiety of mind how they shall be provided with food in the sabbatical year ordered to be observed, in which there were to be no tillage of land, nor pruning of trees:

behold, we shall not sow; that being forbidden:

nor gather in our increase; neither the barley, nor the wheat, nor the grapes, nor olives, nor figs, into their houses and barns, to lay up for stores, as in other years; though they might go out and gather in for present use in common with others: now if any should put the above question, as it was very likely some would, in such a view of things, the answer to it follows.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Leviticus 25:20. What shall we eat the seventh year? — A very natural question, which could only be laid at rest by the sovereign promise in the next verse: I will COMMAND my BLESSING upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for THREE YEARS. Leviticus 25:2; Leviticus 25:2.


 
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