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Tuesday, December 23rd, 2025
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Read the Bible

Complete Jewish Bible

Leviticus 25:20

"‘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?"

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?"
Contemporary English Version
Don't ever worry about what you will eat during the seventh year when you are forbidden to plant or harvest.
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 "‘You are to count seven Shabbats of years, seven times seven years, that is, forty-nine years. 9 Then, on the tenth day of the seventh month, on Yom-Kippur, you are to sound a blast on the shofar; you are to sound the shofar all through your land; 10 and you are to consecrate the fiftieth year, proclaiming freedom throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It will be a yovel for you; you will return everyone to the land he owns, and everyone is to return to his family. 11 That fiftieth year will be a yovel for you; in that year you are not to sow, harvest what grows by itself or gather the grapes of untended vines; 12 because it is a yovel. It will be holy for you; whatever the fields produce will be food for all of you. 13 In this year of yovel, every one of you is to return to the land he owns. 14 (LY: ii) "‘If you sell anything to your neighbor or buy anything from him, neither of you is to exploit the other. 15 Rather, you are to take into account the number of years after the yovel when you buy land from your neighbor, and he is to sell to you according to the number of years crops will be raised. 16 If the number of years remaining is large, you will raise the price; if few years remain, you will lower it; because what he is really selling you is the number of crops to be produced. 17 Thus you are not to take advantage of each other, but you are to fear your God; for I am Adonai your God.

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 22:23
B'tu'el fathered Rivkah. These eight Milkah bore to Nachor Avraham's brother.
Genesis 24:67
Then Yitz'chak brought her into his mother Sarah's tent and took Rivkah, and she became his wife, and he loved her. Thus was Yitz'chak comforted for the loss of his mother.
Genesis 25:5
Avraham gave everything he owned to Yitz'chak.
Genesis 25:6
But to the sons of the concubines he made grants while he was still living and sent them off to the east, to the land of Kedem, away from Yitz'chak his son.
Genesis 31:18
and carried off all his livestock, along with all the riches he had accumulated, the livestock in his possession which he had acquired in Paddan-Aram, to go to Yitz'chak his father in the land of Kena‘an.
Genesis 31:20
and Ya‘akov outwitted Lavan the Arami by not telling him of his intended flight.
Genesis 31:24
But God came to Lavan the Arami in a dream that night and said to him, "Be careful that you don't say anything to Ya‘akov, either good or bad."
Genesis 35:9
After Ya‘akov arrived from Paddan-Aram, God appeared to him again and blessed him.
Deuteronomy 26:5
"Then, in the presence of Adonai your God, you are to say, ‘My ancestor was a nomad from Aram. He went down into Egypt few in number and stayed. There he became a great, strong, populous nation.
Luke 4:27
Also there were many people with tzara‘at in Isra'el during the time of the prophet Elisha; but not one of them was healed, only Na‘aman the Syrian."

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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