Leviticus 25:23

Good News Translation

Your land must not be sold on a permanent basis, because you do not own it; it belongs to God, and you are like foreigners who are allowed to make use of it.

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
The land shall not be sold in perpetuity; for the land is mine: for you are strangers and sojourners with me.

King James Version
The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine, for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.

Lexham English Bible
"‘But the land must not be sold in perpetuity, because the land is mine, because you are aliens and temporary residents with me.

New Century Version
"‘The land really belongs to me, so you can't sell it for all time. You are only foreigners and travelers living for a while on my land.

New English Translation
The land must not be sold without reclaim because the land belongs to me, for you are foreigners and residents with me.

Amplified Bible
'The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; you are [only] foreigners and temporary residents with Me.

New American Standard Bible
'The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, because the land is Mine; for you are only strangers and residents with Me.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Also the lande shall not be solde to be cut off from the familie: for the land is mine, and ye be but strangers and soiourners with me.

Legacy Standard Bible
‘The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are but sojourners and foreign residents with Me.

Contemporary English Version
No land may be permanently bought or sold. It all belongs to me—it isn't your land, and you only live there for a little while.

Complete Jewish Bible
"‘The land is not to be sold in perpetuity, because the land belongs to me — you are only foreigners and temporary residents with me.

Darby Translation
And the land shall not be sold for ever; for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.

Easy-to-Read Version
"The land really belongs to me, so you cannot sell it permanently. You are only foreigners and travelers living on my land with me.

English Standard Version
"The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me.

George Lamsa Translation
Surely the land shall not be sold outright; for the land is mine; you are strangers and sojourners with me.

Christian Standard Bible®
“The land is not to be permanently sold because it is mine, and you are only aliens and temporary residents on my land.

Literal Translation
And the land shall not be sold in perpetuity; for the land is Mine; for you are aliens and tenants with Me.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Therfore shall ye not sell the londe for euer, for the lode is myne. And ye are straungers and indwellers before me.

American Standard Version
And the land shall not be sold in perpetuity; for the land is mine: for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.

Bible in Basic English
No exchange of land may be for ever, for the land is mine, and you are as my guests, living with me for a time.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
The lande shall not be solde to waste: for the lande is myne, & ye be but staungers and soiourners with me.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And the land shall not be sold in perpetuity; for the land is Mine; for ye are strangers and settlers with Me.

King James Version (1611)
The land shall not be sold for euer: for the land is mine, for ye were strangers and soiourners with me.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And the land shall not be sold for a permanence; for the land is mine, because ye are strangers and sojourners before me.

English Revised Version
And the land shall not be sold in perpetuity; for the land is mine: for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.

Berean Standard Bible
The land must not be sold permanently, because it is Mine, and you are but foreigners and sojourners with Me.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Also the lond schal not be seeld `in to with outen ende, for it is myn, and ye ben my comelyngis and tenauntis;

Young's Literal Translation
`And the land is not sold -- to extinction, for the land [is] Mine, for sojourners and settlers [are] ye with Me;

Update Bible Version
And the land shall not be sold in perpetuity; for the land is mine: for you are strangers and sojourners with me.

Webster's Bible Translation
The land shall not be sold for ever; for the land [is] mine, for ye [are] strangers and sojourners with me.

World English Bible
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
"The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with Me.

New Living Translation
"The land must never be sold on a permanent basis, for the land belongs to me. You are only foreigners and tenant farmers working for me.

New Life Bible
‘The land will not be sold to be kept forever. For the land is Mine. You are only strangers staying with Me.

New Revised Standard
The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; with me you are but aliens and tenants.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
The land moreover shall not be sold beyond recovery, for, mine, is the land, - for, sojourners and settlers, ye are with me.

Douay-Rheims Bible
The land also shall not be sold for ever: because it is mine, and you are strangers and sojourners with me.

Revised Standard Version
The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with me.

THE MESSAGE
"The land cannot be sold permanently because the land is mine and you are foreigners—you're my tenants. You must provide for the right of redemption for any of the land that you own.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
'The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are but aliens and sojourners with Me.

Contextual Overview

²³ Your land must not be sold on a permanent basis, because you do not own it; it belongs to God, and you are like foreigners who are allowed to make use of it. ²⁴ When land is sold, the right of the original owner to buy it back must be recognized. ²⁵ If any of you Israelites become poor and are forced to sell your land, your closest relative is to buy it back. ²⁶ If you have no relative to buy it back, you may later become prosperous and have enough to buy it back yourself. ²⁷ In that case you must pay to the one who bought it a sum that will make up for the years remaining until the next Year of Restoration, when you would in any event recover your land. ²⁸ But if you do not have enough money to buy the land back, it remains under the control of the one who bought it until the next Year of Restoration. In that year it will be returned to its original owner. ²⁹ If you sell a house in a walled city, you have the right to buy it back during the first full year from the date of sale. ³⁰ But if you do not buy it back within the year, you lose the right of repurchase, and the house becomes the permanent property of the purchasers and their descendants; it will not be returned in the Year of Restoration. ³¹ But houses in unwalled villages are to be treated like fields; the original owner has the right to buy them back, and they are to be returned in the Year of Restoration. ³² However, Levites have the right to buy back at any time their property in the cities assigned to them.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

The land: Leviticus 25:10, 1 Kings 21:3, Ezekiel 48:14

for ever: or, to be quite cut off, Heb. for cutting off, for the land. Deuteronomy 32:43, 2 Chronicles 7:20, Psalms 24:1, Psalms 85:1, Isaiah 8:8, Hosea 9:3, Joel 2:18, Joel 3:2

for ye are: Genesis 47:9, 1 Chronicles 29:15, Psalms 39:12, Psalms 119:19, Hebrews 11:9-13, 1 Peter 2:11

Reciprocal: Genesis 23:4 - stranger Exodus 21:6 - for ever Leviticus 25:34 - General Numbers 36:4 - General 1 Samuel 1:22 - for ever Jeremiah 32:7 - for Ezekiel 45:1 - ye shall offer

Cross-References

Genesis 17:4
"I make this covenant with you: I promise that you will be the ancestor of many nations.

Genesis 17:16
I will bless her, and I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she will become the mother of nations, and there will be kings among her descendants."

Genesis 24:60
And they gave Rebecca their blessing in these words: "May you, sister, become the mother of millions! May your descendants conquer the cities of their enemies!"

Genesis 25:1
Abraham married another woman, whose name was Keturah.

Genesis 25:2
She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah.

Genesis 25:5
Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac;

Genesis 25:6
but while he was still alive, he gave presents to the sons his other wives had borne him. Then he sent these sons to the land of the East, away from his son Isaac.

Genesis 25:7
Abraham died at the ripe old age of 175.

Genesis 25:9
His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in Machpelah Cave, in the field east of Mamre that had belonged to Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite.

Genesis 25:10
It was the field that Abraham had bought from the Hittites; both Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried there.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

The land shall not be sold for ever,.... That is, the land of Israel; the meaning is, any part of it, for that the whole might be sold or disposed of at once is not to be supposed, but anyone part of it, which was the property of a single man, or belonged to a family; though it might be sold in case of necessity, yet not for ever, so as never to return to the owner, or his heirs; for if it was sold for ever it returned in the year of the jubilee: the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan render the word "absolutely", simply, properly; a proper absolute sale was not to be made, but a conditional one, or for so many years, or with a view to its reversion in the year of jubilee, and so the agreement to be made according to the number of years, as before directed: the word, as Aben Ezra observes, signifies "cutting off", and the sense is, that no land should be sold entirely, so as that the proprietor or his heirs should be wholly cut off from it, or that the entail of it upon the family should be cut off:

for the land [is] mine; as indeed the whole earth is, but the land of Canaan was peculiarly his, which he had chosen above all other lands for the inheritance of his people; out of which he drove the old inhabitants of it for their sins, and put in his own people to possess it under him; where he himself had his dwelling place, and where he was served and worshipped, and where the Messiah was to be born, and was born, and therefore called Immanuel's land; and which was a figure of the better country, or the heavenly glory and happiness, which is of God's preparing and giving, and will never be alienated from those whose right it is:

for ye [are] strangers and sojourners with me; as the Gentiles that lived among them were strangers and sojourners with them, so they were with the Lord; he was the original proprietor, they were but tenants at will; though it was both an honour and happiness to be with him, under any character, to board, and lodge, and dwell with him; and they might well be content to be reckoned not proprietors but strangers and sojourners, and especially such as had faith and hope in a better inheritance, of which this was only a figure; however, this being their present case, it was a reason good, why they could not for ever dispose of their lands and possessions, any more than a sojourner or inmate can of a house of which he has only a part.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

These 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.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Leviticus 25:23. The 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 favourable to their advancement in religion, in righteousness, and true holiness; for feeling that they had nothing which they could call their own upon earth, they must frequently, by this, be put in mind of the necessity of having a permanent dwelling in the heavenly inheritance, and of that preparation without which it could not be possessed.