Lectionary Calendar
Saturday, August 9th, 2025
the Week of Proper 13 / Ordinary 18
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Read the Bible

Hebrew Names Version

Leviticus 25:20

If you shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? Behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase;

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

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.
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 You shall number seven Shabbatot of years to you, seven times seven years; and there shall be to you the days of seven Shabbatot of years, even forty-nine years. 9 Then shall you send abroad the loud shofar on the tenth day of the seventh month; in Yom Kippur shall you send abroad the shofar throughout all your land. 10 You shall make the fiftieth year holy, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants of it: it shall be a jubilee to you; and you shall return every man to his possession, and you shall return every man to his family. 11 A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be to you: you shall not sow, neither reap that which grows of itself in it, nor gather [the grapes] in it of the undressed vines. 12 For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you: you shall eat the increase of it out of the field. 13 In this year of jubilee you shall return every man to his possession. 14 If you sell anything to your neighbor, or buy of your neighbor's hand, you shall not wrong one another. 15 According to the number of years after the jubilee you shall buy of your neighbor, [and] according to the number of years of the crops he shall sell to you. 16 According to the length of the years you shall increase the price of it, and according to the shortness of the years you shall diminish the price of it; for the number of the crops does he sell to you. 17 You shall not wrong one another; but you shall fear your God: for I am the LORD 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
Betu'el became the father of Rivka. These eight Milkah bore to Nachor, Avraham's brother.
Genesis 24:67
Yitzchak brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, and took Rivka, and she became his wife. He loved her. Yitzchak was comforted after his mother's death.
Genesis 25:5
Avraham gave all that he had to Yitzchak,
Genesis 25:6
but to the sons of the concubines who Avraham had, Avraham gave gifts. He sent them away from Yitzchak his son, while he yet lived, eastward, to the east country.
Genesis 31:18
and he carried away all his cattle, and all his substance which he had gathered, the cattle of his getting, which he had gathered in Paddan-Aram, to go to Yitzchak his father to the land of Kana`an.
Genesis 31:20
Ya`akov deceived Lavan the Arammian, in that he didn't tell him that he was running away.
Genesis 31:24
God came to Lavan, the Arammian, in a dream of the night, and said to him, "Take heed to yourself that you don't speak to Ya`akov either good or bad."
Genesis 35:9
God appeared to Ya`akov again, when he came from Paddan-Aram, and blessed him.
Deuteronomy 26:5
You shall answer and say before the LORD your God, A Arammian ready to perish was my father; and he went down into Mitzrayim, and sojourned there, few in number; and he became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous.
Luke 4:27
There were many lepers in Yisra'el in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed, except Na`aman, the Arammian."

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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