Leviticus 25:23

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.

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.

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.

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.

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"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. ²⁵"If one of your brothers becomes poor and has to sell any of his land, his nearest relative is to come and buy back what his brother sold. If a man has no one to redeem it but he later prospers and earns enough for its redemption, he is to calculate the value since he sold it and refund the balance to the man to whom he sold it; he can then go back to his own land. If he doesn't get together enough money to repay him, what he sold remains in the possession of the buyer until the year of Jubilee. In the Jubilee it will be returned and he can go back and live on his land. ²⁹"If a man sells a house in a walled city, he retains the right to buy it back for a full year after the sale. At any time during that year he can redeem it. But if it is not redeemed before the full year has passed, it becomes the permanent possession of the buyer and his descendants. It is not returned in the Jubilee. However, houses in unwalled villages are treated the same as fields. They can be redeemed and have to be returned at the Jubilee. ³²"As to the Levitical cities, houses in the cities owned by the Levites are always subject to redemption. Levitical property is always redeemable if it is sold in a town that they hold and reverts to them in the Jubilee, because the houses in the towns of the Levites are their property among the People of Israel. The pastures belonging to their cities may not be sold; they are their permanent possession. ³⁵"If one of your brothers becomes indigent and cannot support himself, help him, the same as you would a foreigner or a guest so that he can continue to live in your neighborhood. Don't gouge him with interest charges; out of reverence for your God help your brother to continue to live with you in the neighborhood. Don't take advantage of his plight by running up big interest charges on his loans, and don't give him food for profit. I am your God who brought you out of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.

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 25:1
Abraham married a second time; his new wife was named Keturah. She gave birth to Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah.

Genesis 25:5
But Abraham gave everything he possessed to Isaac. While he was still living, he gave gifts to the sons he had by his concubines, but then sent them away to the country of the east, putting a good distance between them and his son Isaac.

Genesis 25:7
Abraham lived 175 years. Then he took his final breath. He died happy at a ripe old age, full of years, and was buried with his family. His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite, next to Mamre. It was the field that Abraham had bought from the Hittites. Abraham was buried next to his wife Sarah. After Abraham's death, God blessed his son Isaac. Isaac lived at Beer Lahai Roi.

Genesis 25:12
This is the family tree of Ishmael son of Abraham, the son that Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's maid, bore to Abraham.

Genesis 25:13
These are the names of Ishmael's sons in the order of their births: Nebaioth, Ishmael's firstborn, Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah—all the sons of Ishmael. Their settlements and encampments were named after them. Twelve princes with their twelve tribes.

Genesis 25:17
Ishmael lived 137 years. When he breathed his last and died he was buried with his family. His children settled down all the way from Havilah near Egypt eastward to Shur in the direction of Assyria. The Ishmaelites didn't get along with any of their kin.

Genesis 25:27
The boys grew up. Esau became an expert hunter, an outdoorsman. Jacob was a quiet man preferring life indoors among the tents. Isaac loved Esau because he loved his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.

Genesis 32:6
The messengers came back to Jacob and said, "We talked to your brother Esau and he's on his way to meet you. But he has four hundred men with him."

Genesis 36:31
And these are the kings who ruled in Edom before there was a king in Israel: Bela son of Beor was the king of Edom; the name of his city was Dinhabah. When Bela died, Jobab son of Zerah from Bozrah became the next king. When Jobab died, he was followed by Hushan from the land of the Temanites. When Hushan died, he was followed by Hadad son of Bedad; he was the king who defeated the Midianites in Moab; the name of his city was Avith. When Hadad died, Samlah of Masrekah became the next king. When Samlah died, Shaul from Rehoboth-on-the-River became king. When Shaul died, he was followed by Baal-Hanan son of Acbor. When Baal-Hanan son of Acbor died, Hadad became king; the name of his city was Pau; his wife's name was Mehetabel daughter of Matred, daughter of Me-Zahab.

Numbers 20:14
Moses sent emissaries from Kadesh to the king of Edom with this message: "A message from your brother Israel: You are familiar with all the trouble we've run into. Our ancestors went down to Egypt and lived there a long time. The Egyptians viciously abused both us and our ancestors. But when we cried out for help to God , he heard our cry. He sent an angel and got us out of Egypt. And now here we are at Kadesh, a town at the border of your land.

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.