Leviticus 25
Lutheran reading notes
In Leviticus chapter 25, the story continues to develop the theme of holiness, priesthood, sacrifice, and covenant worship. Lutheran interpretation often highlights how the events reveal humanity’s need for God’s grace and the reliability of God's promises. The chapter illustrates both the reality of human weakness and the faithfulness of God who works through history.
1
And the LORD spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying,
Leviticus 25:1 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
2
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD. {keep: Heb. rest}
Leviticus 25:2 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
3
Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof;
Leviticus 25:3 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
4
But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.
Leviticus 25:4 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
5
That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: {for} it is a year of rest unto the land. {of thy vine...: Heb. of thy separation}
Leviticus 25:5 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
6
And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee,
Leviticus 25:6 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
7
And for thy cattle, and for the beast that {are} in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat.
Leviticus 25:7 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
8
And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.
Leviticus 25:8 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
9
Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth {day} of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. {of the jubile: Heb. loud of sound}
Leviticus 25:9 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
10
And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout {all} the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.
Leviticus 25:10 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
11
A jubile shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather {the grapes} in it of thy vine undressed.
Leviticus 25:11 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
12
For it {is} the jubile; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field.
Leviticus 25:12 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
13
In the year of this jubile ye shall return every man unto his possession.
Leviticus 25:13 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
14
And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbour, or buyest {ought} of thy neighbour's hand, ye shall not oppress one another:
Leviticus 25:14 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
15
According to the number of years after the jubile thou shalt buy of thy neighbour, {and} according unto the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee:
Leviticus 25:15 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
16
According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it: for {according} to the number {of the years} of the fruits doth he sell unto thee.
Leviticus 25:16 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
17
Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I {am} the LORD your God.
Leviticus 25:17 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
18
Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety.
Leviticus 25:18 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
19
And the land shall yield her fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety.
Leviticus 25:19 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
20
And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase:
Leviticus 25:20 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
21
Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years.
22
And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat {yet} of old fruit until the ninth year; until her fruits come in ye shall eat {of} the old {store}.
Leviticus 25:22 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
23
The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land {is} mine; for ye {are} strangers and sojourners with me. {for ever: or, to be quite cut off: Heb. for cutting off}
Leviticus 25:23 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
24
And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land.
Leviticus 25:24 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
25
If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away {some} of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold.
Leviticus 25:25 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
26
And if the man have none to redeem it, and himself be able to redeem it; {himself...: Heb. his hand hath attained and found sufficiency}
Leviticus 25:26 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
27
Then let him count the years of the sale thereof, and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it; that he may return unto his possession.
Leviticus 25:27 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
28
But if he be not able to restore {it} to him, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it until the year of jubile: and in the jubile it shall go out, and he shall return unto his possession.
Leviticus 25:28 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
29
And if a man sell a dwelling house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; {within} a full year may he redeem it.
Leviticus 25:29 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
30
And if it be not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that {is} in the walled city shall be established for ever to him that bought it throughout his generations: it shall not go out in the jubile.
Leviticus 25:30 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
31
But the houses of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be counted as the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubile. {they may...: Heb. redemption belongeth unto it}
Leviticus 25:31 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
32
Notwithstanding the cities of the Levites, {and} the houses of the cities of their possession, may the Levites redeem at any time.
Leviticus 25:32 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
33
And if a man purchase of the Levites, then the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, shall go out in {the year of} jubile: for the houses of the cities of the Levites {are} their possession among the children of Israel. {a man...: or, one of the Levites redeem them}
Leviticus 25:33 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
34
But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it {is} their perpetual possession.
Leviticus 25:34 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
35
And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him: {yea, though he be} a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee. {fallen...: Heb. his hand faileth} {relieve: Heb. strengthen}
Leviticus 25:35 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
36
Take thou no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee.
Leviticus 25:36 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
37
Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase.
Leviticus 25:37 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
38
I {am} the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, {and} to be your God.
Leviticus 25:38 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
39
And if thy brother {that dwelleth} by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant: {compel...: Heb. serve thyself with him with the service, etc}
Leviticus 25:39 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
40
{But} as an hired servant, {and} as a sojourner, he shall be with thee, {and} shall serve thee unto the year of jubile:
Leviticus 25:40 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
41
And {then} shall he depart from thee, {both} he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return.
Leviticus 25:41 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
42
For they {are} my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondmen. {as...: Heb. with the sale of a bondman}
Leviticus 25:42 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
43
Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour; but shalt fear thy God.
Leviticus 25:43 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
44
Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, {shall be} of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids.
Leviticus 25:44 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
45
Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that {are} with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession.
Leviticus 25:45 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
46
And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit {them for} a possession; they shall be your bondmen for ever: but over your brethren the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigour. {they...: Heb. ye shall serve yourselves with them}
Leviticus 25:46 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
47
And if a sojourner or stranger wax rich by thee, and thy brother {that dwelleth} by him wax poor, and sell himself unto the stranger {or} sojourner by thee, or to the stock of the stranger's family: {wax rich...: Heb. his hand obtain, etc}
Leviticus 25:47 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
48
After that he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of his brethren may redeem him:
Leviticus 25:48 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
49
Either his uncle, or his uncle's son, may redeem him, or {any} that is nigh of kin unto him of his family may redeem him; or if he be able, he may redeem himself.
50
And he shall reckon with him that bought him from the year that he was sold to him unto the year of jubile: and the price of his sale shall be according unto the number of years, according to the time of an hired servant shall it be with him.
Leviticus 25:50 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
51
If {there be} yet many years {behind}, according unto them he shall give again the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for.
Leviticus 25:51 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
52
And if there remain but few years unto the year of jubile, then he shall count with him, {and} according unto his years shall he give him again the price of his redemption.
Leviticus 25:52 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
53
{And} as a yearly hired servant shall he be with him: {and the other} shall not rule with rigour over him in thy sight.
Leviticus 25:53 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
54
And if he be not redeemed in these {years}, then he shall go out in the year of jubile, {both} he, and his children with him. {in these...: or, by these means}
Leviticus 25:54 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.
55
For unto me the children of Israel {are} servants; they {are} my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I {am} the LORD your God.
Leviticus 25:55 highlights holiness and worship with emphasis on law, gospel, grace, and faith.