The Sabbath of the land shall be for food for you; for yourself, for your servant, for your maid, for your hired servant, and for your stranger, who lives as a foreigner with you. For your livestock also, and for the animals that are in your land, shall all its increase be for food.
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Leviticus 25:6-7 sits inside this longer paragraph.
Yahweh said to Moses in Mount Sinai, “Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep a Sabbath to Yahweh. You shall sow your field six years, and you shall prune your vineyard six years, and gather in its fruits; but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to Yahweh. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. What grows of itself in your harvest you shall not reap, and you shall not gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. The Sabbath of the land shall be for food for you; for yourself, for your servant, for your maid, for your hired servant, and for your stranger, who lives as a foreigner with you. For your livestock also, and for the animals that are in your land, shall all its increase be for food.
Parallel Translations
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The Sabbath of the land shall be for food for you; for yourself, for your servant, for your maid, for your hired servant, and for your stranger, who lives as a foreigner with you.
For your livestock also, and for the animals that are in your land, shall all its increase be for food.
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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,
And for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat.
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And the sabbath-produce of the land shall be for food for you: for thee, and for thy servant and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant and for the settler by thy side that sojourn with thee;
and for thy cattle, and for the beasts that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be for food.
Cross-references (5)
- Exodus 23:11 (v6) but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the animal of the…
- Leviticus 25:20 (v6) If you said, “What shall we eat the seventh year? Behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase;”
- Acts 2:44 (v6) All who believed were together, and had all things in common.
- Acts 4:32 (v6) The multitude of those who believed were of one heart and soul. Not one of them claimed that anything of the things which he possessed was…
- Acts 4:34-35 (v6) For neither was there among them any who lacked, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (11 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On v6 That which the land bringeth forth in her rest.
That which the land bringeth forth in her rest.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On v6 Lev 25:6 And the sabbath of the land shall…
Lev 25:6 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,
Ver. 6. Shall be meat for you.] Thus God taught and inured them to depend upon his providence, and to feed on faith, as some read that text. {Psa 37:3} For though the owner of the field might gather, even on that year, for the maintenance of himself and family, yet he was neither to sow his field, thereby to increase his harvest, nor to hedge his field, or lock up his vineyard, &c.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On v6 The sabbath, i.e. the growth of the sabbath, or…
The sabbath, i.e. the growth of the sabbath, or that fruit which groweth in the sabbatical year. See on Lev 23:38, where the word sabbath is taken in the like sense.
For thee, and for thy servant; for all promiscuously, to take food from thence as they need it.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv6–7 And the sabbath of the land shall be meat…
And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you,...., That is, that which grew up of itself but of the land, or on trees, vines, olives, &c. undressed, should be the meat or food on which they should live that year: and this comprehends everything that is fit for food, and also for drink, and for anointing, and even for the lighting of lamps, as in the Misnah (q):
for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid; the owner of the fields and vineyards, he and his family, wife, children, and servants, might eat of the fruits of them in common with others; for whereas it is elsewhere said, Exo 23:11, "that the poor of thy people may eat", this is observed here, lest anyone should think the rich are forbid eating them, as Jarchi remarks:
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and for thy hired servant, and for the stranger that sojourneth with thee: which the same writer interprets of Gentiles; the food of this year was common to masters and servants, to rich and poor, to Israelites and Gentiles; all had an equal right unto, and share therein; which might be an emblem of the first times of the Gospel, in which all things were had in common, Act 4:32, and typical of the communion of saints in things spiritual; in salvation by Jesus Christ, common to Jews and Gentiles, high and low, bond and free; in the free and full forgiveness of sins by his blood; and in justification by his righteousness, which is unto all, and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference; in the participation of faith, and other graces, which are alike precious, and in the enjoyment of promises, privileges, and ordinances, and even of eternal life itself.
(q) Sheviith, c. 8. sect. 2.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On v6 The sabbath of the land - That is, the…
The sabbath of the land - That is, the growth of the sabbath, or that fruit which groweth in the sabbatical year. For thy servant - For all promiscuously, to take food from thence as they need it.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v6 Lev 25:6. The sabbath of the land — That…
Lev 25:6. The sabbath of the land — That is, the accidental crop that grew in the sabbatical year. Shall be meat for you — For all promiscuously, to take food from thence as you need. It is true the land would produce little corn without being tilled and sown, but the vines and other fruit-trees which abounded in the country, even without pruning, would yield a considerable increase, so that the poorer sort might thus enjoy many comforts, together with rest, of which they were destitute on other years.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On v6 The sabbath of the land shall be meat for…
The sabbath of the land shall be meat for you - That is, the produce of the untilled land (its “increase,” Lev 25:7) shall be food for the whole of you in common, rich and poor without distinction Exo 23:11.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv6–7 They. Hebrew and Septuagint, "The sabbath of the earth…
They. Hebrew and Septuagint, "The sabbath of the earth shall be meat for you" in common.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On v6 6. The sabbath of the land — The spontaneous…
6. The sabbath of the land — The spontaneous products of the soil during the sabbatical year shall be meat, or common food, for all classes indiscriminately, lords and servants, natives and foreigners, rich and poor, cattle and game. The assignment of the produce of this year to the poor in Exo_23:11, does not exclude the landowner from equal participation also. The quantity of this self-sown harvest is sometimes fiftyfold, according to Strabo, when the previous harvest was over ripe and there was not careful gleaning. This may have been the designed character of the sixth harvest.
Thy stranger — The thoshabh is one who lives permanently in the country, but without the rights of a citizen; different from a ger, who may live there for a time.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On v6 6. the sabbath] i.e. the produce during the year…
6. the sabbath] i.e. the produce during the year of rest. Instead of storing it as in each of the six years, they were only to gather it from time to time when needed for food. Much of the grain in Palestine to-day sows itself, as it falls from the ripe ears.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv6–7 (6) And the sabbath of the land.—That is, the…
(6) And the sabbath of the land.—That is, the growth or produce during this sabbath of the land. For the figure of speech see Lev. 18:38.
Shall be meat for you.—That is, it shall serve as your food, but you must not trade with it, or store it up. Hence, during the second Temple the produce of the sabbatical year could only be used for direct consumption, and was not allowed to be converted first into other articles and then used. Thus, for instance, though wood of that year could be used as firewood, yet it was illegal to convert it first into coal and then use the coal thus obtained from the wood, nor was it legal to convert vegetables into medicines, or to give human food to animals.
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For thee, and for thy servant . . . —The produce is to be left in the field for the free use of the poor, the servant, &c. (See also Exo_23:11.) Hence it was enacted during the second Temple that “whoso locks up his vineyard, or hedges in his field, or gathers all the fruit into his house in the sabbatical year breaks this law.” Everything is to be left common, and every man has a right to every thing in every place. Every man could only bring into his house a little at a time according to the manner of things that are in common.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.