Leviticus 25 — Hebrew and Greek compared
↠Leviticus 24 compared · Reading text of Leviticus 25 · Leviticus: all chapters · Leviticus 26 compared →
Same 16 Similar 16 Different 13 Divergent 8 Disparate 2
Disparate in this chapter: 25:27, 25:28
Each verse is rendered independently from the Hebrew (Rabbinic reading tradition) and from the Greek (Saints reading tradition). The badge classifies the relationship between the two readings; the note beneath records the source document’s comparison and attributed interpretation. Each column retains its own verse references where numbering differs.
The land’s Sabbath · 25:1–7
25:1 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:1 YHWH spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying:
Greek · Saints priority
25:1 The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying:
Both locate the speech at Sinai.
25:2 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:2 Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land shall keep a Sabbath to YHWH.
Greek · Saints priority
25:2 Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land that I am giving you shall rest, a Sabbath to the Lord.
Greek repeats that I am giving you after the second mention of the land.
25:3 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:3 For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather its produce.
Greek · Saints priority
25:3 For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vine and gather its fruit.
The six-year cultivation rule corresponds.
25:4 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:4 But in the seventh year the land shall have a Sabbath of complete rest, a Sabbath to YHWH. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard.
Greek · Saints priority
25:4 But in the seventh year the land shall have a Sabbath, a rest, a Sabbath to the Lord. You shall not sow your field or prune your vine.
The seventh-year agricultural rest corresponds.
25:5 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:5 You shall not reap the self-grown produce of your harvest or gather the grapes of your untended vine. It shall be a year of complete rest for the land.
Greek · Saints priority
25:5 You shall not reap the things growing of themselves in your field or gather the grapes of your consecration. It shall be a year of rest for the land.
Hebrew nÄzîr imagery is rendered untended vine here; Greek explicitly uses consecration. Both prohibit regular harvesting of the reserved crop.
25:6 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:6 The land’s Sabbath produce shall be food for you: for you, your male slave, your female slave, your hired worker, and your lodger who resides with you.
Greek · Saints priority
25:6 The land’s Sabbath produce shall be food for you, your male slave, your female slave, your hired worker, and the lodger attached to you.
Both include slaves, hired workers, and lodgers among those who may eat.
25:7 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:7 All its produce shall also be food for your livestock and the wild animals in your land.
Greek · Saints priority
25:7 All its produce shall also be food for your livestock and the wild animals in your land.
The provision extends to domestic and wild animals in both.
The Jubilee and the value of harvests · 25:8–17
25:8 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:8 Count for yourself seven Sabbaths of years, seven years seven times. The days of the seven Sabbaths of years shall amount to forty-nine years for you.
Greek · Saints priority
25:8 Count for yourself seven rests of years, seven years seven times. The seven weeks of years shall amount to forty-nine years for you.
Sabbaths becomes rests and weeks; the forty-nine-year count agrees.
25:9 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:9 You shall sound the horn with a blast in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month. On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the horn throughout your land.
Greek · Saints priority
25:9 You shall make proclamation with a trumpet sound throughout your land in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month. On the Day of Propitiation you shall make proclamation with a trumpet throughout your land.
Greek repeats throughout your land in the opening clause and renders the horn as a trumpet.
25:10 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:10 You shall consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty in the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you. Each of you shall return to his possession, and each shall return to his family.
Greek · Saints priority
25:10 You shall consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim release throughout the land to all its inhabitants. This shall be a year of release, a signal for you. Each shall depart to his possession, and each of you shall depart to his ancestral homeland.
Greek interprets Jubilee through release and signal, and renders family as ancestral homeland, patris. The return is thus expressed with a different social or geographical focus.
25:11 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:11 The fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee for you. You shall not sow, reap its self-grown produce, or gather its untended vines.
Greek · Saints priority
25:11 This is a signal of release: the fiftieth year shall be a year for you. You shall not sow, reap what grows of itself, or gather its consecrated produce.
Greek’s signal of release and consecrated produce preserve its distinct interpretation of Jubilee and the reserved crop.
25:12 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:12 For it is a Jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat its produce from the field.
Greek · Saints priority
25:12 For it is a signal of release; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat its produce from the fields.
The holiness and field provision agree within the different Jubilee terminology.
25:13 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:13 In this year of Jubilee each of you shall return to his possession.
Greek · Saints priority
25:13 In the year of release, at its signal, each shall return to his possession.
The same return is expressed through Greek release-and-signal terminology.
25:14 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:14 When you sell property to your fellow or buy from your fellow’s hand, you shall not wrong one another.
Greek · Saints priority
25:14 If one sells property to your neighbor, or you acquire it from your neighbor, no one shall oppress his neighbor.
Wrong and oppress express the shared restriction on transactions.
25:15 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:15 According to the number of years after the Jubilee you shall buy from your fellow; according to the number of harvest years he shall sell to you.
Greek · Saints priority
25:15 According to the number of years after the signal you shall acquire from your neighbor; according to the number of harvest years he shall sell to you.
Both value the sale by the remaining harvest years.
25:16 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:16 As the years increase, you shall increase its purchase price; as the years decrease, you shall decrease its purchase price, for he is selling you a number of harvests.
Greek · Saints priority
25:16 As the years increase, you shall increase its purchase price; as the years decrease, you shall decrease its purchase price, for he is selling you a number of harvests.
Both make the price proportional to the number of harvests.
25:17 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:17 You shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God, for I am YHWH your God.
Greek · Saints priority
25:17 No one shall oppress his neighbor, and you shall fear the Lord your God. I am the Lord your God.
Greek adds Lord in the command to fear God; the social obligation agrees.
Security, provision, and ownership · 25:18–24
25:18 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:18 You shall do My statutes, keep My judgments, and do them; then you shall dwell securely on the land.
Greek · Saints priority
25:18 You shall do all My statutes and all My judgments, keep them, and do them; then you shall dwell confidently on the land.
Greek adds all twice and explicitly coordinates the doing of both legal categories.
25:19 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:19 The land shall yield its fruit, and you shall eat to satisfaction and dwell securely upon it.
Greek · Saints priority
25:19 The land shall yield its produce, and you shall eat to fullness and dwell confidently upon it.
The promise of food and security corresponds.
25:20 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:20 If you say, “What shall we eat in the seventh year? Look, we shall neither sow nor gather our produce,â€
Greek · Saints priority
25:20 If you say, “What shall we eat in this seventh year if we neither sow nor gather our produce?â€
Hebrew states the absence of cultivation; Greek embeds it as an if-clause in the question.
25:21 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:21 I will command My blessing for you in the sixth year, and it shall produce a harvest for three years.
Greek · Saints priority
25:21 I will send My blessing to you in the sixth year, and it shall produce its harvest for the three years.
Hebrew command becomes Greek send. The promised three-year supply agrees.
25:22 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:22 You shall sow in the eighth year and eat from the old produce. Until the ninth year, until its produce comes in, you shall eat the old.
Greek · Saints priority
25:22 You shall sow in the eighth year and eat old produce. Until the ninth year, until its produce comes in, you shall eat old stores from the old.
Greek intensifies the final reference to old stores; the timeline agrees.
25:23 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:23 The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; you are resident foreigners and lodgers with Me.
Greek · Saints priority
25:23 The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is Mine; you are resident foreigners and lodgers before Me.
With Me becomes before Me; both ground the restriction in God’s ownership.
25:24 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:24 Throughout all the land of your possession, you shall allow redemption of the land.
Greek · Saints priority
25:24 Throughout all the land of your possession, you shall provide ransom for the land.
Hebrew redemption is Greek ransom; both introduce recovery of land.
Redemption of land and houses · 25:25–34
25:25 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:25 If your brother becomes poor and sells some of his possession, his nearest redeemer shall come and redeem what his brother sold.
Greek · Saints priority
25:25 If your brother who is with you becomes poor and sells some of his possession, his nearest kinsman shall come and ransom what his brother sold.
Greek adds who is with you and expresses the redeemer as the nearest kinsman.
25:26 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:26 If a man has no redeemer but his hand gains the means and he finds enough for his redemption,
Greek · Saints priority
25:26 If someone has no kinsman but prospers by his hand and enough is found for his ransom,
Both permit redemption from the seller’s recovered resources.
25:27 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:27 he shall calculate the years since his sale and return the balance to the man to whom he sold it; then he shall return to his possession.
Greek · Saints priority
25:27 he shall calculate the years of his sale and repay the excess to the man to whom he sold himself; then he shall depart to his possession.
Greek expressly says sold himself, shifting to personal sale within a context where Hebrew concerns sold property. The wording is retained even though the surrounding land context creates tension.
25:28 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:28 If his hand does not find enough to repay him, what he sold shall remain in the buyer’s hand until the year of Jubilee. It shall be released in the Jubilee, and he shall return to his possession.
Greek · Saints priority
25:28 If his hand does not prosper enough to repay him, the sale shall remain with the one who acquired it until the sixth year of release. It shall go out at the release, and he shall depart to his possession.
The Rahlfs–Hanhart main text explicitly has sixth year of release, unlike Hebrew year of Jubilee. This anomalous chronology is confirmed in the selected RH main text; its wider witness history requires apparatus review, and it is not silently corrected to fiftieth or Jubilee.
25:29 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:29 If a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, its redemption shall remain possible until the end of the year of its sale; its redemption period shall be a full year of days.
Greek · Saints priority
25:29 If someone sells a dwelling house in a walled city, its ransom shall remain possible until a year of days is complete; that shall be its ransom period.
Both allow a year to redeem a house in a walled city.
25:30 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:30 If it is not redeemed before a whole year is complete, the house in the city that has a wall shall belong permanently to its buyer throughout his generations. It shall not be released in the Jubilee.
Greek · Saints priority
25:30 If it is not ransomed before its whole year is complete, the house in the city that has a wall shall be confirmed permanently to its buyer throughout his generations. It shall not go out at the release.
Hebrew follows the traditional reading lo, has, against the written consonants loʾ, not. Greek also reads a city having a wall. The written/read distinction is recorded, not misclassified as an MT–Greek contradiction. Hebrew written/read form
25:31 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:31 But houses in villages that have no surrounding wall shall be reckoned with the fields of the land. They may be redeemed and shall be released in the Jubilee.
Greek · Saints priority
25:31 But houses in settlements that have no surrounding wall shall be reckoned with the field of the land. They shall always be redeemable and shall go out at the release.
Greek explicitly adds always to the redemption right.
25:32 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:32 As for the cities of the Levites, the Levites shall have a perpetual right of redemption for the houses of the cities they possess.
Greek · Saints priority
25:32 The cities of the Levites—the houses in their cities of possession—shall always be redeemable by the Levites.
The Levites’ continuing redemption right corresponds.
25:33 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:33 Whatever one redeems from the Levites, the sale of a house in the city of their possession shall be released in the Jubilee, for the houses in the Levites’ cities are their possession among the sons of Israel.
Greek · Saints priority
25:33 Whoever ransoms from the Levites, the sale of their houses in the city of their possession shall go out at the release, for the houses in the Levites’ cities are their possession among the sons of Israel.
Both retain a difficult opening redemption construction. The stated Jubilee return is shared; no unmarked not is inserted into Hebrew to smooth the difficulty.
25:34 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:34 The pastureland of their cities shall not be sold, for it is their perpetual possession.
Greek · Saints priority
25:34 The fields set apart for their cities shall not be sold, for this is their perpetual possession.
Hebrew specifically describes pasture or open land; Greek describes fields assigned to the cities.
Poverty, loans, and service · 25:35–43
25:35 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:35 If your brother becomes poor and his hand falters beside you, you shall support him as a resident foreigner and a lodger, so that he may live with you.
Greek · Saints priority
25:35 If your brother becomes poor and grows weak in his hands beside you, you shall support him as a resident foreigner and a lodger, and your brother shall live with you.
Greek explicitly repeats your brother and supplies as. The terse Hebrew resident-foreigner/lodger phrase admits more than one syntactic construal.
Rabbinic reception. Rashi urges support before a person collapses into destitution, comparing timely aid to steadying a load before it falls. The analogy makes the command’s practical application explicit. Rashi, Leviticus 25:35
25:36 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:36 You shall take no interest or increase from him, but fear your God, so that your brother may live with you.
Greek · Saints priority
25:36 You shall take no interest or increase from him, and fear your God—I am the Lord—so that your brother may live with you.
Greek adds I am the Lord within the instruction.
25:37 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:37 You shall not give him your silver at interest or give your food for an increase.
Greek · Saints priority
25:37 You shall not give him your silver at interest or give your food for an increase.
Both prohibit gain on the specified loans to the impoverished brother.
25:38 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:38 I am YHWH your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.
Greek · Saints priority
25:38 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.
The exodus and land-gift rationale correspond.
25:39 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:39 If your brother becomes poor beside you and is sold to you, you shall not make him perform the service of a slave.
Greek · Saints priority
25:39 If your brother is brought low beside you and is sold to you, he shall not serve you with the service of a household slave.
Both distinguish this Israelite’s service from slave labor.
25:40 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:40 He shall be with you as a hired worker and a lodger; he shall work with you until the year of Jubilee.
Greek · Saints priority
25:40 He shall be with you as a hired worker or a lodger; he shall work beside you until the year of release.
Hebrew coordinates the comparisons; Greek uses or. The release limit agrees.
25:41 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:41 Then he shall go out from you, he and his sons with him. He shall return to his family and return to the possession of his fathers.
Greek · Saints priority
25:41 He shall go out at the release, and his children with him. He shall depart to his kin and return to his ancestral possession.
Greek explicitly says at the release and has children where Hebrew has sons; Hebrew explicitly says from you.
25:42 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:42 For they are My slaves, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold in a slave sale.
Greek · Saints priority
25:42 For these are My household slaves, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; one shall not be sold in a household-slave sale.
Both ground the restriction in God’s prior claim on Israel.
25:43 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:43 You shall not rule over him ruthlessly, but shall fear your God.
Greek · Saints priority
25:43 You shall not wear him down with toil, but shall fear the Lord your God.
Hebrew ruthless rule becomes Greek exhaustion through toil; Greek adds Lord.
Foreign slaves and redemption from a foreign buyer · 25:44–55
25:44 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:44 Your male and female slaves may come from the nations around you; from them you may buy a male slave or a female slave.
Greek · Saints priority
25:44 Your male and female slaves may come from the nations around you; from them you may acquire a male slave or a female slave.
Both explicitly permit acquisition of foreign slaves; the translation does not soften slavery into ordinary employment.
25:45 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:45 You may also buy from the sons of the lodgers residing with you, and from their families with you whom they have begotten in your land; they shall become your possession.
Greek · Saints priority
25:45 You may also acquire from the sons of the lodgers among you and from their relatives who come to be in your land; they shall become your possession.
Both name the resident households as a source of enslaved persons. Hebrew explicitly says whom they have begotten; Greek says those who come to be in your land, which can be understood of birth in context but does not expressly name the begetting agents.
25:46 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:46 You may bequeath them to your sons after you as an inherited possession; you may make them serve permanently. But among your brothers, the sons of Israel, no one shall rule over his brother ruthlessly.
Greek · Saints priority
25:46 You shall distribute them to your children after you, and they shall be held by you permanently. But among your brothers, the sons of Israel, no one shall wear down his brother with toils.
Greek states permanent possession rather than permanent service and uses children rather than sons. Both distinguish foreign enslavement from the protected Israelite case.
25:47 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:47 If a resident foreigner or lodger beside you gains means, and your brother beside him becomes poor and is sold to a resident foreigner lodging with you or to a member of a foreigner’s family,
Greek · Saints priority
25:47 If the hand of the resident foreigner or lodger beside you gains means, and your brother becomes needy and is sold to the resident foreigner or lodger beside you, a foreigner by birth,
Hebrew names a further family member as an alternative buyer; Greek closes with a foreigner by birth. The precise Hebrew family term, Ê¿Ä“qer, is uncommon.
25:48 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:48 after he is sold, he shall have a right of redemption. One of his brothers may redeem him,
Greek · Saints priority
25:48 after he is sold to him, he shall have a right of ransom. One of his brothers may ransom him,
Both preserve redemption after sale.
25:49 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:49 or his uncle or his uncle’s son may redeem him, or a close blood relative from his family may redeem him; or, if his hand gains the means, he may redeem himself.
Greek · Saints priority
25:49 His father’s brother or his father’s brother’s son may ransom him, or one of his close blood relatives from his tribe may ransom him; but if, having prospered by his hands, he ransoms himself,
Greek explicitly identifies the paternal uncle and uses tribe for Hebrew family. The alternatives of kin and self-redemption correspond.
25:50 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:50 He shall calculate with his buyer from the year he was sold to him until the year of Jubilee. His sale price shall be apportioned by the number of years; his time with him shall be reckoned as a hired worker’s days.
Greek · Saints priority
25:50 He shall calculate with the one who acquired him from the year he sold himself to him until the year of release. His sale price shall be like a hired worker’s pay; he shall be with him year by year.
Greek expressly says sold himself and year by year; Hebrew explicitly apportions the price by the number of years.
25:51 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:51 If many years remain, he shall repay his redemption price from his purchase money in proportion to them.
Greek · Saints priority
25:51 If many years remain for someone, he shall repay his ransom from his sale money in proportion to them.
The proportional repayment rule corresponds.
25:52 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:52 If few years remain until the year of Jubilee, he shall calculate with him and repay his redemption price in proportion to his years.
Greek · Saints priority
25:52 If few years remain until the year of release, he shall calculate with him according to his years and repay his ransom.
Both adjust the redemption price when few years remain.
25:53 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:53 He shall be with him as a hired worker year by year. The buyer shall not rule over him ruthlessly before your eyes.
Greek · Saints priority
25:53 He shall be with him as a hired worker year by year. You shall not wear him down with toil before you.
Hebrew the buyer shall not rule shifts to Greek you shall not wear him down; both retain the observer’s setting.
25:54 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:54 If he is not redeemed by these means, he shall go out in the year of Jubilee, he and his sons with him.
Greek · Saints priority
25:54 If he is not ransomed by these means, he shall go out in the year of release, he and his children with him.
Greek children corresponds to Hebrew sons in the household release.
25:55 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
25:55 For the sons of Israel are slaves to Me; they are My slaves, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am YHWH your God.
Greek · Saints priority
25:55 For the sons of Israel are household slaves to Me; these are My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
Greek varies its service nouns; both repeat God’s claim grounded in the exodus.
↠Leviticus 24 compared · Reading text of Leviticus 25 · Leviticus: all chapters · Leviticus 26 compared →
Saints Translation · Companion comparison edition · working draft awaiting specialist review.