[The principle of ‘shabat” or “ceasing from doing what one normally does” has given its ‘name’ to the 7th day of the week, the Sabbath.
Now in this chapter, we learn that even inanimate objects such as land or the earth or the soil are to be given rest, or to cease from what it normally is used for by mankind. There is wisdom in such practice and if farmers and agriculturists would learn from this ancient practice required of Israelites in connection with the Land, they too will be benefit from the blessings for obedience.
The Creator of the heavens and the earth had to teach His people first and the nations through them that He has set laws of nature which, if humankind would only respect and work with instead of against, the continued renewal and replenishment of the freely given bounties of nature will feed growing populations of all of His creatures. But alas, who knows? And if they do, who understands? And if they do, who obeys? It is in the doing that the blessing automatically comes. Commentary is from Pentateuch and Haftorah’s, ed. Dr. J.H. Hertz; translation is EF/Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses.–Admin1.
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Leviticus/Wayyiqrah 25
The cycle of sacred seasons begun i XXIII is here continued, and the system of sabbaths—the Sabbath at the end of the week; Pentecost at the end of seven weeks; the Seventh month, as the sacred month studded with Festivals—is here completed by the Sabbatical year and by the Jubilee, which came after a ‘week’ of Sabbatical years.
During the Sabbath-year the land was to lie fallow (Exod. XXIII,10) and was to be ‘released’ from cultivation. The land is not the absolute possession of man; it belongs to God, and is to be held in trust for His purposes. The Sabbath-year does not seem to have been regularly observed in pre-exilic times, and, according to the Mishnah, the Sabbath-year was fully enforced only in Palestine. A promise to observe it in the future formed part of the covenant on the Return from Babylon; Neh. X,32. Alexander the Great remitted to the Jews the tribute in every seventh year ‘because then they did not sow their fields’ (Josephus). Julius Caesar acted in the same manner.
Heathens did not trouble to understand the meaning of this unique law, which, among other things, saved the soil from the danger of exhaustion. Thus, the Roman historian Tacitus attributes the Jews’ observance of it to indolence.
1 YHVH spoke to Moshe at Mount Sinai, saying:
spoke unto Moses. Better, had spoken unto Moses. As these laws are intended to meet the social problems that would arise in the Israelitish Commonwealth, they bring the legal part of Leviticus to an appropriate conclusion.
2 Speak to the Children of Israel, and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land is to cease, a Sabbath-ceasing to YHVH.the land keep a sabbath. The land is personified. It should rest in the seventh year, as man rests on the seventh day. The Israelite may not during that year till it himself or allow anyone to do so on his behalf. ‘Just as the freedom of the individual was a fundamental principle of the Torah, so was the freedom of the land from the absolute ownership of man’ (F. Perles).
unto the LORD. As the Sabbath was more than a cessation of labour, and was a day dedicated to God—similarly during the Sabbatical year, the soil was to be devoted to Him by being placed at the service of the poor and the animal creation (Exod. XXIII,10,11). In Deut. XXXI,10, we learn that the seventh year was, furthermore, to be utilized for national educational ends, and special measures were to be taken to acquaint the men and the women, the children as well a the resident aliens, with the teachings and duties of the Torah. Josephus rightly claims that while the best knowledge of olden times was usually treated as a secret doctrine, and confined to the few, it was the glory of Moses that he made it current coin. “To place within the reach of the English worker, once in every seven years, a year’s course at a University in science and law and literature and theology, would be something like the modern equivalent for one of the advantages which the Sabbath-year offered to the ancient Hebrew’ (F. Verinder in My Neighbour’s Landmark, Short Studies in Bible Land Laws, 1911).
3 For six years you are to sow your field, for six years you are to prune your vineyard, then you are to gather in its produce, 4 but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of Sabbath-ceasing for the land, a Sabbath to YHVH: your field you are not to sow, your vineyard you are not to prune,in the seventh year. In the seventh month of that year, after the gathering of the harvest, the year of rest began.
sabbath of solemn rest. A Sabbath of the strictest kind. The same phrase is used of the Day of Atonement (XXIII,32), as well as of the Sabbath Day (XXIII,3).
5 the aftergrowth of your harvest you are not to harvest, the grapes of your consecrated-vines you are not to amass; a Sabbath of Sabbath-ceasing shall there be for the land!undressed vine. The Heb. is the word for a Nazirite whose hair was to remain unshorn (Num. VI,5). Like him, the vines were not to be trimmed during the Sabbatical year. There was to be neither planting, pruning, nor gathering.
6 Now the Sabbath-yield of the land (is) for you, for eating, for you, for your servant and for your handmaid, for your hired-hand and for your resident-settler who sojourn with you;the sabbath-produce of the land. A poetic term for the chance, spontaneous produce during the Sabbath-year.
for you. The plural is used to comprehend all those that are to benefit by this provision. The fruit and grain which grew of itself in the Sabbatical year might be plucked and eaten, but not stored. Grain growing of itself—i.e. without regular ploughing and sowing—is not uncommon in Palestine.
hired servant. . . . settler. Non-Israelites are included; see XIX,10.
7 and for your domestic-animal and the wild-beast that (are) in your land shall be all its produce, to eat.cattle. Heb., domestic animals. beasts. Heb., free beasts of the field or forest; sometimes used in contrast to ‘evil beast’ (XXVI,6). The Divine promise in this verse is in accordance with the uniformly tender regard for animals throughout Scripture. They were part of God’s creation, and as such were comprehended in His pity and love; see the concluding verse of Jonah. ‘A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast’ (Prov. XII,10).
8-55. THE JUBILEE
In the fiftieth year, the Hebrew slaves with their families are emancipated, and property, except house property in a walled city, reverts to tis original owner. The Jubilee institution was a marvelous safeguard against deadening poverty. By it, houses and lands were kept from accumulating in the hands of the few, pauperism was prevented, and a race of independent freeholders assured. It represented such a rare and striking introduction of morals into economics, that many have been inclined to question whether this wonderful institution was ever in actual force. However, ‘nothing is more certain than that the Jubilee was once for centuries a reality in the national life of Israel (Ewald). Ezekiel speaks of its non-observance as one of the signs that ‘the end is come’ upon the nation for its misdoings; and he mentions ‘the year of liberty’, when a gift of land must return to the original owner. ‘It is impossible to think that, as has sometimes been supposed, the institution of the Jubilee is a mere paper-law; at least, as far as concerns the land (for the periodical redistribution of which there are analogies in other nations), it must date from ancient times in Israel’ (Driver). According to the Talmud, the law of the Jubilee was observed as long as the entire territory of the Holy Land was inhabited by Israelites. When a portion of the tribes went into exile, the law lapsed.
8 Now you are to number yourselves seven Sabbath-cycles of years -seven years, seven times- so the time of the seven Sabbath-cycles of years will be for you (a total of) nine and forty years. 9 Then you are to give-forth (on the) shofar a blast, in the seventh New-moon, on the tenth after the New-moon, on the Day of Atonement, you are to give(-blast on the) shofar throughout all your land.in the day of atonement. Although the year commenced on the first of Tishri, Rosh Hashanah, it was not until the tenth of the month, Yom Kippur, that the proclamation of the Jubilee was made. The Day of Atonement and the Jubilee had much in common. The message of both was a ‘new birth’. The Day of Atonement freed man from slavery to sin and enabled him to start life anew, at one with God and with his fellow men. The Jubilee had for its aim the emancipation of the individual from the shackles of poverty, and the readjustment of the various strata in the commonwealth in accordance with social justice. No more appropriate day, therefore, for inaugurating such a year of rectification—as well as to attune the hearts of all to the sacrifices demanded by such rectification—than the day of Atonement; and no more suitable signal to inaugurate it than the blowing of the Shofar. Isa. LVIII, which forms the Haftorah for the Day of Atonement, seems to have been spoken on a Yom Kippur inaugurating a Jubilee year.
10 You are to hallow the year, the fiftieth year, proclaiming freedom throughout the land and to all its inhabitants; it shall be Homebringing for you, you are to return, each-man to his holding, each-man to his clan you are to return.the fiftieth year. Some have held that the forty-ninth year itself was the Jubilee, as otherwise there would be two consecutive Shabbath years. This opinion is not the traditional view, though it finds some support in Heb. idiom.
proclaim liberty. The emancipation of the slaves, and the release of landed property from mortgage.
all the inhabitants thereof. Even to the man who had been sold into slavery and had refused to go out in the seventh year (Exod. XXI,5).
a jubilee. Or, ‘a year of jubilee’; the year is so named from the blast (Heb. yobel); lit. ‘a ram’s horn’) by which it was announced.
every man unto his possession. In this way the original equal division of the land was restored. The permanent accumulation of land in the hands of a few was prevented, and those whom fault or misfortune had thrown into poverty were given a ‘second chance’.
According to Scripture ‘the earth is the LORD’s”; and all the land was, as it were, held from God on lease (v. 23). The Israelite who voluntarily or through some compulsion sold his land to another, sold not the ownership of the land, but the remainder of the lease—till the next year of Jubilee, when all the leases fell in simultaneously. The land then came back to his family, all contracts of sale to the contrary notwithstanding. His children thus enjoyed the same advantage of a ‘fair start’ as their father had had before them (Verinder). Heine rightly remarks that the Torah does not aim at eh impossible—the abolition of property,but at the moralization of property, striving to bring it into harmony with equity and the true law of Reason by means of the Jubilee-year. This institution forms a most striking contrast to ‘prescription’ among the Romans, according to which the possessor of a piece of land could not, after the lapse of a certain period, be compelled to restore it to its real owner, so long as the latter was unable to show that he had during that period demanded restitution in due form. Far other is the spirit that we find in the Law of Moses. ‘It is not the protection of property, but the protection of humanity, that is the aim of the Mosaic Code. Its Sabbath day and Sabbath year secure even to the lowliest, rest and leisure. With the blast of the jubilee trumpets the slave goes free, and a redivision of the land secures again to the poorest his fair share in the bounty of the common Creator’ (Henry George).
11 It is Homebringing, the fiftieth year-it shall be for you, you are not to sow, you are not to harvest its aftergrowth, you are not to gather its consecrated-grapes,ye shall not sow. The Jubilee year shares the features of the Sabbatical year.’
12 for it is Homebringing, holy shall it be for you, (only) from the field may you eat its produce;out of the field. The Israelite may not store any of the produce, but whenever he requires corn or fruit, he may go out into the field and gather it.
13 in this Year of Homebringing you are to return, each-man to his holding.unto his possession. This repetition of v. 10 serves as an introduction to the exposition of the law of land-tenure.
14 Now when you sell property-for-sale to your fellow or purchase (it) from the hand of your fellow, do not maltreat any-man his brother!ye shall not wrong. There is to be no rack-renting.
15 By the number of years after the Homebringing you are to purchase (it) from your fellow, by the number of years of produce (left) he is to sell it to you:according to the number of years. What is really conveyed to the purchaser is not the land, but the number of harvests which the incoming tenant would enjoy.
16 according to the many years (left), you may charge-him-much for his purchase, according to the few years (left), you may charge-him-little for his purchase, since a (certain) number of harvests is what he is selling to you.the number of the crops. As the land itself belonged to God (v. 23), only the produce could be a matter of sale.
wrong. Overreach. fear thy God. This principle of a fair deal in the leasing of landed property was to be acted upon in all relations between man and man. Hence the addition of ‘thou shalt fear thy God’.
18-23. EXHORTATION
18 You are to observe my laws, my regulations you are to keep, and observe them, that you may be settled on the land in security,dwell in safety. What follows must be understood of both the Sabbatical and Jubilee years. If the enactments are conscientiously carried out, the people, far from suffering because of the ‘Sabbath’ allowed to the land, would dwell in safety; i.e., secure from the perils of drought and famine (XXVI,5).
19 that the land may give forth its fruit and that you may eat to being-satisfied, and be settled in security upon it. 20 Now if you should say (to yourselves): What are we to eat in the seventh year? -(for) here, we may not sow, we may not gather our produce! 21 Then I will dispatch my blessing for you during the sixth year so that it yields produce for three years;for the three years. The exceptional fertility in the sixth year might be compared with the double portion of manna which was to be gathered on the sixth day (Exod. XVI,22).
22 you may sow the eighth year(‘s yield), but you must eat of the old produce until the ninth year; until its produce comes in, you must eat what-is-old.ninth year. Until the Feast of Tabernacles; for then the produce of the eighth year is gathered in and stored (Rashi). ‘The experience of the present day in Syria shows that, after lying fallow for a year, a field requires several ploughings before it can be sown. The consequence is that sowing cannot be begun till the following spring—the eighth year of v.22—and the crop is not available till late autumn, when the ninth year has begun’ (Kennedy).
23 But the land is not to be sold in-harness, for the land is mine; for you are sojourners and resident-settlers with me,the land is Mine. This verse enunciates the basic principle upon which all these enactments rest. ‘The earth is the LORD’s’ (Ps. XXIV,1), and His people hold their lands in fee from Him. The ground itself, then, was not a proper object of sale, but only the result of man’s labour on the ground.
24-28 REDEMPTION OF LAND
24 throughout all the land of your holdings, you are to allow for redemption of the land. 25 When your brother sinks down (in poverty) and has to sell (some of) his holding, his redeemer nearest-in-kin to him is to come and redeem the sold-property of his brother.be waxen poor. Only dire poverty would induce an Israelite to part with his family heritage. When Ahab asks Naboth to sell his vineyard, he answers the king, ‘The LORD forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee’ (I Kings XXI,3).
his kinsman. Heb. goel, lit. ‘redeemer’; the technical term for him whose duty it was to avenge the person of his next-of-kin, or redeem his property that had been leased away. See Jer. XXXII,8-12.
shall redeem. The next-of-kin is not under compulsion to do this; it is a moral obligation upon him, if his circumstances permit, to see that the property reverts to the family at the earliest opportunity. In that case, the purchaser cannot refuse to accept a just offer of repayment and return the land.
26 Now a man-if he has no redeemer, but his hand reaches (means) and finds enough to redeem with,waxen rich . . . redeem it. ‘Becomes rich enough to buy it back himself’ (Moffatt).
27 he is to reckon the years since its sale, returning the surplus to the man to whom he sold it, and it is to return to his holding.the overplus. The amount by which the purchase money of the field exceeded the value of the crops reaped by the purchaser. In Rabbinic law, if the purchaser had resold the land to a second buyer, then the owner treats with the first purchaser, if he had sold it at a higher price than he paid; and with the second, if the price had been smaller. The purpose of this regulation was to give the advantage to the original owner, and also to discourage speculation in land values.
28 But if his hand does not find enough (means) for returning it, what he sold is to remain in the hand of the one purchasing it, until the Year of Homebringing, it is to go-free in the Homebringing-year, and it is to return to his holding.it shall go out. Into freedom. According to the testimony of Josephus, there was due recognition of tenants’ improvements. ‘When the Jubilee is come, he that sold the land, and he that bought it, meet together, and make an estimate, on the one hand, of the fruits gathered; and, on the other hand, of the expenses laid out upon it. If the fruits gathered come to more than the expenses laid out, he that sold it takes the land again; but if the expenses prove more than the fruits, the present possessor receives of the former owner the difference that was wanting and leaves the land to him; and if the fruits received and the expenses laid out prove equal to one another, the present possessor relinquishes it to the former owner.’
29-34. REDEMPTION OF HOUSES
29 A man-if he sells a residential house in a walled town, its redemption-period (is) until the end of the year of its sale, a year-of-days shall be its redemption-period.a dwelling-house. A house in a walled-city could be disposed of in perpetuity; but the owner had the right of re-purchase during the first year of the sale.
30 If it is not redeemed before a whole year of it has been fulfilled, the house that is in the town that has a wall shall be-established, in-harness, for him who purchases it, throughout his generations, it is not to go-free in the Homebringing-year.a walled city. The Written Text (Kethib) really is ‘unwalled city.’ The Rabbis explain this anomalous reading of the text to indicate that this law applies also to a city that was originally walled in, but is no longer so.
be made sure. That is, a house in the town could be sold ‘out and out’; but not houses in the open country; see next v.
31 But houses in villages that do not have a wall around them, as open-fields of the land are they to be reckoned, there may be redemption for them, and in the Homebringing-year they may go-free.reckoned with the fields. Being indispensable to the man who had to work the land.
32 Now (as for) the towns of the Levites, the houses in the towns of their holding- redemption-right for the ages is to belong to the Levites.Levites. While Aaron and his sons were chosen for the priestly office, the menial services at the Sanctuary and the Temple were assigned to the Levites—the rest of the tribe. In the Wilderness, they bore the furniture of the Sanctuary during the wanderings. At the Settlement in Canaan, the tribe of Levi received no definite domain, but scattered cities were assigned to them in territory belonging to other tribes. In these cities (see Num. XXXV,2) the vendor has a perpetual right of redemption.
33 (That) which is redeemed from the Levites: it is to go-free, the house sold in the town of their holding, in the Homebringing-year, for houses of Levitical towns, they are their holding amid the Children of Israel.if a man purchase of the Levites. If one purchases a house in one of the Levitical cities, even if it be a walled city, the law of v. 30 does not apply; in the Jubilee, it reverts to the owner.
34 But pasture-land of the field (near) their towns is not to be sold, for it is a holding for the ages for them.35-38. PRACTICAL LOVE OF NEIGHBOUR
35 Now when your brother sinks down (in poverty) and his hand falters beside you, then shall you strengthen him as (though) a sojourner and resident-settler, and he is to live beside you.if thy brother be waxen poor. He still remains thy brother, and is to be treated in a brotherly and considerate manner. This is in strongest contrast to the treatment of the impoverished debtor in ancient Rome. The creditor would imprison him in his own private dungeon, chain him to a block, sell him into slavery, or even put him to death. If the debtor had several creditors, the Roman Law of the Twelve Tables ordained that they could hew him in pieces; and although one of them took a part of his body larger in proportion than his claim the other creditors had no redress!
uphold him. Or, ‘relieve him.’ Do not suffer him to come down into the depths of misery, for then it is difficult to raise him; but come to his support at the time when his means begin to fail (Rashi).
as a stranger and a settler shall he live. Better, yea though he be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live (AV, ZunZ, Benisch—following Rashi and Ibn Ezra). The great principle of ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself’ must be a reality in Israelite life. The stranger and alien settler are explicitly included in the term thy brother, and are to be helped by timely loans, free of interest.
shall he live with thee. These words can be understood quite literally: it is the Israelite’s duty to see to it that his fellowman does not die of starvation. It was centuries, millennias even, before the world outside Israel learned this elementary duty. Constantine in 315 is the first European ruler to have effected poor relief legislation, only to be repealed by Justinian two centuries later. It was not till the ays of Queen Elizabeth that poor relief came to be recognized as a duty of the State. Other States followed England’s example in the 19th century.
36 Do not take from him biting-interest or profit, but hold your God in awe, so that your brother may live beside you!interest. This prohibition led to the establishment in every organized Jewish community of a Gemillus Chassodim Society, for advancing loans free of interest to the poor.
fear thy God. To take advantage of the dire need of the poor is contrary to all decent human feeling.
victuals for increase. Interest on foodstuffs, seeds, and the like, which was paid in kind.
38 I YHVH am your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan, to be for you a God!brought . . . Egypt. The Israelites, in their prosperity, were to remember the days when they were in bondage and needed the help that God had vouchsafed to them. Let them follow the Divine example, and not imitate the callousness of their Egyptian masters, but deal with their fellowmen in a spirit of brotherhood and justice.
39-46 NO PERMANENT SERVITUDE FOR ANY ISRAELITE
When a man’s ill fortune forces him to sell himself into bondage, his Hebrew master had definite obligations towards one who is of the same flesh and blood as himself. These regulations are unique in the respect for labour they inculcate and the manner in which the dignity of the labourer is safeguarded.
39 And when your brother sinks down (in poverty) beside you, and sells himself to you, you are not to make him serve the servitude of a serf; 40 as a hired-hand, as a resident-settler is he to be beside you, (only) until the Year of Homebringing is he to serve beside you.as a hired servant. He was not to be given any menial or degrading work, but only agricultural tasks or skilled labour, such as would be performed by a free labourer who is hired for a season.
unto the year of jubilee. This must be understood in connection with Exod. XXI,2 and Deut. XV,12, which ordain that the Hebrew who sells himself into slavery serves his master for six years and goes free in the seventh. Should the Jubilee occur before his six years of service are over, the servant regains his personal freedom at the same time that his inheritance returns to him, in the year of Jubilee.
41 Then he is to go-free from beside you, he and his children beside him; he may return to his clan, to the holding of his fathers he may return.his children. Should the Hebrew be the father of a family when he sells himself into slavery, the master has to take the chidlren into his care and maintain them.
his own family. The Rabbis taught that the freed slave must be received with cordiality and friendliness by his relatives, and no slight shown to him because of his former servitude.
42 For my servants are they whom I brought out of the land of Egypt, they are not to be sold as the sale of serfs.for they are My servants. An Israelite therefore can never be more than nominally a slave to any human master.
they shall not be sold as bondmen. lit. ‘they shall not be sold the sale of a slave’. The Rabbis ruled that a Hebrew is not to be sold publicly in the slave-market, but the sale is to be privately arranged.
43 You are not to have-dominion over him with crushing-labor, rather, you are to hold your God in awe!with rigour. The same word is used to describe the hardship of Israel’s bondage in Egypt (Exod. I,13). In Rabbinic law, the rules that should regulate the relationship between a master and his Hebrew slave are given in great detail, and are based on the principle that master and man are kinsmen; e.g. the slave must not be given inferior food or accommodation to that of the master. Kindliness and chivalry are to characterize the bearing of the Israelite towards his less fortunate brother.
but shalt fear thy God. ‘Whenever the phrase is used it refers to matters that are part of heart-religion,’ (Sifra); i.e. part of natural piety and fundamental humanity in our dealings with our fellowmen.
44 Your servant and your maid that belong to you from the nations surrounding you, from them you may purchase serf and maid; 45 also from the sons of the residents who sojourn beside you, from them you may purchase (slaves), or from their clans that are beside you, that they beget in your land, and they shall become your holdings. 46 You may keep-them-as-an-inheritance for your children after you, for (them to) possess as holdings; for the ages you may make them serve you. But as for your brothers, the Children of Israel, each-man toward his brother, you are not to have-dominion over him with crushing-labor!of them may ye take your bondmen. Better, you may hold them to service (Lesser); Heb. ‘You may hold them to service, but only to service, nothing more’ (Sifra).
XXV.46. SLAVERY The system of slavery, which is tolerated by the Torah was fundamentally different from the cruel systems of the ancient world, and even of Western countries down to the middle of the last century. The Code of Hammurabi has penalties only for the master who destroys the tooth or eye of another man’s slave. It orders that a slave’s ear be cut off, if he desires freedom; while to harbour a runaway slave was considered a capital offence. As to Greece, a slave was deemed ‘an animated tool’, and he could claim no more rights in his relationship to his master than a beast of burden. Agricultural labourers were chained. If at any time it was thought that there were too many slaves, they were exterminated, as wild beasts would be. Athens was an important slave market, and the State profited from it by a tax on the sales. So much for ‘the glory that was Greece’. The ‘grandeur that was Rome’ was even more detestable. The slave was denied all human rights, and sentenced to horrible mutilation and even crucifixion at the whim of his master. Sick slaves were exposed to die of starvation, and there was corporate responsibility for slaves: “Tacitus records that as late as the Empire the 400 slaves of one household were all put to death because they had been under their master’s roof when he was murdered. Worlds asunder from these inhumanities and barbarities was the treatment accorded to the Hebrew slave. The position of Eliezer in Abraham’s household (Gen. XXIV) enables us to realize the nature of servitude in the ancient Hebrew home. Kidnapping a man or selling him as a slave was a capital offence. Cruelty on the part of the master that resulted in injury to an organ of the body secured the slave’s freedom (Exod. XXI,26); and if a slave ran away he must not be surrendered to his master (Deut. XXIII,16). A Fugitive Slave Law, such as existed in America, with the tracking of runaway slaves by bloodhounds would have been unthinkable to the Israelite of old. 47-55. ISRAELITES WHO ARE SLAVES OF ALIENS
47 Now if the hand of a resident sojourner reaches (means) beside you, and your brother sinks down (in poverty) beside him, so that he sells himself to the resident sojourner beside you, or to an offshoot of the sojourner’s clan,offshoot. Children of alien settlers would frequently join the Israelitish community; but the case dealt with here is that of a Hebrew selling himself into the service of an alien who remained aloof from the community.
48 (even) after he has sold himself, redemption may be his; one of his brothers may redeem him,may be redeemed. Fothwith.
may redeem him. For may substitute shall, here and in the next verse.
49 or his uncle or the son of his uncle may redeem him, or (some) kin of his flesh, from his clan, may redeem him, or, should his hand reach (means), he may redeem-himself.if he be waxen rich. lit. ‘if he attaineth to power’ (or ‘means’).
50 He is to reckon with his purchaser from the year that he was sold to him until the Year of Homebringing; the silver from his sale shall be by the number of years- like the time-period of a hired-hand is he to be beside him.unto the year of jubilee. Hence it is to be deduced that, unlike the Hebrew slave who sells himself to a Hebrew master, his service does not automatically cease at the end of six years (Exod. XXI,2). It is presupposed here that the man sold himself for an indefinite period, and unless redeemed would continue in bondage until the Jubilee.
a hired servant. The calculation is to be based on the assumption that the total sum paid was for a definite number of years till the Jubilee. This total sum is to be divided by the number of years, and it was to be considered that he had hired himself for the resulting amount per year (Rashi).
51 If there are still many years (left), according to them he is to return-payment for his redemption from the silver of his purchase;yet many years.To the Jubilee, and the amount required for the redemption accordingly high.
52 and if few remain in years until the Year of Homebringing, he is to reckon it to him, according to its years he is to return-payment for his redemption.servant. He was to be treated like a workman hired by the year who belonged to a higher grade of labour.
in thy sight. If you see the alien master ill-treating him, you must intervene; but you have no right to enter his house to make investigation as to how he treats his slaves (Sifra).]
53 As a hired-hand, year by year, he is to be beside him, he is not to have-dominion over him with crushing-labor before your eyes. 54 And if he has not been redeemed in (any of) these (ways), he is to go-free in the Year of Homebringing, he and his children beside him.by any of these means. Lit. ‘by those’ which may refer to the kinsmen mentioned in v.48, or to the method of regaining his freedom, described in v.50.