What Does Leviticus 25:15 Mean in the King James?
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:
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The sale is measured by the harvest-years still remaining, so the Jubilee places a limit inside the exchange itself.
THE MEANING
The measure of this exchange is the span of harvest still ahead after the Jubilee. More fruit-bearing years mean greater value; fewer mean less, because the claim between you and your neighbor has a horizon built into it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that acquiring something gives you an unlimited claim whose value is independent of the time and yield left.
THE ROOT
שְׁנֵי
shenei
GROWS FROM
שנה
Repeat; do again.
The Hebrew word for “years” is linked to repetition: the seasons come round again. The price is tied to how many fruit-bearing cycles remain before the Jubilee, so time here is measured in recurring harvests with a known endpoint.
ALSO GROWS
sheni: Second; following another in sequence.
שֵׁנִי
It shares the root’s sense of what comes again, echoing the repeated cycles that determine the value of the sale.
mishneh: A second or doubled portion; something repeated.
מִשְׁנֶה
Its sense of a second portion brings the year-root’s repetition into view: the exchange is valued by the cycles still to come.
תְּבוּאֹת
tevu'ot
GROWS FROM
בוא
Come; enter.
The word translated “fruits” refers to produce or crop yield and is linked to the root meaning “come in.” The verse measures the sale by the yield expected across the remaining years, keeping the exchange connected to what the land brings in.
ALSO GROWS
bo': To come or enter.
בּוֹא
This is the verb behind the yield-word: produce is what comes in from the land over the years being counted.
mavo: An entrance or way in.
מָבוֹא
It shares the idea of coming in, helping reveal the harvest as an incoming yield that gives the remaining years their value.
THE PATTERN
A claim over land and its yield is limited by time, and its value moves with the harvest-years remaining.
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.The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.And they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away.THE THREAD
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.The same Hebrew word for “years” frames the Jubilee count here. This verse shows the repeated years being counted toward the cycle; Leviticus 25:15 measures the sale by how many fruit-bearing years remain within it.
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