What Does Leviticus 25:40 Mean in the King James?
But as an hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of jubile:
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 verse gives service an expiration date: Jubilee marks the end of one person’s labor for another.
THE MEANING
Here, service is a bounded arrangement: a hired worker may dwell with you and labor for you, but the year of Jubilee marks its limit. The text holds the person’s work within a term instead of making service a permanent identity. Release opens a path out of imposed narrowness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that receiving someone’s labor gives you a permanent claim over that person dissolves here: the term has an end set by Jubilee.
THE ROOT
וְעָבַדְךָ
ve-ʿāvadkha
GROWS FROM
עבד
to work, serve, or labor
“serve” in this verse is ve-ʿāvadkha. The root names both the work being done and, in עֶבֶד, the servant who does it. Here, the work has a term: Jubilee bounds service so it does not become a permanent claim on the person.
ALSO GROWS
ʿavodah: work, labor, or service
עֲבֹדָה
It echoes the verse’s focus on service as work performed, rather than a person’s whole identity.
ʿeved: servant or worker
עֶבֶד
The shared root links the worker to the work, while the verse’s time limit keeps that role from being endless.
שָׂכִיר
sākhîr
GROWS FROM
שכר
to hire or engage for wages
“hired servant” in this verse is sākhîr. The word carries the sense of a worker engaged for pay. Beside the root עבד, it makes the arrangement visible: labor is given for a term, and Jubilee sets the point beyond which it cannot continue.
ALSO GROWS
sāḵar: to hire for wages
שָׂכַר
It names the hiring arrangement implicit in the verse’s description of the worker.
sāḵār: wages or payment
שָׂכָר
It shows the wage-bearing relation behind the word translated “hired servant.”
THE PATTERN
Scripture names release as the point where bounded service and captivity give way to liberty.
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.And if thy brother, an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and serve thee six years; then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee.The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,THE THREAD
If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.The Hebrew verb for “serve” shares the עבד root in both verses. Exodus gives service a six-year term; here, Jubilee marks its limit, revealing that service does not become an endless claim on a person.
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