What Does Leviticus 25:51 Mean in the King James?
If there be yet many years behind, according unto them he shall give again the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for.
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 years still ahead are counted in the price of release, so a buyer’s claim does not erase a person’s future.
THE MEANING
When a person is held under a purchase claim, the years still ahead set the measure of redemption. The cost of release is calculated against that remaining time, making the person’s future part of what is reclaimed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that once a person is bound, all the years ahead belong to the one who bought them; those years still count toward redemption.
THE ROOT
גְּאֻלָּתוֹ
ge'ullato
GROWS FROM
גאל
To redeem or reclaim, often through the action of a near relative.
The word for redemption belongs to the same family as the word for a kinsman who reclaims. Here, the price is part of a relational act that frees a person from a purchaser’s claim.
ALSO GROWS
go'el: Kinsman-redeemer; one who redeems or reclaims.
גֹּאֵל
This branch shows redemption taking shape through someone who reclaims a person or possession as a relative.
ge'ullah: Redemption; reclaiming.
גְּאֻלָּה
This is the noun form used in the verse’s phrase “price of his redemption,” joining the payment to the act of reclaiming.
יָשִׁיב
yashiv
GROWS FROM
שׁוב
To return or turn back; in this verb form, to return or restore something.
“give again” in this verse is yashiv. The payment is expressed with a verb of returning: the amount is paid back according to the years still ahead. Redemption is pictured as restoration, with the purchase price returned as the person’s remaining time is released from the claim.
ALSO GROWS
shuv: To return or turn back.
שׁוּב
This basic form gives “give again” its sense of returning what was taken or paid.
heshiv: To bring back, restore, or repay.
הֵשִׁיב
This related form makes the restorative movement clear: something is returned to its former place or owner.
THE PATTERN
Scripture treats bondage as bounded, counting the time of service and naming release as its limit.
If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;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
After that he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of his brethren may redeem him:This verse uses the same root, גאל (ga’al, to redeem or reclaim), for both the possibility of redemption and a brother’s act of redeeming. It makes the family relation visible: the calculated payment in verse 51 belongs to a relative’s reclaiming of a person.
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