What Does Leviticus 25:52 Mean in the King James?
And if there remain but few years unto the year of jubile, then he shall count with him, and according unto his years shall he give him again the price of his redemption.
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
Here redemption is not a flat fee: the years left before release set the price of reclaiming a person.
THE MEANING
When only a few years remain until Jubilee, the redemption price is reckoned according to those years. The nearer the appointed release, the less time remains to be bought back, and the lower the price. Here, a person’s freedom is measured against years of service.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that the price of release is fixed: the years remaining change what redemption costs.
THE ROOT
גְּאֻלָּתוֹ
ge’ullato
GROWS FROM
גאל
גָּאַל (ga’al) means to redeem or reclaim; the noun here means “his redemption.”
The root joins redemption to reclaiming what has been bound or lost. The verse makes that reclaiming concrete: its price is reckoned by the years still remaining before release.
ALSO GROWS
go’el: kinsman-redeemer; one who reclaims
גֹּאֵל
This branch shows redemption as a person reclaiming someone or something within a kinship bond.
ge’ullah: redemption; reclaiming
גְּאֻלָּה
This noun shares the verse’s root and frames redemption as the act of reclaiming, whose cost here depends on the years left.
יָשִׁיב
yashiv
GROWS FROM
שׁוב
שׁוּב (shuv) means to turn back or return; יָשִׁיב (yashiv) means to cause to return or restore.
The phrase translated “give him again” carries the sense of returning or restoring. Redemption is described as a return with a measured price, linking the act of reclaiming to what is given back.
ALSO GROWS
shuv: return; turn back
שׁוּב
The root gives the verse’s repayment language the shape of a return.
teshuvah: return; turning back
תְּשׁוּבָה
This noun from the same root echoes the movement back toward what has been left or lost.
THE PATTERN
The cost of release becomes visible through a reckoning, by remaining time, by a life given as ransom, or by the price paid to redeem.
And he shall reckon with him that bought him from the year that he was sold to him unto the year of jubile: and the price of his sale shall be according unto the number of years, according to the time of an hired servant shall it be with him.For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:THE THREAD
After that he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of his brethren may redeem him:Both verses use גָּאַל (ga’al), meaning to redeem or reclaim. Verse 48 names a brother as the one who may reclaim him; verse 52 shows the price of that reclamation changing with the years that remain.
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