What Does Leviticus 19:25 Mean?

And in the fifth year you shall eat of its fruit, so that it may add to you what it brings in; I am the LORD your God.

Leviticus 19:25 · SDV

Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.

Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

And in the fifth year shall ye eat of the fruit thereof, that it may yield unto you the increase thereof: I am the LORD your God.

THE KEY

The fruit you receive is framed as an addition to you: its yield is more than what you eat.

THE MEANING

Your receiving has an appointed season: in this verse, the fruit becomes food in the fifth year, and its produce is added to you. The Hebrew word for fruit carries the sense of fruitfulness, so what you receive also points toward continuing yield.

THE ROOT

לְהוֹסִיף

lehosif

GROWS FROM

יסף

yasaph

to add, increase, or do again

The phrase says, in effect, “to add to you its produce.” The harvest is described not only as something eaten but as an addition that comes to you.

ALSO GROWS

yasaph: to add, increase, or do again

יָסַף

This is the verb family behind ⁨לְהוֹסִיף⁩ (lehosif, to add) in the verse, making the language of addition explicit.

Yoseph: Joseph; “may he add”

יוֹסֵף

This name carries the same root of adding, echoing the verse’s picture of yield added to you.

פְּרִי

peri

GROWS FROM

פרה

parah

to bear fruit, become fruitful, or multiply

The noun ⁨פְּרִי⁩ (peri, fruit) is linked to ⁨פָּרָה⁩ (parah, to bear fruit), so the fruit is connected with the act of fruiting. Here, what is eaten also belongs to a pattern of continuing yield.

ALSO GROWS

parah: to bear fruit, be fruitful, or multiply

פָּרָה

This verb shows the living process carried in the word for fruit: bearing fruit is part of its root sense.

Ephrayim: Ephraim; a name associated with fruitfulness

אֶפְרַיִם

In Genesis 41:52, Joseph connects Ephraim’s name with God making him fruitful, carrying this root from the harvest into a person’s name.

THE PATTERN

Fruit received in its season can carry yield beyond the moment it is eaten.

And he becomes like a tree planted by the channels of the waters, that gives its fruit in its season; its leaf does not wither; whatever he does, he breaks through.

Psalm 1:3 · SDVThe tree bears fruit in its season, joining timely receiving with continued flourishing.

And other seed fell into the good soil, and it gave fruit, climbing and growing, and bore some thirtyfold, some sixtyfold, and some a hundredfold.

Mark 4:8 · SDVThe fruit springs up and increases, showing yield multiplying beyond its first appearance.

Now the one who supplies seed to the sower supplies bread for eating, and fills out your sown seed, and makes grow the fruits of your alignment.

2 Corinthians 9:10 · SDVSeed given for food is also multiplied, and its fruit increases.

THE THREAD

And God said, "Let the earth sprout green growth, the seed-bearing plant, and the fruit tree making fruit after its kind, whose seed is in it, upon the earth." And it was so.

Genesis 1:11 · SDV

Both verses use ⁨פְּרִי⁩ (peri, fruit), linking the fifth-year harvest to the fruit tree whose seed is in itself. The fruit is food to receive and part of a life that continues to bear fruit.

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