What Does Leviticus 25:23 Mean?
The land shall not be sold for good, for the land is mine; for you are sojourners and those who settle beside me.
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.
King James wording
King James Version
The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.THE KEY
The land cannot become an absolute possession because its inhabitants themselves dwell with God as resident outsiders.
THE MEANING
Your place on the land is real, but it is not ultimate ownership: the land belongs to God. You dwell with God as both resident and sojourner, within a belonging that precedes any human title. The verse makes permanent possession impossible while God’s belonging remains.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The claim this verse undoes is that what you hold can become yours permanently and without remainder.
THE ROOT
גֵּרִים
gerim
GROWS FROM
גור
g-w-r
To sojourn or dwell as an outsider.
“strangers” in this verse is gerim. גֵּר (ger, resident outsider) comes from גּוּר (gur, to dwell as a sojourner), so strangerhood here is a kind of inhabiting rather than mere passage. The residents have a place, but the verse locates their dwelling “with me” and leaves the title with God.
ALSO GROWS
ger: Resident outsider; sojourner.
גֵּר
This singular form shows that being an outsider and having a place to dwell belong together in the verse.
magor: Dwelling; sojourning.
מָגוֹר
This related form brings the same root into the condition or place of dwelling: a person can live on the land without owning it absolutely.
תּוֹשָׁבִים
toshavim
GROWS FROM
ישב
y-sh-v
To sit, settle, or dwell.
“those who settle beside me” in this verse is toshavim. This word comes from the root of sitting and settling, so it describes actual residence, not merely passing through. Paired with גֵּרִים (gerim, resident outsiders), it holds two truths together: you dwell on the land while remaining without ultimate title, alongside God.
ALSO GROWS
yoshev: One who sits or dwells.
יֹשֵׁב
The resident is someone who truly inhabits a place, even without possessing it as its final owner.
moshav: A seat or dwelling place.
מוֹשָׁב
The root can name a settled place, reinforcing that the sojourner’s presence is real even while the land belongs to God.
THE PATTERN
God’s claim over the earth precedes human possession, so every dwelling remains within what belongs to God.
Look, the heavens and the heavens of heavens belong to the LORD your God, and the earth, and all that is in it.A Psalm of David. The earth is the LORD's, and what fills it; the inhabited world, and those who settle in it.God, who made the world and all that is within it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not settle in handmade temples.THE THREAD
A Psalm of David. The earth is the LORD's, and what fills it; the inhabited world, and those who settle in it.Both verses use אֶרֶץ (ʾerets, land or earth): Leviticus says this land is God’s, and the Psalm widens that same word to the whole earth and all its fullness. The people dwelling there are included in the claim, so the limit on permanent sale belongs to a larger truth of belonging.
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