What Does Leviticus 25:48 Mean?
After he is sold, a buying back shall be for him; one of his brothers shall buy him back.
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
After that he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of his brethren may redeem him:THE KEY
A sale can transfer a person’s status without severing the kinship that makes reclaiming him possible.
THE MEANING
The verse holds sale and redemption together: he is sold, and a way to reclaim him remains open. His condition does not erase his relation to his brothers; one of them can bring him back from the transfer.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that once someone is handed over, they are beyond anyone’s claim or recovery.
THE ROOT
גְּאֻלָּה
ge'ullah
GROWS FROM
גאל
To reclaim or redeem, especially through a kinship claim.
“a buying back shall be for him” in this verse is ge'ullah. The verse uses this root twice: ge’ullah names the redemption that remains available to him, and yig’alennu says that a brother can carry it out. The same seed holds both the open path back and the person who acts on it.
ALSO GROWS
go'el: Kinsman-redeemer; one who reclaims.
גֹּאֵל
This branch names the family member who can act on the claim left open for the sold man.
ge'ullah: Redemption or reclamation.
גְּאֻלָּה
This is the form used in the verse: redemption remains available to him even after the sale.
THE PATTERN
Redemption restores a person to belonging that bondage or sale has obscured.
Therefore say to the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the loads of the Egyptians, and I will snatch you from their service, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great judgments.But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, and who shaped you, O Israel. Do not fear, for I have bought you back; I have called you by your name; you are mine.To buy out those under the instruction, so that we might receive the placing as sons.THE THREAD
Therefore say to the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the loads of the Egyptians, and I will snatch you from their service, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great judgments.Leviticus uses גאל for both the redemption available to the sold man and the brother who may enact it. Exodus uses the same root for redemption from bondage, revealing the shared movement from imposed service toward reclamation.
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