Exodus 23:11

Summary

The verse instructs that in the seventh year the land is to be released and left uncultivated, so that the needy among the people may eat from it, and whatever remains is to be left for wild animals to consume. The same practice applies to vineyards and olive groves.

Key words

• tishmeTennah ("you will let rest / release it", H8058) — qal imperfect, second person masculine singular, with third-person feminine suffix referring back to the land (implied by ha-shevi'It, "the seventh"). The imperfect marks this as an ongoing or future obligation.
• netashTah ("you will leave fallow / abandon it", H5203) — qal sequential perfect, continuing the action begun by the imperfect verb; it adds the sense of leaving the land untouched, not merely releasing it once.
• 'evyoNei ("needy of", H0034) — masculine plural construct, linking to 'amMekha ("your people", H5971A + H9021), forming the phrase "the needy of your people."
• yitRam ("their excess/surplus", H3499A) — masculine singular construct with third-person plural suffix, denoting what remains after the needy have eaten.
• chaYat hasSadeh ("animal of the field", H2416C + H7704G) — construct chain, singular in form but referring collectively to field animals as a class.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence chains three verbs through the vav-sequential construction: tishmeTennah (imperfect) sets up the action, followed by netashTah (sequential perfect) and 'akheLu (sequential perfect), producing a narrative-like sequence of consequences: release the land, leave it fallow, and then "they will eat" — referring to 'evyoNei 'amMekha, "the needy of your people." The construct chain 'evyoNei 'amMekha ties the needy directly to the possessor "your people," specifying whose poor are meant.

The second half of the verse describes what happens to the surplus: yitRam ("their excess") is the object of to'aKhal ("it will eat"), with the subject being chaYat hasSadeh, "the animal of the field," a singular construct form used collectively. The verse closes with ken ta'aSeh ("thus you will do"), an adverbial summary applying the same rule to le-khar'meKha ("to your vineyard") and le-zeiTekha ("to your olive grove"), each formed as construct nouns with second-person masculine possessive suffixes.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders tishmeTennah as ἄφεσιν ποιήσεις ("you will make a release"), shifting from a single verb to a verbal phrase, and translates chaYat hasSadeh as τὰ ἄγρια θηρία ("the wild beasts"), an interpretive plural where the Hebrew uses a singular collective construct. The Vulgate's requiescere facies ("you will cause it to rest") parallels netashTah but shifts the causative sense compared to the Hebrew's direct "leave fallow." The Vulgate also adds "in vinea et in oliveto tuo" with the preposition "in," while the Hebrew uses simple construct forms le-khar'meKha and le-zeiTekha without an equivalent preposition of location.