Leviticus 25:15

Summary

Leviticus 25:15 sets out the principle for pricing a transaction between the addressee and his fellow Israelite: the buying price is calculated by the number of years elapsed since the last jubilee, and the selling price is calculated by the number of remaining harvest years.

Key words

• mispar ("[the] number of", H4557) — construct noun appearing twice (positions 2 and 13), governing "years" in each half of the verse; it frames both transactions as matters of counting years rather than fixed sums.
• ha-yovel ("the jubilee", H3104) — definite noun marking the reference point ("after the jubilee") from which the count of years begins.
• tikneh ("you will buy", H7069) — qal imperfect, second person masculine singular, addressing the hearer directly as the one who acquires.
• 'amitekha ("your fellow citizen", H5997 + H9021) — construct noun with second-person suffix, identifying the other party in the transaction as a member of the same community.
• yimkor ("he will sell", H4376) — qal imperfect, third person masculine singular, describing the counterpart action performed by the 'amit ("fellow citizen").

What the text says

The verse divides into two parallel clauses, each opening with the phrase be-mispar ("by the number of", H4557) followed by "years" (H8141). The first clause anchors the count 'achar ha-yovel ("after the jubilee", H0310A + H3104), establishing that the price paid by the buyer (tikneh, "you will buy") is measured from the time elapsed since the last jubilee. The second clause shifts the construct chain to sh'nei tevu'ot ("years of produce/harvests", H8141 + H8393), so the verb yimkor ("he will sell") is governed by the number of harvest-years, implying the years remaining until the next jubilee cycle rather than years already passed.

Grammatically, the alternation between tikneh (second-person "you") and yimkor (third-person "he") shows the transaction described from both sides: the addressee as buyer in the first clause, the 'amit ("fellow citizen") as seller in the second. The construct noun mispar appearing in both halves ties the pricing logic to counting rather than to a stated currency amount within this verse itself.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate (VULCLEM) preserves only the second clause of the verse ("et juxta supputationem frugum vendet tibi" — "and according to the reckoning of the produce he will sell to you"), omitting an explicit rendering of the first clause about buying "after the jubilee" that is present in the Hebrew and in the LXX (κατὰ ἀριθμὸν ἐτῶν μετὰ τὴν σημασίαν κτήσῃ παρὰ τοῦ πλησίον). The LXX renders ha-yovel ("the jubilee", H3104) as τὴν σημασίαν ("the signal/signification"), differing from the Hebrew's direct jubilee terminology.