Leviticus 25:26
וְאִישׁ כִּי לֹא יִֽהְיֶה־לּוֹ גֹּאֵל וְהִשִּׂיגָה יָדוֹ וּמָצָא כְּדֵי גְאֻלָּתֽוֹ׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וְאִ֕ישׁ כִּ֛י לֹ֥א יִֽהְיֶה־לּ֖וֹ גֹּאֵ֑ל וְהִשִּׂ֣יגָה יָד֔וֹ וּמָצָ֖א כְּדֵ֥י גְאֻלָּתֽוֹ׃
ἐὰν δὲ μὴ ᾖ τινι ὁ ἀγχιστεύων, καὶ εὐπορηθῇ τῇ χειρὶ καὶ εὑρεθῇ αὐτῷ τὸ ἱκανὸν λύτρα αὐτοῦ·
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Sin autem non habuerit proximum, et ipse pretium ad redimendum potuerit invenire,
Si no hay nadie que pueda rescatar la propiedad, pero el hombre prospera y consigue dinero suficiente para comprarla de nuevo,
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y cuando el hombre no tuviere rescatador, si alcanzare su mano, y hallare lo que basta para su rescate;
Or if a man has no one to redeem it for him, but he prospers and acquires enough to redeem his land,
✦ What the text says
Summary
Leviticus 25:26 addresses the case of a man who has no kinsman-redeemer (go'El, H1350A) available to reclaim property on his behalf, but who himself later acquires sufficient means to accomplish his own redemption. The verse forms a conditional clause followed by two sequential outcomes describing his changing financial capacity.
Key words
- go.'El ("a kinsman-redeemer", H1350A) — qal participle, masculine singular, describing one who habitually performs the action of redeeming; its absence is the condition set up by the clause.
- hi.Si.gah ("it will reach", H5381) — hiphil (causative) sequential perfect, feminine, agreeing with yad ("hand"); the causative stem suggests the hand is caused to "reach" or "attain" a level of sufficiency.
- ya.D ("hand", H3027I) construct — used idiomatically with the following suffix to denote personal means or capacity ("his hand").
- ma.Tza' ("he will find", H4672) — qal sequential perfect, continuing the narrative chain begun by hiSSigah, marking the successful outcome of the process.
- ge.'u.la.T ("redemption", H1353) construct with suffix — a feminine singular noun naming the specific redemption-price required for this transaction, linked to dei ("sufficiency of", H1767).
What the text says
The verse opens with ve'Ish ki ("and a man, if…", H0376I + H3588A), a casuistic construction typical of legal material, introducing the scenario of a man lacking a go'El. The negation lo' ("not", H3808) combined with the qal imperfect yihyeh ("he will belong/be", H1961) states plainly that no redeemer "belongs to him" — the preposition-plus-suffix lo ("to him", H9005+H9033) marks possession idiomatically, a common Hebrew way of expressing "to have."
The narrative then shifts into two sequential perfects (hiSSigah and matza'), both introduced by the narrative ve- (H9001), which continues the logical chain from the initial condition: "and his hand will reach... and he will find." This construction ties the change in circumstances directly to the preceding condition, presenting it as a subsequent development rather than a separate clause. The phrase ya.D-o ("his hand") functions idiomatically for personal means or resources, while kedei ge'ullato ("according to the sufficiency of his redemption", H9004+H1767+H1353) specifies that what he finds must match the exact amount required for the redemption transaction.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders go'El with the participle ὁ ἀγχιστεύων ("the one having right of next-of-kin"), matching the Hebrew's participial sense of an ongoing family role. The Vulgate uses proximum ("a near one/relative"), a more general kinship term without the specific redemption nuance carried by go'El. The Hebrew yad ("hand") is rendered by the LXX as τῇ χειρὶ (also "hand," matching the idiom), while the Vulgate abandons the "hand" idiom entirely, opting for pretium... potuerit invenire ("could find a price"), making the causative nuance of hiSSigah implicit rather than explicit.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.