Leviticus 25:27

Summary

Leviticus 25:27 describes the procedure for redeeming sold land: the seller calculates the years elapsed since the sale, repays the excess value to the buyer, and thereby returns to his own property.

Key words

• chiShav ("he will calculate", H2803H) — piel stem gives an intensive/calculating nuance ("to reckon carefully"), sequential perfect continuing the legal procedure begun in the prior verses.
• mimkaro ("his sale", H4465) — construct noun with pronominal suffix, linking directly to she.Nei ("years of") to form "the years of his sale."
• heShiv ("he will repay", H7725G) — hiphil (causative) stem: not simply "returning" but "causing [money] to return," i.e., making restitution.
• 'oDef ("surplus", H5736) — qal participle used substantively ("the one exceeding" → "the excess amount"), denoting the leftover value owed.
• 'achuzzato ("his possession", H0272) — construct noun with suffix, the land to which the seller returns, closing the transaction.

What the text says

The verse is built on three sequential perfect verbs — chiShav, heShiv, and Shav ("he will return", H7725G) — each attached by the narrative vav (H9001), forming a chain of consecutive legal actions rather than isolated statements. This syntax presents the redemption as a fixed procedure: first calculation, then repayment, then repossession, each step grammatically dependent on the one before it.

The phrase she.Nei mimkaro ("years of his sale") uses a construct chain to specify exactly what is being calculated — not years in general, but years elapsed since the specific sale transaction. The hiphil verb heShiv marks that the seller is not passively "giving back" but actively "causing to be returned," emphasizing agency in restitution. The qal participle 'oDef functions as a noun ("the surplus"), representing the monetary difference between the sale price and the value already used by the buyer for the elapsed years — a nuance not fully visible in translations that render it simply as "balance" or "difference." The relative clause 'a.Sher ma.khar- l -o ("whom he sold [it] to him") uses a qal perfect to mark the completed original sale, contrasted with the ongoing sequential actions of redemption.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the clause lā-ʾîš ʾăšer mākar-lô ("to the man to whom he sold [it]") as τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ ᾧ ἀπέδοτο ἑαυτὸν αὐτῷ ("to the man to whom he gave himself"), introducing a reflexive sense ("gave himself") not present in the Hebrew, which speaks of selling property, not the person. The Vulgate renders chiShav ... mimkaro as "computabuntur fructus ex eo tempore quo vendidit" ("the fruits shall be computed from the time he sold"), shifting the calculated object from "years" (Hebrew) to "fruits" (produce/yield), and using a passive plural verb where the Hebrew has an active singular verb with a human subject.