Leviticus 25:4

Summary

Leviticus 25:4 establishes that in the seventh year, the land itself is to observe a shabbat ("sabbath", H7676) — described with an intensified construct phrase as shabbat shabbaton — dedicated to Yehovah. The verse then specifies two prohibited agricultural actions: sowing the field and pruning the vineyard.

Key words

• shaBat ("a sabbath of", H7676) — feminine singular noun in construct state, meaning it is bound to the following word to form a compound expression ("sabbath of...").
• shabaTon ("sabbath observance", H7677) — masculine singular noun that pairs with the preceding construct noun to form the doubled phrase shabbat shabbaton, an intensifying construction common in Hebrew to emphasize completeness or totality of a state.
• yihYeh ("it will belong", H1961) — qal imperfect third-person masculine form of the verb "to be", indicating a future/ongoing state — the land will be in this condition.
• tizRa' ("you will sow", H2232) — qal imperfect second-person masculine form, negated by lo' ("not", H3808), producing a prohibition addressed directly to "you" (singular).
• tizMor ("you will prune", H2168) — qal imperfect second-person masculine form, likewise negated by lo' ("not", H3808), parallel in structure to the sowing prohibition.

What the text says

The verse opens with a temporal marker, u-va-shanah ha-shevi'it ("and in the year, the seventh"), placing the entire clause within the seventh year. The core declaration uses the construct chain shabbat shabbaton, where shabbat ("sabbath of", H7676) governs shabbaton (H7677). This doubling of the same root (sh-b-t) in two grammatically linked nominal forms produces an intensified or emphatic expression — the land's rest is not merely a shabbat but a shabbat of shabbaton, doubling the concept within the syntax itself. The verb yihyeh ("it will belong", H1961) assigns this state to la-aretz ("to the land", H0776G), and the phrase is repeated in apposition as shabbat la-YHWH ("a sabbath to Yehovah", H7676 + H3068G), attributing the rest explicitly to the divine name.

The second half of the verse shifts to direct address using second-person imperfect verbs. Sadekha ("your field", H7704G) and karmekha ("your vineyard", H3754) each appear as construct nouns with pronominal suffixes (-kha, "your", H9021), followed by their respective negated verbs: lo' tizra' ("you will not sow", H2232) and lo' tizmor ("you will not prune", H2168). Both verbs are qal imperfect second-person masculine singular, creating parallel prohibitions with matching grammatical structure — sowing paired with the field, pruning paired with the vineyard.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the doubled Hebrew construct shabbat shabbaton (H7676 + H7677) as σάββατα ἀνάπαυσις ("sabbaths, a rest"), using a plural noun plus a separate noun for "rest" rather than reproducing the construct-doubling pattern. The Vulgate similarly separates the concept, rendering it as "sabbatum...requietionis Domini" ("a sabbath of the rest of the Lord"), attaching "of the Lord" to the rest itself rather than repeating "sabbath to the Lord" as a distinct phrase, as the Hebrew does with shabbat la-YHWH.