Leviticus 25:45

Summary

The verse instructs the addressees ("you," masculine plural) that they may acquire persons from among the children of resident aliens living with them, including members of their extended family born in the land. Once acquired, these persons are to belong to the addressees as a possession.

Key words

• toshaVim ("resident aliens", H8453A) — masculine plural noun naming a legal category of non-native residents, distinct from native-born Israelites.
• gaRim ("sojourn", H1481A) — qal participle, describing the ongoing state of dwelling among the addressees rather than a single completed act.
• tikNu ("you will buy", H7069) — qal imperfect, second person masculine plural, marking an action presented as ongoing or future.
• holiDu ("they have fathered", H3205) — hiphil perfect of the root meaning "to bear/give birth," here causative, describing parents as the agents who produced offspring; the perfect aspect marks the action as completed.
• achuZah ("a possession", H0272) — feminine singular noun, a term elsewhere used for landed or material holdings, here applied to the acquired persons.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence identifies two overlapping sources for acquisition: "the sons of the toshaVim who garim with you" and "their mishpachtam ('clan,' H4940) who is with you." Both groups are further qualified by a relative clause using 'aSher ("which/who," H0834A): the second clause specifies "who holiDu in your land" — literally "whom they caused to be born," a hiphil form applied to the parents' act of generating offspring, though in context it identifies children born locally. The repeated prepositional phrase 'immaKhem ("with you") in both verses 9 and 19 ties the two groups closely to the community of addressees, reinforcing that these are people already living in proximity rather than distant foreigners.

The clause concludes with a sequential perfect, hayu ("they will belong," H1961), continuing the narrative chain begun by ve ("and"), and states the outcome: these persons hayu lakhem la'achuzah — "will belong to you for a possession." The noun achuzah is the same term used elsewhere for landed property, applied here to persons rather than land or goods.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders toshaVim and gaRim together as "τῶν παροίκων τῶν ὄντων ἐν ὑμῖν" ("the sojourners being among you"), collapsing the noun and participle into a single descriptive phrase, and uses κατάσχεσις ("holding, possession") for achuzah, matching the Hebrew's property terminology. The Vulgate, by contrast, renders the outcome as "hos habebitis famulos" — "these you shall have as servants" — introducing the specific term famulos ("servants") where the Hebrew and LXX use only the abstract term "possession," without a word specifically meaning "servant."