Leviticus 25:49

Summary

The verse enumerates who may redeem an Israelite who has sold himself into servitude to a foreigner: his uncle, his uncle's son, or any relative from his clan, or, failing available kin, the person himself if he acquires sufficient means.

Key words

• do.D ("uncle", H1730I) — construct noun with suffix o ("his"), naming the paternal uncle as first potential redeemer.
• yig.'a.Le.nu ("he will redeem him", H1350A) — qal imperfect of the root ga'al, expressing a future/potential action; repeated twice in the verse for different kinsmen.
• she.'Er be.sa.R-o ("relative of his flesh", H7607 + H1320) — a construct chain meaning "flesh-relative," a broader category than named kin, widening the pool of eligible redeemers.
• hi.Si.gah yad-o ("his hand has reached", H5381 + H3027I) — hiphil perfect idiom meaning "he has acquired enough means," shifting from kin-based redemption to self-redemption.
• nig.'Al ("he will redeem himself", H1350A) — niphal (passive/reflexive) sequential perfect of the same root ga'al, marking the final clause as a reflexive outcome rather than an action done by another.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built as a chain of alternatives joined by 'ov ("or", H0176A), each introducing a different possible redeemer, with the verb yig.'a.Le.nu ("he will redeem him") repeated after the first two options (uncle; uncle's son) and again after the third (clan relative). This repetition reinforces that each named kinsman independently carries the same redemptive obligation or right. The construct chain mi-she'er besar-o mi-mishpachto ("from the relative of his flesh, from his clan") stacks two prepositional phrases of source, first narrowing to bodily kinship, then to clan membership, describing the same person from two angles rather than adding two separate redeemers.

The final clause shifts grammatical voice: after the idiom hissigah yado ("his hand has reached," i.e., he has obtained sufficient means), the verb switches from qal (yig'alennu, "he will redeem him," someone else acting) to niphal (nig'al, "he will redeem himself"). This voice change marks a structural pivot in the verse — from redemption performed by a kinsman to redemption performed by the man himself, using the same root ga'al (H1350A) throughout to unify all cases as instances of the same legal-economic action.

Differences between versions

The LXX specifies adelphos patros autou ("brother of his father") for the first redeemer, rendering the Hebrew do.D ("uncle") more explicitly as father's brother, whereas the Hebrew term itself is more general. The Vulgate lists four categories (patruus, patruelis, consanguineus, affinis) where the Hebrew names three grammatical units (uncle; uncle's son; flesh-relative of the clan), suggesting the Vulgate subdivides or interprets the kinship terms differently than the Hebrew construct chain presents them.