Leviticus 25:5

Summary

Leviticus 25:5 continues the instructions for the sabbatical year, prohibiting the harvesting of grain that grows on its own from the previous crop, and the gathering of grapes from vines that were left untrimmed. The verse closes by stating that this year is designated as a shabbaton ("sabbath observance", H7677) for the land.

Key words

• se.fiach ("self-sown grain of", H5599B) — construct noun referring to grain that sprouts on its own without replanting, from grain that fell during the previous harvest.
• tik.tzor ("you will harvest", H7114B) — qal imperfect, second person masculine, expressing a future/ongoing prohibition when combined with lo' ("not", H3808).
• ne.zi.re.kha ("your untrimmed vines", H5139) — construct noun with pronominal suffix, describing vines that have not received the customary pruning.
• tiv.tzor ("you will gather grapes", H1219) — qal imperfect, second person masculine, parallel in form to tik.tzor, denoting the specific act of grape harvesting.
• sha.ba.ton ("sabbath observance", H7677) — abstract noun built on the root of shabbat, used here to qualify the entire year as one of rest.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is structured as two parallel prohibitions followed by a concluding declaration. Each prohibition uses the pattern: direct object marker 'et (H0853) + noun in construct + pronominal suffix, followed by lo' + imperfect verb. This construction places the object of the action before the negated verb, a common Hebrew word order for emphasis on what is being restricted. The first clause addresses se.fiach ("self-sown grain of", H5599B) — grain that grows from seed dropped during the prior harvest — using the verb tik.tzor ("you will harvest", H7114B). The second clause addresses 'in.ne.vei ne.zi.re.kha ("grapes of your untrimmed vines", H6025 + H5139), using the distinct verb tiv.tzor ("you will gather grapes", H1219), a term specific to grape harvesting rather than general reaping.

The final clause, she.nat sha.ba.ton yih.yeh la.'a.retz ("a year of sabbath observance it will belong to the land"), uses yih.yeh ("it will belong", H1961), the verb "to be" in imperfect form, functioning here to declare a state that will hold true for the entire year. The noun sha.ba.ton (H7677) is an abstract/intensive noun form related to shabbat, used elsewhere for the weekly sabbath, here applied to an entire year rather than a single day.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders se.fiach ("self-sown grain of", H5599B) as τὰ αὐτόματα ἀναβαίνοντα ("the things growing up of themselves"), a descriptive phrase rather than a single noun. For ne.zi.re.kha ("your untrimmed vines", H5139), the LXX has τοῦ ἁγιάσματός σου ("of your consecrated thing"), interpreting the root differently than the Hebrew sense of "untrimmed" or "unpruned." The Vulgate similarly reads "primitiarum tuarum" ("of your firstfruits") for this same term, diverging from the Hebrew's emphasis on vines left unattended. The Vulgate also renders tiv.tzor ("you will gather grapes", H1219) with "colliges quasi vindemiam" ("you will gather as if a vintage"), adding an explanatory phrase not present in the Hebrew verb itself.