Leviticus 25:6

Summary

The verse states that whatever grows during the sabbath-rest of the land will serve as food for the landowner and all members of the household — including slaves, hired workers, and resident aliens living with them. The Hebrew lists each category of person connected by the preposition "to/for," marking who benefits from the land's produce.

Key words

• shaBbat ("sabbath of", H7676) — feminine singular construct noun, linking "sabbath" directly to "the land" (ha'Aretz), forming the phrase "the sabbath-rest of the land."
• hayTah ("it will belong / it will be", H1961) — qal sequential perfect, continuing the narrative chain from the preceding verses about the seventh-year rest.
• 'okhLah ("food", H0402) — feminine singular noun, stating the purpose (le-, "for") of the land's rest-produce.
• ga.Rim ("are sojourning", H1481A) — qal participle, masculine plural, describing the resident aliens (toShavekha) as those "sojourning" with the household, an ongoing state rather than a completed action.
• 'avdeKha ("your slave", H5650) — masculine singular construct with pronominal suffix, one of five construct nouns (slave, female slave, hired laborer, resident alien) each attached to "you" (-kha), forming a chain of beneficiaries.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence opens with the sequential verb hayTah ("it will be/belong"), which carries the sense of continuation from the surrounding legal instructions about the seventh year. The subject is shaBbat ha'Aretz ("the sabbath of the land"), a construct phrase treating the land's rest as a defined entity that "will become" something — specifically, food (le-'okhLah, "for food/eating").

The remainder of the verse is a chain of prepositional phrases, each beginning with le- ("to/for") followed by a construct noun and the second-person masculine singular suffix -kha ("your"): lekha ("for you"), ule-'avdekha ("and for your slave"), vela'amatekha ("and for your female slave"), velisekhirkha ("and for your hired laborer"), ulethoshavkha ("and for your resident alien"). This repeated construction lists distinct household members as equal recipients of the land's yield, each joined by the conjunction ve- ("and"). The final phrase, haggaRim 'imMakh ("who are sojourning with you"), uses a participle to describe the resident alien's ongoing status of dwelling among the household, rather than treating it as a one-time event.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders shaBbat ha'Aretz as τὰ σάββατα τῆς γῆς ("the sabbaths of the land," plural), where the Hebrew has the singular construct shaBbat. The Vulgate omits an explicit equivalent for "sabbath of the land," instead beginning with "sed erunt vobis in cibum" ("but they will be for you as food"), shifting the grammatical subject away from the land's rest itself toward an implied "these things" from the prior verse.