Numbers 8:25

Summary

Numbers 8:25 states that from the age of fifty, a Levite will withdraw (yashuv, "he will turn back", H7725J) from the tzeva ("service", H6635I) of the avodah ("service/labor", H5656H), and will lo ya'avod od ("not serve again", H3808 + H5647H + H5750).

Key words

• Ben ("a son of", H1121L) — construct form used idiomatically to express age, "son of fifty years" meaning "fifty years old."
• yashuv ("he will turn back", H7725J) — qal imperfect of the root meaning "to return"; here used to describe withdrawing or stepping back from active duty rather than a literal return.
• tzeva ("[the] service of", H6635I) — masculine singular construct, linked to ha-avodah to form the phrase "the service of the labor," denoting organized duty.
• ya'avod ("he will serve", H5647H) — qal imperfect, negated by lo ("not", H3808) and reinforced by od ("again", H5750), producing the emphatic "he will not serve again."

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built on two parallel verbal clauses joined by ve- ("and"). The first clause, u-mi-ben chamishim shanah yashuv mi-tzeva ha-avodah, uses the idiom "son of fifty years" (ben chamishim shanah) to mark the threshold age, followed by the verb yashuv ("he will turn back") governing the preposition mi- ("from") twice — once for the age threshold and once for the object left behind, tzeva ha-avodah ("the service of the labor"). This construct chain (tzeva + ha-avodah) stacks two nouns both meaning "service/labor," intensifying the sense of formal duty rather than casual work.

The second clause, ve-lo ya'avod od, negates the same verbal root used in ha-avodah (from H5656H, related to H5647H) with lo ("not") and closes with od ("again" or "still"), producing a double reinforcement: the Levite not only withdraws from the tzeva but is also barred from resuming the avodah itself. The repetition of the /'-b-d/ root across noun and verb ties the two clauses together grammatically, underscoring that the cessation is total with respect to that specific category of labor.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders yashuv ("he will turn back") with ἀποστήσεται ("he will remove/withdraw himself"), a different verbal image than the Hebrew "turning back," though conveying a similar outcome. The Vulgate restructures the clause as "cumque...impleverint, servire cessabunt" ("and when they have completed... they will cease to serve"), using a temporal clause and the verb "cessabunt" ("they will cease") in the plural, where the Hebrew uses singular verbs (yashuv, ya'avod) referring to "he" as a representative singular Levite.