Leviticus 25:4

4 But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the LORD. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards.

Read Chapter Compare

PREVIOUS Leviticus 25:3 NEXT Leviticus 25:5

Leviticus 25:4 in Other Translations

KJV

4 But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.

ESV

4 but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the LORD. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard.

NLT

4 but during the seventh year the land must have a Sabbath year of complete rest. It is the LORD ’s Sabbath. Do not plant your fields or prune your vineyards during that year.

MSG

4 But the seventh year the land will take a Sabbath of complete and total rest, a Sabbath to God; you will not sow your fields or prune your vineyards.

CSB

4 But there will be a Sabbath of complete rest for the land in the seventh year, a Sabbath to the Lord: you are not to sow your field or prune your vineyard.

Leviticus 25:4 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 25:4

But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the
land
From all tillage of it, from planting and cultivating any sort of trees in it; and even from digging pits, ditches; and caves, as say the Jewish writers ^F13: and this was typical of that rest which believers enter into under the Gospel dispensation, and of the rest in the new Jerusalem state, and especially in the ultimate glory; not only from the labours of the body, but of the mind, through sin, Satan, doubts and fears, and through conflicts with various enemies, and when even all spiritual labours and services will be at an end but that of praise:

a sabbath for the Lord;
for his honour and glory, to ascertain his property in the land, to show the power of his providence, and display his goodness in his care of all creatures, without any means used by them:

thou shalt neither sow thy field nor prune thy vineyard;
under which are comprehended all acts of agriculture, which respect the cultivation of vines, olives, figs, and, according to the Misnah ^F14, there were some instruments which it was not lawful to sell to an artificer in the seventh year, such as a plough, with all belonging to it, a yoke, a fan, a spade, but he may sell him a scythe, or a sickle, or a cart, and all its instruments; and which the commentators ^F15 interpret of one that is suspected of working in that year; the house of Shammai say, an heifer that ploughed might not be sold that year.

FOOTNOTES:

F13 Torat Cohenim apud Yalkut, ut supra. (par. 1. fol. 191. 1.)
F14 Sheviith, c. 5. sect. 6.
F15 Maimon. & Bartenora in ib.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Leviticus 25:4 In-Context

2 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a sabbath to the LORD.

3 For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops.

4 But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the LORD. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards.

5 Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest.

6 Whatever the land yields during the sabbath year will be food for you—for yourself, your male and female servants, and the hired worker and temporary resident who live among you,