Bible Strands
Leviticus 25:45
You may also purchase them from the foreigners residing among you or their clans living among you who are born in your land. These may become your property.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Moses addresses the Israelites in the wilderness, delivering statutes for the Jubilee year that regulate land, debt, and labor. The command specifically governs the permanent acquisition of servants from non-Israelite populations residing within the territory.
The words — The phrase הַתּוֹשָׁבִים הַגָּרִים (ha-to.sha.vim ha-ga.rim) translates to "resident aliens who sojourn," designating foreigners who have settled among the people. The verb תִקְנ֔וּ (tik.nu) means "you will buy," establishing a legal transaction that converts temporary residents into permanent property.
The thread — This directive extends the broader permission in Leviticus 25:44 to purchase servants from surrounding nations, while Isaiah 56:3 addresses the separate covenant status of foreigners who join the LORD. Both passages manage the legal and social boundaries between Israelites and non-Israelites living in the land.
Why it lands — The text establishes a clear legal parameter for permanent labor acquisition, permitting ownership of non-Israelite servants while explicitly reserving different treatment for Israelite brothers. It requires readers to recognize the specific ancient economic regulations without imposing modern ethical categories onto the statute.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 56:3 Let no foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say, “The LORD will utterly exclude me from His people.” And let the eunuch not say, “I am but a dry tree.”