Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Leviticus 25:39 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 39. 39And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant:
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse forbids treating an impoverished Israelite sold into service as a chattel slave.
Read It With
- Leviticus 25:35-43
Track the movement across 25:35-43. When Leviticus 25:39 forbids treating an impoverished Israelite sold into service as a chattel slave, it contributes to this complete claim: A struggling brother, including a resident-like dependent, is sustained without interest; if sold, he is treated as hired worker rather than slave and leaves with children at Jubilee.
Why This Verse Appears Here
This verse forbids treating an impoverished Israelite sold into service as a chattel slave. The surrounding movement keeps that contribution inside Leviticus 25:35-43.
Follow the Context
- The unit opens the particular procedure, case, scene, or instruction named “Poor Israelite kin receive support, no interest, and limited service.”
- A struggling brother, including a resident-like dependent, is sustained without interest; if sold, he is treated as hired worker rather than slave and leaves with children at Jubilee.
- The unit closes with this interpretive boundary: Calling him brother does not erase coercive debt or family vulnerability, and no employer may use the text to demand forced service.
What This Verse Is Not Saying
Leviticus 25:39 does not turn its distinct contribution—forbids treating an impoverished Israelite sold into service as a chattel slave—into a free-standing rule; calling him brother does not erase coercive debt or family vulnerability, and no employer may use the text to demand forced service.
What Remains True
A poor Israelite who sells his labor is protected from being worked as a slave, yet economic compulsion and family dependence remain real.
How It Can Shape Life
- Protect workers in debt from coercion, unsafe conditions, retaliation, and contracts they cannot realistically escape.
Teach It Back
Explain Leviticus 25:39's contribution to Leviticus 25:35-43. Name the category involved, what the surrounding verses add, any material uncertainty, and what the verse does not authorize.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Leviticus 25:35-43 — Poor Israelite kin receive support, no interest, and limited serviceSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
Interpreters disagree over Jubilee's date, relationship to sabbatical laws and ancient release decrees, historical implementation, land-sale mechanics, debt service, the scope of kinship protection, and the composition of Leviticus 25. The contrast between protected Israelite debt servants and inheritable foreign slaves remains textually explicit and ethically severe.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: Leviticus 25:35-43, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Leviticus
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, ritual and legal vocabulary, names, clause relationships, KJV language controls, and translation limits.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Lev.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 25:35-43
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Leviticus with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
eBible.org distribution of the NET Bible, PDF generated 2025-12-31
Supports: Unit-bounded translator notes on Hebrew, syntax, ritual vocabulary, measures, textual questions, and older-English wording; silence is not treated as evidence.
Exact location: NET Bible Leviticus PDF, complete PDF pp. 1-99, translation and translator notes for 25:35-43
Open source ↗