Leviticus - 25:14



14 "'If you sell anything to your neighbor, or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another.

Verse In-Depth

Explanation and meaning of Leviticus 25:14.

Differing Translations

Compare verses for better understanding.
And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbour, or buyest ought of thy neighbour's hand, ye shall not oppress one another:
And if thou sell aught unto thy neighbor, or buy of thy neighbor's hand, ye shall not wrong one another.
When thou shalt sell any thing to thy neighbour, or shalt buy of him; grieve not thy brother: but thou shalt buy of him according to the number of years from the jubilee.
And if ye sell ought unto your neighbour, or buy of your neighbour's hand, ye shall not overreach one another.
And if thou sell aught unto thy neighbour, or buy of thy neighbour's hand, ye shall not wrong one another:
And if thou shalt sell aught to thy neighbor, or buy aught of thy neighbor's hand, ye shall not oppress one another:
'And when thou sellest anything to thy fellow, or buyest from the hand of thy fellow, ye do not oppress one another;
And if you sell ought to your neighbor, or buy ought of your neighbor's hand, you shall not oppress one another:
And in the business of trading goods for money, do no wrong to one another.
When you will sell anything to your fellow citizen, or buy anything from him, do not cause your brother grief, but buy from him according to the number of years from the Jubilee,

*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.


Historical Commentaries

Scholarly Analysis and Interpretation.

Sell ought - i. e., any piece of ground.
Oppress one another - Rather, overreach one another. (Compare 1-Samuel 12:3-4).

Ye shall not oppress one another - Ye shall take no advantage of each other's ignorance either in buying or selling; for he that buys an article at less than it is worth, or sells one for more than it is worth, taking advantage in both cases of the ignorance of the vender or buyer, is no better than a thief, as he actually robs his neighbor of as much property as he has bought the article at below or sold it above its current value.

And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbour, or buyest [ought] of thy neighbour's hand, ye shall (h) not oppress one another:
(h) By deceit, or otherwise.

And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbour,.... Any estate or possession, house or land, at any time before the year of jubilee:
or buyest ought of thy neighbour's hand; of movable goods, as the Targum of Jonathan interprets it; and so other Jewish writers (z) restrain this to goods which are bought by hand, and delivered from hand to hand; and so they think that fields, and servants, which they say are like to fields, are excluded hereby; but it seems to refer to anything saleable, and chiefly to fields and vineyards, as the following verses show; wherefore Diodorus Siculus, as quoted by Grotius, must be mistaken, when he says, it was not counted lawful by the Jews to sell their inheritance, unless he means for ever, so indeed they could not:
ye shall not oppress one another; the buyer giving too little, or the seller requiring too much; no advantage was to be taken, either of the necessity of the one, or the ignorance of the other, but a fair bargain was to be made, and the full value given, neither too much nor too little. The Jews by "neighbour" understand an Israelite, and not a Gentile (a); not that there might be no buying and selling at all between Jews and Gentiles, or that the former might oppress and defraud the latter, though not an Israelite; but lands and inheritances might not be sold at all to Gentiles, only to Israelites.
(z) Maimon. & Bartenora in Misn. Bava Metziah, c. 4. sect. 9. (a) Jarchi in loc.

Ye shall not oppress - Neither the seller by requiring more, nor the buyer by taking the advantage from his brother's necessities to give him less than the worth of it.

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