This verse, like verse 5 above, concerns abundant harvest. A literal translation of the Hebrew text as seen in Revised Standard Version is difficult to understand. Good News Translation clarifies the meaning by introducing the verse with “Your harvests will be so plentiful that….” Compare verse 5 above.

You shall eat old store long kept: the idea here may also be translated “you will be able to live a very long time on the grain stored up from one harvest.” Taken literally this could indicate the eating of stale food, which is definitely not the intended meaning.

You shall clear out the old to make way for the new: following the proposal for the previous phrase, this one can be rendered “you will even have to get rid of (or, throw out) what is left in order to be able to store the grain from the new harvest.”

Quoted with permission from Péter-Contesse, René and Ellington, John. A Handbook on Leviticus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1990. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .