Translation commentary on Leviticus 25:8

You shall count: literally “you shall count for yourself.” The two pronouns are singular in form but should be understood collectively as referring to the people of Israel as a whole. In some languages the verb here will be better translated “wait,” as in the similar passage in 15.13.

Seven weeks of years: the word translated weeks is actually translated elsewhere as “sabbaths” and has the root meaning “seven” (see 16.31). So the phrases seven weeks of years (used twice) and “seven times seven years” have exactly the same meaning and can be translated once, if the repetition is stylistically unacceptable in the receptor language.

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 .

complete verse (Leviticus 25:8)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Leviticus 25:8:

  • Kupsabiny: “Count seven years seven times so all become forty-nine years.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “Count seven Sabbath year, that is, seven set of seven years it will be total 49 year,” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “In every 49 years, on the tenth day of the seventh month which is the Day of Redeeming the People from their sins, you (plur.) are-to-sound/blow/[lit. cause-to-be-loud] the horns/trumpets throughout the whole place/(land).” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “‘Also, after every 49 years has ended, you must do this: On the tenth day of the seventh month/At the end of September of the next/50th year, blow trumpets throughout the country, to declare that it will be a day on which you request that I forgive you for the sins that you have committed.” (Source: Translation for Translators)