The Liberty Bell’s inscription about proclaiming liberty comes from Leviticus.
The bell bears the words “Proclaim LIBERTY Throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants Thereof.” The wording comes from Leviticus 25:10, a passage concerning the Jubilee year in which liberty was proclaimed throughout the land and property and social relationships were reset.
Pennsylvania’s colonial assembly selected the biblical wording for the bell commissioned in 1752. The inscription therefore predates the Declaration of Independence by 24 years. Its later association with American independence developed through the bell’s location at the Pennsylvania State House and its connection with Revolutionary-era Philadelphia.
The passage is sometimes attributed to Exodus or Isaiah because both books contain important themes of liberation. However, the specific wording engraved on the bell is from Leviticus. The phrase helped transform an official civic bell into a widely recognized symbol of liberty and later abolitionist activism.