Leviticus 25:27

_THE LAND SHALL NOT BE SOLD FOR EVER: FOR THE LAND IS MINE; FOR YE ARE STRANGERS AND SOJOURNERS WITH ME._ The land shall not be sold for ever - or, 'be quite cut off,' as the margin better renders it. The land was God's, who had dispossessed the former inhabitants, and, in prosecution of an important design, gave it to the people of His choice, dividing it among their tribes and families. They, however, held it of Him merely as tenants at will, and had no right or power of disposing of it to strangers. In necessitous circumstances individuals might effect a temporary sale. But they possessed the right of redeeming it, at any time, on payment of an adequate compensation to the present holder and by the enactments of the Jubilee they recovered it free-so that the land was rendered inalienable. (See an exception to this law, Leviticus 27:20)....

23-34 If the land were not redeemed before the year of jubilee, it then returned to him that sold or mortgaged it. This was a figure of the free grace of God in Christ; by which, and not by any price or merit of our own, we are restored to the favour of God. Houses in walled cities were more the fruits of their own industry than land in the country, which was the direct gift of God's bounty; therefore if a man sold a house in a city, he might redeem it only within a year after the sale. This encouraged strangers and proselytes to come and settle among them....

EXPOSITION The subject of the sacred seasons is taken up again in this chapter, after the parenthetical insertion of Leviticus 24:1. There remain the septennial festive season and that of the half-century—the sabbatical year and the jubilee. The sabbatical year was instituted not for any supposed physical benefit accruing from it to the land, but, first, as serving for a link between the sabbath and the jubilee by means of the sacred number seven—the sabbatical year being the seventh year, and the jubilee being the year following the seven-times-seventh year; and secondly, and chiefly, as enforcing the lesson of the weekly sabbath in a manner that could not be overlooked, and symbolically, teaching the universal application of the sabbatical law, even where physical needs were not concerned, and in that way suggesting the expectation of a rest to be hereafter attain

THEN LET HIM COUNT THE YEARS OF THE SALE THEREOF,.... How many years had passed since it was sold, how many it had been in the hands of the purchaser, and how many were yet to come to the year of the jubilee, by which means the price of redemption might easily be settled; thus, for instance, if the years were alike and there was just half the time gone, then half of the price it was sold at was repaid to the purchaser; and if not alike, then in proportion to what had passed and were to come: AND RESTORE THE OVERPLUS UNTO THE MAN TO WHOM HE SOLD IT; for the years that were yet to come; if, as Jarchi says, he has eaten of or enjoyed the fruit of the field three or four years, deduct the price of them from the account, and take the rest; this is the meaning, "and restore the overplus", out of the price of the sale, according to what is eaten, and give it to the buyer: Maimonides e explains...

4. THE SABBATIC YEAR AND THE YEAR OF JUBILEE CHAPTER 25 _ 1. The Sabbatic year (Leviticus 25:1)_ 2. The jubilee (Leviticus 25:8) 3. The jubilee and the land (Leviticus 25:13) 4. The jubilee and the dwelling houses (Leviticus 25:29) 5. The jubilee, the poor and the bondmen (Leviticus 25:35) This is the great restoration chapter in Leviticus. All is connected preeminently with Israel's land. The application, which has been made, that this chapter foreshadows a universal res

THE YEAR OF JUBILE. This law contains two large provisions, the return of estates to their original owners, and the liberation of Hebrew slaves, both in the fiftieth year. It also contains a section which refers to the sabbatical year (Leviticus 25:17) and a law against the exploitation of poor Israelites (Leviticus 25:35). Of these the second at least (as perhaps the first) belongs to H. With the law of Jubile the case is different (see p. 102). A right of redemption certainly did exist (_cf._ Ruth 3 and Jeremiah 32:7, and the reference to the year of liberty, Ezekiel 46:17); but where we should have expected a re

_Law in respect to the redemption of land_(H and P mixed)...

THE LAW OF REDEMPTION 25:23-34 TEXT 25:23-34 23 And the land shall not be sold in perpetuity; for the land is mine: for ye are strangers and sojourners with me. 24 And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land. 25 If thy brother be waxed poor, and sell some of his possession, then shall his kinsman that is next unto him come, and shall redeem that which his brother hath sold. 26 And if a man have no one to redeem it, and he be waxed rich and find sufficient to redeem it; 27 then let him reckon the years of the sale thereof, and restore the over-plus unto the man to whom he sold it; and he shall return unto his possession. 28 But if he be not able to get it back for himself, then that which he hath sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it until the year of jubilee: and in the jubilee it shall go out, and he shall return unto hi...

THE SABBATICAL YEAR. THE YEAR OF JUBILEE The matters treated in this chapter are closely related to those in Leviticus 23, and their separation is another indication that we are dealing with a book made up of different elements. Observe again the change of number in Leviticus 25:14; Leviticus 25:17 and the interruption caused by Leviticus 25:18. Cp. what is said above in intro. to Leviticus 21. 1-7. The law of the Sabbatical Year: see also Exo

LEVITICUS *WORSHIP THE *LORD IN THE BEAUTY OF *HOLINESS LEVITICUS _GORDON CHURCHYARD_ This commentary HAS BEEN through Advanced Checking. Words in boxes are from the Bible, except for the words in brackets (…). CHAPTER 25 SPECIAL YEARS IN THE *JEWISH CALENDAR V1 The *LORD said (this) to Moses at the mountain (called) Sinai. V2 ‘Speak to the *Israelites and say (this) to them. “Do this in the land (country) that I will give to you. (Allow) the land to have a *Sabbath for the *LORD. V3 You will sow (seeds) in your fields for 6 years. You will look after yo