Leviticus 25:23-34--Redemption of Property

Leviticus 25:23-34
English Standard Version

Redemption of Property​
23 “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me. 24 And in all the country you possess, you shall allow a redemption of the land.

25 “If your brother becomes poor and sells part of his property, then his nearest redeemer shall come and redeem what his brother has sold. 26 If a man has no one to redeem it and then himself becomes prosperous and finds sufficient means to redeem it, 27 let him calculate the years since he sold it and pay back the balance to the man to whom he sold it, and then return to his property. 28 But if he does not have sufficient means to recover it, then what he sold shall remain in the hand of the buyer until the year of jubilee. In the jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his property.

29 “If a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, he may redeem it within a year of its sale. For a full year he shall have the right of redemption. 30 If it is not redeemed within a full year, then the house in the walled city shall belong in perpetuity to the buyer, throughout his generations; it shall not be released in the jubilee. 31 But the houses of the villages that have no wall around them shall be classified with the fields of the land. They may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the jubilee. 32 As for the cities of the Levites, the Levites may redeem at any time the houses in the cities they possess. 33 And if one of the Levites exercises his right of redemption, then the house that was sold in a city they possess shall be released in the jubilee. For the houses in the cities of the Levites are their possession among the people of Israel. 34 But the fields of pastureland belonging to their cities may not be sold, for that is their possession forever.

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God reminds the people that the Land that they are about to receive is a gift from God and their eternal inheritance and they are never to sell or give away the land in perpetuity (why the Jewish people should never engage in "land for peace" deals).  They are always to make provision for the land to be returned or redeemed (a buy-back option).

if for some reason the family becomes poor and cannot buy back their land, then their nearest relative known as their kinsman redeemer is to buy back the land for them.  We'll see this take place in the book of Ruth, and this is also something that Jesus fulfills as He is our Kinsman Redeemer who bought back everything and everyone that belonged to God with the price of His own blood.

Every man was supposed to redeem his family's land as soon as they became able to do so--no foreigner was to own the land that was promised to the people of God as part of God's covenant with His people.  Even if the man is unable to buy back his land, then it is to be returned to him (or his family if he dies) at the year of jubilee.  This is the law for land that is in the open country or for towns and villages that have no wall around them.

If however the property was in a walled city and the man sells his home and property there, he only has one year to buy it back before the property is perpetually owned by the new owner and that property will not be released back in the year of jubilee as the idea of the year of jubilee was to make sure that families could continue to own their farm land, but there was no intent for it to apply to those who lived in the cities.

For the cities of refuge that belonged to the Levites (we'll talk about these later), they could redeem their houses at any time as this was all of the inheritance that they had as far as the Land.  Even if they sell their house in a walled city, it is to be returned to the Levite and his family on the year of jubilee.  The Levites were never allowed to sell the pasture land that surrounded their cities as this was their ancestral land that was to belong to them forever and they would use this land to raise the own flocks and herds for their sacrifices that they needed to make for themselves and their families and to feed their families--there were many more Levites than just the priests as the Levites transported the pieces of the Tabernacle, were the members of the choir and orchestra, did the custodial work to repair and upkeep the Tabernacle, and they were the ones responsible to teach the Law to the people.