Leviticus 25:20-30

20 And if you say, 1'What shall we eat in the seventh year, if 2we may not sow or gather in our crop?'
21 I will 3command my blessing on you in the sixth year, so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years.
22 4When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating some of 5the old crop; you shall eat the old until the ninth year, when its crop arrives.

Redemption of Property

23 "The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for 6the 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, 7then 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 8him 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 has not 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 9be released, and 10he 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; 11it shall not be released in the jubilee.

Leviticus 25:20-30 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO LEVITICUS 25

In this chapter the Israelites are directed, when come into the land of Canaan, to observe every seventh year as a sabbatical year, in which there was to be no tillage of the land, and yet there would be a sufficiency for man and beast, Le 25:1-7; and every fiftieth year as a year of jubilee, in which also there was to be no tillage of the land, and every man was to return to his possession or estate, which had been sold to another any time before this, Le 25:8-17; and a promise of safety and plenty in the seventh year is made to encourage the observance of it, Le 25:18-22; and several laws and rules are delivered out concerning the sale of lands, the redemption of them, and their return to their original owner in the year of jubilee, Le 25:23-28; and the sale of houses, and the redemption of them, and the difference between those in walled cities and those in villages, with respect thereunto, Le 25:29-31; and also concerning the houses of the cities of the Levites, and the fields of the suburbs of them, Le 25:32-34; to which are added some instructions about relieving decayed, persons, and lending and giving to them, without taking usury of them, Le 25:34-38; and other laws concerning the release of such Israelites as had sold themselves for servants to the Israelites, in the year of jubilee, since none but Heathens were to be bondmen and bondmaids for ever, Le 25:39-46; and of such who were sold to proselytes, Le 25:47-55.

Cross References 11

  • 1. [Matthew 6:25, 31; Luke 12:22, 29]
  • 2. ver. 4, 5
  • 3. Deuteronomy 28:8
  • 4. [2 Kings 19:29]
  • 5. Leviticus 26:10
  • 6. Deuteronomy 32:43; 2 Chronicles 7:20; Psalms 85:1; Hosea 9:3; Joel 2:18; Joel 3:2
  • 7. Ruth 2:20; Ruth 3:9, 12; Ruth 4:4, 6; Jeremiah 32:7, 8
  • 8. See ver. 50-52
  • 9. Leviticus 27:21
  • 10. ver. 13, 41
  • 11. [See ver. 28 above]
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.