Leviticus 27:24

24 In the year of the jubilee the field shall return unto the one of whom it was bought, unto whom the inheritance of the land did belong.

Leviticus 27:24 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 27:24

In the year of jubilee, the field shall return unto him of
whom it was bought
Not to him that sanctified it, whether he redeemed it or not; nor to him that bought it of the treasurer of the temple after it was sanctified; but to the original proprietor and owner of it, of whom he bought it that sanctified it, for so it follows:

[even] to him to whom the possession of the land [did belong];
which was a possession of his he had by inheritance from his fathers, and therefore, according to the law of the year of jubilee, was then to return to him, and could be retained no longer, nor even converted to holy uses; for as it is said in the Misnah F8,

``a field of purchase goes not out to the priests in the year of jubilee; for no man can sanctify a thing which is not his own;''

as what he had purchased was no longer his than to the year of jubilee, and therefore could not devote it to sacred uses for any longer time.


FOOTNOTES:

F8 Ut supra. (Hilchot Eracin, c. 4. sect. 26.)

Leviticus 27:24 In-Context

22 And if anyone sanctifies unto the LORD a field which he has bought, which is not of the fields of his inheritance,
23 then the priest shall reckon unto him the worth of thy estimation until the year of the jubilee; and that day he shall give thy assigned price, as a holy thing unto the LORD.
24 In the year of the jubilee the field shall return unto the one of whom it was bought, unto whom the inheritance of the land did belong.
25 And all thy values shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary; twenty gerahs shall be the shekel.
26 But the firstborn of the animals, which because it is firstborn belongs to the LORD, no one shall sanctify it; whether it is ox or sheep, it is the LORD’s.
The Jubilee Bible (from the Scriptures of the Reformation), edited by Russell M. Stendal, Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2010