Leviticus 25:31

31 However, village houses that have no surrounding wall shall be considered {open country}; [there] is redemption for it, and in the Jubilee it shall go out [of the buyer's hand].

Leviticus 25:31 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 25:31

But the houses of the villages, which have no walls round
about them
As there were many in the days of Joshua, the Scripture speaks of: the Jews suppose that such are meant, even though they were afterwards walled:

shall be counted as the fields of the country;
and subject to the same law as they:

they may be redeemed;
at any time before the year of jubilee, and if not, then

they shall go out in the jubilee;
to the original owners of them, freely, as Jarchi says, without paying anything for them.

Leviticus 25:31 In-Context

29 " 'And if a man sells {a residential house in a walled city}, then it shall be his redemption until completing {a year after his selling}; its redemption {shall last} {a year}.

30 But if it is not redeemed {before a full year has passed}, then the house that [is] {in the walled city} shall belong to the buyer in perpetuity throughout his generations; it shall not go out [of the buyer's hand] in the Jubilee.

31 However, village houses that have no surrounding wall shall be considered {open country}; [there] is redemption for it, and in the Jubilee it shall go out [of the buyer's hand].

32 " 'As for the cities of the Levites, [that is], the houses in their property's cities, it shall be {a lasting redemption} for the Levites.

33 And whatever [anyone] redeems from the Levites then must go out [of the buyer's hand] in the Jubilee, [including] a house's selling {in his city's property}, because the houses in the cities of the Levites [are] their property in the midst of the {Israelites}.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "And" or "But"
• [b]. Literally "the field of the land"
• [c]. Meaning derived from context; an alternative translation could be "shall not be released" (cf. NKJV, NRSV, ESV, NJPS) or "shall not revert" (NASB, NET)