Leviticus 25:32

32 Notwithstanding, the cities of the Levites and the houses of the cities of their possession may the Levites redeem at any time.

Leviticus 25:32 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 25:32

Notwithstanding, the cities of the Levites
The six cities of refuge, and forty two others; these and the houses in them are excepted from the above law, and only they; not such as they might purchase elsewhere; wherefore it follows,

[and] the houses of the cities of their possession;
which were in cities possessed by them, and which was their possession, and given them as such:

may the Levites redeem at any time;
they were not restrained to a year, as houses in walled towns, but they might redeem them as they pleased or could; and if they did not redeem them within the year, they might redeem them afterwards, even years after, and any time before the year of jubilee; so it is said in the Misnah F12 the priests and the Levites sell always, and they redeem always, as it is said, ( Leviticus 25:32 ) ; on which one of the commentators says F13 "they sell always", not as the Israelites, who cannot sell less than two years before the jubilee; but the Levites can sell near the jubilee: "and they redeem always"; if they sell houses in walled cities, they are not confirmed at the end of the year, as the houses of Israelites; and if they sell fields, it is not necessary they should remain in the hands of the buyer two years, but they may redeem them immediately if they will: this redemption was peculiar to the Levites; for if an Israelite has an inheritance from his father's mother, a Levite, he might not redeem according to the manner Levites did, but according to Israelites; and so a Levite that inherited from his father's mother, an Israelite, was obliged to redeem as an Israelite and not as a Levite F14; for this perpetual redemption respected only houses that were in the cities of the Levites.


FOOTNOTES:

F12 Eracin, c. 9. sect. 8.
F13 Bartenora in ib.
F14 Misn. Eracin, c. 9. sect. 8.

Leviticus 25:32 In-Context

30 And if it is not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be established for ever to him that bought it throughout his generations; it shall not go out in the jubilee.
31 But the houses of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be counted as the fields of the country; they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubilee.
32 Notwithstanding, the cities of the Levites and the houses of the cities of their possession may the Levites redeem at any time.
33 And if a man purchase from the Levites, then the house that was sold and the city of his possession shall go out in the Year of Jubilee; for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel.
34 But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold, for it is their perpetual possession.
Third Millennium Bible (TMB), New Authorized Version, Copyright 1998 by Deuel Enterprises, Inc., Gary, SD 57237. All rights reserved.