Leviticus 27:24

24 " 'In the Year of Jubilee the field will go back to the person the man bought it from. That person is the one who had owned the land before.

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 " 'Suppose a man sets apart to me a field he has bought. And suppose it is not part of his family's land.
23 Then the priest will decide its value based on the number of years that are left until the Year of Jubilee. The man must pay that value on the day it is decided. The money is holy. It is set apart for me.
24 " 'In the Year of Jubilee the field will go back to the person the man bought it from. That person is the one who had owned the land before.
25 " 'Every amount of money must be weighed out in keeping with the standard weights that are used in the sacred tent.
26 " 'But no one can set apart the first male animal that is born to its mother. That animal already belongs to me. It does not matter whether it is an ox or a sheep. It belongs to me.
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