Leviticus 27:24

24 forsooth in the jubilee it shall turn again to the former lord that sold it, and he shall have it into the heritage of his possession. (but in the Jubilee Year it shall return to the original owner who sold it, and it shall be in the inheritance of his possession.)

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 If the field is bought, and is not of the possession of greater men, that is, of ancestors, and it is hallowed to the Lord, (If a field is bought, and it is not part of a person's ancestral land, and it is holy to the Lord,)
23 the priest shall determine the price by the number of years till to the jubilee, and he that avowed the field shall give the price thereof to the Lord; (the priest shall determine its value by the number of years until the Jubilee, and he who vowed the field shall pay its value to the Lord;)
24 forsooth in the jubilee it shall turn again to the former lord that sold it, and he shall have it into the heritage of his possession. (but in the Jubilee Year it shall return to the original owner who sold it, and it shall be in the inheritance of his possession.)
25 All the appraising, or value, shall be weighed by the shekel of the saintuary (shall be made with the shekel of the sanctuary); a shekel hath twenty halfpence.
26 No man may hallow and avow the first engendered things that pertain to the Lord, whether it is (an) ox, or (a) sheep, (for) they be the Lord's part.
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.