Leviticus 25:29-34
Christian Standard Bible
29 “If a man sells a residence in a walled city, his right of redemption will last until a year has passed after its sale; his right of redemption will last a year. 30 If it is not redeemed by the end of a full year, then the house in the walled city is permanently transferred to its purchaser throughout his generations. It is not to be released on the Jubilee. 31 But houses in settlements that have no walls around them are to be classified as open fields. The right to redeem such houses stays in effect, and they are to be released at the Jubilee.
32 “Concerning the Levitical cities,(A) the Levites always have the right to redeem houses in the cities they possess. 33 Whatever property one of the Levites can redeem[a]—a house sold in a city they possess—is to be released at the Jubilee, because the houses in the Levitical cities are their possession among the Israelites. 34 The open pastureland around their cities may not be sold, for it is their permanent possession.
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- 25:33 Hb obscure
Leviticus 25:29-34
New English Translation
Release of Houses
29 “‘If a man sells a residential house in a walled city,[a] its right of redemption must extend[b] until one full year from its sale;[c] its right of redemption must extend to a full calendar year.[d] 30 If it is not redeemed before the full calendar year is ended,[e] the house in the walled city[f] will belong without reclaim[g] to the one who bought it throughout his generations; it will not revert in the Jubilee. 31 The houses of villages, however,[h] which have no wall surrounding them[i] must be considered as the field[j] of the land; they will have the right of redemption and must revert in the Jubilee. 32 As for[k] the cities of the Levites, the houses in the cities which they possess,[l] the Levites must have a perpetual right of redemption. 33 Whatever someone among the Levites might redeem—the sale of a house which is his property in a city—must revert in the Jubilee,[m] because the houses of the cities of the Levites are their property in the midst of the Israelites. 34 Moreover,[n] the open field areas of their cities[o] must not be sold, because that is their perpetual possession.
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- Leviticus 25:29 tn Heb “a house of a residence of a walled city.”
- Leviticus 25:29 tn Heb “shall be.”
- Leviticus 25:29 tn Heb “of its sale.”
- Leviticus 25:29 tn Heb “days its right of redemption shall be” (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 176).
- Leviticus 25:30 tn Heb “until fulfilling to it a complete year.’
- Leviticus 25:30 tn Heb “the house which [is] in the city which to it [is] a wall.” The Kethib has לֹא (loʾ, “no, not”) rather than לוֹ (lo, “to it”) which is the Qere.
- Leviticus 25:30 tn See the note on v. 23 above.
- Leviticus 25:31 tn Heb “And the houses of the villages.”
- Leviticus 25:31 tn Heb “which there is not to them a wall.”
- Leviticus 25:31 tn Heb “on the field.”
- Leviticus 25:32 tn Heb “And.”
- Leviticus 25:32 tn Heb “the houses of the cities of their property.”
- Leviticus 25:33 tn Heb “And which he shall redeem from the Levites shall go out, sale of house and city, his property in the Jubilee.” Although the end of this verse is clear, the first part is notoriously difficult. There are five main views. (1) The first clause of the verse actually attaches to the previous verse, and refers to the fact that their houses retain a perpetual right of redemption (v. 32b), “which any of the Levites may exercise” (v. 33a; J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 418, 421). (2) It refers to property that one Levite sells to another Levite, which is then redeemed by still another Levite (v. 33a). In such cases, the property reverts to the original Levite owner in the Jubilee Year (v. 33b; G. J. Wenham, Leviticus [NICOT], 321). (3) It refers to houses in a city that had come to be declared as a Levitical city but had original non-Levitical owners. Once the city was declared to belong to the Levites, however, an owner could only sell his house to a Levite, and he could only redeem it back from a Levite up until the time of the first Jubilee after the city was declared to be a Levitical city. In this case the first part of the verse would be translated, “Such property as may be redeemed from the Levites” (NRSV, NJPS). At the first Jubilee, however, all such houses became the property of the Levites (v. 33b; P. J. Budd, Leviticus [NCBC], 353). (4) It refers to property “which is appropriated from the Levites” (not “redeemed from the Levites,” v. 33a) by those who have bought it or taken it as security for debts owed to them by Levites who had fallen on bad times. Again, such property reverts back to the original Levite owners at the Jubilee (B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 177). (5) It simply refers to the fact that a Levite has the option of redeeming his house (i.e., the prefix form of the verb is taken to be subjunctive, “may or might redeem”), which he had to sell because he had fallen into debt or perhaps even become destitute. Even if he never gained the resources to do so, however, it would still revert to him in the Jubilee year. The present translation is intended to reflect this latter view.
- Leviticus 25:34 tn Heb “And.”
- Leviticus 25:34 sn This refers to the region of fields just outside and surrounding the city where cattle were kept and garden crops were grown (B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 177).
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