The Law of Redemption

The LORD declares that the land is his, so property cannot be sold permanently. A poor man’s land may be redeemed by kin or by the seller himself, and if that is not possible, it returns in the Jubilee.

T²³he land must not be sold permanently, because it is Mine, and you are but foreigners and residents with Me. ²⁴Thus for every piece of property you possess, you must provide for the redemption of the land. ²⁵If your brother becomes impoverished and sells some of his property, his nearest of kin may come and redeem what his brother has sold. ²⁶Or if a man has no one to redeem it for him, but he prospers and acquires enough to redeem his land, ²⁷he shall calculate the years since its sale, repay the balance to the man to whom he sold it, and return to his property. ²⁸But if he cannot obtain enough to repay him, what he sold will remain in possession of the buyer until the Year of Jubilee. In the Jubilee, however, it is to be released, so that he may return to his property.

Houses in walled cities may be redeemed only within a year, after which the sale becomes permanent, but houses in unwalled villages are treated like field land and released in the Jubilee.

²⁹If a man sells a house in a walled city, he retains his right of redemption until a full year after its sale; during that year it may be redeemed. ³⁰If it is not redeemed by the end of a full year, then the house in the walled city is permanently transferred to its buyer and his descendants. It is not to be released in the Jubilee. ³¹But houses in villages with no walls around them are to be considered as open fields. They may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the Jubilee.

Levitical houses remain redeemable and are released in the Jubilee, because they are part of the Levites’ possession among Israel. Their surrounding pastureland, however, cannot be sold at all.

³²As for the cities of the Levites, the Levites always have the right to redeem their houses in the cities they possess. ³³So whatever belongs to the Levites may be redeemed— a house sold in a city they possess— and must be released in the Jubilee, because the houses in the cities of the Levites are their possession among the Israelites. ³⁴But the open pastureland around their cities may not be sold, for this is their permanent possession.