the earth (at large · noun, common feminine singular construct
possession
אֲחֻזַּתְכֶ֑ם'a.chu.zat.Khem
H272
something seized · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
grant
תִּתְּנ֥וּti.te.Nu
H5414
to give · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural
redemption
גְּאֻלָּ֖הge.'u.Lah
H1353
redemption (including the right and the object) · noun, common feminine singular absolute
land
לָאָֽרֶץla.'A.retz
H776
the earth (at large · preposition with the article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Leviticus 25:27 Then let him count the years of the sale thereof, and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it; that he may return unto his poss…
Leviticus 25:31 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…
Leviticus 25:51-53 If there be yet many years behind, according unto them he shall give again the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought f…
Romans 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the a…
1 Corinthians 1:30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
Ephesians 1:7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
Ephesians 1:14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
Ephesians 4:30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Leviticus 25:23-38
Here is, I. A law concerning the real estates of the Israelites in the land of Canaan, and the transferring of them. 1. No land should be sold for ever from the family to whose lot it fell in the division of the land. And the reason given is, The land is mine, and you are strangers and sojourners with me, Lev 25:23. (1.) God having a particular propriety in this land, he would by this restraint keep them sensible of it. The possessions of good people, who, having given up themselves to God, have therewith given up all they have to him, are in a particular manner at his disposal, and his disposal of them must be submitted to. (2.) They being strangers and sojourners with him in that land, and…
The land shall not be sold for ever--or, "be quite cut off," as the Margin better renders it. The land was God's, and, in prosecution of an important design, He gave it to the people of His choice, dividing it among their tribes and families--who, however, held it of Him merely as tenants-at-will and had no right or power of disposing of it to strangers. In necessitous circumstances, individuals might effect a temporary sale. But they possessed the right of redeeming it, at any time, on payment of an adequate compensation to the present holder; and by the enactments of the Jubilee they recovered it free--so that the land was rendered inalienable. (See an exception to this law, Lev 27:20).
Adam Clarke on Leviticus 25:23
The land shall not be sold for ever - the land is mine - As God in a miraculous manner gave them possession of this land, they were therefore to consider themselves merely as tenants to him; and on this ground he, as the great landholder or lord of the soil, prescribes to them all the conditions on which they shall hold it. This one circumstance was peculiarly favorable to their advancement in religion, in righteousness, and true holiness; for feeling that they had nothing which they could call their own upon earth, they must frequently, by this, be put in mind of the necessity of having a permanent dwelling in the heavenly inheritance, and of that preparation without which it could not be p…
The Church Fathers
Then add the following: And throughout the land of your possession you will give the reward to the land, as tenants, or the ransom. If I am not mistaken, here it refers to what they returned from the earth in a certain way when they interrupted their cultivation every seven and every fifty years (Cf Lv 25,8), something that the Scripture calls the year of remission. So the rest of the earth, as a reward for the room, or the rescue out of that of whom the earth is, that is, of God its creator.
And throughout the land of your possession you will give the reward (mercedem) to the earth. Other codices have: You will give ransom (redemptionem) to the earth. The meaning is this: The land will not be sold for profanation, that is, it will not be sold to those who use it as an injury to the Breeder, or for confirmation, that is, for the buyer to possess it perpetually and not return it to the seller in the time established according to the precept of God. And the reason is: Because the earth is mine, therefore, you must use it according to my precept. And to demonstrate that the earth is theirs and not theirs and to say what they are on earth, the text adds below: Since you are for me as strangers and guests. That is to say, although for you outsiders are those who join your people from among foreigners, and although they are guests, that is, they inhabit their own land, nevertheless, all of you are also before me as strangers and guests. God says this, not only to the Israelites, because he gave them the land of the other people that he expelled, but to any man, because before God, who remains eternally and who fills heaven and earth with his own presence, as is written, every man is a stranger at birth and a guest when living, because he is driven to emigrate with death.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Agriculture · LAWS CONCERNING — LAWS CONCERNING
Agriculture Or Husbandry · Was promoted amongst the Jews by: The rights of redemption — Was promoted amongst the Jews by: The rights of redemption
Feast Of Jubilee, The · Enactments respecting: Redemption of sold property — Enactments respecting: Redemption of sold property
Jubilee · LAWS CONCERNING — LAWS CONCERNING
Land · Sale and re — Sale and re
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
And in all the land of your possession,.... Which they should possess in the land of Canaan, whatever part of it any of them should enjoy:
ye shall grant a redemption for the land; that is, whenever any estate in it was sold through necessity, the buyer was obliged to grant a liberty to the seller to redeem it, when it was in his power to do it, or any or his relations, especially after two years; so Jarchi observes, he that sells his possession may redeem it after two years, either he himself or he that is near akin to him, nor can the buyer hinder it; See Gill on Leviticus 25:15.
John Calvin on Leviticus 25:23-34
Leviticus 25:23-34
23. The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.
23. Terra autem non vendetur absolute, quia mea est terra: vos enim peregrini, et advenae estis apud me.
24. And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land.
24. In universa autem terra possessionis vestrae redemptionem dabitis terrae.
25. If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold.
25. Quum attenuatus fuerit frater tuus, et vendiderit de possessione sua: tunc veniet redemptor ejus propinquus ipsi: et redimet v…
The law for the Year of Jubilee refers first of all to its observance (Lev 25:8-12), and secondly to its effects (a) upon the possession of property (vv. 13-34), and (b) upon the personal freedom of the Israelites (vv. 35-55).
Lev 25:8-9
Keeping the year of jubilee. Lev 25:8, Lev 25:9. Seven Sabbaths of years - i.e., year-Sabbaths or sabbatical years, or seven times seven years, the time of seven year-Sabbaths, that is to say, 49 years - they were to count, and then at the expiration of that time to cause the trumpet of jubilee to go (sound) through the whole land on the tenth of the seventh month, i.e., the day of atonement, to proclaim the entrance of the year of jubilee. This mode of anno…
the land belongs to me: Israel’s ownership of the land was derivative, not absolute—ownership depended on the covenant, in which God himself allotted them the land (Deut 1:8, 39). The ideas of land stewardship and of sharing material resources stem naturally from this concept of God’s ownership.
Rashi on Leviticus 25:24
ובכל ארץ אחזתכם AND IN ALL THE LAND OF YOUR POSSESSION [YOU SHALL GRANT A REDEMPTION FOR THE LAND] — (The translation may be: And as regards everything etc.) thus including in this law houses and Hebrew servants (i. e. that to these also the right of redemption must be granted). And this matter is explained in Treatise Kiddushin 21a in the first section (cf. also Sifra, Behar, Chapter 4 9). According to the literal sense, however, it is to be connected with the section immediately following: to point out that one who sells his landed property has the right of redeeming it after two years either by himself or his relative, and that the purchaser has no right to prevent it (גאולה תתנו לארץ, yo…
