Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Leviticus 25:23
The land shall not be sold forever: for the land [is] mine; for ye [are] strangers and sojourners with me.
23. A resumption of the Jubile regulation (after the interruption of Lev 25:18-22) providing that the land was not to be alienated beyond the next Jubile.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
These verses express the principle on which the law of Jubilee, as it regards the land, was based. The land belonged to Yahweh, and it was He who allotted it among the families of Israel for their use. No estate could therefore be alienated in perpetuity, by any human authority, from the family to whose lot it might fall.
Lev 25:24
Grant a redemption for the land – i. e. grant power to recover the land to the original holder who had parted with it.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 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 favourable 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 possessed.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
For ever, or, absolutely and properly, so as to become the propriety of the buyer; or to the extermination or utter cutting off, to wit, of the seller, from all hopes and possibility of redemption. For the land is mine; procured for you by my power, given to you by my mere grace and bounty, and the right of propriety reserved by me, and to be disposed of by you only to such persons and in such manner as I shall have ordained.
Sojourners with me, i.e. in my land or houses: thus he is said to sojourn with another that dwells in his house. Thus the poor decayed Israelites and the strangers are said to live with them, i.e. with the other Israelites, to wit, in the land or houses here, Lev 25:35,36,40,44. Or, before me, in my sight, or in my account. Howsoever in your own or other mens opinions you pass for lords and proprietors, yet in truth, according to which my judgment always is, you are but strangers and sojourners, not to possess the land for ever, but only for a season, and to leave it to such as I have appointed for it.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
23-28. The land shall not be soldfor everor, “be quite cut off,” as the Marginbetter renders it. The land was God’s, and, in prosecution of animportant design, He gave it to the people of His choice, dividing itamong their tribes and familieswho, however, held it of Him merelyas tenants-at-will and had no right or power of disposing of it tostrangers. In necessitous circumstances, individuals might effect atemporary sale. But they possessed the right of redeeming it, at anytime, on payment of an adequate compensation to the presentholder; and by the enactments of the Jubilee they recovered itfreeso that the land was rendered inalienable. (See an exceptionto this law, Le 27:20).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The land shall not be sold for ever,…. That is, the land of Israel; the meaning is, any part of it, for that the whole might be sold or disposed of at once is not to be supposed, but anyone part of it, which was the property of a single man, or belonged to a family; though it might be sold in case of necessity, yet not for ever, so as never to return to the owner, or his heirs; for if it was sold for ever it returned in the year of the jubilee: the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan render the word “absolutely”, simply, properly; a proper absolute sale was not to be made, but a conditional one, or for so many years, or with a view to its reversion in the year of jubilee, and so the agreement to be made according to the number of years, as before directed: the word, as Aben Ezra observes, signifies “cutting off”, and the sense is, that no land should be sold entirely, so as that the proprietor or his heirs should be wholly cut off from it, or that the entail of it upon the family should be cut off:
for the land [is] mine; as indeed the whole earth is, but the land of Canaan was peculiarly his, which he had chosen above all other lands for the inheritance of his people; out of which he drove the old inhabitants of it for their sins, and put in his own people to possess it under him; where he himself had his dwelling place, and where he was served and worshipped, and where the Messiah was to be born, and was born, and therefore called Immanuel’s land; and which was a figure of the better country, or the heavenly glory and happiness, which is of God’s preparing and giving, and will never be alienated from those whose right it is:
for ye [are] strangers and sojourners with me; as the Gentiles that lived among them were strangers and sojourners with them, so they were with the Lord; he was the original proprietor, they were but tenants at will; though it was both an honour and happiness to be with him, under any character, to board, and lodge, and dwell with him; and they might well be content to be reckoned not proprietors but strangers and sojourners, and especially such as had faith and hope in a better inheritance, of which this was only a figure; however, this being their present case, it was a reason good, why they could not for ever dispose of their lands and possessions, any more than a sojourner or inmate can of a house of which he has only a part.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
23 The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me. 24 And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land. 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. 26 And if the man have none to redeem it, and himself be able to redeem it; 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 possession. 28 But if he be not able to restore it to him, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it until the year of jubilee: and in the jubilee it shall go out, and he shall return unto his possession. 29 And if a man sell a dwelling house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; within a full year may he redeem it. 30 And if it be not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be established for ever to him that bought it throughout his generations: it shall not go out in the jubilee. 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 they shall go out in the jubilee. 32 Notwithstanding the cities of the Levites, and the houses of the cities of their possession, may the Levites redeem at any time. 33 And if a man purchase of the Levites, then the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, shall go out in the year of jubilee: for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel. 34 But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession. 35 And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him: yea, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee. 36 Take thou no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee. 37 Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase. 38 I am the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.
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, v. 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 having his tabernacle among them, to alienate their part of that land would be in effect to cut themselves off from their fellowship and communion with God, of which that was a token and symbol, for which reason Naboth would rather incur the wrath of a king than part with the inheritance of his fathers, 1 Kings xxi. 3. 2. If a man was constrained through poverty to sell his land for the subsistence of his family, yet, if afterwards he was able, he might redeem it before the year of jubilee (Lev 25:24; Lev 25:26; Lev 25:27), and the price must be settled according to the number of years since the sale and before the jubilee. 3. If the person himself was not able to redeem it, his next kinsman might (v. 25): The redeemer thereof, he that is near unto him, shall come and shall redeem, so it might be read. The kinsman is called Goel, the redeemer (Num 5:8; Rth 3:9), to whom belonged the right of redeeming the land. And this typified Christ, who assumed our nature, that he might be our kinsman, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, and, being the only kinsman we have that is able to do it, to him belonged the right of redemption. As for all our other kinsmen, their shoe must be plucked off (Rth 4:6; Rth 4:7); they cannot redeem. But Christ can and hath redeemed the inheritance which we by sin had forfeited and alienated, and made a new settlement of it upon all that by faith become allied to him. We know that this Redeemer liveth, Job xix. 25. And some make this duty of the kinsman to signify the brotherly love that should be among Christians, inclining them to recover those that are fallen, and to restore them with the spirit of meekness. 4. If the land was not redeemed before the year of jubilee, then it should return of course to him that had sold or mortgaged it: In the jubilee it shall go out, v. 28. This was a figure of the free grace of God towards us in Christ, by which, and not by any price or merit of our own, we are restored to the favour of God, and become entitled to paradise, from which our first parents, and we in them, were expelled for disobedience. 5. A difference was made between houses in walled cities, and lands in the country, or houses in country villages. Houses in walled cities were more the fruits of their own industry than land in the country, which was the immediate gift of God’s bounty; and therefore, if a man sold a house in a city, he might redeem it any time within a year after the sale, but otherwise it was confirmed to the purchaser for ever, and should not return, no, not at the year of the jubilee, Lev 25:29; Lev 25:30. This provision was made to encourage strangers and proselytes to come and settle among them. Though they could not purchase land in Canaan to them and their heirs, yet they might purchase houses in walled cities, which would be most convenient for those who were supposed to live by trade. But country houses could be disposed of no otherwise than as lands might. 6. A clause is added in favour of the Levites, by way of exception from these rules. (1.) Dwelling houses in the cities of the Levites might be redeemed at any time, and, if not redeemed, should revert in the year of jubilee (Lev 25:32; Lev 25:33), because the Levites had no other possessions than cities and their suburbs, and God would show that the Levites were his peculiar care; and it was for the interest of the public that they should not be impoverished, or wormed out of their inheritances. (2.) The fields adjoining to their cities (Num 35:4; Num 35:5) might not be sold at any time, for they belonged, not to particular Levites, but to the city of the Levites, as a corporation, who could not alienate without a wrong to their tribe; therefore, if any of those fields were sold, the bargain was void, v. 34. Even the Egyptians took care to preserve the land of the priests, Gen. xlvii. 22. And there is no less reason for the taking of the maintenance of the gospel ministry under the special protection of Christian governments.
II. A law for the relief of the poor, and the tender usage of poor debtors, and these are of more general and perpetual obligation than the former.
1. The poor must be relieved, v. 35. Here is, (1.) Our brother’s poverty and distress supposed: If thy brother be waxen poor; not only thy brother by nation as a Jew, but thy brother by nature as a man, for it follows, though he be a stranger or a sojourner. All men are to be looked upon and treated as brethren, for we have all one Father, Mal. ii. 10. Though he is poor, yet still he is thy brother, and is to be loved and owned as a brother. Poverty does not destroy the relation. Though a son of Abraham, yet he may wax poor and fall into decay. Note, Poverty and decay are great grievances, and very common: The poor you have always with you. (2.) Our duty enjoined: Thou shalt relieve him. By sympathy, pitying the poor; by service, doing for them; and by supply, giving to them according to their necessity and thy ability.
2. Poor debtors must not be oppressed: If thy brother be waxen poor, and have occasion to borrow money of thee for the necessary support of his family, take thou no usury of him, either for money or victuals, Lev 25:36; Lev 25:37. And thus far this law binds still, but could never be thought binding where money is borrowed for purchase of lands, trade, or other improvements; for there it is reasonable that the lender share with the borrower in the profit. The law here is plainly intended for the relief of the poor, to whom it is sometimes as great a charity to lend freely as to give. Observe the arguments here used against extortion. (1.) God patronizes the poor: “Fear thy God, who will reckon with thee for all injuries done to the poor: thou fearest not them, but fear him.” (2.) Relieve the poor, that they may live with thee, and some way or other they may be serviceable to thee. The rich can as ill spare the hands of the poor as the poor can the purses of the rich. (3.) The same argument is used to enforce this precept that prefaces all the ten commandments: I am the Lord your God which brought you out of Egypt, v. 38. Note, It becomes those that have received mercy to show mercy. If God has been gracious to us, we ought not to be rigorous with our brethren.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Verses 23, 24:
There were certain advantages to the sabbatical year and the Jubilee Year principle. One of these was that it would do much to correct abuses arising from slavery. All slaves were to be set free periodically under the sabbatical provisions.
Another advantage was that it would curb the greed of those who would accumulate large land-holdings. The land returned to its ancestral tenants each Jubilee Year.
The most important feature of this provision, however, was that it emphasized the proprietorship of God and the stewardship of man. The Land belonged to God. He allocated it to His people according to His own will, under the administration of Joshua. The Jubilee provision that title to the land should revert to the original grantees was a constant reminder that the people were tenants, not owners, and were dependent upon Jehovah for their livelihood. This principle applies today. God is still the owner of all, Ac 17:28; Ps 24:1. Man is but a steward, and will one day give account of his stewardship over God’s property, 2Co 5:10; Php 2:5-11.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
23. The land shall not be sold for ever. Since the reason for this law was peculiar to the children of Abraham, its provisions can hardly be applied to other nations; for so equal a partition of the land was made under Joshua, that the inheritance was distributed amongst the several tribes and families; nay, in order that each man’s possession should be more sacred, the land had been divided by lot, as if God by His own hand located them in their separate stations. In fact, that allotment was, as it were, an inviolable decree of God Himself, whereby the memory of the covenant should be maintained, by which the inheritance of the land had been promised to Abraham and his posterity; and thus the land of Canaan was an earnest, or symbol, or mirror, of the adoption on which their salvation was founded. Wherefore it is not to be wondered at that God was unwilling that this inestimable benefit should ever be lost; and, lest this should be the case, like a provident father of a family, He laid a restraint on His children, to prevent them from being too prodigal; for, when a man has any suspicions of his heir, he forbids him to alienate the patrimony he leaves him. Such, therefore, was the condition of the ancient people; yet it cannot be indiscriminately transferred to other nations who have had no common inheritance given them. Some vestige of it appears in the right of redemption; (156) but, because that depends on the consent of the parties, and is also a special mode of contract, it has nothing to do with the law of Moses, which entirely restored both men and lands, (in the year of jubilee, (157)) That God should call the land of Canaan His, is, as it were, to assert His direct Lordship (158) ( dominium,) as they call it, over it; as He immediately afterwards more clearly expresses His meaning, where He says that the children of Israel sojourn in it as His guests. (159) For although their condition was the best in which just and perpetual owners can be placed, still, as respected God, they were but His tenants ( coloni,) only living there at His will. In fine, God claims the freehold ( fundum) for Himself, lest the recollection of tits having granted it to them should ever escape them.
(156) “ Redemptio in Law, a faculty or right of re-entering upon lands, etc., that have been sold and assigned, upon reimbursing the purchase-money with legal costs. Bargains wherein the faculty, or, as some call it, the equity of redemption is reserved, are only a kind of pignorative contracts. A certain time is limited, within which the faculty, of redemption shall be exercised; and beyond which it shall not extend. — Chambers’s Encyclopaedia.
(157) Added from Fr.
(158) “La seigneurie directe (qu’on appelle,) ou fonsiere.” — Fr.
(159) Addition in Fr. , “Ou fermiers, ou grangiers.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
THE LAW OF REDEMPTION 25:2334
TEXT 25:2334
23
And the land shall not be sold in perpetuity; for the land is mine: for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.
24
And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land.
25
If thy brother be waxed poor, and sell some of his possession, then shall his kinsman that is next unto him come, and shall redeem that which his brother hath sold.
26
And if a man have no one to redeem it, and he be waxed rich and find sufficient to redeem it;
27
then let him reckon the years of the sale thereof, and restore the over-plus unto the man to whom he sold it; and he shall return unto his possession.
28
But if he be not able to get it back for himself, then that which he hath sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it until the year of jubilee: and in the jubilee it shall go out, and he shall return unto his possession.
29
And if a man sell a dwelling-house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; for a full year shall he have the right of redemption.
30
And if it be not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be made sure in perpetuity to him that bought it, throughout his generations: it shall not go out in the jubilee.
31
But the houses of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be reckoned with the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubilee.
32
Nevertheless the cities of the Levites, the houses of the cities of their possession, may the Levites redeem at any time.
33
And if one of the Levites redeem, then the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, shall go out in the jubilee; for the house of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel.
34
But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession.
THOUGHT QUESTIONS 25:2334
603.
What relationship did the Israelites sustain to the Lord? Cf. Lev. 25:23.
604.
What is the meaning of the word redemption as it is used here?
605.
Why any need to redeem if the land was to revert back to the original owner?
606.
Please explain in your own words Lev. 25:26-27.
607.
Would the principle of the year of Jubilee work in our society? Discuss.
608.
Why the distinction in the sale of a house in a fortified city? Cf. Lev. 25:29-30.
609.
What interest rate do you suppose was charged on the redemption of the old home place? Discuss.
610.
What provision did God make for the Levites as to a place to live? Why?
611.
There was a field or a pasture land that could not be sold. What was it?
PARAPHRASE 25:2334
And remember, the land is Mine, so you may not sell it permanently. You are merely My tenants and sharecroppers! In every contract of sale there must be a stipulation that the land can be redeemed at any time by the seller. If anyone becomes poor and sells some of his land, then his nearest relatives may redeem it. If there is no one else to redeem it, and he himself gets together enough money, then he may always buy it back at a price proportionate to the number of harvests until the Jubilee, and the owner must accept the money and return the land to him. But if the original owner is not able to redeem it, then it shall belong to the new owner until the Year of Jubilee; but at the Jubilee year it must be returned again. If a man sells a house in the city, he has up to one year to redeem it, with full right of redemption during that time. But if it is not redeemed within the year, then it will belong permanently to the new ownerit does not return to the original owner in the Year of Jubilee. But village housesa village is a settlement without fortifying walls around itare like farmland, redeemable at any time, and are always returned to the original owner in the Year of Jubilee. There is one exception: the homes of the Levites, even though in walled cities, may be redeemed at any time, and must be returned to the original owners in the Year of Jubilee; for the Levites will not be given farmland like the other tribes, but will receive only houses in their cities, and the surrounding fields. The Levites are not permitted to sell the fields of common land surrounding their cities, for these are their permanent possession, and they must belong to no one else.
COMMENT 25:2334
Lev. 25:23 It is a comforting as well as humbling realization that we are only temporary tenants upon this earth. Our deeds of ownership do not declare the real owner. The nation of Israel was to be even more aware of this fact. Although they must live in the same land area throughout their generations it was for the purpose of identifying the real owner of the land. Remaining where they were assigned by Joshua would preserve the genealogies unmixed until the Messiah came. Covetous ambition would be lowered as no one could add field to field. The most cherished of family associations would gather around the old home place and thus would family ties grow strong. The land could not be sold for more than 49 years.
Lev. 25:24-28 But the land was sold, for men became hungry and they must eat. However, even when it was sold the owner did not hold a permanent deed. If the original owner could find relatives with money, they must be given permission to buy back the land, or if the first owner prospers himself he can buy back his land. When such a circumstance arises the land is to be sold under the following conditions: count the years since it was sold and deduct the price of the crops for those years from the original purchase price. The remainder must be paid to the one who purchased the land. The total purchase price was controlled by the year of Jubilee, i.e. if it were 20 years to Jubilee, the cost of twenty crops would be the purchase price. If the land was redeemed after ten years, one-half of the price would remain to be paid.
If the land is not redeemed it remains the possession of the purchaser until the year of Jubilee.
We refer the reader to our Introduction by W. G. Moorehead in which a beautiful comparison is made between the redeemer of this chapter and our Lord. Notice: (1) The redeemer was to be one of near kin with the one to be redeemedLev. 25:25; Lev. 25:48. So JesusHeb. 2:14-18; (2) He was to redeem the person4750, as illustrated by RuthLev. 4:4-5. So Jesus brought His peopleI. Cor. Lev. 6:19-20; (3) He was to redeem the property that had been disposed awayLev. 25:25; Lev. 25:29. So, too, Christ hath redeemed for us our lost inheritance1Pe. 1:3-5; (4) He was to avenge the brother on his enemiesNum. 35:12. The avenger of blood seems to have been a near kinsman of the one injured. And Christ will in due time take vengeance on the enemies of His peopleDeu. 32:43; 2Th. 1:6-8.
Lev. 25:29-34 The kindness expressed in these laws is very impressive. Even when a man has lost his house through poverty he has a whole year in which to redeem it. Houses are not like fields, they are made by man and are subject to decay. It is the land, and Gods allotment of the land, that is to continue; not mans work in it. Yet mans work is respected and can be restored to him. The city dweller can lose his house. A permanent deed can be written for the purchase of a house in a fortified city.
There are three cases of real estate to be considered: (1) the house in the fortified city; (2) the house in the country or in a village; (3) the houses of the Levites.
The home in the village was considered landed property and is subject to the law of Jubilee.
The tribe of Levi never had a land allotment. They were given forty-eight cities scattered throughout the tribes. Cf. Num. 35:1-8; Jos. 21:1-3.
The houses built in these cities by the Levites were to have the same value as the land. If sold, the houses could be redeemed at any time, and were subject to the law of Jubilee. Even if a fellow Levite purchased a house or land from his fellow Levite he could not have permanent possession.
Such a regulation for the Levites was to protect the only possession they hadtheir home. The pasture lands outside the cities of the Levities were never to be sold. Cf. Num. 35:4-5. These outlying fields, which were beyond the suburbs, they are forbidden to sell. These estates belong to the whole tribe to all futurity, and the present occupiers have to transmit them intact to their successors. Hence no present owner, or all of them combined, have a right to dispose of any portion of the estates, or materially to alter it. They must hand these estates down to their successors as they received them from their predecessors. (Ibid.)
FACT QUESTIONS 25:2334
612.
What is the comforting as well as humbling realization?
613.
Give three reasons for staying in the allotment given to them by God through Joshua.
614.
For what reason was the land sold?
615.
What were two of the ways of redeeming the land?
616.
Under what circumstances was the land returned to the original owner?
617.
In what way was the total purchase price controlled by the year of Jubilee?
618.
Give the four beautiful comparisons between our Redeemer and the redeemer of the land.
619.
Point out the kindness found in these laws.
620.
Why could a house be sold permanently?
621.
List three cases of real estate to be considered.
622.
Why the special regulations for the Levites?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(23) The land shall not be sold for ever.That is, no plot of the land of Israel must be absolutely alienated from the original proprietor, who has been driven by poverty to sell his patrimony. We have here a resumption of the laws relating to the sale and purchase of land, which have already been briefly stated in Lev. 25:14-17. Having been interrupted by the insertion of the Divine promise with regard to the sabbatical year (Lev. 25:20-22), the legislation now proceeds with more directions about the limited sale of land.
For the land is mine.The reason for this prohibition absolutely to cut off the patrimony from the family, is that God claims to be the supreme owner of the land (Exo. 15:17; Isa. 14:2; Isa. 14:25; Jer. 2:5; Psa. 10:16), and as the Lord of the soil He prescribes conditions on which he allotted it to the different tribes of Israel.
Ye are strangers and sojourners with me.God has not only helped the Israelites to conquer the land of Canaan, but has selected it as His own dwelling-place, and erected His sanctuary in the midst of it (Exo. 15:13; Num. 35:34). He therefore is enthroned in it as Lord of the soil, and the Israelites are simply His tenants at will (Lev. 14:34; Lev. 20:24; Lev. 23:10; Num. 13:2; Num. 15:2), and as such will have to quit it if they disobey His commandments (Lev. 18:28; Lev. 20:22; Lev. 26:33; Deu. 28:63). For this reason they are accounted as strangers and sojourners, and hence have no right absolutely to sell that which is not theirs.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
THE JUBILEE YEAR CONTINUED THE REDEMPTION OF LAND, Lev 25:23-28.
23. The land shall not be sold for ever The usufruct only could be sold. In their deeds of conveyance the phrase “to him and to his heirs forever” had no place. After an equal allotment of the land at the start this is a merciful safeguard against oppressive monopolies, and a provision to secure to the family a perpetual inheritance. To effect the restoration of all lands twice each century to the family to which it was originally allotted by Joshua required the utmost care in the preservation of the genealogical records of every tribe and family. By this means evidence was afforded of the exact lineage of the Messiah in fulfilment of the prophecies, evidence which has been unavailable to every Jew since the destruction of these records in the destruction of Jerusalem.
For the land is mine Jehovah held the fee simple of Canaan. Hence he is justified in the ejection of non-paying tenants, first the Canaanites, then the Israelites. For further justification of the extermination of the Canaanites, see Jos 6:21, note.
For ye are strangers This implies that foreigners, resident in the land, could not acquire even a temporary title to the soil. See Lev 23:22, note.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Land Belongs To Yahweh And Cannot Be Passed On Permanently. It Can Either Be Redeemed Early Or Will Be Passed Back At The Year of Yubile ( Lev 25:23-28 ).
Lev 25:23
“And the land shall not be sold in perpetuity; for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me.
The principle is now made clear. The reason that all this was to happen was because the land was Yahweh’s. From this point of view they lived in it, not as owners, but as though they were resident aliens and visitors. That is why it could not be sold in perpetuity. All the land was His. They therefore had no right to sell it, only its use for a number of years.
Lev 25:24
“And in all the land of your possession you shall grant a redemption for the land.”
Furthermore this meant that they must be willing to guarantee redemption rights to those who through misfortune had been forced to sell the use of their property. This was to apply wherever His people lived in the land.
Lev 25:25
“If your brother has become poor, and sell some of his possession, then shall his kinsman who is next to him come, and shall redeem that which his brother has sold.”
Indeed when a man became poor and had to sell his land in order to survive, it was incumbent on his nearest male relative to buy the land back as soon as possible, and the purchaser could not refuse to sell. We call this man ‘the Kinsman Redeemer’.
We see this principle in action in the book of Ruth where Boaz acts as Kinsman Redeemer on behalf of Naomi. There Naomi had not yet sold her land, but was having to do so, and Boaz bought it as Kinsman Redeemer. But by putting himself in the position of ‘nearest relative’ he also put himself in a position of having to raise up children in the name of Ruth’s dead husband (Rth 4:5; Rth 4:10). While this was not strictly required by the levirate Law which referred to ‘a brother’ (Deu 25:5-6), it had clearly become the interpretation of that Law, ‘brother’ being given its wider meaning. Thus those who would inherit the land as a ‘brother’ must inherit the wife and raise up seed to the dead man. However, as he was not literally a brother, there was nothing unseemly in his marrying her as well, and it would seem that he was required to do so. The woman and land went together. To take on the land meant to take on the responsibility of the dead man’s family.
The book also illustrates how men were already finding ways round the legislation, i.e. the nearer kinsman who refused by pretending that he could not afford it (Rth 4:6) when he had already said he would buy it (Rth 4:4) simply because he did not want to have to raise up seed to Chilion. (Whether he could have taken this course if Boaz had not been willing to take on the responsibility we do not know. It appears to have been a mutually satisfactory arrangement allowed by custom – Rth 4:7 with Deu 25:9. The spitting was excluded because it was by satisfactory arrangement).
Lev 25:26-27
“And if a man has no one to redeem it, and he has grown rich and finds sufficient to redeem it, then let him reckon the years of its sale, and restore the overplus to the man to whom he sold it; and he shall return to his possession.”
Should a man have no near kinsman wealthy enough to act for him, if he himself later became wealthy later he would still retain the right to buy back his land, giving compensation depending on the number of years still to go to the year of Yubile. So the right of a family to its own original land was very strong, and if one section of a family died out the right passed to the nearest relatives (Jer 32:7-8). But the land must remain in the family. Even if sold it returned in the year of Yubile.
Lev 25:28
“But if he is not able to get it back for himself, then that which he has sold shall remain in the hand of him that has bought it until the year of yubile: and in the yubile it shall go out, and he shall return to his possession.”
Should he find himself in a position that he has no Kinsman Redeemer, and of not himself gaining sufficient wealth, then he would have to wait until the year of Yubile, but at the year of Yubile the land passed back to him anyway, and he could take possession of it, the buyer meanwhile having retained the use of it up to this date. Thus all were dealt with fairly.
The principle from all this for us is the concern that we should have that we share our good things with others. Our aim should not be to grab as much as we can for ourselves but to ensure that all share the good things of life, and that we do not claim for ourselves more than a reasonable proportion.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Lev 25:23. The land shall not be sold for ever That is, absolutely and irredeemably: the reason of which is subjoined, because God considered himself as the peculiar lord and proprietor of this land, and the people as his immediate tenants and usufructuaries: which points out to us the striking peculiarity of the Jewish state and polity; a theocracy, under which they lived not only as subjects, but as tenants to God, their king and their lord.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
This is a most proper idea ever to be kept in view, The earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof. Man is but a pilgrim and a traveler through it. Psa 39:12-13 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Lev 25:23 The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land [is] mine; for ye [are] strangers and sojourners with me.
Ver. 23. The land is mine. ] See Lev 25:2 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Leviticus
SOJOURNERS WITH GOD
Lev 25:23
The singular institution of the Jubilee year had more than one purpose. As a social and economical arrangement it tended to prevent the extremes of wealth and poverty. Every fiftieth year the land was to revert to its original owners, the lineal descendants of those who had ‘come in with the conqueror,’ Joshua. Debts were to be remitted, slaves emancipated, and so the mountains of wealth and the valleys of poverty were to be somewhat levelled, and the nation carried back to its original framework of a simple agricultural community of small owners, each ‘sitting under his own vine and fig-tree’ and, like Naboth, sturdily holding the paternal acres.
As a ceremonial institution it was the completion of the law of the Sabbath. The seventh day proclaimed the need for weekly rest from labour, and as was the sabbath in the week, so was the seventh year among the years-a time of quiet, when the land lay fallow and much of the ordinary labour was suspended. Nor were these all; when seven weeks of years had passed, came the great Jubilee year, charged with the same blessed message of Rest, and doubtless showing dimly to many wearied and tearful eyes some gleams of a better repose beyond.
Besides these purposes, it was appointed to enforce, and to make the whole fabric of the national wealth consciously rest upon, this thought contained in our text. The reason why the land was not to pass out of the hauls of the representatives of those to whom God had originally given it, was that He had not really given it to them at all. It was not theirs to sell-they had only a beneficiary occupation. While they held it, it was still His, and neither they, nor any one to whom they might sell the use of it for a time, were anything more than tenants at will. The land was His, and they were only like a band of wanderers, squatting for a while by permission of the owner, on his estate. Their camp-fires were here today, but to-morrow they would be gone. They were ‘strangers and sojourners.’ That may sound sad, but all the sadness goes when we read on-’with Me.’ They are God’s guests, so though they do not own a foot of soil, they need not fear want.
All this is as true for us. We can have no better New Year’s thoughts than those which were taught by the blast of the silver trumpets that proclaimed liberty to the slaves, and restored to the landless pauper his alienated heritage.
I. Here is the lesson of God’s proprietorship and our stewardship.
It should nurture constant thankfulness. To-day looking back over whatever dark, dreary, sunless days, we all have bright ones too. Does any thought of God as the Fountain of all our joys and goods rise in our souls? Have we learned to associate a divine hand and a Father’s will with them? Do we congratulate ourselves on our own cleverness, tact, and skill, saying, ‘mine hand hath done it,’ or do we hug ourselves on our own good fortune, and burn incense to chance and ‘circumstances’? -or, sadder still, are we generously grateful to every human friend that helps us, and unthankful only to God-or does the glad thought come, to gild the finest gold of our possessions with new brilliance and worth, and to paint and perfume the whitest lily of our joys with new delightsomeness, ‘All things come of Thee’; ‘Thou makest us drink of the river of Thy pleasures’?
Blessed are they who, by the magic glass of a thankful heart, see all things in God, and God in all things. To them life is tenfold brighter, as a light plunged in oxygen flames more intensely than in common air. The darkest night is filled with light, and the loneliest place blazes with angel faces, and the stoniest pillar is soft, to him who sees everywhere the ladder that knits earth with heaven, and to whom all His blessings are as the messengers that descend by it on errands of mercy, whose long shining ranks lead up the eye and the heart to the loving God from whom they come.
Here too is the ground for constant thankful submission. ‘The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away.’ We have no right to murmur, however we may regret, if the Landowner takes back a bit of the land which He has let us occupy. It was the condition of our occupation that He should be at liberty to do so whenever He saw that it would be best for us. He does not give us our little patches for His advantage, but for ours, nor does He take them away at His own whim, but ‘for our profit.’ We get more than full value for all the work and capital we have expended, and His only reason for ever disturbing us is that we may be driven to claim a better inheritance in Himself than we can find even in the best of His gifts. So He sometimes gives, that we may be led by our possessions to think lovingly of Him; and He sometimes takes, that we may be led, in the hour of emptiness and loss, to recognise whose hand it was that pulled up the props round which our poor tendrils clung. But the opposite actions have the same purpose, and like the up-and-down stroke of a piston, or the contrary motion of two cogged wheels that play into each other, are meant to impel us in one direction, even to the heart of God who is our home. A landowner stops up a private road one day in a year, in order to assert his right, and to remind the neighbourhood that he could stop it altogether if he liked. So God reminds us by our losses and sorrows, of what we are so apt to forget, and what it is such a joy to us to remember-His possession of them all. Blessed be God! He teaches us in that fashion far seldomer than in the other. Let joy teach us the lesson, and we shall the less need ‘the sternest’ teacher ‘and the best,’ even sorrow. Better to learn it by gladness than by tears; better to see it written in ‘laughing flowers’ than in desolate gardens and killing frost.
So, too, there should be a constant sense of responsibility in the use of all which we have. All is His, and He has given all to us, for a purpose. So, plainly, we are but stewards, or trustees, and are bound to employ everything, not according to our own inclination or notion of what is right, but according to what, in the exercise of our best and most impartial judgment, we believe to be the owner’s will. Trusteeship means that we take directions as to the employment of the property from its owner. It means too that we employ it not for our own satisfaction and well-being alone, though that is included, and is a part of His purpose who ‘delights in the prosperity of His servants.’ Thoughts of others, thoughts of the owner’s claims, and of bringing back to Him all that He has given to us, increased by our diligence, must be uppermost in our minds, if we are to live nobly or happily here. ‘It is required in stewards that a man be found faithful.’ And this applies to all we have in mind, body, and estate. A thoughtful expenditure and use of all His gifts, on principles drawn from our knowledge of His will, and for objects not terminating with self, is the duty that corresponds to the great fact of God’s ownership of all. If we use His gifts to minister to our own vanity or frivolity, or love of ease, or display; if an ‘intolerable deal’ of all we have is used for ourselves, and a poor ha’ porth’ for others; if our gifts are grudging; if we possess without sense of responsibility, and enjoy without thankfulness, and lose with murmuring; if our hearts are more set on material prosperity than on love and peace, knowledge and purity, noble lives and a Father God; if higher desires and hopes are dying out as we ‘get on’ in the world, and religious occupations which used to be pleasant are stale; then for all our outward Christianity the stern old woe applies, ‘Your riches are corrupted, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you,’ and we need the shrill note of the trumpet of Jubilee to be blown in our ears, ‘The land is Mine.’
II. We have the teaching of the transiency of our stay here.
How vividly this word of our text brings out the contrast between the permanence of the external world and our brief stay in it!
In Israel there would be few vineyards or olive-grounds held by the same man at two, and none at three, successive jubilees. The hoary twisted olives yielded their black berries, say, to Simeon, the son of Joseph, to-day, as they did fifty years ago to Joseph, the son of Reuben, and as they will do fifty years hence to Judas, the son of Simeon. So is it with us all. There is nothing more pathetic than the thought of how generations come and go, and empires rise and fall, while the scene on which they play their brief parts remains the same.
‘The mountains look on Marathon,
And Marathon looks on the sea.’
And how much more lasting our possessions are than their possessors! Where are the strong hands that clutched the rude weapons that lie now quietly ticketed in our museums? How dim and dark the bright brave eyes that once flashed through the bars of these helmets, hanging just a little rusted, over the tombs in Westminster Abbey! Other men will live in our houses, read our books, own our mills, use our furniture, preach in our pulpits, sit in our pews: we are but lodgers in this abiding nature, ‘like a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night,’ and to-morrow morning vacates his rooms for a new arrival, and goes away unregretted and is forgotten in an hour.
The constant change and progression of life are enforced, too, in this metaphor.
The old threadbare emblem of a journey which is implied in the text suggests how, moment by moment, we hurry on and how everything is slipping past us, as fields and towns do to a traveller in a train. Only our journey is smooth and noiseless, like the old-fashioned canal boat travelling, where, if you shut your eyes, you could not tell that you were moving. We glide on and never know it, and so gradually and silently is the scene ‘changed by still degrees,’ that it is only now and then that men have any vivid consciousness that the ‘fashion of this world is’ ever ‘in the act of passing,’ like the canvas of a panorama ever winding and unwinding on its twin rollers with slow, equable motion. It needs an effort of attention and will to discern the movement, and it is worth while to make the effort, for that clear and poignant sense of the constant flux and mutation of all things around us, and of the ebbing away of our own lives, is fundamental to all elevation of thought, to all nobleness of deed, to all worthy conception of duty and of joy. Everything that is, stands poised, like Fortune, on a rolling ball. The solid earth is a movable sphere, for ever spinning on its axis and rushing on its path among the stars. Ever some star is sinking in mist, or dipping below the horizon; ever new constellations are climbing to the zenith. A long, patient discipline is needed to keep fresh in our hearts the sense of this transiency. Let us set ourselves consciously to deepen our convictions of it, and amidst all the illusions of these solid-seeming shows of things, keep firm hold of the assurance that they are but fleeting shadows that sweep across the solemn mountain’s side, and that only God and the doing of His will lasts. So shall our life pierce down with its seeking roots to the abiding ground of all Being, and, looking to the ‘things that are eternal,’ we shall be able to make what is but for a moment contribute to the everlasting ennobling of our character and enrichment of our life yonder.
Surely these words, too, tell of the true home.
‘Ye are strangers’-because your native land is elsewhere. It is not merely the physical facts of death and change that make us strangers here, but the direction of our desires, and the true affinities of our nature. If by these we belong to heaven and God, then here we shall feel that we have not where to lay our heads, and shall ‘dwell in tabernacles’ because ‘we look for the city.’
What a contrast between the perishable tents of the wilderness and the rock-built mansions of that city. And how short this phase of being must look when seen from above! You remember how long a year, a week, seemed to you when a child-what do the first ten years of your life look to you now? What must the earthly life of Abel, the first who died, look to him even now, when he contrasts its short twenty or thirty years with the thousands since? and, after thousands and thousands more, how it will dwindle! So to us, if we reach that safe shore, and look back upon the sea that brought us thither, as it stretches to the horizon, miles of billows once so terrible will seem shrunken to a line of white foam.
Cherish, then, constant consciousness of that solemn eternity, and let your eyes be ever directed to it, like a man who sees some great flush of light on the horizon, and is ever turning from his work to look. Use the transient as preparation for the eternal, the fleeting days as those which determine the undying ‘Day’ and its character. Keep your cares and interests in the present rigidly limited to necessary things. Why should travellers burden themselves? The less luggage, the easier marching. The accommodation and equipment in the desert do not matter much. The wise man will say, ‘Oh, it will do. I shall soon be home.’ ‘Ye are strangers and sojourners.’
III. We have here also the teaching of trust.
True, we are strangers, and in our constant movement we lose many of the companions of our march, and the track of the caravan may be traced by the graves on either side. But, since we are ‘with Him,’ we have companionship even when most solitary, and even in a strange land shall not be lonely. Seek then to cultivate as a joy and strength that consciousness that the Lord of all the land is ever with you, Whoever goes, He abides. Whatever rushes past us like a phantasmagoria, He passes not. Whatever and whoever change, He changes never. Where thou goest, He will go. He will be ‘thy shield at thy right hand,’ and thy ‘keeper from all evil.’ So, looking forward to the unknown days of another New Year, we may be of good cheer.
So will it be while we live; and if this year we should die-well, the King of this land, where we are strangers, is the King of the other land beyond the sea, where we are at home. So we shall only be the nearer to Him for the change. Death the separator shall but unite us to the King, whose presence indeed fills this subject-province of His empire with all its good, but who dwells in more resplendent ‘beauty,’ and is felt in greater nearness in the other ‘land that is very far off.’ Whether here or there, we may have God with us, if we will. With Him for our Host and companion, let us peacefully go on our road, while the life of strangers and sojourners shall last. It will bring us to the fatherland where we shall be at home with the King, and find in Him our ‘sure dwelling, and quiet resting-place, and peaceful habitation for ever.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
for ever. Figure of speech Synecdoche (of the Whole), App-6, as we say “in perpetuity” = absolutely or beyond recovery.
the land is Mine. Compare Exo 15:17; Isa 14:8, Isa 14:25; Jer 2:7; Psa 10:16; Psa 78:54.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
The land: Lev 25:10, 1Ki 21:3, Eze 48:14
for ever: or, to be quite cut off, Heb. for cutting off, for the land. Deu 32:43, 2Ch 7:20, Psa 24:1, Psa 85:1, Isa 8:8, Hos 9:3, Joe 2:18, Joe 3:2
for ye are: Gen 47:9, 1Ch 29:15, Psa 39:12, Psa 119:19, Heb 11:9-13, 1Pe 2:11
Reciprocal: Gen 23:4 – stranger Exo 21:6 – for ever Lev 25:34 – General Num 36:4 – General 1Sa 1:22 – for ever Jer 32:7 – for Eze 45:1 – ye shall offer
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
SOJOURNERS WITH GOD
Ye are strangers and sojourners with Me.
Lev 25:23
Explain the custom of restoring the land at the Jubilee to its original owner or his representative. We might wonder to find the Israelites described as strangers and sojourners, after they had ended the long wilderness journey, and had entered on the possession of Canaan.
I. The promised land was the divinely appointed rest and portion of the people; but the Old Testament never fails to indicate that even its best things are types and shadows, and the Israelites had to learn that even in Canaan they had no continuing city. No man was to feel himself in absolute possession of his portion. It was entrusted to his control for a time, but a superior power appointed that time and brought it to a close. Canaan, therefore, from one point of view, represents to us the heavenly rest, from another the portion which God has given to His people in this world. That provision is goodlet nobody despise itbut it is not the best. We must not take it as our promised inheritance. Our inheritance is coming, and meanwhile an earnest of it is sealed by the Holy Spirit on our hearts. Temporal blessings come to us by covenant, as well as eternal blessings, but we must use them as strangers and sojourners.
II. Sojourning is the condition of Gods children in this world.It is, indeed, the condition of all men in one sense, but this is one of the obvious truths which are most likely to be overlooked. I dont know many sadder things than to see men trying to make their portion here, to hear them saying, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years, to watch them toiling on, though the house is crumbling as they build. They are all beings who need a true portion, an immortal home. Every man among them is so constituted that he cannot do without it. How will it be when the light of eternity looks in through the broken roof and the tottering walls, and the man goes out homeless and desolate!
What is a stranger? He is one who belongs to a different country from that in which he lives, and carries with him something of the land from which he comes. His speech, his manner, a thousand little traits, reveal it. The believer comes from no land foreign to this earth of ours, but something has come to him, something that has elsewhere its rising and its setting, and cometh from afar. A new relation to Christ has been formed in his soul, which has given a new turn to his life, and has brought him into relationship with another world. Desires and hopes are near his heart which cannot find satisfaction here. He is in that sense a stranger beyond all other men.
What is a sojourner? He is the man who means to move. He dare not take rest as one who means to dwell here in permanence. There might be something depressing in the conjunction of these two words, stranger and sojourner, but there are other words in the list which brighten the gloomThe land is Mine, Strangers and sojourners with Me. The experiences of life may be desperately trying, but they need never separate us from Gods providence and love. This is one of the great commonplaces of Scripture. It hardly needs to be illustrated, but it very much requires to be believed.
Illustrations
(1) In the text are the lessons of Gods proprietorship and our stewardship, the transiency of our stay and the need of whole-hearted trust.
(2) Seek to cultivate as a joy and strength the consciousness that the Lord of the land is ever with you. Whoever goes, He abides. Whoever and whatever change, He changes never. Where thou goest He will go. So since we are ever with Him we have companionship even when most solitary, and even in a strange land shall not be lonely.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Israel having been reminded that the land, into which they were going, was Jehovah’s, so that they were merely tenants in possession for a time, and therefore they might not permanently alienate it, they were next instructed as to right of redemption that was to be observed, if anyone became poor and parted with his land for a time.
Some who had done this might later be prospered financially and be able themselves to redeem it. Such a case is contemplated in verse Lev 25:26, and equitable terms of redemption are stated in verse Lev 25:27. But in verse Lev 25:25 we learn that, if a man remained poor and unable for this, “any of his kin” might step in and redeem it for him. This is illustrated for us by the action of Boaz in the Book of Ruth; and by this type we see how needful it was that the Lord Jesus should assume perfect Manhood, sin apart. Thus He “took part” of “flesh and blood,” as Heb 2:14 says, that so by death He might annul the power of the devil over us. Had He taken hold of angels only, He could not have fulfilled the type as our Kinsman-Redeemer, and paid the necessary price.
Verses Lev 25:29-34, deal with exceptions to the above. Houses in villages were to be treated as land but not if the house stood in a wailed city. Such could only be redeemed within a year of the original transaction. They were more distinctively man’s handiwork, lacking the simplicity connected with God’s handiwork in the countryside. And further there was special protection ordered for the Levites and their possessions since they were specially God’s possession.
In the latter part of our chapter we pass from the laws relating to the land to those concerning the redemption of persons. The first case considered is that of the Israelite who becoming poor sold himself for a period of service to one of his brethren. He was to be treated as a hired servant and not a bondservant and at the jubilee he was to be free. The case of such was considered fully when we read Exo 21:1-36.
But then secondly, some of the nations round about might be prepared to sell themselves into servitude. If so, no redemption was provided for, and their service would be perpetual. It may be remarked that here we have a form of slavery permitted: Yes, but it was a form that was accepted for a monetary consideration by the person concerned, and not something forced on them, or similar to what was done with African negroes a century or two ago.
Thirdly, there was the case of the Israelite who, becoming poor, sold himself into servitude to some sojourner or stranger in the land. He would go out free at the jubilee, but also special arrangements were made for his possible redemption before the jubilee arrived. But such right of redemption was again limited to one of his own kin – brother, uncle or cousin. So that the “kinsman-redeemer” comes into view when persons are in question, and not only in connection with land. In considering this type, we have to remind ourselves, as indeed with all the types, that the great Reality that is typified far exceeds the type.
Lev 26:1-46, which we have now reached, bears an exceedingly solemn character. Verses Lev 25:1-13 give a glowing picture of the earthly blessing and prosperity that would follow their obedience. Verses Lev 25:14-39 give a terrible forecast of the evils that would ensue, if disobedience marked them.
Verse Lev 25:1 prohibits idolatry of any kind. Verse Lev 25:2 enforces the sanctity of the sabbath and the sanctuary. Verse Lev 25:3 sums up all the other laws as “My statutes” and “My commandments,” which were to be carried out. Lip service was not enough. They were to “do them.”
Then follow the details of the prosperity that would follow. But, all was strictly provisional. It is, “If ye walk… then I will give.” All depended upon their obedience and that “If” proved fatal. The blessings promised were of an earthly and material sort. They may be summed up as, fruitfulness, peace, victory and the realized presence of God in their midst. Jehovah had broken the bands of the yoke, imposed on them in Egypt, so that they went upright instead of being bowed down under heavy burdens. His presence would be their continued salvation. There is no mention of heaven or of the life to come. How great the contrast with the Christian’s portion – blessed “with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Eph 1:3), and that without the introduction of any “if.”
The larger part of the chapter is occupied with warnings as to the dreadful evils that would be provoked by their disobedience, and which would fall upon them with sevenfold intensity. In the days of Ezekiel the sad history of Israel’s law-breaking was reaching a climax, and through him the Lord spoke of, “My four sore judgments… the sword, and the famine, and the noisome beast, and the pestilence” (Eze 14:21). In our chapter the “four sore judgments” appear, only the sword instead of being mentioned first comes in the fourth place. Moreover, as verses Lev 25:36-37 disclose, they would also bring the sword the one upon the other, and thus add to their miseries and destruction.
Verses Lev 25:34-35 anticipate that they would ignore the commandments as to the sabbath, particularly as regarded the land, and that consequently God would give it a long sabbatical rest, when they were driven out and it lay desolate. We all know how long a rest that land has had until quite recent years.
With verse Lev 25:40 a ray of light begins to shine. A door of hope is opened, if two things come to pass. First, there must be the confession of their iniquities. Second, the acceptance of the punishment that their iniquities have brought upon them. This second stipulation is mentioned twice, you notice, and evidently it is a very important matter. Both things are seen in Daniel’s prayer (Dan 9:1-27) so he got a speedy answer. A man may confess his sin but, if he still kicks against the punishment it incurs, it shows that his confession is superficial only, and lacks depth of real contrition. This is as true for us today as it was for Israel of old, since God’s governmental dealings with His children, though always in love, are in strict righteousness. Psa 73:1-28 gives evidence as to this.
It is also made plain in the end of the chapter that though disobedience would bring upon them such dire consequences, God would never forget His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in which He pledged Himself toward them unconditionally. To this Paul refers in Gal 3:17, pointing out that the law was not given until four hundred and thirty years after and cannot disannul it. This earlier covenant was “by promise” and when God fulfils it, Israel will be blessed on the ground of mercy, as is stated in Rom 11:31, Rom 11:32.
One thing more may be said: the woes threatened, like the favours offered in the earlier verses, are all of an earthly and temporal nature, though described in terrible terms. No attempt is made to soften down the language; indeed the very reverse. Just so it is in the New Testament where the dire consequence of unforgiven sin in eternity are stated. The language, whether of our Lord or of His apostles, could not be stronger. In this we ought to see clear evidence of the kindness of God. Those who break human laws may sometimes have ground for the complaint that had they been told plainly the penalty involved they would not have transgressed. No such complaint from Israel would have stood against God. Nor will any such complaint stand from those who, having heard the Gospel and refused its warnings, pass into a lost eternity.
Lev 27:1-34 contemplates cases where Israelites might desire to devote under a vow to the Lord either themselves or their animals, houses, land, etc., on special occasions. As to persons there was a fixed valuation, as given in the opening verses. This was in the hands of Moses. Verse Lev 25:8 contemplates the case of the poor man, who was permitted to turn from Moses to the priest, who would value him according to his ability. Now the priest was one who could “have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way” (Heb 5:2). Pure law itself admits of no flexibility: what is demanded must be paid in full. The priest represented that measure of grace that was permissible under the law system.
There seems to be very little reference in the Old Testament to such vows and offerings to the Lord. It is possible that the vow of Jephthah (Jdg 11:1-40) so rashly made, came under this heading. So also the vow of Hannah, in giving Samuel to the Lord. Israel frequently misused, if they did not neglect these regulations, and of this we have an illustration in Mal 1:14. God was not deceived however, and a curse came on the head of the man who was deceitful in that which he vowed.
As we pass to the consideration of the Book of Numbers we note that there is no real division between it and Leviticus, as indicated by the fact that the first word is, “And.”
Fuente: F. B. Hole’s Old and New Testaments Commentary
Lev 25:23. For ever So as to be for ever alienated from the family of him that sells it. Or, absolutely and properly, so as to become the property of the buyer. Or, to the extermination or utter cutting off, namely, of the seller, from all hopes and possibility of redemption. The land is mine Procured for you by my power, given to you by my grace and bounty, and the right of propriety is reserved by me. Ye are sojourners with me That is, in my land or houses: thus he is said to sojourn with another that dwells in his house. Howsoever in your own or other mens opinions you pass for lords and proprietors, yet in truth ye are but strangers and sojourners, not to possess the land for ever, but only for a season, and to leave it to such as I have appointed for it.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
25:23 The land shall not be sold {l} for ever: for the land [is] mine; for ye [are] strangers and sojourners with me.
(l) It could not be sold for ever, but must return to the family in the Jubile.