as גֹּל . In fact, redemption was a way of life for Israel, with all kinds of things, situations, אֵ
and people’s standings in need of redemption.104 This summarized Israel’s “central ethical ideal” with Yahweh’s redemption of Israel playing itself out in Yahweh’s demand that Israelite masters generously supply departing slaves (Deut 15:13-15), provide food for the poor through gleaning rights (Deut 24:19-22), and treat the underprivileged with justice (Deut 24:17-18).105 The redemptive trajectory of Israel’s life began with
Yahweh’s redemption of them and climaxed at the Jubilee, where the entire nation once again experienced redemption. The legislation of Leviticus 25:23ff. obligates Israelites to effect this redemption before the Jubilee if they are able to do so. Verse 23 demands that they redeem the land. Verses 48-52 demand that Israelites also redeem each other if they are sold to a foreigner as a slave. Israel mimics Yahweh’s redemption by redeeming one another and preventing the oppressive conditions of Egypt from happening within the land and society of Israel. Through mimicking Yahweh’s redemption, Israel was encouraged to remember the Exodus and to remember Yahweh’s great mercy on their behalf. The Exodus created Israel and then continued to define and inform the way they lived their lives from generation to generation.
Leviticus 25:25–54: The Three
partial loss of land. The second stage deals with the loss of independence and presumably all land. The third stage deals with the loss of freedom.106
Stage 1: Partial loss of land. The first stage (vv. 25–34) assumes an Israelite must sell part of his land and calls on his nearest family members to redeem the land if they are able. The text reads:
If your brother becomes poor and sells part of his property, then his nearest redeemer shall come and redeem what his brother has sold. If a man has no one to redeem it and then himself becomes prosperous and finds sufficient means to
redeem it, let him calculate the years since he sold it and pay back the balance to the man to whom he sold it, and then return to his property. But if he does not have sufficient means to recover it, then what he sold shall remain in the hand of the buyer until the year of jubilee. In the jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his property. (Lev 25:25-28)
If a man’s nearest family members are not able to redeem his lost piece of land, then the man may redeem it at will when he gains sufficient means. If the man never gains sufficient means, then the land will be released to him at the Jubilee. The translation of the protasis, ‡יחִאָ•וּמיָ־יכִּ, is made somewhat difficult by the root מ• . Milgrom’s wooden וּ translation captures the generally accepted meaning: “When your brother (Israelite) becomes impoverished.”107 The root is only found in Leviticus 25:25, 35, 39, 47, and 27:8, making it difficult to ascertain an exact meaning.108 Two possible cognate roots are cited in the lexicons to help inform the meaning of this word. The choice is between מך , ו
“to become poor/impoverished,” or מך , “to grow weak.”כ 109 The LXX translates it with
106 The categories of land, independence, and freedom are taken from Bergsma, The Jubilee, 97-99. These categories adequately clarify the situation and are difficult to improve upon.
107 Milgrom, Leviticus 23–27, 2146. So also Kleinig, Leviticus, 535, “so impoverished.”
Hartley, Leviticus, 418; Bergsma, The Jubilee, 95; and Wenham, Leviticus, 314, along with the ESV, NIV, and NASB all read “becomes poor,” presumably following the KJV’s rendering of “be waxen poor.” The CSB reads “If your brother becomes destitute.” Levine offers a more enigmatic but conceptually accurate translation: “if your kinsman is in straits.” Levine, Leviticus, 175.
108 HALOT, s.v. “ מך ,” “Become impoverished”; BDB, s.v. “ מו • ,” “be low, depressed, grow וּ poor.”
109 See Milgrom, Leviticus 23–27, 2193, and Levine, Leviticus, 175, for outlines of the debate and bibliography.
the present middle subjunctive of πένομαι, “to be poor, have need of” and the Targum Onkelos similarly uses ןכַסמַתיִ, “to become poor.”110 There is not enough evidence to settle the debate, but the alignment of the ancient witnesses in the LXX and Targums paired with the similarity of the two possible cognate roots allow for the meaning to remain clear. The subject is someone who lost means sufficient to support himself, whether that is financial or other. This evidence leads to the conclusion that the ESV’s
“becomes poor” is an adequate translation of מ• . וּ
Because of the impoverished situation, the Israelite “sells part of his property.”
The verb used here, מָר , carries the idea of “to lease.” The Israelite sells what cannot be כַ
sold; his possession is by lot from the Lord. The מִן preposition on the noun gives it a partitive force, “a part of his property” [וֹתזָּחֻאֲמֵ].111 The preposition is essential to
understanding this first stage of property. The pater familias needs money to survive or to plant crops, forcing him to sell part of his key asset, his land, to raise the necessary funds.
It is likely that the property was sold below market price and the funds would be used to purchase seed for sowing, although the funds could be used to cover a number of debts or needs including a fine, feed for animals, purchase food for his family, or other
anomalies.112 This was the case in Nehemiah’s day:
There were also those who said, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to get grain because of the famine. And there were those who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tax on our fields and our vineyards. Now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children are as their children. Yet we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but it is not in our power to help it, for other men have our fields and our vineyards. (Neh 5:3-5).
The post-exilic Judean community were selling their fields and children in order to get grain and pay taxes. The end of verse 5 presumes that children are sold only after fields
110 LSJ, s.v. “πένομαι.”
111 See Ronald J. Williams, Williams’ Hebrew Syntax, 3rd rev. and exp., ed. John C. Beckham (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007), §324; so also, Hartley, Leviticus, 427.
112 Milgrom, Leviticus 23–27, 2193; Chirichigno, Debt-Slavery, 324, 328.
and vineyards have been sold. This is also the order followed in Genesis 46:13–26 by the Egyptians. They first spent all their money, then sold their livestock, then their land and persons.113 While the Egyptians sold land and persons together, the Judeans under Nehemiah appeared to reserve their children as the absolute last resort. Leviticus 25 does not deal with the sale of dependents, thus leaving the question of when dependents would have been sold obscure. In this case, the legislation is not concerned with the
circumstances which require the partial sale of land. It is concerned with the simple fact that an Israelite pater familias sells part of the land. The legislation, however, is
concerned with the community’s response to the situation. It is important to notice the use of the term ‡יחִאָ, “your brother” or “your kinsman,” which is also used in
Deuteronomy 15:12ff. The practice of redemption and Jubilee is limited to Israelites. Yet, by referring to the pater familias as brother, Moses obliges the entire nation to consider the destitute Israelite as a member of their family, which obliges every Israelite to help.
אָ חִ
י
‡ is repeated in Leviticus 25:35, 36, 39, 45, 47, and 48 in order to keep this national obligation front and center.
How was the nation to fulfill their redemption obligation? Verses 26–28 offer three solutions for redemption: (1) a near relative redeems the property from the original purchaser; (2) the seller himself redeems the property once means are regained; (3) the Jubilee redeems it (i.e. Yahweh redeems it). The immediate obligation of redemption belongs to the יולָאֵברֹקָּהַ, “closest relative.” ברֹקָּהַ has a superlative force, which informs the rendering “closest” or “nearest.”114 The “nearest relative” was likely determined by
113 If Genesis 46 explains a parallel state of affairs, it is possible that the buyer purchased a percentage of the usufruct from the Israelite pater familias, as did Joseph/Pharaoh in Genesis 46, in which a one-fifth of the harvest belonged to Pharaoh as a usage tax. However, this is unlikely as such a practice might be viewed as charging interest, which is explicitly forbidden in Lev 25:36-37 and for which Nehemiah reprimands the nobles and priests in Neh 5:10-11. The ANE parallels also argue against this as the entire usufruct was typically purchased.
114 So also Hartley, Leviticus, 427. The adjective בוֹרקָ simply means “nearest” but can function as a noun meaning “relative.” For the superlative force, see Williams, Williams’ Hebrew Syntax, §93, p. 39.
See Num 27:11 and Lev 21:2 for similar usage.
the order of inheritance laid out in Numbers 27:9-11 and Leviticus 25:49. The order began with the brothers of the pater familias and then extended to cousins and more distant relatives. The point is that a blood relative redeemed the land. This kept the land within the family and it also was practical as these blood relatives likely lived near or perhaps even next to the land, making it easy for them to work the land that they had purchased. The obligation of ברֹקָּהַ also indicates that the buyer was probably not a part of the family. It is possible that they are not even an Israelite. Such a possibility is exactly why the obligation fell to a ברֹקָּהַ. The loss of land to an outsider was a dire circumstance, as it allowed the outsider to encroach onto or near the family’s property. Verse 26
mentions a second option. The original seller, the pater familias, retains the option to redeem it if ever he gains the means to do so. The text literally reads, “then his hand reaches,” meaning conceptually, “if he gains the ability or power” or “the means at hand.”115 One can think of an unexpected inheritance as a means of gaining the necessary funds. This is perhaps the most likely reason, although a strong harvest, income from outside employment, or other channels of income can be imagined.
Verse 28 explains the method for calculating the redemption price: “the years since he sold it.” This confirms that it was the usufruct of the land, not the property itself, that was purchased, as Leviticus 25:16 makes clear. The redemption price was
determined by the purchase price minus the value of the years that the field’s usufruct was used.116 A visual formula might look like this:
115 This common Hebrew expression indicates personal ability, means, or power. See Lev 5:11;
14:22, 30, 31; 25:26, 47, 49; 27:8; Ezek 46:7. See chap. 3 of this dissertation for a discussion of this phrase in Deut 15:2. See also Levine, Leviticus, 175.
116ףדֵעֹהָ־תאֶ carries the sense of “the surplus,” although “balance” is a good idiomatic
translation. See HALOT, s.v. “ עף .” See Exod 16:23; 26:12, 13; Num 3:46, 48-49. Lev 27:16 may give an ד indication of the purchase price: “If a man dedicates to the Lord part of the land that is his possession, then the valuation shall be in proportion to its seed. A homer of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver.” Fried and Freedman argue in Milgrom’s work that fifty shekels of silver paid for an area that can produce fifty homers of barley. Jeremiah’s payment of seventeen shekels of silver to Hanamel in Jeremiah 32 seems to put support this kind of price range, although there are no records supporting this claim.
Milgrom, Leviticus 23–27, 2262.
(PP) Purchase Price – (YU) Years of Usufruct = (RP) Redemption Price PP – YU = RP
The redeemer purchased the remaining years of usufruct. If a blood relative or the pater familias was unable to redeem the land, then it would be released in the year of Jubilee and the pater familias would return to his property. In effect, Yahweh steps in as redeemer at the Jubilee.117 The idea that the Lord is acting as redeemer is perhaps indicated by the allusions to the Exodus in Leviticus 25:28. א reads literally, “then it צָוְיָ
shall go out,” echoing the Exodus redemption. In fact, verses 38, 42, and 55 use this exact verb to describe Yahweh’s redemption of Israel from Egypt.118 The allusion to the
Exodus is reinforced by the use of the noun פֶּ• , (“severity”), throughout Leviticus 25 רֶ
(vv. 43, 46, 53), which was used to describe the severity of their situation in Egypt before the Exodus (cf. Exod 1:13).119 Mark Rooker eloquently describes how the drama of the Jubilee reenacted the drama of the Exodus for a freed Israelite: “The redemption of the Israelite slave from his slavery becomes a reenactment of the Exodus event on a smaller scale.”120 Even when it is just a piece of land that is released, Israelites were to
understand that such a gift was from the Lord and merely a continuation of the nation’s original redemption from Egypt.
117 Rooker, Leviticus, 307. See Exod 6:6; 15:3, 13 uses the verb גָּל to describe the Exodus. אַ
118 The verb יא is difficult to read without thinking of the Exodus. It is often used in stock צ descriptions of the Exodus (e.g., Num 1:1; 11:20; 22:5; 33:1; Deut 1:27; 4:45, 46; 9:7; 11:10; 16:3; 20:1;
Jos 2:10; 5:4; 1 Kgs 6:1; 2 Chr 5:10; Jer 7:25; Hag 2:5) and is used regularly in the descriptive accounts of the Exodus itself (Exod 9:29; 12:41; 13:3, 8; 23:15; 34:18). While it is also used as a technical term for slave release (e.g, Exod 21:2, 5ff.) and the root is used in abundantly throughout the Hebrew Scriptures to describe general coming’s and going’s, the Exodus was such a pivotal moment in Israel’s history that יא in צ the context of any type of slavery can no more be separated from the memory of the Exodus than
“freedom” or “liberty” can be separated from patriotic remembrances of the revolution in the United States.
119 The noun פֶּ• is used nearly exclusively in the description of Israel’s time in Egypt and in רֶ
the Jubilee legislation. Its only other occurrence is in Ezek 34:4.
120 Rooker, Leviticus, 310.
The drama is further described with the verb “return.” “Return to his property”
(repeated in 25:27 and 25:28) echoes the language of 25:10, which lays out the immediate result of the Jubilee’s proclamation. As stated previously, the goal of the Jubilee and redemption laws is the maintenance of Israel’s system of egalitarian land tenure. Specifically, the regular release provided by the redemption and Jubilee laws ensures that the covenant promise of a “land flowing with milk and honey” is secure for all generations (Exod 3:8; 13:5; Num 16:14; Deut 6:3; 11:9; 31:20). This economic and social system requires that families stay together and the land stays with those families.
The land and the people are inseparable and the promise is irrevocable. When the promise and the social fabric is threatened, the immediate family is obliged (along with the clan and all of Israel) to remedy the threat.
Exception 1: Urban dwellings. Leviticus 25:29-31 deal with an exception to the Jubilee and redemption laws, which are urban dwellings. This exception is then followed by an exception to the exception: village dwellings.121 The text reads:
If a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, he may redeem it within a year of its sale. For a full year he shall have the right of redemption. If it is not redeemed within a full year, then the house in the walled city shall belong in perpetuity to the buyer, throughout his generations; it shall not be released in the jubilee. But the
121 It is common to point out that these verses do not employ the formula, “if a man becomes poor,” and so breaks the structure. Scholars use these verses to argue for several redactional layers to Lev 25. An example is Gerstenberger, who holds to a post-exilic composition for Lev 25 and argues that the exception for urban houses granted to the “urban power elite . . . preferential status.” Gerstenberger, Leviticus, 397. Martin Noth argues similarly, though he dates vv. 29-31 to the monarchy: “We come further down in time, however, with the side-by-side mention of dwelling in walled cities and dwelling in unwalled
“villages” (vv. 29-31), which supports the idea that Israel also possessed houses in walled cities. As these walled cities surely mean in the first place the ancient Canaanite cities of the land, this must imply an already complete assimilation between the Canaanite and Israelite way of life, hardly to be put earlier than the early days of the kings” (Martin Noth, Leviticus, The Old Testament Library [Philadelphia:
Westminster, 1974], 185). General arguments against critical theories of Lev 25 and arguments in favor its unity are at the end of this chapter. The fact that the repeated structural element, “if a man becomes poor,”
is absent actually point to the text’s original unity. The fact that this structural clause is missing indicates that destitution played no role and the sale of a home was merely a business transaction. See Milgrom, Leviticus 23–27, 2198. Further, it is unlikely that a later update would so obviously intrude into the text without using the structural clause: “If your brother becomes poor” clause. Instead, the formula is purposefully not used to indicate that this is not a conditional situation which applies to the Jubilee and redemption laws. Finally, while Noth’s conclusions are incorrect, it is true that the Canaanites lived within walled cities. The assumption that walled cities exists points toward an ancient date for Leviticus 25, not a
houses of the villages that have no wall around them shall be classified with the fields of the land. They may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the jubilee.
(Lev 25:29-31)
These verses show the realistic and practical orientation of the Jubilee and redemption laws. It is unlikely that such questions would have been addressed if the Jubilee and redemption laws were utopian, post-exilic, or meant only for a one-time occurrence.122 In other words, these laws point to the Jubilee being an original part of the law that is aimed toward a pre-monarchic Israelite society.123 Verses 29-30 limit the redemption of a
“house in a walled city” to one year. After that, the sale is final and the seller’s claim is
“ended” ( צָת ). The unstated reason is that the urban dwelling is not part of an Israelite’s מַ
patrimonial land. The house is not הזָּחֻאֲ like his land. This reinforces the stated purpose of the Jubilee: to protect Israel’s system of egalitarian land tenure. Since the sale of a house does not affect that system, it is not subject to the laws of redemption or Jubilee after a year has passed.
Verse 31 deals with the case of village homes without a wall. These can be redeemed at any point and are subject to the Jubilee release. The reason is that these homes are tied to land. Most Israelites lived in small villages or cities alongside their clans. A small village likely contained several compounds in which several nuclear families lived together under the authority of a single patriarch. In some cases, their back walls together formed an outer protective wall, but walled cities were more typical of the Canaanites than the Israelites.124 Within each compound, each father’s house may have had several small homes within which individual families lived. The fields would be located near the village but not necessarily directly adjacent to the family compound. As
122 So also Bergsma, The Jubilee, 97; Milgrom, Leviticus 23–27, 2247; contra North’s viewpoint that the Jubilee was only slated as a one-time occurrence. North, Sociology of the Biblical Jubilee, 212ff.
123 This argument is in support of Mosaic authorship. Leviticus 25 assumes Israel has settled in the land already.
124 J. R. Porter, Leviticus, The Cambridge Bible Commentary, New English Bible (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press), 202, cited in Bergsma, The Jubilee, 97.