“ ‘Nevertheless, in the cities of the Levites, the Levites may redeem the houses in the cities of their possession at any time. The Levites may redeem the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, and it shall be released in the Jubilee; for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel. But the field of the pasture lands of their cities may not be sold, for it is their perpetual possession.
Parallel Translations
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“ ‘Nevertheless, in the cities of the Levites, the Levites may redeem the houses in the cities of their possession at any time.
The Levites may redeem the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, and it shall be released in the Jubilee; for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel.
But the field of the pasture lands of their cities may not be sold, for it is their perpetual possession.
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Notwithstanding the cities of the Levites, and the houses of the cities of their possession, may the Levites redeem at any time.
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 jubile: for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel.
But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession.
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But as for the cities of the Levites, the houses of the cities of their possession, the Levites shall have a perpetual right of redemption.
And if a man purchase of the Levites, then the house that was sold in the city of his possession, shall go out in the jubilee; for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel.
But the fields of the open land about their cities may not be sold; for that is their perpetual possession.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Commandments (2)
The laws of the Torah, each cited and shown as a primary source.
Cross-references (7)
- Leviticus 25:23 (v34) “ ‘The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and live as foreigners with me.
- Acts 4:36-37 (v34) Joses, who by the apostles was also called Barnabas (which is, being interpreted, Son of Encouragement), a Levite, a man of Cyprus by race,…
- Numbers 18:20-24 (v33) Yahweh said to Aaron, “You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any portion among them. I am your portion and…
- Numbers 35:1-8 (v32) Yahweh spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying, “Command the children of Israel to give to the Levites cities…
- Numbers 35:2-5 (v34) “Command the children of Israel to give to the Levites cities to dwell in out of their inheritance. You shall give pasture lands for the…
Show all 7 cross-references
- Deuteronomy 18:1-2 (v33) The priests and the Levites—all the tribe of Levi—shall have no portion nor inheritance with Israel. They shall eat the offerings of Yahweh…
- Joshua 21:1-45 (v32) Then the heads of fathers’ houses of the Levites came near to Eleazar the priest, and to Joshua the son of Nun, and to the heads of…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (16 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv32, 34 Hebrew, forever.
Hebrew, forever.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv32–34 Lev 25:32 Notwithstanding the cities of the Levites, [and]…
Lev 25:32 Notwithstanding the cities of the Levites, [and] the houses of the cities of their possession, may the Levites redeem at any time.
Ver. 32. May the Levites redeem at any time.] They were ever counted privileged persons: and it was but reason. See Lev 25:33-34.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv33–34 Or thus, But he that shall redeem it shall…
Or thus, But he that shall redeem it shall be or must be of the Levites, i.e. no person of another tribe, though by marriage near akin to the selling Levite, shall redeem it, but Levites only, and any of them shall have the same power to redeem it, which in other tribes only the nearest kindred have; and, in case none of them redeem it, yet the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, i.e. his share or interest in the city of his possession, shall go out and return to the Levites without any redemption.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv32–34 Notwithstanding, the cities of the Levites,.... The six cities…
Notwithstanding, the cities of the Levites,.... The six cities of refuge, and forty two others; these and the houses in them are excepted from the above law, and only they; not such as they might purchase elsewhere; wherefore it follows:
and the houses of the cities of their possession; which were in cities possessed by them, and which was their possession, and given them as such:
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may the Levites redeem at any time; they were not restrained to a year, as houses in walled towns, but they might redeem them as they pleased or could; and if they did not redeem them within the year, they might redeem them afterwards, even years after, and any time before the year of jubilee; so it is said in the Misnah (l) the priests and the Levites sell always, and they redeem always, as it is said, Lev 25:32; on which one of the commentators says (m) "they sell always", not as the Israelites, who cannot sell less than two years before the jubilee; but the Levites can sell near the jubilee: "and they redeem always"; if they sell houses in walled cities, they are not confirmed at the end of the year, as the houses of Israelites; and if they sell fields, it is not necessary they should remain in the hands of the buyer two years, but they may redeem them immediately if they will: this redemption was peculiar to the Levites; for if an Israelite has an inheritance from his father's mother, a Levite, he might not redeem according to the manner Levites did, but according to Israelites; and so a Levite that inherited from his father's mother, an Israelite, was obliged to redeem as an Israelite and not as a Levite (n); for this perpetual redemption respected only houses that were in the cities of the Levites.
(l) Eracin, c. 9. sect. 8. (m) Bartenora in ib. (n) Misn. Eracin, c. 9. sect. 8.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On v34 May not be sold - Not sold at all,…
May not be sold - Not sold at all, partly, because it was of absolute necessity for them for the keeping of their cattle, and partly because these were no enclosures, but common fields, in which all the Levites that lived in such a city had an interest, and therefore no particular Levite could dispose of his part in it.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On v32 Verse 32. The cities of the Levites] The law…
Verse 32. The cities of the Levites] The law in this and the following verses was also a very wise one. A Levite could not ultimately sell his house: if sold he could redeem it at any time tn the interim between the two jubilees; but if not redeemed, it must go out at the following jubilee. And why? "Because Moses framed his laws so much in favour of the priesthood, that they had peculiar privileges?" &c. Just the reverse: they were so far from being peculiarly favoured that they had no inheritance in Israel, only their cities, to dwell in: and because their houses in these cities were the whole that they could call their own, therefore these houses could not be ultimately alienated. All that they had to live on besides was from that most precarious source of support, the freewill-offerings of the people, which depended on the prevalence of pure religion in the land.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v34 Lev 25:34-35. The field of the suburbs (namely, of…
Lev 25:34-35. The field of the suburbs (namely, of the cities of the Levites) may not be sold — Not at all; partly, because it was of absolute necessity for them for the keeping of their cattle, and partly because these were no enclosures, but common fields, in which all the Levites that lived in such a city had an interest, and therefore no particular Levite could dispose of his part in it. A sojourner — Understand it of proselytes only, for of other strangers they were permitted to take usury, Deu 23:20.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On v32 Rather, And concerning the cities of the Levites, the…
Rather, And concerning the cities of the Levites, the houses in the cities of their possession, etc. If one of the Levites redeems a house in the city, etc. The meaning appears to be, if a Levite redeemed a house which had been sold to a person of a different tribe by another Levite, it was to revert in the Jubilee to the latter Levite as its original possessor. The purchaser of a Levite’s house was in fact only in the condition of a tenant at will, while the fields attached to the Levitical cities could never be alienated, even for a time.
For the application of the law of Jubilee to lands dedicated to the service of the sanctuary, see Lev 27:16-25.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On v33 Owners. The Levites had no other possessions, but these…
Owners. The Levites had no other possessions, but these cities and 2000 cubits of land around them. The priests might buy of one another, Jeremias xxxi. 7.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On v32 Notwithstanding the cities of the Levites, &c.--The Levites, having…
Notwithstanding the cities of the Levites, &c.--The Levites, having no possessions but their towns and their houses, the law conferred on them the same privileges that were granted to the lands of the other Israelites. A certain portion of the lands surrounding the Levitical cities was appropriated to them for the pasturage of their cattle and flocks (Num 35:4-5). This was a permanent endowment for the support of the ministry and could not be alienated for any time. The Levites, however, were at liberty to make exchanges among themselves; and a priest might sell his house, garden, and right of pasture to another priest, but not to an Israelite of another tribe (Jer 41:7-9).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv32–34 32. The Levites may redeem — Here is the…
32. The Levites may redeem — Here is the first hint of the mode of maintaining the Levites in cities. This exception to the statute concerning walled cities is grounded on the fact that the Levites, if their houses could be irredeemably sold, might become utterly homeless, since they had no landed inheritance, but only city houses. Jehovah is not honored by a mendicant ministry.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv33–34 33. if one of the Levites redeem] The Heb.…
33. if one of the Levites redeem] The Heb. presents great difficulty as it stands. If we take the rendering in the text, it is unsuitable, because in the case there supposed, viz. that one Levite redeems the house of another, obviously the statement that the house shall ‘go out’ (i.e. return to its original owner) in the Jubile adds nothing to the law as to Levites, set forth in Lev_25:32. But if we take R.V. mg. (so LXX.), if a man redeem from the Levites, this purchase on the part of a non-Levite had no connexion with the Jubile law, as not being the purchasing back of a possession on the part of one of the family of the original owner. It seems best therefore to suppose that the ‘not’ which the Vulg. supplies (see R.V. mg.) has dropped out of the original text. The sense will then be, If one of the Levites does not redeem, then the house which he has sold will at any rate return into his possession at the Jubile.
and the city of his possession] The expression is a somewhat awkward one. The intention seems to be to provide that this rule shall operate only as regards houses within the cities set apart for the Levites (Num_35:2; Jos_21:2-40), and not elsewhere.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv32–34 (32) Notwithstanding the cities of the Levites, and the…
(32) Notwithstanding the cities of the Levites, and the houses.—Better, And as to the cities of the Levites, the houses, that is, the houses which belong to the Levites, in the forty-eight cities given to them (see Num_35:1-8; Jos_21:1-3), are to be exempt from this general law of house property.
May the Levites redeem at any time.—Having the same value to the Levites as landed property has to the other tribes, these houses are to be subject to the jubile laws for fields, and hence may be redeemed at any time.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On v32 Vers. 32-34. The houses of the Levites are, by…
Vers. 32-34. The houses of the Levites are, by an exception, subject to the law of jubilee. They constituted the share of the national property which was assigned to the tribe of Levi, and so far stood in the same relation to them as the land did to the other tribes. They therefore returned to the original possessor or his representative in the year of jubilee, and might at any earlier time be redeemed. The words, Notwithstanding the cities of the Levites, should rather be rendered, But in respect to the cities of the Levites. There is a difficulty also as to the translation of the clause, And if a man purchase of the Levites, for the word rendered purchase menus elsewhere redeem; but here the Authorized Version would seem to be correct. The sense that it gives is that if any one bought a house of the Levites, he had to render it back in the year of jubilee, just as though it had been land. On the other hand, the land belonging to the Levites, in the suburbs of the Levitical cities, which was used for the pasturage of the flocks of the Levites, could not be sold except to a Levite, and therefore no question between the Levites and members of the other tribes could arise regarding it. The phrase, the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, must be understood, by a hendiadys, to mean, the house that was sold in the city of his possession (see Gesenius, "Lex.," s.v. l i.b.).
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v33 the house that was sold in the city where…
the house that was sold in the city where it is located must be returned
This can be stated in active form. AT: "the one who bought the house in the city where it is located must return it" (See: Active or Passive)
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the year of Jubilee
"the year of restoration" or "the year to return land and free slaves"
their property among the people of Israel
The land of Canaan was divided up among the people of Israel, but of that land, the Levites were only given 48 cities with the fields around them. AT: "their part of the land that the Israelites possessed" or "their property in the land of Israel"
But the fields around their cities may not be sold
This can be stated in active form. AT: "But the Levites must not sell the fields around their cities" (See: Active or Passive)
translationWords
people group
Israel
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v32 25:32-34 The tribe of Levi could not inherit tribal…
25:32-34 The tribe of Levi could not inherit tribal territory because, as the priestly tribe, they were scattered throughout the land (Deut 18:1; see Gen 49:5-7; Num 35:1-8; Josh 21:1-42). The Levites could inherit only certain cities and the pasturelands surrounding them (Num 35:2). Therefore, they were an exception to the rules regarding land ownership, and their meager holdings were carefully protected. Their houses could be redeemed even in walled cities, and the pasturelands outside their towns could not be sold.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.