And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land.
The command belongs to the Lord's arrangement for the land and to the law of the jubilee. The land was His, and the people held it only as His tenants, as strangers and sojourners with Him, and therefore it was not to be sold permanently. In all the land of possession a redemption for the land was to be granted, so that the land was to remain redeemable and was not to be permanently alienated. A man might for a time dispose of his possession, but he could not permanently barter away the inheritance of his children.
If poverty forced an owner to sell his inheritance, he was at liberty to redeem his land himself at any time when he was able, and his kinsman could come and redeem what was sold. The buyer had to allow the former owner or a relative to redeem it. If it could not be restored, what was sold remained in the buyer's hand only until the year of jubilee, when all landed property reverted to the original owner and family. With this arrangement belonged also the sabbatical year, when cultivation stopped and its spontaneous growth was available to the poor, to strangers, and to livestock. That year taught God's ownership of and care for the land and its people, while the land's rest allowed the soil to recover, and debts were remitted every seventh year.
In this way every family was secured in its possession and inheritance and protected from permanently losing home and inheritance. Poor families were given an equal chance with their more fortunate neighbors, and all were given a safeguard against the extremes of wealth and want. The wider arrangement taught liberality and care for the poor. It reflects God's plan in which every family had a home on the land with sufficient ground for tilling, providing both the means and the incentive for a useful, industrious, and self-supporting life. No devising of man has ever improved upon that plan, and the world's departure from it accounts to a large degree for the poverty and wretchedness that exist today.
The command lays down one of God's laws for the distribution of property whose principle still applies today. Carrying it out would change the condition of the people by preventing the terrible evils seen in all ages from the oppression of the poor by the rich and the hatred of the rich by the poor. While it might hinder the amassing of great wealth, it would prevent the ignorance and degradation of tens of thousands held in ill-paid servitude to build up colossal fortunes. It would bring a peaceful solution to problems that now threaten to fill the world with anarchy and bloodshed.
The command belongs to the Lord's arrangement for the land and to the law of the jubilee. The land was His, and the people held it only as His tenants, as strangers and sojourners with Him, and therefore it was not to be sold permanently. In all the land of possession a redemption for the land was to be granted, so that the land was to remain redeemable and was not to be permanently alienated. A man might for a time dispose of his possession, but he could not permanently barter away the inheritance of his children.
If poverty forced an owner to sell his inheritance, he was at liberty to redeem his land himself at any time when he was able, and his kinsman could come and redeem what was sold. The buyer had to allow the former owner or a relative to redeem it. If it could not be restored, what was sold remained in the buyer's hand only until the year of jubilee, when all landed property reverted to the original owner and family. With this arrangement belonged also the sabbatical year, when cultivation stopped and its spontaneous growth was available to the poor, to strangers, and to livestock. That year taught God's ownership of and care for the land and its people, while the land's rest allowed the soil to recover, and debts were remitted every seventh year.
In this way every family was secured in its possession and inheritance and protected from permanently losing home and inheritance. Poor families were given an equal chance with their more fortunate neighbors, and all were given a safeguard against the extremes of wealth and want. The wider arrangement taught liberality and care for the poor. It reflects God's plan in which every family had a home on the land with sufficient ground for tilling, providing both the means and the incentive for a useful, industrious, and self-supporting life. No devising of man has ever improved upon that plan, and the world's departure from it accounts to a large degree for the poverty and wretchedness that exist today.
The command lays down one of God's laws for the distribution of property whose principle still applies today. Carrying it out would change the condition of the people by preventing the terrible evils seen in all ages from the oppression of the poor by the rich and the hatred of the rich by the poor. While it might hinder the amassing of great wealth, it would prevent the ignorance and degradation of tens of thousands held in ill-paid servitude to build up colossal fortunes. It would bring a peaceful solution to problems that now threaten to fill the world with anarchy and bloodshed.