And if the man have none to redeem it, and himself be able to redeem it;
This belongs to the practical instructions about duties to one another concerning a brother who has fallen into poverty, expressing the principles of Christianity and the gospel of the Old Testament. The surrounding chapter teaches that God is the householder and owner of the land while the people are His tenants, strangers and sojourners with Him. If no kinsman can redeem property a poor man has sold, the seller himself may buy it back whenever he becomes able and return to his possession, and he is at liberty to do so at any time. The buyer must allow the redemption.
Land could be transferred for a time but could not be sold permanently so as to barter away the children's inheritance, and redemption was to be granted throughout all the land of possession. If the seller is not able to restore what was sold and finds no redeemer, it remains in the buyer's hand until the jubilee year, when it returns to him. Every seventh year was a sabbatical year when cultivation was forbidden so worn-out soil could be invigorated, its spontaneous growth left free to the poor, strangers, flocks and herds, and debts were remitted. In the fiftieth year liberty was proclaimed, every man returned to his possession and family, and all landed property reverted to its original owner, while in the sixth year God caused the land to yield enough for three years.
This arrangement secured every family in its possession as a safeguard against the extremes of wealth and want, to encourage liberality, overcome stinginess and selfishness, and show God's care and special provision for the poor. The verse reflects God's plan in which every family had a home on the land with sufficient ground to till, providing both the means and the incentive for a useful, industrious, self-supporting life. No human devising has improved on that plan, and departure from it largely causes today's poverty and wretchedness. Because the seller's ability to redeem depends on earning power, industrial training was a duty, with every father to teach his sons a useful trade and every woman to learn housewifery.
Skill in manual work was counted an honor even for women of highest station and for the greatest men, and various industries were taught in the schools of the prophets where many students supported themselves by manual labor. The lesson calls for intelligent practical missionary work and obedience that helps brethren laboring in hard fields rather than holding selfish principles, closing the heart, and refusing.
This belongs to the practical instructions about duties to one another concerning a brother who has fallen into poverty, expressing the principles of Christianity and the gospel of the Old Testament. The surrounding chapter teaches that God is the householder and owner of the land while the people are His tenants, strangers and sojourners with Him. If no kinsman can redeem property a poor man has sold, the seller himself may buy it back whenever he becomes able and return to his possession, and he is at liberty to do so at any time. The buyer must allow the redemption.
Land could be transferred for a time but could not be sold permanently so as to barter away the children's inheritance, and redemption was to be granted throughout all the land of possession. If the seller is not able to restore what was sold and finds no redeemer, it remains in the buyer's hand until the jubilee year, when it returns to him. Every seventh year was a sabbatical year when cultivation was forbidden so worn-out soil could be invigorated, its spontaneous growth left free to the poor, strangers, flocks and herds, and debts were remitted. In the fiftieth year liberty was proclaimed, every man returned to his possession and family, and all landed property reverted to its original owner, while in the sixth year God caused the land to yield enough for three years.
This arrangement secured every family in its possession as a safeguard against the extremes of wealth and want, to encourage liberality, overcome stinginess and selfishness, and show God's care and special provision for the poor. The verse reflects God's plan in which every family had a home on the land with sufficient ground to till, providing both the means and the incentive for a useful, industrious, self-supporting life. No human devising has improved on that plan, and departure from it largely causes today's poverty and wretchedness. Because the seller's ability to redeem depends on earning power, industrial training was a duty, with every father to teach his sons a useful trade and every woman to learn housewifery.
Skill in manual work was counted an honor even for women of highest station and for the greatest men, and various industries were taught in the schools of the prophets where many students supported themselves by manual labor. The lesson calls for intelligent practical missionary work and obedience that helps brethren laboring in hard fields rather than holding selfish principles, closing the heart, and refusing.