Leviticus 25:13-15, how Jubilee was actually observed?

[incantator]

Hello, I’ve been reading Leviticus recently, and I couldn’t understand how the Israelites followed the laws of Jubilee regarding the redemption of property. Here are the relevant phrases:

13 “In this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his property. 14 And if you sell to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another. 15 According to the number of years after the jubilee, you shall buy from your neighbor, and according to the number of years for crops he shall sell to you.

My question is, did everyone have to return to their ‘original’ state no matter what? I guess their ‘original’ state after entering the promised land was almost equal? What about all the wealth David and Job had then?

Another thing is, did he have to buy back his property? What if he and his kinsmen didn’t have enough money to do that?

Thanks in advance

 

[spiderweb]

This is the Jewish Rabbi Rashidi’s commentary:

According to the number of years after the Jubilee, you shall purchase: The following is its simple meaning, to explain the verse according to its context: [The text] comes to warn against wronging [by overcharging, thereby linking verses 14-16 together (Mizrachi)], [namely, that] when you sell or purchase land, you should be aware of how many years remain until the [next] Jubilee, and according to [that number of] years and the crops that it is fit to yield, the seller should sell and the buyer should buy. For indeed, he will eventually return it to him in the Jubilee year. Thus, if there are [only] a few years [left until the next Jubilee year], and this one sells it for a high price, the purchaser has been wronged. And if there are many years [left until the next Jubilee year], and he will eat many crops from it [until Jubilee-if the purchaser had purchased the land for a low price], the seller has been wronged. Therefore, it must be purchased according to the time [left until the next Jubilee]. And this is [the meaning of] what it says, תְבוּאֹת יִמְכָּרלָ בְּמִסְפַּר שְׁנֵי, “according to the number of years of crops, he shall sell to you.” “According to the number of years of crop yields that it will remain in the hands of the purchaser, you shall sell it to him.” Now, [the word שְׁנֵי can mean “years of” or can mean “two.” Thus,] our Rabbis have expounded from here (see end of this Rashi for clarification), that one who sells his field is not permitted to redeem it in less than two years, that it must remain in the purchaser’s possession for exactly two years to the day, even if there are three crops during those two years, for example, if he sold it to him with crop standing in it [and then the ensuing years brought two more yields of produce. In that case, the seller cannot redeem after one year, claiming that two years’ crops have been issued,] for the word שְׁנֵי [which could mean two, i.e., two yields] does not leave its simple meaning [that it means years,] referring to [the number of years that elapse and] specifically, years that elapse with a yield of crop, but not years of blight. [Now, if the word שְׁנֵי means “years” and not two, then how do our Rabbis expound it to mean “two years”?] Because [the term שְׁנֵי is plural, and] the minimum quantity implied by שָׁנִים is two. — [Arachin 29b; Mizrachi]

Source:https://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/9926#showrashi=true

Hope that helps.

 

[incantator]

Thank you! That was helpful. But still, the case of David and Job is confusing.

 

[spiderweb]

I don’t really know, but I speculate that it is because of Lev 25:29-30 that it can’t be redeemed even in the jubilee.

 

[c1949]

Well, I’m confused, too. How does Job enter into this? You’re talking about Job of the book of Job? It is thought that he was a gentile and so he wouldn’t have been involved in Jubilee Year anything.

And, what is it about David that you are concerned with? I don’t see how the JY fits into the David narrative

As the year ends, I’m finishing up one of those bible-in-a-year bibles, and I don’t recall most of the Torah commands being exemplified. More frequently than anything, it seems that the worship of idols is mentioned more than anything else explicitly OR the issue is ignoring the Law altogether – i mean this in general terms. Deuteronomy says that book is supposed to be read every seven years to the people. I don’t recall any explicit mention of that except in Ezra-Nehemiah, once. Then if there was a king over Israel, wasn’t he supposed to make a written copy of Dt, so that he basically acknowledged some understanding of the law? Again, I don’t recall that if that was done, that it was explicitly mentioned as being done.

This is a long way of repeating myself, that I don’t recall what you are saying about King David and the JY.

 

[incantator]

What I’m saying is, if Jubilee is strictly followed, how a person can possibly get that much wealthy? Maybe the king himself was an exception, I don’t know, but the wealth Job had accumulated wasn’t trivial.