But a house in a village—a settlement without fortified walls—will be treated like property in the countryside. Such a house may be bought back at any time, and it must be returned to the original owner in the Year of Jubilee.
Parallel translations
- WEB But the houses of the villages which have no wall around them shall be accounted for with the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the Jubilee.
- KJV But the houses of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be counted as the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubile.
- BSB But houses in villages with no walls around them are to be considered as open fields. They may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the Jubilee.
- NKJV However the houses of villages which have no wall around them shall be counted as the fields of the country. They may be redeemed, and they shall be released in the Jubilee.
- NASB The houses of the villages, however, which have no surrounding wall, shall be regarded as open fields; they have redemption rights and revert in the jubilee.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Houses in unwalled villages were treated like farmland, redeemable and released at Jubilee. Rural homes stayed tied to the family inheritance.
Overview
Village houses without walls were counted with the surrounding fields, so they could be redeemed and returned at Jubilee. This kept rural dwellings linked to the ancestral land they served. The distinction safeguarded the agricultural inheritance God had apportioned to each family.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 1
- Ps 49:7–8none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give God a ransom for him.
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Every sacrifice, every priest, and every day of atonement points beyond itself to the one perfect offering and the great High Priest who, by his own blood, makes the unclean holy once for all.
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Original language
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