(26) And if the man have none to redeem it.--In case, however, he has either no nearest of kin, or if his nearest of kin is himself too poor to perform this duty, which is incumbent upon him, "and himself be able to redeem it," that is, after he was compelled, by stress of poverty, to sell the property he has become prosperous, so as to be able to redeem it himself; though not distinctly expressed, it is implied that under these altered circumstances he is obliged to redeem his patrimony himself. According to the canonical law, however, he must not borrow money to redeem it.
25:23-34 If the land were not redeemed before the year of jubilee, it then returned to him that sold or mortgaged it. This was a figure of the free grace of God in Christ; by which, and not by any price or merit of our own, we are restored to the favour of God. Houses in walled cities were more the fruits of their own industry than land in the country, which was the direct gift of God's bounty; therefore if a man sold a house in a city, he might redeem it only within a year after the sale. This encouraged strangers and proselytes to come and settle among them.And if the man have none to redeem it,.... That is, none of kin that was able or willing to redeem it; otherwise no doubt there were persons in the land able to do it at any time, but none he was in connection with, or from whom he could expect such a favour: and himself be able to redeem it; or if his hand has got, and he has found a sufficiency for his redemption, as the Targum of Jonathan; not that he has found anything that was lost, as Chaskuni glosses it, but by one providence or another, by the blessing of God on his trade and business, is become rich, and it is in the power of his hand to redeem the possession he had sold, he might do it; but, as the same writer observes, he might not borrow and redeem, but must do it with what he had got of his own since the time of sale, and which is also the sense of others (d). (d) Misn. Eracin, c. 9. 1. Maimon. & Bartenora in ib. |
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