(27) Count the years of the sale thereof.--To regulate the price of the redemption money the crops were valued which the purchaser had enjoyed since he had acquired the property. This was deducted from what he originally paid for the plot of land, and the difference was returned to him by the vendor, to whom the patrimony reverted. Thus, for instance, if there were thirty years from the time the purchase was effected to the year of jubile, and the vendor or his next of kin redeemed the inheritance either ten or fifteen years after the transaction, he had to return to the purchaser either one-third or half of the purchase money, when the soil was restored to the seller or his next of kin. In the interest of the purchaser, however, it was enacted during the second Temple that the redemption should not take place before he had the benefit of the field for two productive years (see Leviticus 25:15), and that he could claim compensation for outlay on improvements. Restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it. --That is, an equitable estimate is to be made of what the land is likely to yield from the time of its redemption by the vendor to the jubile, which is to be allowed to the purchaser.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.Then let him count the years of the sale thereof,.... How many years had passed since it was sold, how many it had been in the hands of the purchaser, and how many were yet to come to the year of the jubilee, by which means the price of redemption might easily be settled; thus, for instance, if the years were alike and there was just half the time gone, then half of the price it was sold at was repaid to the purchaser; and if not alike, then in proportion to what had passed and were to come:and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it; for the years that were yet to come; if, as Jarchi says, he has eaten of or enjoyed the fruit of the field three or four years, deduct the price of them from the account, and take the rest; this is the meaning, "and restore the overplus", out of the price of the sale, according to what is eaten, and give it to the buyer: Maimonides (e) explains it thus; that if there were ten years to the year of the jubilee, and the field was sold for an hundred pieces, if he that bought it has eaten of it three years, then the seller that redeems it must give him seventy pieces, and he must restore his field; if he has eaten of it six years, he is to give forty pieces, and the other restores him the field: in the Misnah it is put thus; if he sell it (his field) to the first for an hundred pence, and the first sells it to a second for two hundred, he must not reckon but with the first, as it is said, "unto the man to whom he sold it"; if he sold it to the first for two hundred, and the first sells it to a second for an hundred, he shall not count but with the last, as it is said, "to a man", i.e. to the man which is in the midst of it, or is possessed of it; nor may he sell it for a distant time, that he may redeem it near, nor when in a bad condition, that he may redeem it when in a good one; nor may he borrow to redeem it, nor redeem it by halves (f): that he may return to his possession; and enjoy it again. (e) Hilchot Shemittah Vejobel, ut supra, (c. 11.) sect. 5. (f) Misn. Eracin, ut supra. (c. 9. 1.) |
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