(24) The field shall return unto him of whom it was bought.--In accordance with the law laid down in Leviticus 25:23-28, the field thus vowed did not return to the purchaser in the year of jubile, but to the, hereditary owner, of whom the person who had vowed it to the Lord had bought it.27:14-25 Our houses, lands, cattle, and all our substance, must be used to the glory of God. It is acceptable to him that a portion be given to support his worship, and to promote his cause. But God would not approve such a degree of zeal as ruined a man's family.In the year of jubilee, the field shall return unto him of whom it was bought,.... Not to him that sanctified it, whether he redeemed it or not; nor to him that bought it of the treasurer of the temple after it was sanctified; but to the original proprietor and owner of it, of whom he bought it that sanctified it, for so it follows: even to him to whom the possession of the land did belong; which was a possession of his he had by inheritance from his fathers, and therefore, according to the law of the year of jubilee, was then to return to him, and could be retained no longer, nor even converted to holy uses; for as it is said in the Misnah (h),"a field of purchase goes not out to the priests in the year of jubilee; for no man can sanctify a thing which is not his own;''as what he had purchased was no longer his than to the year of jubilee, and therefore could not devote it to sacred uses for any longer time. (h) Ut supra. (Hilchot Eracin, c. 4. sect. 26.) |