Leviticus 25:31

Summary

The verse establishes a legal distinction for houses located in unwalled villages: unlike houses within walled cities (treated in the preceding verses), these are to be legally classified with agricultural land. This classification carries two consequences — they remain subject to a right of redemption at any time, and they revert automatically in the jubilee year.

Key words

• chatzerim ("villages", H2691B) — masculine plural noun describing unwalled settlements, distinguished from the walled cities (ir) discussed earlier in the chapter.
• choMah ("a wall", H2346G) — feminine singular noun; its absence (ein... choMah, "there is no wall") is the defining criterion that determines the legal status of these houses.
• yechaShev ("it will be reckoned", H2803H) — niphal (passive) imperfect verb; the passive voice indicates the house is classified or accounted as something else (field-land), without specifying who performs the reckoning.
• ge'ulLah ("a right of redemption", H1353) — feminine singular noun naming the legal status/right itself, not merely an action; paired with the verb tihyeh ("it will belong", H1961) to state that this right exists for the property.
• yeTze' ("it will go out", H3318H) — qal imperfect of the same root used elsewhere in Leviticus 25 for jubilee release; here it describes the property "going out" (i.e., reverting) at the jubilee.

What the text says

The sentence is built in three clauses linked by the imperfect verbs yechaShev, tihyeh, and yeTze', each indicating a state or action projected as regularly occurring under the law. The first clause identifies the subject: batTei hachatzeRim ("houses of the villages", H1004B + H2691B), qualified by a relative clause asher ein-laHem choMah saViv ("which have no wall around them", H0834A + H0369 + H2346G + H5439G) — literally "there is not, to them, a wall, surrounding." The construction ein-laHem (H0369 + H9005/H9038) uses the possessive "to them" pattern typical of Hebrew existential negation, meaning "they do not have."

The second clause states the legal reckoning: these houses are counted al-sedeh haAretz ("to/as the field of the land", H5921A + H7704G + H0776G), using the construct noun sedeh ("field of") to place them in the same category as open agricultural land rather than urban property.

The third and fourth clauses give the practical effects: ge'ulLah tihyeh-lo ("a redemption-right will belong to it/him", H1353 + H1961 + H9033) and baYovel yeTze' ("in the jubilee it will go out", H3104 + H3318H), meaning the property returns to its original holder in that year, paralleling the treatment of agricultural land elsewhere in the chapter.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders ge'ulLah tihyeh-lo ("a redemption-right will belong to it", H1353+H1961) as λυτρωταὶ διὰ παντὸς ἔσονται ("redeemers/redemption-rights shall exist continually"), adding the temporal notion "always/continually" (dia pantos) not present as a separate word in the Hebrew clause. The Vulgate reorganizes the verse conditionally ("if it has not been redeemed before, it shall return to the owner in the jubilee"), introducing a conditional structure (si... non fuerit) not present in the Hebrew's sequence of imperfect verbs, and explicitly names ad dominum ("to the owner"), where the Hebrew simply uses the impersonal yeTze' ("it will go out", H3318H) without stating a recipient.