23 "The land cannot be sold permanently because the land is mine and you are foreigners - you're my tenants. 24 You must provide for the right of redemption for any of the land that you own. 25 "If one of your brothers becomes poor and has to sell any of his land, his nearest relative is to come and buy back what his brother sold. 26 If a man has no one to redeem it but he later prospers and earns enough for its redemption, 27 he is to calculate the value since he sold it and refund the balance to the man to whom he sold it; he can then go back to his own land. 28 If he doesn't get together enough money to repay him, what he sold remains in the possession of the buyer until the year of Jubilee. In the Jubilee it will be returned and he can go back and live on his land. 29 "If a man sells a house in a walled city, he retains the right to buy it back for a full year after the sale. At any time during that year he can redeem it. 30 But if it is not redeemed before the full year has passed, it becomes the permanent possession of the buyer and his descendants. It is not returned in the Jubilee. 31 However, houses in unwalled villages are treated the same as fields. They can be redeemed and have to be returned at the Jubilee. 32 "As to the Levitical cities, houses in the cities owned by the Levites are always subject to redemption. 33 Levitical property is always redeemable if it is sold in a town that they hold and reverts to them in the Jubilee, because the houses in the towns of the Levites are their property among the People of Israel. 34 The pastures belonging to their cities may not be sold; they are their permanent possession. 35 "If one of your brothers becomes indigent and cannot support himself, help him, the same as you would a foreigner or a guest so that he can continue to live in your neighborhood. 36 Don't gouge him with interest charges; out of reverence for your God help your brother to continue to live with you in the neighborhood. 37 Don't take advantage of his plight by running up big interest charges on his loans, and don't give him food for profit. 38 I am your God who brought you out of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.
39 "If one of your brothers becomes indigent and has to sell himself to you, don't make him work as a slave. 40 Treat him as a hired hand or a guest among you. He will work for you until the Jubilee, 41 after which he and his children are set free to go back to his clan and his ancestral land. 42 Because the People of Israel are my servants whom I brought out of Egypt, they must never be sold as slaves. 43 Don't tyrannize them; fear your God. 44 "The male and female slaves which you have are to come from the surrounding nations; you are permitted to buy slaves from them. 45 You may also buy the children of foreign workers who are living among you temporarily and from their clans which are living among you and have been born in your land. They become your property.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Leviticus 25:23-45
Commentary on Leviticus 25:23-34
(Read Leviticus 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.
Commentary on Leviticus 25:35-38
(Read Leviticus 25:35-38)
Poverty and decay are great grievances, and very common; the poor ye have always with you. Thou shalt relieve him; by sympathy, pitying the poor; by service, doing for them; and by supply, giving to them according to their necessity, and thine ability. Poor debtors must not be oppressed. Observe the arguments here used against extortion: "Fear thy God." Relieve the poor, "that they may live with thee;" for they may be serviceable to thee. The rich can as ill spare the poor, as the poor can the rich. It becomes those that have received mercy to show mercy.
Commentary on Leviticus 25:39-55
(Read Leviticus 25:39-55)
A native Israelite, if sold for debt, or for a crime, was to serve but six years, and to go out the seventh. If he sold himself, through poverty, both his work and his usage must be such as were fitting for a son of Abraham. Masters are required to give to their servants that which is just and equal, John 8:32. We cannot ransom our fellow-sinners, but we may point out Christ to them; while by his grace our lives may adorn his gospel, express our love, show our gratitude, and glorify his holy name.