Imamat 25:32

25:32 As for ¹  the cities of the Levites, the houses in the cities which they possess, ²  the Levites must have a perpetual right of redemption.

Imamat 25:34

25:34 Moreover, ³  the open field areas of their cities ⁴  must not be sold, because that is their perpetual possession.

Imamat 26:31

26:31 I will lay your cities waste ⁵  and make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will refuse to smell your soothing aromas.

Imamat 25:33

25:33 Whatever someone among the Levites might redeem – the sale of a house which is his property in a city – must revert in the jubilee, ⁶  because the houses of the cities of the Levites are their property in the midst of the Israelites.

Imamat 14:40

14:40 then the priest is to command that the stones that had the infection in them be pulled and thrown ⁷  outside the city ⁸  into an unclean place.

Imamat 14:45

14:45 He must tear down the house, ⁹  its stones, its wood, and all the plaster of the house, and bring all of it ¹⁰  outside the city to an unclean place.

Imamat 26:33

26:33 I will scatter you among the nations and unsheathe the sword ¹¹  after you, so your land will become desolate and your cities will become a waste.

Imamat 14:41

14:41 Then he is to have the house scraped ¹²  all around on the inside, ¹³  and the plaster ¹⁴  which is scraped off ¹⁵  must be dumped outside the city ¹⁶  into an unclean place.

Imamat 14:53

14:53 and he is to send the live bird away outside the city ¹⁷  into the open countryside. So he is to make atonement for the house and it will be clean.

Imamat 25:29

Release of Houses

25:29 “‘If a man sells a residential house in a walled city, ¹⁸  its right of redemption must extend ¹⁹  until one full year from its sale; ²⁰  its right of redemption must extend to a full calendar year. ²¹ 

Imamat 26:25

26:25 I will bring on you an avenging sword, a covenant vengeance. ²²  Although ²³  you will gather together into your cities, I will send pestilence among you and you will be given into enemy hands. ²⁴ 

Imamat 25:30

25:30 If it is not redeemed before the full calendar year is ended, ²⁵  the house in the walled city ²⁶  will belong without reclaim ²⁷  to the one who bought it throughout his generations; it will not revert in the jubilee.

Imamat 14:52

14:52 So he is to decontaminate the house with the blood of the bird, the fresh water, the live bird, the piece of cedar wood, the twigs of hyssop, and the scrap of crimson fabric,

[25:32]  ¹ tn Heb “And.”

[25:32]  ² tn Heb “the houses of the cities of their property.”

[25:34]  ³ tn Heb “And.”

[25:34]  ⁴ sn This refers to the region of fields just outside and surrounding the city where cattle were kept and garden crops were grown (B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 177).

[26:31]  ⁵ tn Heb “And I will give your cities a waste”; NLT “make your cities desolate.”

[25:33]  ⁶ tn Heb “And which he shall redeem from the Levites shall go out, sale of house and city, his property in the jubilee.” Although the end of this verse is clear, the first part is notoriously difficult. There are five main views. (1) The first clause of the verse actually attaches to the previous verse, and refers to the fact that their houses retain a perpetual right of redemption (v. 32b), “which any of the Levites may exercise” (v. 33a; J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 418, 421). (2) It refers to property that one Levite sells to another Levite, which is then redeemed by still another Levite (v. 33a). In such cases, the property reverts to the original Levite owner in the jubilee year (v. 33b; G. J. Wenham, Leviticus [NICOT], 321). (3) It refers to houses in a city that had come to be declared as a Levitical city but had original non-Levitical owners. Once the city was declared to belong to the Levites, however, an owner could only sell his house to a Levite, and he could only redeem it back from a Levite up until the time of the first jubilee after the city was declared to be a Levitical city. In this case the first part of the verse would be translated, “Such property as may be redeemed from the Levites” (NRSV, NJPS). At the first jubilee, however, all such houses became the property of the Levites (v. 33b; P. J. Budd, Leviticus [NCBC], 353). (4) It refers to property “which is appropriated from the Levites” (not “redeemed from the Levites,” v. 33a) by those who have bought it or taken it as security for debts owed to them by Levites who had fallen on bad times. Again, such property reverts back to the original Levite owners at the jubilee (B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 177). (5) It simply refers to the fact that a Levite has the option of redeeming his house (i.e., the prefix form of the verb is taken to be subjunctive, “may or might redeem”), which he had to sell because he had fallen into debt or perhaps even become destitute. Even if he never gained the resources to do so, however, it would still revert to him in the jubilee year. The present translation is intended to reflect this latter view.

[14:40]  ⁷ tn Heb “and the priest shall command and they shall pull out the stones which in them is the infection, and they shall cast them.” The second and third verbs (“they shall pull out” and “they shall throw”) state the thrust of the priest’s command, which suggests the translation “that they pull out…and throw” (cf. also vv. 4a, 5a, and 36a above), and for the impersonal passive rendering of the active verb (“be pulled and thrown”) see the note on v. 4 above.

[14:40]  ⁸ tn Heb “into from outside to the city.”

[14:45]  ⁹ tn Smr, LXX, Syriac, and Tg. Ps.-J. have the plural verb, perhaps suggesting a passive translation, “The house…shall be torn down” (cf. NAB, NIV, TEV, NLT, and see the note on v. 4b above).

[14:45]  ¹⁰ tn Once again, Smr, LXX, and Syriac have the plural verb, perhaps to be rendered passive, “shall be brought.”

[26:33]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and I will empty sword” (see HALOT 1228 s.v. ריק 3).

[14:41]  ¹² tn Or, according to the plurality of the verb in Smr, LXX, Syriac, and Targums, “Then the house shall be scraped” (cf. NAB, NLT, and the note on v. 40).

[14:41]  ¹³ tn Heb “from house all around.”

[14:41]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “dust” (so KJV) or “rubble”; NIV “the material”; NLT “the scrapings.”

[14:41]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “which they have scraped off.” The MT term קִיר (qir, “wall” from קָצָה, qatsah, “to cut off”; BDB 892), the original Greek does not have this clause, Smr has הקיצו (with uncertain meaning), and the BHS editors and HALOT 1123-24 s.v. I קצע hif.a suggest emending the verb to הִקְצִעוּ (hiqtsi’u, see the same verb at the beginning of this verse; cf. some Greek mss, Syriac, and the Targums). The emendation seems reasonable and is accepted by many commentators, but the root קָצָה (qatsah, “to cut off”) does occur in the Bible (2 Kgs 10:32; Hab 2:10) and in postbiblical Hebrew (J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 179, notes 41c and 43d; J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:873; cf. also קָצַץ, qatsats, “to cut off”).

[14:41]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “into from outside to the city.”

[14:53]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “to from outside to the city.”

[25:29]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “a house of a residence of a walled city.”

[25:29]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “shall be.”

[25:29]  ²⁰ tn Heb “of its sale.”

[25:29]  ²¹ tn Heb “days its right of redemption shall be” (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 176).

[26:25]  ²² tn Heb “vengeance of covenant”; cf. NAB “the avenger of my covenant.”

[26:25]  ²³ tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) has a concessive force in this context.

[26:25]  ²⁴ tn Heb “in hand of enemy,” but Tg. Ps.-J. and Tg. Neof. have “in the hands of your enemies” (J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 454).

[25:30]  ²⁵ tn Heb “until fulfilling to it a complete year.’

[25:30]  ²⁶ tn Heb “the house which [is] in the city which to it [is] a wall.” The Kethib has לֹא (lo’, “no, not”) rather than לוֹ (lo, “to it”) which is the Qere.

[25:30]  ²⁷ tn See the note on v. 23 above.