What Does Leviticus 27:20 Mean?
And if he does not will to buy back the field, or if he has sold the field to another man, it is not bought back any more.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And if he will not redeem the field, or if he have sold the field to another man, it shall not be redeemed any more.THE KEY
Once the field passes to another, the right to redeem it closes.
THE MEANING
This verse sets a boundary: when the field is sold to another, it passes beyond the former holder’s right to redeem. The ending is absolute, the field cannot be redeemed any more.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a right to reclaim something remains open indefinitely meets a limit here: this transfer closes that path.
THE ROOT
יִגְאַל
yig’al
GROWS FROM
גאל
To reclaim or redeem, especially by acting as a near relative.
“buy back” in this verse is yig’al. The verse uses the same root twice: first for the person who might redeem the field, then for the field that might be redeemed. The Hebrew connects the claim and the recovery; when the field passes to another, that path of reclaiming is closed.
ALSO GROWS
go’el: Kinsman-redeemer
גֹּאֵל
This branch names the relative who acts to reclaim what belongs within the family’s claim; it reveals the relational force carried by “redeem.”
ge’ullah: Redemption or the right of reclamation
גְּאֻלָּה
This branch names the recovery or claim itself, making the verse’s finality sharper: the field’s status has moved beyond that right.
THE PATTERN
Redemption is a concrete act that changes what can be claimed or what one belongs to.
If your brother totters and sells some of his holding, and his nearest blood-redeemer comes to him, then he shall buy back what his brother sold.And the kinsman said, I cannot buy it back for myself, lest I ruin my own inheritance. Buy back my right for yourself, for I cannot buy it back.In him we have our ransom through his blood, the release of our stumbles, according to the riches of his favor.THE THREAD
If your brother totters and sells some of his holding, and his nearest blood-redeemer comes to him, then he shall buy back what his brother sold.Both verses use גאל (ga’al), “to redeem or reclaim,” for property that has been sold. Leviticus 25:25 shows the kin’s path to recover it; Leviticus 27:20 marks the point at which that path is closed.
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