“The land is Mine”
Leviticus 25:23
Cultural referenceSettledGod
The land must not be sold permanently, because it is Mine, and you are but foreigners and residents with Me. (Leviticus 25:23 BSB)
* Land could not be sold forever because God, not the occupant, owned it; Israelites held it as tenants, which is precisely what let the Jubilee return it to families.
What it sounds like today
A property regulation limiting land sales.
The cultural key
The reason land could never be sold in perpetuity is theological: God is the true owner, and Israel are only 'foreigners and residents' with Him, tenants on His estate. The phrase 'foreigners and residents' (ger wetoshav) is the very status Abraham claimed when buying a grave (Genesis 23). Because the people held the land as stewards rather than absolute owners, the Jubilee could restore it to each family; no one could be permanently dispossessed of what ultimately belonged to God.
Recovered meaning
Israel owned nothing outright; they were tenants on God's land, which is why it could never be lost forever. Property here is stewardship, and that conviction is what makes the Jubilee's return of land possible.
Parallels: Genesis 23:4; Psalm 24:1