(29) A dwelling house in a walled city.--It is, however, quite different in the case of houses in walled cities. These are not the creation of God (see Leviticus 25:23), allotted by His command to the different tribes of Israel; they are the work of man, who build them up and raze them to the ground at their own will, and according to their fancy. Hence the law of jubile does not apply to these temporary human buildings. Though an Israelite could sell his house without being driven by stress of circumstances to do it, still, as he may feel attached to his home, the Divine law affords him some protection for a limited period, during which he or his family may redeem the building. During the second Temple "a dwelling house in a walled city" was defined to be a house standing within an area of land which was first walled round for the purpose of building upon it human habitations, and in which the houses were afterwards erected. But if the houses were built first, and the city wall afterwards, they do not come within the law here laid down.

Within a full year may he redeem it.--If within a year of the sale he wishes to redeem, the Law gives him the power, or in case he dies empowers his son, to repurchase the property at the same price which he received for it. Besides limiting the period to a year, the Law does not prescribe that the next of kin is to redeem, nor give him the power to do it. During the second Temple it was also enacted that the vendor could not redeem it with borrowed money.

Verses 29-31. - Houses in walled cities are not subject to the law of restoration at the jubilee, as that law applies only to lands and to men; but houses in the country are subject to the law, as they are regarded only as appurtenances of the land. Houses in cities, being occupied by artisans and built by human industry, not originally assigned in the territorial division, are not considered in so strict a sense the property of the Lord as the soil is, and may be parted with more readily. Yet the owners, if obliged to part with them, are allowed a year's grace, during which they are to have the right of buying them back. The expression, within a full year, would be more literally rendered during a fixed time, that fixed time having just before been declared to be a year.

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.And if a man sell a dwelling house in a walled city,.... Which was so from the days of Joshua the son of Nun, as Jarchi:

then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold: any time within the year he pleased, either he or any near of kin to him; and if they would, on the day it was sold, or any time after within the compass of the year, even on the day in which the year ended; in this such an house differed from fields, which could not be redeemed under two years; see Gill on Leviticus 25:15,

within a full year may he redeem it; from the time it was sold, paying what it was sold for: this is to be understood, Maimonides (h) says, of a solar year, which consists of three hundred sixty five days, and within this space of time such an house might be redeemed.

(h) In Misn. Eracin, c. 9. sect. 3.