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Numbers 36 · a question people ask

Why wouldn't the jubilee bring the land back?

In the text

Numbers 36 doesn't say why. It says only that at the jubilee "their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe to which they shall belong" (36:4). The jubilee laws in Leviticus 25 speak of land that was sold. A sale was priced by the years to the jubilee: "According to the number of years after the Jubilee you shall buy from your neighbor" (Leviticus 25:15), "for he is selling the number of the crops to you" (Leviticus 25:16). And of land sold, "In the Jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his property" (Leviticus 25:28). Leviticus 25 doesn't speak of land passing to another tribe through a daughter's marriage, as 36:3 does, and the LORD's answer (36:5-9) doesn't mention the jubilee. The Bible leaves the reason unstated.

The verses

“According to the number of years after the Jubilee you shall buy from your neighbor. According to the number of years of the crops he shall sell to you. According to the length of the years you shall increase its price, and according to the shortness of the years you shall diminish its price; for he is selling the number of the crops to you.”
Leviticus 25:15-16 · World English Bible
“But if he isn’t able to get it back for himself, then what he has sold shall remain in the hand of him who has bought it until the Year of Jubilee. In the Jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his property.”
Leviticus 25:28 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Numbers 36

Numbers 36: Their inheritance remained

Numbers 27 gave the daughters their father's land; Numbers 36 keeps it in his tribe. By the LORD's word, both sides spoke right (27:7, 36:5): the daughters married "to whom they think best" within their father's tribe (36:6), "Their inheritance remained" (36:12), and the book ends on the plains of Moab, at the edge of the land (36:13).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions