Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Leviticus 25:32-34
Houses In The Cities Of The Levites Are Redeemable At Any Time (Leviticus 25:32).
This special provision for Levites was because they did not have fields of their own. Their houses were their possession. God was their inheritance.
“Nevertheless the cities of the Levites, the houses of the cities of their possession, the Levites may redeem at any time.”
In the cities of the Levites (including the priests) the houses were given to them by God as a possession. They had no fields which were their personal possession. Thus their houses were treated as their inheritance in the land and were permanently redeemable or returned to the original owner in the year of Yubile. These cities included the six cities of refuge, and the forty two others to be allocated to the Levites (Numbers 35:1; see Joshua 20-21). The six represented twice three (three on each side of Jordan) which indicated completeness. The remainder were six times seven, completeness with divine perfection.
“And if one of the Levites redeem, then the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, shall go out in the yubile; for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel.”
The general intent of this verse is clear although the detail is a little problematic. The important point is that each property in a Levite city returned in the year of Yubile (‘goes out') to its original Levite owner, and the whole city therefore returned to its combined Levite owners, because being Levites this was their permanent possession in the land.
AV translates ‘if a man purchase of the Levites', (i.e. a non-Levite buying Levite property) but this is probably not right as the same verb is unquestionably used in context above to mean ‘redeem', and the root is g'l (redeem, redeemer). Thus we must translate ‘redeem' and understand accordingly. It may refer to a Levite redeeming the property on behalf of another Levite or the Levites in general redeeming property in their city which a poor Levite had had to sell. If so it could not be kept beyond the year of Yubile. It returned to its original Levite owner. As indeed the whole city returned to its Levite owners.
“But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession.”
However, Levite fields surrounding the city could not be sold. They belonged to the Levites as a whole. They were their permanent possession.
Those who through dedication to God lose what is looked on as normal to men can be sure that God will watch over their needs and especially provide for them. In the words of Jesus, ‘Every one who has left houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit eternal life' (Matthew 19:29).