Questions From Readers

Since Levites had no inheritance in ancient Israel, how could the Levite Hanamel sell a field to his Levite cousin Jeremiah, as noted at Jeremiah 32:7?

Regarding the Levites, Jehovah told Aaron: “You will not have an inheritance, and no share will become yours in their [Israel’s] midst.” (Numbers 18:20) Nevertheless, the Levites were assigned 48 cities along with their pasture grounds, scattered throughout the Promised Land. Jeremiah’s hometown was Anathoth, one of the cities assigned to “the sons of Aaron, the priests.”​—Joshua 21:13-19; Numbers 35:1-8; 1 Chronicles 6:54, 60.

At Leviticus 25:32-34, we find that Jehovah gave specific instructions governing “the right of repurchase” of property owned by Levites. Evidently, individual Levite families would have inheritance rights pertaining to the possession, use, and dispensing of specific allotments. Such would naturally include the sale and repurchase of property. * In many respects, the Levites owned and used property in ways similar to Israelites of other tribes.

Probably, ownership of such Levite property was passed on through family inheritance. As to “the right of repurchase,” however, transactions were allowed between Levites only. Also, it seems that the sale and repurchase of land applied only to property within the cities, since “the field of pasture ground of their cities” was not to be sold because it was “a possession to time indefinite for them.”​—Leviticus 25:32, 34.

So the field Jeremiah repurchased from Hanamel evidently was of such a nature that it could be passed along by repurchase. It may have been located within the bounds of the city. Jehovah himself affirmed that “the field” in question belonged to Hanamel and that Jeremiah had “the right of repurchase.” (Jeremiah 32:6, 7) Jehovah used this transaction symbolically in order to reinforce his promise that the Israelites would return to reclaim their inheritance of the land after a period of exile in Babylon.​—Jeremiah 32:13-15.

There is no indication that Hanamel had improperly come into possession of property in Anathoth. Nothing suggests that he violated Jehovah’s law in inviting Jeremiah to buy this field in Anathoth or that Jeremiah inappropriately exercised his right of repurchase in buying the field.​—Jeremiah 32:8-15.

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