John Sietze Bergsma, «The Jubilee: A Post-Exilic Priestly Attempt to Reclaim Lands?», Vol. 84 (2003) 225-246

The article examines the hypothesis that the jubilee legislation of Lev 25 was a post-exilic attempt on the part of returning Judean exiles — particularly the priests — to provide legal justification for the reclamation of their former lands. This hypothesis is found to be dubious because (1) the jubilee did not serve the interests of the socio-economic classes that were exiled, and (2) Lev 25 does not show signs of having been redacted with the post-exilic situation in mind. A comparison with Ezekiel’s vision of restoration points out the differences between Lev 25 and actual priestly land legislation for the post-exilic period.

but the LORD remembers him and brings him back to this land, you shall return to him his holding".

        A provision very similar to this, although concerning the return of a wife and not real estate, can be found in the Laws of Eshnunna:

If a man has been made prisoner during a raid or an invasion or if he has been carried off forcibly and [stayed in] a foreign [count]ry for a [long] time (and if) another man has taken his wife and she has born him a son — when he returns, he shall [get] his wife back⁵³.

        Here is explicit evidence that ancient Near Eastern legislators could and did take into account the possibility of a return from exile and its ramifications for property (a wife) seized in one’s absence. What would have prevented the supposed exilic priestly redactors of Lev 25 from inserting a clause like the above with "land" substituted for "wife"? Compare also the Code of Hammurabi §27:

In the case of either a private soldier of a commissary who was carried off while in the armed service of the king, if after his (disappearance) they gave his field and orchard to another and he has looked after his feudal obligations — if he has returned and reached his city, they shall restore his field and orchard to him and he shall himself look after his feudal obligations⁵⁴.

        All that was necessary for the "priests" to justify the restoration of their pre-exilic lands was to insert a line similar to LE §29 or CH §27 into their code of law and attribute it to Moses. One such line would render the entire jubilee legislation irrelevant as a means of reacquiring their lands.

        Those who propose a "land-reclamation" final redaction of Lev 25 must offer an explanation for the failure of the text to address the issue of the exile in general, and particularly its effect on an Israelite’s right to his land⁵⁵. Could it be that the priestly exilic redactors did not