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.

realize that exile would be interpreted as a divine judgment against the land claims of the exiles? This is hardly possible, as Ezekiel realized it was an issue, and Ezekiel is closely associated with the "Holiness School" to whom the redaction of Lev 25 is generally attributed. Could it be that the fiction of Mosaic authorship prevented the redactors from attributing something as anachronistic as provisions for the exile to the text? This is unlikely, since the exile is mentioned extensively in Lev 26⁵⁶. Could it be that the redactors were so disconnected with reality that they thought the connection between returning sold land and returning the land of exiles was obvious to all? Such an interpretation runs counter to the "land-reclamation" hypothesis, however, which tends to regard the "priests" as realistic, even cynical practitioners of Realpolitik⁵⁷ who forged Lev 25 as a legal fiction to justify their very real re-appropriation of land.

        Thus, there seems to be no satisfactory explanation for this omission. The sole means of alienation of land mentioned in Lev 25 is sale. It does not provide instruction for rectifying alienation through other processes such as exile⁵⁸.