Leviticus 25:29-31 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

If a man sell a dwelling-house, &c.— Great difference is here made between houses in walled cities, and in the country: the former, if sold, were either to be redeemed within the compass of a year, or else to return no more to the first owner, not even at the jubilee; whereas houses in the country, which had lands of inheritance annexed to them, or were themselves estates of inheritance from the first division of the country, were to be counted as the fields of the country, that is, they were to fall under the same law with the lands whereof they were an appendage, and so might be redeemed at any time. See Leviticus 25:10; Leviticus 25:23. Several reasons are assigned for this distinction between houses in cities and those in villages: the principal one seems to be, that families were not distinguished by houses in cities as they were by those in the country, which were annexed to their lands, and therefore to be considered as a part of the inheritance. Le Clerc adds, that the houses in the country were necessary for the convenience of cultivating the lands; whereas men bred to husbandry might dispense with the want of town-houses. Men in cities too, we may observe further, being usually in trade, and their livelihood often depending upon their situation, the law of redemption, if it had taken place in cities, might have subjected them to many difficulties and inconveniencies.