The first aspect of this legislation is simply that ‘In this year of Jubilee you shall return, every one of you, to your property.’ (Lev 25:13) Underlying this simple statement is the land division arrangement within Israel, in which every extended family was designated land, meaning that this legislation did not entrench the privileges of the minority but restored the equality, dignity, and economic independence of everyone.
Jubilee serves the purpose of limiting the concentration of productive resources in the hands of the few.
Physical handicaps, death of a breadwinner, or lack of natural ability may lead some families to become poorer than others. But God does not want such disadvantages to lead to ever-increasing extremes of wealth and poverty with the result that the poor eventually lack the basic resources to earn a decent livelihood. God therefore gave his people a law to guarantee that no family would permanently lose its land.