The Earth Is God's and He Gives It to All His Children

24. Israelites had the right to ownership of the earth, which the law protected in many ways. The Ten Commandments state: "You shall not desire your neighbour's house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbour's" (Deut 5:21).

It can be said that an Israelite felt truly free and fully Israelite only when he had his own plot of land. However, the Old Testament insists that the earth is God's and that God has given it as a heritage to all the children of Israel. It is therefore to be shared among all the tribes, clans and families. Man is not the true master of his land, but rather an administrator. God is the true master. Thus the book of Leviticus states: "The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with me" (25:23).

In Egypt, the land belonged to the Pharaoh, with the peasants as his servants and property, while in Babylonia there was a feudal structure, with the king granting land in exchange for fidelity and services. Things were very different in Israel: the earth is God's, and God gives it to all his children.

25. This has some specific consequences. On the one hand, nobody has the right to deprive the person who has the use of land of its possession, for this would violate a divine right, and even the king cannot do that.(¹⁶) On the other hand, any form of absolute and arbitrary possession exclusively for one's own advantage is forbidden: we cannot do whatever we want with the goods that God has given to all.

It is on this basis that, as need arises — always under the pressure of some specific situation — the law introduces numerous limitations to the right of ownership, for example the ban on picking the fruit of a tree during its first four years (cf. Lev 19:23-25), the call not to reap right to the edges of the field, and the prohibition on gathering up fruit and ears that have been forgotten or fallen on the ground, since they belong to the poor (cf. Lev 19:9-10; 23:22; Deut 24:19-22).

This view of property explains the severity of the Bible's moral judgment on the abuses of the rich who force the poor and small farmers to give up their family holdings. The Prophets are particularly energetic in their condemnation of such abuses: "Woe to those who join house to house, who add field to field" cries Isaiah (5:8), while his contemporary Micah says: "They covet fields, and seize them; and houses, and take them away; they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance" (2:2).