Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 23:10
And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof:
10, 11. The fallow year. In every seventh year the fields, vineyards, and olive-gardens are to remain uncultivated, such produce as they bear naturally being not gathered by the owners, but left to the poor. The terms in which the law is expressed leave it uncertain whether (as is generally supposed) a year common to the whole land is intended, or (Riehm, HWB. s.v. Sabbathjahr; Wellh. Hist. p. 117 f.; Nowack, Archol. ii. 162; W. R. Smith in EB. iv. 4180; B.) one varying with he different properties, and reckoned in each from the year in which it first began to be cultivated: the analogy of v. 12 would favour the former interpretation; practical considerations, and the analogy of Lev 19:23-25, would support the latter. In Lev 25:1-7 (H) it is represented as a fixed year to be observed throughout the country simultaneously; but this does not determine the question whether it had that character from the beginning. A common septennial fallow year, must, in practice, have had its inconveniences: 2Ch 36:21 (cf. Lev 26:34-35) seems to imply that it was not observed, at least regularly, before the exile: but there are several notices of its observance in the Greek period (e.g. 1Ma 6:49 ; 1Ma 6:53 : DB. iv. 325 b ).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
10 12. The seventh year to be a fallow year, and the seventh day to be a day of rest. The motive, it may be noticed, is in each case a philanthropic one.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
This is the first mention of the Sabbatical year; the law for it is given at length in Lev 25:2. Both the Sabbatical year and the weekly Sabbath are here spoken of exclusively in their relation to the poor, as bearing testimony to the equality of the people in their covenant with Yahweh. In the first of these institutions, the proprietor of the soil gave up his rights for the year to the whole community of living creatures, not excepting the beasts: in the latter, the master gave up his claim for the day to the services of his servants and cattle.
Exo 23:12
May be refreshed – Literally, may take breath.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Exo 23:10-11
The seventh year thou shalt let it rest.
The Sabbatic year
This law was intended–
1. To show the fertility of the land of promise. Every seventh year, without skill or toil, the land would produce of itself sufficient for the poor and the beasts of the field.
2. To encourage habits of thrift and forethought, so that they might provide for the year of rest.
3. To test
(1) their faith in the providence, and
(2) their obedience to the laws of God. The subject suggests–
I. That periods may arrive by the order or permission of God when work must re laid aside. Commercial depression, sickness, old age.
II. That the prospect of such periods should lead us to provide for them. We are not like fowls of the air, or grass of the field, which have to be literally fed and clothed by the providence of God, and are utterly unable to forecast and provide for contingencies.
III. That the prospect of such periods should teach us resignation to the will of God and faith in His goodness (Mat 6:25-34).
1. There remaineth a rest for the people of God.
2. Prepare for that rest by faith and obedience. (J. W. Burn.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
10. six years thou shalt sow thylandintermitting the cultivation of the land every seventhyear. But it appears that even then there was a spontaneous producewhich the poor were permitted freely to gather for their use, and thebeasts driven out fed on the remainder, the owners of fields notbeing allowed to reap or collect the fruits of the vineyard oroliveyard during the course of this sabbatical year. This was aregulation subservient to many excellent purposes; for, besidesinculcating the general lesson of dependence on Providence, and ofconfidence in His faithfulness to His promise respecting the tripleincrease on the sixth year (Lev 25:20;Lev 25:21), it gave the Israelitesa practical proof that they held their properties of the Lord as Histenants, and must conform to His rules on pain of forfeiting thelease of them.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And six years thou shall sow thy land, The land of Canaan, given to their ancestors and to them, and which they were now going to inherit; and when they came into it they were to plant it with vines and olives; or rather, these being ready planted, they were to prune and dress them; and they were to till their land, and plough it, and sow it with various sorts of grain, for six years running, from the time of their possession of it:
and shall gather in the fruits thereof; corn and wine, and oil, into their own garners, treasuries, and cellars, as their own property, to dispose of as they pleased for their own use and profit.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
10 And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof: 11 But the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie still; that the poor of thy people may eat: and what they leave the beasts of the field shall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, and with thy oliveyard. 12 Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed. 13 And in all things that I have said unto you be circumspect: and make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth. 14 Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year. 15 Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty:) 16 And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field. 17 Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord GOD. 18 Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the fat of my sacrifice remain until the morning. 19 The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk.
Here is, I. The institution of the sabbatical year, Exo 23:10; Exo 23:11. Every seventh year the land was to rest; they must not plough nor sow it at the beginning of the year, and then they could not expect any great harvest at the end of the year: but what the earth did produce of itself should be eaten from hand to mouth, and not laid up. Now this was designed, 1. To show what a plentiful land that was into which God was bringing them–that so numerous a people could have rich maintenance out of the produce of so small a country, without foreign trade, and yet could spare the increase of every seventh year. 2. To remind them of their dependence upon God their great landlord, and their obligation to use the fruit of their land as he should direct. Thus he would try their obedience in a matter that nearly touched their interest. Afterwards we find that their disobedience to this command was a forfeiture of the promises, 2 Chron. xxxvi. 21. 3. To teach them a confidence in the divine Providence, while they did their duty–that, as the sixth day’s manna served for two day’s meat, so the sixth year’s increase should serve for two years’ subsistence. Thus they must learn not to take thought for their life, Matt. vi. 25. If we are prudent and diligent in our affairs, we may trust Providence to furnish us with the bread of the day in its day.
II. The repetition of the law of the fourth commandment concerning the weekly sabbath, v. 12. Even in the year of rest they must not think that the sabbath day was laid in common with the other days, but, even that year, it must be religiously observed; yet thus some have endeavoured to take away the observance of the sabbath, by pretending that every day must be a sabbath day.
III. All manner of respect to the gods of the heathen is here strictly forbidden, v. 13. A general caution is prefixed to this, which has reference to all these precepts: In all things that I have said unto you, be circumspect. We are in danger of missing our way on the right hand and on the left, and it is at our peril if we do; therefore we have need to look about us. A man may ruin himself through mere carelessness, but he cannot save himself without great care and circumspection: particularly, since idolatry was a sin which they were much addicted to, and would be greatly tempted to, they must endeavour to blot out the remembrance of the gods of the heathen, and must disuse and forget all their superstitious forms of speech, and never mention them but with detestation. In Christian schools and academies (for it is in vain to think of reforming the play-houses), it were to be wished that the names and stories of the heathen deities, or demons rather, were not so commonly and familiarly used as they are, even with intimations of respect, and sometimes with forms of invocation. Surely we have not so learned Christ.
IV. Their solemn religious attendance on God in the place which he should choose is here strictly required, v. 14-17. 1. Thrice a year all their males must come together in a holy convocation, that they might the better know and love one another, and keep up their communion as a dignified and peculiar people. 2. They must come together before the Lord (v. 17) to present themselves before him, looking towards the place where his honour dwelt, and to pay their homage to him as their great Lord, from and under whom they held all their enjoyments. 3. They must feast together before the Lord, eating and drinking together, in token of their joy in God and their grateful sense of his goodness to them; for a feast is made for laughter, Eccl. x. 19. O what a good Master do we serve, who has made it our duty to rejoice before him, who feasts his servants when they are in waiting! Never let religion be called a melancholy thing, when its solemn services are solemn feasts. 4. They must not appear before God empty, v. 15. Some free-will offering or other they must bring, in token of their respect and gratitude to their great benefactor; and, as they were not allowed to come empty-handed, so we must not come to worship God empty-hearted; our souls must be filled with grace, with pious and devout affections, holy desires towards him, and dedications of ourselves to him, for with such sacrifices God is well-pleased. 5. The passover, pentecost, and feast of tabernacles, in spring, summer, and autumn, were the three times appointed for their attendance: not in winter, because travelling was then uncomfortable; not in the midst of their harvest, because then they were otherwise employed; so that they had no reason to say that he made them to serve with an offering, or wearied them with incense.
V. Some particular directions are here given about the three feasts, though not so fully as afterwards. 1. As to the passover, it was not to be offered with leavened bread, for at that feast all leaven was to be cast out, nor was the fat of it to remain until the morning, lest it should become offensive, v. 18. 2. At the feast of pentecost, when they were to begin their harvest, they must bring the first of their first-fruits to God, by the pious presenting of which the whole harvest was sanctified, v. 19. 3. At the feast of ingathering, as it is called (v. 16), they must give God thanks for the harvest-mercies they had received, and must depend upon him for the next harvest, and must not think to receive benefit by that superstitious usage of some of the Gentiles, who, it is said, at the end of their harvest, seethed a kid in its dam’s milk, and sprinkled that milk-pottage, in a magical way, upon their gardens and fields, to make them more fruitful next year. But Israel must abhor such foolish customs.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Verses 10-13:
Verses 10 and 11 give the Law of the Sabbatical Year. Every seventh year, the fields, vineyards, and olive yards were to lie fallow. This was a law unique to Israel. It was designed in part to allow the land to replenish itself in the year of rest. It served as well to foster Israel’s faith in God, that He would provide their needs during the year of rest and the year following, if they would honor His ownership. The crops which grew “volunteer” were to be left for the poor of the land.
Verse 12 is a repetition of the Law of the Sabbath Day, Ex 20:8-11.
Verse 13 contains two injunctions: (1) “be circumspect” shamar, “be watchful” to do all Jehovah had commanded, omitting nothing; and (2) do not even so much as utter the name of a false god. This second provision illustrates a principle applicable today, see Eph 5:3, 12. There are some things which no child of God may honorably discuss.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
10. And six years shalt thou sow. Another Sabbatical institution ( Sabbathismus) follows, viz., that of years, in reference to the cultivation of the land; for as men and cattle rested on every seventh day, so God prescribed that the earth should rest on the seventh year. According to the fertility or barrenness of the soil, fields are fallowed every third or fourth year, lest they should become altogether unproductive through exhaustion. Indeed a soil can hardly be found of such fecundity as to be fitted for continual productiveness. Some relaxation is therefore given, until the land recovers its vigor; but this only pertains to wheat, barley, pease, beans, and other pulse, and seeds. As to meadows and vineyards the state of things is different, since, when meadows are mown every year, the fertility of the soil is not weakened; whilst vines degenerate unless they are cultivated. It was a sign of extraordinary and exceeding fertility that the land of Canaan could bear six years’ sowing following, without being worn out. God honored it with this privilege in favor of His people; nor did He indeed ordain the rest from necessity, since on the sixth year He doubled the power of His blessing; but in order that the sanctity of the Sabbath might be everywhere conspicuous, and that thus the children of Israel, as they looked upon the land, might be the more encouraged to its observance. The nature of the rest was that they should not sow anything, nor prune their vineyards in the sacred year; and if anything should spring up from the scattered seeds of last harvest, it was the common property of the inhabitants of the land and strangers, although He peculiarly bestowed whatever grew of itself, whether corn or grapes, upon the poor, as a kind of gratuitous present for the relief of their wants. And this kindness and liberality was a kind of incidental adjunct to the performance of the religious duty. It was not indeed mainly or chiefly God’s purpose to give relief to the poor, but, as we said before, there was nothing strange in it that the offices of charity should be consequent upon God’s service.
If ungodly men should foolishly object that there is no connection between the senseless soil and a spiritual mystery, we have already answered, that although the Sabbath was deposited with believers only as a pledge of an inestimable blessing, still tokens of it appeared both in the flocks and herds, as well as in dead creatures, in order to renew the recollection of it, lest the people should grow cold, and their devotion should become languid. But if they mockingly persist that the Jews were finely dealt with, (341) when in their highest privilege they had asses and oxen, as well as the fields themselves, for companions; I answer, why do they not apply the same scoff to a commoner matter? For since the doctrine of salvation is committed to paper or parchment before it comes to us, why do they not laugh with all their might at the obedience of our faith? since in our silly credulity we embrace the promises transmitted to us by a stinking skin or some other filthy material? God would have the observation of the Sabbath engraved on all creatures, that wherever the Jews turned their eyes they might be kept up to it. Why, then, should not the earth be a conspicuous and impressive sign ( character) for the rude inculcation of this doctrine? When it is said, “What they leave the beasts of the field shall eat,” the injunction does not extend to wild and noxious animals which they might drive away from their property; but God merely commands that whatever the earth produced should be exposed promiscuously for the food both of man and beast. And this affords an indirect answer to a question that might occur for God shews that the grass would not be lost, although there should be no hay-making; for the grass would be instead of hay for the beasts, so that they might feed abundantly in the fields and meadows.
Another question, however, arises from the passage in Leviticus, where God permits the owners of the land and their families to gather for food whatever shall then grow of itself. But there was nothing to prevent them, like the strangers, and anybody else, from eating of the fruits which were common to all, provided they did not defraud the poor by their covetousness. (342) The same thing is soon afterwards added in the description of the Jubilee; for although that year, which completed seven times seven years, was more holy than the rest, still God allows all to eat in it the fruits grown of themselves. He speaks more restrictedly in Exodus, in order to inculcate greater liberality upon them; but in Leviticus He shews that there is no danger of any of the produce of the land being lost, because permission is given both for themselves and their servants and cattle, besides the hireling and the stranger, to partake of it. Where He says, “that which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest,” I understand it of the land which they usually reaped; as also a little further on He calls their peculiar right of ownership in their vines “their separation.” (343) Although, therefore, the possessor might boast that the property was his own, and consequently that the harvest should be left entirely to himself, God reminds them that its fruits were nevertheless common to all during the Sabbatical year. The word “harvest,” therefore, is applied to the land which was sown, and “separation” to the private vineyard, or its fruit. The old interpreter has translated them “the grapes of first-fruits.” If it is preferred to adopt this sense, Moses would expressly declare that no oblation of them conferred on the owners of the property a right to claim as their own what grew in their vineyard (during the year;) (344) else it would have been a good excuse to offer to God the first-fruits of the vintage, and under this pretext for the Jews to contend that they had consecrated the whole produce in the first-fruits. But God anticipates this gloss, by shewing that what was said respecting the ordinary cultivation was improperly turned aside to the extraordinary year of rest. But since the word נאזיר, nazir, means “separation,” I do not see why we should change what accords very well. Still commentators differ as to the meaning of this word; some understand it “relinquishing,” because every owner resigned his private property, so that the vintage might be common. Others explain it as expressing that they had abstained from its cultivation for that year. My own opinion, however, as I have said, is simply that the peculiar right of the possessor is called his “separation;” so that it was not lawful for others to touch the vintage except in the Sabbatical year. Thus separation is opposed to common fields free to the public.
(341) “ La condition des Juifs n’a gueres este honorable;” the condition of the Jews was hardly honorable. — Fr.
(342) Addition in Fr., “ et que chacun en preint ce qu’il pourroit, comme d’un bien commun;’ and that each should take what they could of them, as of a common property.
(343) See Margin, A. V., Lev 25:5, ענבי נזירך , “ grapes of thy separation.” S.M., “ uvas a te derelictas.” S. M. says in his note, “We follow the Chaldee interpreter, who renders these words The grapes of thy relinquishing; but others render them the grapes of thy separation, (that is, which hitherto thou hast separated or set apart for thyself,) thou shalt not suffer to be common property.” — W. The translation of V. is, “uvas primitiarum tuarum.”
(344) Addition from Fr.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Exo. 23:10-12
SABBATIC YEARS AND DAYS
It has been said that a life according to nature is the highest good. Now, most certainly, a life conducted on the principles laid down by Him who is the God of nature and of grace is the highest good,being productive of the largest amount of happiness The wisdom and benevolence of the Almighty are manifested in the appointment of the Sabbath; and those consult their highest goodnot only their future, but their present welfarewho observe that appointment, and devote a seventh of their time to rest, and to the cultivation more especially of the spiritual life.
I. The beneficence of the Sabbatic year.
1. It is beneficent to the land. Every seventh year the land must rest and lie still. Even in high farming it is found needful to give the land a rest by a change of crops. The earth is wonderfully productive, and has a marvellous power of renewing its youth from year to year, and from age to age. But this power of productiveness must not be stretched too far. The land, too, must have its Sabbath. A shortsighted policy works the land until it becomes comparatively barren; and thus selfishness, in the long run, is not as profitable as a spirit directed by Divine regulations.
2. It is beneficent to the owner of the land. He learns by this arrangement to husband his resources, and to be provident. One reason of the poverty of uncultured tribes is, that they are not provident. They do not look into the future, and store up seed for the coming harvest. This Sabbatic year will teach the owner to be provident. It will teach him to have a wise management of affairs. He will be taught to take a large view of Gods dealings. He will see that the world is not conducted on the haphazard principle. There is method in the Divine government Thus the farmers reflective faculties are developed. He is not to be a mere working machine; but a king in nature moving in subjection to the Divine King, learning lessons of dependence upon God, and admiring the bounty of that God who in six years gives ample supplies for the seventh.
3. It is beneficent to the poor and to the beasts, that the poor of thy people may eat: and what they leave, the beasts of the field shall eat. The poor have a divine right to the charities of the rich. There is no law against the plenty obtained by six years hard labour; but here is a wise limit to the spirit of acquisition. The poor must not envy the rich their six years plenty; and the rich must not deny to the poor the power to glean in the seventh year. God cares even for oxen; and the rich must care for those who are Gods care. If God cares for oxen, how much more for those made in His image. That community must be safe and prosperous where there is this mutual consideration. Communistic violence will not be known in that land where the rich do not oppress the poor. There is plenty for all in Gods vast universe. Let there be no waste, but a wise economy. Surely six years produce is enough for the reasonable and benevolent owner of property! Let the poor have the gleanings of the seventh year.
II. The beneficence of the Sabbatic day. The blessed Saviour said, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. And in the Old Testament we find that the appointment of the Sabbath was a beneficent arrangement for mans welfare. But some so read our Saviours words that the Sabbath is divested of any binding power. The Sabbath was made for man, and therefore if man does not want to keep a Sabbath he has no need to do so. Put the statement in another form. It is self-evident that food was made for man, and not man for food. No one would ever think that the statement meant that man need not take food. It was made to meet mans physical necessities, and he cannot do without it. Now, just in the same way as food was made for man, so the Sabbath was made for mans physical, intellectual, and moral nature. The Sabbath was not made for man as a toy is made for the child, to minister for an hour or two to its amusement, and then to be destroyed. The Sabbath was made for man as the sun was made for man, to give us light, heat, beauty, and productiveness. The Sabbath was made for man as the revolving seasons, as the sweet interchange of day and night were made for man, that this world may be to him a glorious dwelling-place. The Sabbath was made for man, as the Bible was made for man, that he may attain the true conceptions of manhood, that the true royalty of his nature may not be blotted out of existence, that he may rise above mere notions of animality, that he may stand in this world conscious of the dignity of his origin and the greatness of his sublime destiny. The Sabbath was made for man as the Saviour Himself was made a man for men, that the powers of evil may not gain a complete mastery, and that they may sit in heavenly places, clothed in garments of spiritual fashion, and radiant with Divine beauty. The Sabbath was made for man as heaven is made for redeemed man. A refuge from the storms of life. A home of peace after the six days of care and toil. A goal to which we look with glad hearts, and towards which we work with hopeful spirits amid the intense struggles and fervid contests and fierce strifes of existence. There are those who seem to regard the Sabbath as an infringement on their rights, and as a robbery of the time they might otherwise profitably employ in trade or commerce. And they strive to frustrate the purposes of Divine benevolence by putting seven days labour into the six, and then taking the seventh day for the purpose of recruiting an over-wrought physical or mental nature. But it will not do. By and by the man will be compelled to pay the penalty of his folly. Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest. To put seven days labour into six is like stretching the bow until it snaps and is destroyed. Man needs periods of rest and release from care, from toil, and from business, and this need is met by the appointment of the Sabbath. This is one of the most beneficent of Divine institutions; and it is the one that is the most universally observed. The greater part of civilized humanity, as if by instinctive feeling, seem to appreciate its beneficence. Its infringement is only the result of a narrow selfishness that would soon bring the social fabric to awful ruin. The Sabbath is not for work, is not for pleasure that may be harder toil than our accustomed work, is not for doing little odds and ends for which we have not time in the week, but for restrest of body and rest of mindrest in divine service, rest in peaceful worship, and rest in holy employments. The Sabbath day fosters the spirit of benevolence. The letter of the Old Testament is not binding, but the spirit is. We must do all that lies in our power so that the ox and the ass may rest, and the son of the handmaid and the stranger may be refreshed. In this world of selfishness it will foster a benevolent spirit, and produce restful feelings to strive to minister to the welfare of the lower animals, and the refreshment even of the stranger. The Sabbath throws open the arms of love, and would enfold a wearied universe and impart abiding rest.W. Burrows, B.A.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
THE SABBATIC YEAR.Exo. 23:9-11
For the whole subject, see Dr. Milligans article on Sacred Seasons in Cassells Bible Educator. This law was intended
1. To show the fertility of the land of promise. Every seventh year, without skill or toil, the land would produce of itself sufficient for the poor and the beasts of the field.
2. To encourage habits of thrift and forethought, so that they might provide for the year of rest.
3. To test
(1.) their faith in the providence, and
(2.) their obedience to the laws of God. The subject suggests
I. That periods may arrive by the order or permission of God when work must be laid aside. Commercial depression, sickness, old age.
II. That the prospect of such periods should lead us to provide for them. We are not like fowls of the air, or grass of the field, which have to be literally fed and clothed by the providence of God, and are utterly unable to forecast and provide for contingencies.
III. That the prospect of such periods should teach us resignation to the will of God and faith in His goodness (Mat. 6:25-34).
Application.i. There remaineth a rest for the people of God; ii. Prepare for that rest by faith and obedience.
J. W. Burn.
LABOUR AND REST.Exo. 23:12
This verse teaches us
I. That rest is needful, May be refreshed.
1. Rest is needful that the exhausted faculties may repose after past work.
2. Rest is needful that those faculties may be invigorated for future service.
3. Rest is needful that work may not become irksome; for if so
(1.) It will be done slovenly; and
(2.) Done imperfectly.
4. Rest is needful that work may be free and joyous.
II. That rest is mercifully provided.
1. This rest is provided by God, lest man should not overlook its necessity.
2. This rest is provided by God lest the servant, the foreigner, or the beast should be defrauded of their right to it.
III. That rest should be diligently earned. Six days shalt thou do thy work.
1. Not lounge over it;
2. Not neglect it; but
3. Do it earnestly, conscientiously, and well.
Application.i. A lesson to employers. God has provided this rest, beware how you steal what God has given to man. ii. A lesson to working men. This rest is yours by right. Then
(1.) claim it;
(2.) dont abuse it;
(3.) dont curtail that of others;
(4.) work during your own time, rest during Gods. iii. A lesson to the world at large. Sabbath-breaking is the direct cause of
(1.) Intellectual evils; overtaxed brains, &c.;
(2.) moral evils; neglect of the rights of God and man;
(3.) physical evils. Science has demonstrated the need of one days rest in seven.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
REV. WILLIAM ADAMSON
Mosaic Morals! Exo. 23:1-19. A modern jurist, Hennequin, says: Good right had Moses to challenge the Israelites, what nation hath statutes like yours? a worship so exaltedlaws so equitablea code so complex? A Frenchman and an infidel, he observes that, compared with all the legislations of antiquity, none so thoroughly embodies the principles of everlasting righteousness. Lycurgus wrote, not for a people, but for an army: It was a barrack which he erected, not a commonwealth. Solon, on the other hand, could not resist the surrounding effeminate influences of Athens. It is in Moses alone that we find a regard for the right, austere and incorruptible; a morality distinct from policy, and rising above regard for times and peoples.
But what could Moses law have done
Had it not been divinely sent?
The power was from the Lord alone,
And Moses but the instrument.
Newton.
Sacred Seasons! Exo. 23:10. The deeper basins of the African Sahara are frequently of great extent, and sometimes contain valuable deposits of salt. Wherever perennial springs rise from the earth, or wherever it has been possible to collect water in artificial wells, green aoses break the monotony of the desert. They might be compared with the charming islands that stud the vast solitudes of the Southern Seas. A wonderful luxuriance of vegetation characterises these oases of the wilderness. And what is life but a wilderness? What are the sacred seasons but these emerald, living oases! Here the pilgrims halt for refreshment and repose. Here they rest beneath the shadow of the lofty palm-trees, dip their vessels in the waters of the calm, clear fount, feed upon the luscious clusters of grape and pomegranate, orange and apricot. Then with recruited strength they go forth again upon their pilgrimage towards the Land of Rest; singing as they press onward over the sands of time, How sweet
To hold with heaven communion meet
Meet for a spirit bound to heaven;
And, in this wilderness beneath,
Pure zephyrs from above to breathe.
Bowing.
Sabbath Beneficence! Exo. 23:12. Stations on the line of your journey, remarks Pulsford, are not your journeys end; but each one brings you nearer. A haven is not Home; but it is a place of quiet and rest where the rough waves are stayed. A garden is a piece of common land, yet it has ceased to be common. It is now an effort to regain paradise. Such are the Lords days. The true Lords Day is the rest that remaineth for the people of Godis the upper Eden of eternity. But its earthly type is the ever-recurring weekly world-Sabbath. By cultivating our earthly Sabbaths, we are making an effort to regain the lost Paradise. That benefit God designed, and that blessing God will confer.
Sabbaths, like waymarks, cheer the pilgrims path,
His progress mark, and keep his rest in view.
In lifes bleak winter they are pleasant days,
Short foretastes of the long, long spring to come.
Wilcox.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CEREMONIAL LAWS.
(10, 11) Six years . . . the seventh year.The Sabbatical year which is here commanded was an institution wholly unknown to any nation but the Hebrews. It is most extraordinary that any legislator should have been able to induce a people to accept such a law. Prima facie, it seemed, by forbidding productive industry during one year in seven, to diminish the wealth of the nation by one-seventh. But it is questionable whether, under a primitive agricultural system, when rotation of crops was unknown, the lying of the land fallow during one year in seven would not have been an economical benefit. There was no prohibition on labour other than in cultivation. The clearing away of weeds and thorns and stones was allowed, and may have been practised. After an early harvest of the self-sown crop, the greater part of the year may have been spent in this kind of industry. Still the enactment was no doubt unpopular: it checked the regular course of agriculture, and seemed to rob landowners of one-seventh of their natural gains. Accordingly, we find that it was very irregularly observed. Between the Exodus and the Captivity it had apparently been neglected seventy times (2Ch. 36:21), or more often than it had been kept. After the Captivity, however, the observance became regular, and classical writers notice the custom as one existing in their day (Tacit. Hist. v. 4). Julius Csar permitted it, and excused the Jews from paying tribute in the seventh year on its account (Joseph., Ant Jud. xiv. 10, 6). The object of the law was threefold(1) to test obedience; (2) to give an advantage to the poor and needy, to whom the crop of the seventh year belonged (Exo. 23:11); and (3) to allow an opportunity, once in seven years, for prolonged communion with God and increased religious observances. (See Deu. 31:10-13.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Regulations Concerning Acknowledgement of Yahweh’s Lordship ( Exo 23:10-13 ).
Here we have two sets of regulations which refer to work and rest.
A Seven-Year Rest ( Exo 23:10-11 ).
Exo 23:10-11
“And six years you shall sow your land and shall gather in the increase of it, but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow that the poor of your people may eat, and what they leave the beast of the field shall eat. In the same way you will deal with your vineyard and with your olive-yard.”
Agriculturally this would allow the land to rest so that it could recover its vitality. It was a practise observed also in other nations. But here it was made an offering to the poor. During the six years the farmer could gather in and store his grain ready for the seventh year, and he would cater for his bondmen, but the poor who worked for others, as they could, would have no grain on the seventh year for there would be no work. This thus catered for their need. And each seventh year would be dedicated to God in recognition of His gift of the land to His people. This is made specific in Lev 25:4 but it is clearly its intent here as is evident from its connection with the weekly sabbath in the following verse. Both are sabbaths to Yahweh their God (Exo 20:10).
In Deu 14:28 to Deu 15:11 we have an extension of God’s provision for the poor. Not only could they enjoy the gleanings and this seventh year bonanza, but a provision would in future be made for them from the third year of tithes and by release from debt in the seventh year.
This connection with the weekly sabbath also implies that the same seventh year shall be observed by all. This is made explicit in Lev 25:2-7.
These provisions looked forward to when the land has been given to them as Yahweh promised to them in Egypt. They were a preparation for and a guarantee of what was to come. It is possible they had already been observed in Egypt. By these provisions God was reminding them of what their future will be, and encouraging their hopes. But they assumed a quick conquest of the land so that the provisions could be applied. In the end they could only be observed spasmodically. That they would not be strictly observed is brought out in Lev 26:34; 2Ch 36:21, God knew what to expect of them, but those who did so in obedience to God would find their land more fruitful as a result.
The Weekly Sabbath ( Exo 23:12-13 ).
Exo 23:12-13
“Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall cease from work, that your ox and your ass may have rest, and the son of your handmaid and the stranger may be refreshed. And in all things that I have said to you take heed, and make no mention of other gods, neither let it be heard out of your mouth.”
This is a repetition of the fourth commandment. Compare Exo 34:21. But here the stress is twofold. Firstly on the benefit to beasts and servants (compare Deu 5:14-15), and secondly on its provision as a means of meditating on God (compare Exo 20:11).
It is stressed that those who have no say in the matter should be able to rest, the oxen and the asses who bore the burden of the work and the sons of handmaids (either sons of concubines or sons of servants) and resident aliens who would have no land and would therefore be labourers.
The placing of Exo 23:13 here, while it applies to all that has gone before, emphasises that the sabbath is to be a day in which men will speak of God. They are to ensure then that they do not speak of other gods but that they concentrate their attention on the true and living God, on Yahweh.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Holy Periods and Feasts
v. 10. And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof, v. 11. but the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie still, v. 12. Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest, v. 13. And in all things that I have said unto you be circumspect, v. 14. Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto Me in the year. v. 15. Thou shalt keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, v. 16. and the Feast of Harvest, v. 17. Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord God. v. 18. Thou shalt not offer the blood of My sacrifice, v. 19. The first of the first-fruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the Lord, thy God.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Exo 23:10-11. And six years See Leviticus 25 for the particulars respecting the sabbatical year: see also Deu 31:10; Deu 31:30.
Note: 1. Every seventh year the land was neither plowed nor sown, nor their vineyards or olive-yards gathered: the poor had a right to the increase. A tender concern for the needy will still be in every true Israelite. 2. The sabbath-day, as before, is strictly to be observed, Exo 23:12. 3. A caution is given against the very mention of idol-gods, Exo 23:13. How many, who profess themselves Christians, by their invocations, oaths, &c. in the name of these idols, shew the heathenism of their hearts!
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
These verses contain a precept, in which there is much signification. The seventh year, like the seventh day of the week, was sacred, and therefore was to be a sabbath of rest. And it had several very interesting points intended by it. As first: It served to keep up, in the mind of God’s people, their sure dependence upon God. He would provide even when there was no tillage. 2ndly, It pointed out their state under God: that they were but tenants, and not the Lords of the soil. The earth is the Lord’s. And 3dly, It proved that sweet scripture, Deu 8:15-16 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
IX
THE LAND SABBATH AND THE JUBILEE SABBATH
Exo 23:10-11
THE LAND SABBATH 1. Where do we find the text of the law of the land sabbath?
Ans. Exo 23:10-11 ; Lev 25:1-7 . I’ll quote the text: “And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the increase thereof: but the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of thy people may eat: and what they leave the beast of the field shall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, and with thy oliveyard.” That is the Exodus text of the land sabbath, two verses of chapter 23. Being in that chapter it is an integral part of the covenant of Mount Sinai, and that part of the covenant in which God and the nation are represented. You will find the Levitical text in Lev 25:1-7 . We begin at the third verse. “Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruits thereof; but in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath unto Jehovah: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. That which groweth of itself of thy harvest [that is, the volunteer crop] thou shalt not reap, and the grapes of thy undressed vine thou shalt not gather: it shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. . . . all the increase thereof shall be for food.” That is the original text of the law.
2. What things are evident from the law itself?
Ans. (1) That in all agricultural departments there should be a suspension of work; that man must not plow, nor reap, nor harvest;
2) That every other man, particularly the poor, must have a right to go into the fields or into the oliveyards or into the vineyards and eat what he can eat of what the volunteer crop grows that year, and if they leave anything, then the beasts may go in and eat it;
(3) That the purpose of the law is: First, to solemnly teach the people that the land was God’s. That the man had no absolute ownership of the land and he was simply a tenant under God; and second, the scientific basis or purpose of the law is presented in the passage in Exodus, that the land “shall lie fallow.” Every good farmer will tell you that if you cultivate land to its extreme ability every year, you soon exhaust its fertility, and in order to preserve the product of the land, there should be a “land fallow” for that land in which you do not cultivate it.
If you were in Virginia today you would see hundreds of farms, which used to be farms, that are now absolutely worthless. The reason is that by continuous cultivation they exhausted all the fertility of the land. So those are two reasons that are assigned, and the third reason assigned is, that the poor might have, at least once in seven years, the right to eat of the volunteer fruits of the earth; that, though the poor would not be allowed to go in and take away a basketful of fruit, and they would not be allowed to harvest, the rich and the poor just alike, in perfect equality before God, could go in day by day and eat of it;
(4) That there was a penalty for not keeping this land sabbath which you will find set forth in the following scriptures: Lev 26:43 , alluded to in Jer 25:11-12 ; Jer 29:10 ; Dan 9:2 ; Zec 1:12-7:5 .
3. What was the penalty?
Ans. That if they did not observe that land sabbath, then God would remove them from the land, and keep them in captivity until there was a land sabbath equal in extent to all of the land years that had been disregarded. As a matter of fact, for 490 years in their history they disregarded this law of the land sabbath, that is, they stole seventy years, or oneseventh of 490 years. They robbed God and the land of seventy years’ rest; the land of rest, and God of his title. Now for each year that they withheld the observing of this land sabbath they were kept in captivity. I have given scriptures that show how this law was enforced, viz.: by the seventy years of captivity in Babylon which kept them out of the land just exactly the time that they had withheld the observance of the land sabbath in Canaan.
4. What concurrent laws went with the land sabbath?
Ans. There were three concurrent laws:
(1) One releasing the borrowers from any collection of the debt owed during that year. There was the suspension of the collecting power of the land. Where a man had borrowed money the creditor could not collect it off him, nor any interest off him that year.
(2) The second concurrent law was, that the Hebrew bond servant was to go free that year, if he had sold himself to a brother Hebrew or to an alien living in that territory and under the jurisdiction of the government.
(3) And the third and most important of all of the concurrent laws was, that when the Feast of Tabernacles came in the year of the land sabbath, the whole Pentateuch was to be read to the people.
5. Where do you find the text of the law concerning the release of the debtor and why this law?
Ans. 1 am going over each one of these concurrent laws particularly. We will take the first one. You will find the text of the law concerning the release of the debtor in Deu 15:1-6 . That gives the text of a concurrent law of the release of the debtor, or rather the suspension of the power of the lender to collect payment of borrowed money. Why this law releasing the borrower, and what is the basis of this law? As in that year all agricultural labor was suspended, and all income from crops was suspended, it was an equitable thing that the man should not have to pay debts or interest that year. That is the idea underlying it.
6. Give an account found in later history where the Jews recovenanted to observe this law to release the Levite during the land sabbath.
Ans. It is stated in Neh 10:31 . They had returned from captivity, and that captivity was because they disregarded the land sabbath. Nehemiah insists that the returned captives enter into a covenant with each other, that they would strictly follow that law.
7. What was the import of the second concurrent law, the law of the bond servant?
Ans. 1 told you this special part should be brought out concerning the land sabbath in Exo 21:2-6 , and in Deu 15:12-18 ; that the Hebrew could not become a slave if he was sold into bondage; that it was not perpetual. In the seventh year he was to be released, and if an alien had bought him in that seven years, he must release him, i.e., if living in the land subject to these laws.
8. What was the penalty of disobeying these laws with reference to the bond servant?
Ans. A most thrilling account of the penalty is found in Jer 34:13-22 . I quote some of that to show how God never forgot any of his laws that he had enacted: “Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel: I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, saying, At the end of seven years ye shall let go every man his brother that is a Hebrew, which hath been sold unto thee, and hath served thee six years, thou shalt let him go free from thee: but your fathers hearkened not unto me, neither inclined their ear. And ye were now turned, and had done that which is right in mine eyes, in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbour; and ye had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name.” In other words “You have disobeyed my covenant; you pretended to let those bondsmen go and then by a small technicality of law reinvolved them. [Now we come to the penalty.] Inasmuch as ye have denied liberty to whom I had ordained liberty, I will proclaim unto you a liberty but it will be a liberty to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine. I will give the bodies of those transgressors of the law, their dead bodies, to the fowls for meat.”
9. Which is the most important of the concurrent laws, where found, what was the prominent idea and how does the provision of it compare with modern methods, etc?
Ans. The most important of the concurrent laws is the provision for reading the whole of the Pentateuch to all Israel assembled together in grand convocation. It is in Deu 31:10-13 . It is the most remarkable Sunday school that the earth ever knew, commencing at Deu 31:10 : “And Moses commanded them, saying, At the end of every seven years [toward the end of it], thou shall read this law [meaning the whole of the Pentateuch]. When all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Gather the people together, men, women and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear and that they may learn, and fear the Lord your God, and observe to do all the words of the law; and that their children, who have not known, may hear, and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as ye live in the land whither ye go over the Jordan to possess it.”
This is a remarkable statute. There is nothing like it in history. Notice the true conception of the Sunday school, viz.: men, women, and children. Notice the length of that Sunday school; it probably did not last the whole year of the land sabbath, for it commenced with the Feast of Tabernacles. There was no work to do; all agricultural work was suspended, and the nation gathered before God in Sunday school, men, women, and children; and in the hearing of the assembled nation the whole book of the Pentateuch was read and expounded, and so expounded that even a child that had not known anything must know the law of God, and believe and do it. Now the question arises, Did they ever try to observe that law? Of course, when they did not keep the land sabbath at all they did not keep that law. But we have one remarkable fulfilment. After their return from captivity in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, they did carry out this law. That account tells you that they were gathered together, men, women, and children, and that Ezra stood upon the pulpit (that is the only place in the Bible where the word “pulpit” is mentioned) and Ezra slowly read the law and the scribes around him explained the law. He slowly read a part, then came the explanation of that part; it lasted from an early hour in the morning to a late hour in the evening; and it was kept up until they got through with the Pentateuch.
I am quite sure that it would produce a revolution to keep the people of the present day in a religious service that long. They have so many other things that they want to do, that every year they are losing the opportunity to hear the Word of God. I know a number of churches that count it a sin for the preacher to preach over fifteen minutes; I could give you the names of the churches that make it a rule that the service should not be over fifteen minutes. Now how are those people to know the meaning of the Word of God? One of the highest things in the world for the preacher is to be able to expound the Word of God from the pulpit. Now, you count up the services in the year, counting morning and evening, thirty minutes every Sunday, and it would require a man to be as old as Methuselah ever to get through with the high places in the Bible from his pulpit, and as the multitude of people never hear the law of God except as it is announced from the pulpit, they are reared in ignorance of that law. The modern service has become ritualistic. There are about ten items on the pro- gram of the Sunday morning service, and by the time they get to the sermon it is usually about fifteen minutes to twelve, and when the dinner horn blows they all want to go to dinner, and there is only fifteen minutes for the sermon. If the man goes over thirty minutes they get restless. What are you going to do about it? How can they compare themselves with those ancient people that gave so much time to the law of God?
THE JUBILEE SABBATH 10. Where do you find the text of the law of the Jubilee sabbath? Explain it and give its application.
Ans. In Lev 25:8-28 . I quote a part of it, beginning at Lev 25:8 : “And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of the years unto thee,” seven times seven years (that is, seven land sabbaths). Seven times seven is forty-nine, that is, forty-nine years. “Then thou shalt cause the trumpet of the jubliee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout the whole land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto the inhabitants thereof. A jubilee shall the fiftieth year be unto you; ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed.”
You see there are two years which come together and there is no planting, no pruning. And every man shall return unto his original possession of the house sold to his neighbor. That is, if a person bought his neighbor’s land on the first year after the Jubilee, he bought only the crop of the land for forty-nine years; he didn’t buy the land, but the fruit, for on the year of the Jubilee it went right back to the original owner. If he bought two years after the Jubilee he bought only forty-seven years, and so on down. “According to the number of years after the jubilee thou shalt buy of thy neighbour, and according to the number of years of the fruit he shall sell unto thee. According to the multitude of the years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of the years thou shalt diminish the price of it; for according to the numbers of years of the fruits doth he sell unto thee. . . .. And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow nor gather in our increase; then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for the three years,” i.e., the land sabbath year, the Jubilee year and the year following until new crops were made. “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity; for the land is mine. . . . And in all the land in your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land.” If a man was too poor to redeem that which he sold, his kinsmen had to redeem it for him, and if neither he nor his kinsmen were able to redeem it, it had to go back to him anyhow.
11. What are the essential particulars of this law?
Ans. (1) First of all is liberty. Suppose a man had sold himself to his Hebrew brother in the sixth year of the land sabbath, a year before the Jubilee, then whether he had been able to redeem himself or not, in the year of the Jubilee he is free.
(2) The next point of interest in the law is, that land could not be sold in perpetuity. After careful examination of this Jubilee and land sabbath business, I have reached this conclusion: that this law forbade both private and communal ownership of land. There is a political party that is trying to destroy private ownership today in our land by associational and communal trusts. Neither as a community nor as individuals did the people own the land. The land is God’s, the earth and the fulness thereof. The only thing that the ownership gave to the country was the use of its fruits. They could not absolutely sell it because of the law which brought it back to him when the year of Jubilee came round. Therefore, the individual did not have absolute private ownership, and the community did not own it. God owns it.
(3) The third thought is that if a man in extremity sold his land he could redeem it at any time. If he sold his own place and wanted to buy it back he could do it plus the improvements,” and if he were unable to redeem it any kinsman he had could redeem it for him.
(4) The next relation to the law is the relation of the dwellinghouse. If the dwellinghouse was in the walled city and he sold it under stress of circumstances and kept the privilege of redeeming it within one year after that, that dwellinghouse did not come back to him in the year of Jubilee. Why? Because the value of a residence in a great city is not its value in land for any agricultural purpose, but its valuation comes from a crowded population in that place. For instance, suppose a man was living where an important streetcar line now runs, and would not help build that street; would not help put down those pavements; would not help to get the streetcar. When the streetcar line and the pavements came, his property was increased 50 per cent, in this instance. He did not do it; other people did it. They built that street, those pavements and that streetcar line. It did not come to them by what he did.
(5) The next thought is concerning dwellinghouses in villages or in the country. A dwellinghouse in the village or country was counted as a part of the land, since its only use for it was that the land around could be cultivated and it could not be sold in perpetuity like a dwellinghouse of the city.
(6) There is another part of the law, that in the case of a Levite’s dwellinghouse: because they had no dwellinghouse assigned to them, they had to hold both their dwellinghouses and their land in perpetuity.
(7) The next was the effect of it. This is the law on slavery and refers to Hebrew slaves, whether sold to Hebrews or foreigners.
12. What was the signal of the Atonement Day in the Jubilee year, what is its meaning and what hymn is based on it?
Ans. On the Day of Atonement for the forty-ninth year, a great trumpet should be blown throughout the land; whether one lived in Jericho, Jerusalem, or any other part of the Holy Land, on the great Day of Atonement, which was the tenth day of the seventh month, he would hear the trumpet sound, and the meaning of that sound was “Liberty, liberty, liberty!” A hymn has been written on that: “Blow ye the Trumpet, Blow!” I will tell directly what it typifies, but before I get to that I want to discuss the land sabbath generally.
13. Cite examples of community ownership of land.
Ans. The Spartans of Greece were not allowed to sell their land, and among the Dalmatians it was the law that no matter what changes took place in the ownership of the land, every eighth year the land would be redistributed. A remarkable fact ia cited by Prescott in The Conquest of Peru, viz.: that under the rule of the Incas the land belonged to the nation and whenever a man married he was allowed a certain portion of land as an inalienable possession. What use has an old bachelor for land? He got that title to that land when he married. Now, up in Oklahoma, the old law was that each tribe of Indians, as a tribe, had a certain section of land set apart for the tribe. They did not own that land in severally, but in community, and in order to sell a foot of it there had to be a legal gathering of the tribes and a treaty made by which the tribe would sell (not the individual) a piece of that land. A great many white men went in there and obtained a lease of land and in that way became very rich. They got a lease from the tribe.
14.What was the position of Jefferson, George, Cooper, and Goldsmith on this question?
Ans. Mr. Jefferson has announced some doctrines on the land question. He says, “The earth belongs to the living,” that is, the use of its fruits is for the living, not for the dead. It is a far-reaching statement. It was upon that statement that Henry George wrote his famous book, Progress and Poverty. In the early settlement of New York vast stretches of country were given by sovereigns in Europe to what they called “Patroons.” The sovereign placed the patroon on the land and in process of time this land reached a fabulous price, and one man in land value could be worth half a state. This brought about revolutions in the state of New York in the ownership of that land; that no man had a right to claim such a section of the earth when multitudes of the people were homeless, and especially when they did not get that from the people but from some king who had no right to it. Fenimore Cooper has written three or four of his great novels On the land question. And he wrote them, too, mainly in the interest of the landowner, not the people. Goldsmith, in his famous poem, “The Deserted Village,” immortalized himself. England has had her struggles and the result was that the yeomanry that constituted a large class, won its battles in wars of strife and left England with whole villages that had nothing but empty houses. It was upon that situation that this poem was written, in which occurs this strong language:
Ill fares the land to hastening ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates and men decay.
There are immense portions of Scotland today, once populous, now deer parks. A few men own a greater part of England and Scotland, and that is why the Germans, Swedes, and Italians swarm across the ocean to this country. I have talked with them and they said, “Because my father nor my grandfather ever owned a foot of land; never had a chance to get a piece. Since we came over here we can easily buy some land. How proud we are when we can say, ‘My home, this is my home.’ ” The great curses today that put in jeopardy the property of this nation, are those immense syndicates, ever buying. They bought up the coal lands; they bought up the forest land; are sending agents to Puerto Rico; are getting hold of the Philippines and of every valuable part of the world. Their agents are buying up lumber and you are sure to pay for it when you go to build a house. There isn’t any such thing in the United States today as a man being able to open a lumber yard as a private person. The combine on the lumber question is simply impregnable.
15. What are the great lessons of the Jubilee sabbath?
Ans. (1) The relation of God to the land and man; the land is his and the use of it goes to man.
(2) The lesson of faith. “What shall we eat in the seventh year if we do not plant a crop?”
(3) In the continual equalizing and distribution of the property so that there should never be such a thing as a syndicate, a thing impossible under those Jewish laws.
(4) The lesson in equity. There is no unfairness in this law. If a man bought a neighbor’s property, he didn’t buy it outright; he bought the fruit of it. If he redeemed it he had to pay back what had been paid for it.
(5) The typical significance of the year of Jubilee. Our Saviour in his sermon at Nazareth, after he had entered the public ministry, read a certain passage in Isaiah and he said that he was anointed by the Holy Spirit to preach a deliverance to the captives and the acceptable year of the Lord. So (a) it signifies the final repentance and restoration of Israel; (b) it points to the restoration of all things, at the second, final coming of the Lord; (c) the trumpets signify the preaching of the gospel, “Blow ye the Trumpet, Blow.” You go out as a preacher and say, “If Christ shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.” You go to bring sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf; that is the significance of the trumpets.
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Exo 23:10 And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof:
Ver. 10. Thou shalt sow thy land. ] Here the wise man’s counsel would be remembered, Laudato ingentia rura, exiguum colito. To be called a good husbandman, was of old a high praise.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
fruits. Hebrew harvest.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
six years: Lev 25:3, Lev 25:4, Neh 10:31
Reciprocal: Lev 2:12 – the oblation Lev 25:2 – a sabbath Deu 15:1 – General Jer 34:8 – to proclaim Jer 34:14 – At the
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Exo 23:10-11. The institution of the sabbatical year was designed, 1st, To show what a plentiful land that was into which God was bringing them, that so numerous a people could have rich maintenance out of the products of so small a country, without foreign trade, and yet could spare the increase of every seventh year. 2d, To teach them confidence in his care and bounty while they did their duty; that as the sixth days manna served for two days meat, so the sixth years increase should serve for two years subsistence. 3d, Thus he would try and secure their obedience, keep them in dependance upon himself, and give to them and all their neighbours a manifest proof of his singular and gracious providence over them. 4th, By this kind of quit rent they were likewise admonished that God alone was the Lord of the land, and that they were only tenants at his will. And being thus freed from their great labours in cultivating the ground, in manuring, ploughing, sowing, weeding, reaping, they were the more at leisure to meditate on Gods works, and to acquaint themselves with his will. 5th, Another reason also is given here, That the poor of thy land may eat. God gave a special blessing to the sixth year, whereby it brought forth the fruit of three years; and in years of so great plenty, men are generally more negligent in their reaping, and therefore, the relics are more. So that in this appointment God had in view a more comfortable provision for the poor. It was likewise a curb to avarice, and habituated them to the exercise of humanity to their slaves, and even beasts. In like manner with thy vineyard and olive-yard Thou shalt not prune nor dress them, nor gather and appropriate to thy own use what they shall produce, but shalt leave them to the poor.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Exo 23:10-19 E. Calendar and Rules for Worship.This passage may originally have followed Exodus 23-26 in the Covenant Book. It has been expanded, Exo 23:13 being a conclusion (perhaps displaced from after Exo 23:19), and Exo 23:15 b, Exo 23:17, and Exo 23:19 copied by a harmonist from Exo 34:18; Exo 34:20; Exo 34:23; Exo 34:25 J. Every seventh year the land (i.e. probably each owners, not the whole country at once) was to be fallow, not from a religious or agricultural motive (as Lev 25:1-7*, Lev 25:20-22*), but on charitable grounds (Exo 23:10 f.). The origin of the custom probably lay in the ancient rights of the village community as distinct from those of its members (p. 102). The weekly Sabbath also is enjoined on social grounds, for the ease and refreshment of cattle, slaves, and foreign hirelings. Field work seems mainly in view. Next are named the three times (Exo 23:14, lit. feet, i.e. footprints in the sands of time) in the year when each Israelite was to keep a pilgrimage-feast (hag). See on these, pp. 102-104. The spring festival was mazzoth or unleavened cakes, when the barley harvest began in late April or early May, the idea possibly being to ensure the fertility of the seed for the next harvest, and the absence of leaven being due to the stress of work (but cf. Exo 12:34; Exo 12:39 J). The completion of wheat harvest in June was to be marked by the harvest festival proper (in E and D, feast of weeks), when the worshipper presented the firstfruits of (his) work on the land (Exo 23:16 a), the year being crowned by the feast of ingathering in autumn, when threshing was over and the juice pressed out from grapes and olives (Exo 23:16 b). This was the grand occasion in the year for festivities, lasting seven days, spent by custom in booths (AV tabernacles), whence came a common title for it. Leavened bread must not accompany a sacrifice, being regarded as unsuitable because unknown in primitive times when the only bread was like the dampers of the Australian bush, or because more liable to corruption (Exo 23:18 a); and the fat, the portion best esteemed, must be consumed while fresh in sweet smoke as an offering. A kid might not be seethed in its mothers milk, but it is not clear for what reason. [The prohibition was hardly inspired by the sentimental desire to keep the feelings delicate and refined; it was aimed presumably at some religious or magical practice. Goats milk was used as an agricultural charm to produce fertility. But this does not explain this special injunction. Robertson Smith connects it with the taboo on blood as food, and thinks milk may be regarded as a substitute for blood. This hardly explains why the kid is specially selected for mention, nor yet the mother. He supposes, with several scholars, that mothers milk simply means goats milk. This is very dubious; and if we interpret the term strictly of relationship we get a clearer light as to the meaning. Goats milk possessing a magical quality, we might infer that a sucking kid would possess the same quality, and this would be intensified if the two were united, especially when the relation was already so close as between the kid and its own dam. We have to do, then, with a charm to which a peculiar magical efficacy was attributed. Probably it was originally a pastoral charm designed to secure the fertility of the flocks. It was natural that it should survive as an agricultural charm when the nomad tribes settled down to till the soil.A. S. P.]
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Rest 23:10-12
"Till now the text dealt with positive and negative precepts that are valid at all times; now we have a series of precepts that are to be observed at given times, commandments that apply to seasons that are specifically dedicated to the service of the Lord, and are intended to remind the Israelites of the covenant that the Lord made with them, and of the duty resting upon them to be faithful to this covenant." [Note: Cassuto, p. 300.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The people were to observe the sabbatical year (cf. Lev 25:2-7; Deu 15:1-3). The Israelites’ failure to observe 70 sabbatical years resulted in God removing Israel from the Promised Land to Babylon for 70 years to give the land its rest (2Ch 36:20-21).