Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 23:11
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.
11. thou shalt let it drop and abandon it ] viz. the land, less probably the increase: RV. (substantially = AV.) is a paraphrase. The word rendered let drop means properly to fling or throw down (2Ki 9:33, of Jezebel). In Deu 15:2-3 it is differently applied; and is used of letting a debt drop every seventh year, in the ‘year of dropping ’ or of ‘release’ (Deu 15:1-2; Deu 15:9); and the rend. release in RVm. here brings out this connexion though, it is true, it is not more than a verbal one with the law of Deu 15:1-6.
abandon ] or leave, let go; rendered ‘forgo’ in Neh 10:31.
that the poor, &c.] contrast Lev 25:6-7.
In LevExo 25:1-7; Lev 25:20-22 (H), the fallow year, whatever may be the case in Ex., becomes, as has just been remarked, a fixed year for the whole country; and the motive is no longer exclusively a philanthropic one, but a religious one, viz. that the land may ‘keep a sabbath to Jehovah’ (whence the term ‘sabbatical year’): in Deu 15:1-6 it receives an entirely different application, and becomes a fixed septennial ‘year of release,’ applied for the relief of the poor debtor, by the exaction of debts being prohibited in it. Whether however even the present passage gives the original motive of the institution may be doubted. Analogous usages in other countries (see Maine, Village Communities in the East and West, pp. 77 79, 107 113, &c.; Fenton, Early Hebrew Life, 1880, pp. 24 26, 29 32, 64 70) suggest that it may be a relic of communistic agriculture, i.e. of a stage of society in which the fields belonging to a village are the property of the villagers collectively, individuals only acquiring the use of particular portions for a limited period, and the produce, at stated intervals, reverting to the use of the community generally. The fallow year of Ex. and Lev. is similarly an institution limiting the rights of individual ownership in the interests of the community generally: in Ex. the institution is applied so as to minister to the needs of the poorer classes; in Lev 25:1-7 the prominent idea is the benefit which the land would derive from remaining periodically uncultivated.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 11. The seventh year thou shalt let it rest] As, every seventh day was a Sabbath day, so every seventh year was to be a Sabbath year. The reasons for this ordinance Calmet gives thus: –
“1. To maintain as far as possible an equality of condition among the people, in setting the slaves at liberty, and in permitting all, as children of one family, to have the free and indiscriminate use of whatever the earth produced.
“2. To inspire the people with sentiments of humanity, by making it their duty to give rest, and proper and sufficient nourishment, to the poor, the slave, and the stranger, and even to the cattle.
“3. To accustom the people to submit to and depend on the Divine providence, and expect their support from that in the seventh year, by an extraordinary provision on the sixth.
“4. To detach their affections from earthly and perishable things, and to make them disinterested and heavenly-minded.
“5. To show them God’s dominion over the country, and that HE, not they, was lord of the soil and that they held it merely from his bounty.” See this ordinance at length, Lev. xxv.
That God intended to teach them the doctrine of providence by this ordinance, there can be no doubt; and this is marked very distinctly, Le 25:20-21: “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 three years.” That is, There shall be, not three crops in one year, but one crop equal in its abundance to three, because it must supply the wants of three years.
1. For the sixth year, supplying fruit for its own consumption;
2. For the seventh year, in which they were neither to sow nor reap; and
3. For the eighth year, for though they ploughed, sowed, c., that year, yet a whole course of its seasons was requisite to bring all these fruits to perfection, so that they could not have the fruits of the eighth year till the ninth, (see Le 25:22), till which time God promised that they should eat of the old store.
What an astonishing proof did this give of the being, power, providence, mercy, and goodness of God! Could there be an infidel in such a land, or a sinner against God and his own soul, with such proofs before his eyes of God and his attributes as one sabbatical year afforded?
It is very remarkable that the observance of this ordinance is nowhere expressly mentioned in the sacred writings though some suppose, but without sufficient reason, that there is a reference to it in Jer 34:8-9. Perhaps the major part of the people could not trust God, and therefore continued to sow and reap on the seventh year, as on the preceding. This greatly displeased the Lord, and therefore he sent them into captivity; so that the land enjoyed those Sabbaths, through lack of inhabitants, of which their ungodliness had deprived it. See Le 18:24-25, Le 18:28; Le 26:34-35, Le 26:43; 2Ch 36:20-21. Commentators have been much puzzled to ascertain the time in which the sabbatical year began; because, if it began in Abib or March, they must have lost two harvests; for they could neither reap nor plant that year, and of course they could have no crop the year following; but if it began with what was called the civil year, or in Tisri or Marcheshvan, which answers to the beginning of our autumn, they would then have had that year’s produce reaped and gathered in.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Thou shalt let it rest, and lie still, i.e. from manuring, ploughing, tilling, and sowing, and reaping also, by comparing Lev 25:3-5. And this God ordained not only for the reason here mentioned, the more comfortable provision of the poor, and for the cattle, but for other weighty reasons; as,
1. That the heart and strength of the land might not be eaten out by continual tillage.
2. That he might both try and exercise, and also secure the obedience of the Israelites.
3. That he might keep them in dependence upon himself, and give to them and all their neighbours a manifest proof of his singular and gracious providence over his people.
4. That by this kind of quit-rent they might be admonished that God alone was the Lord and Proprietary of the land, and they were only tenants at his will.
5. That being freed from their great labours about the land, they might have the more leisure to meditate upon Gods works, and to attend upon the law, which was to be solemnly read at this time, Deu 31:10, &c.
That the poor of thy people may eat.
Quest. What had the poor to eat?
Answ. Not only the fruits of the vines, and olives, and other fruit trees, but also all that grew of its own accord, Lev 25:5, from those seeds which in the last reaping-time were scattered here and there, which were much more numerous now than in other years, because God gave a special blessing to the sixth year, whereby it did bring forth the fruit of three years, Lev 25:21, and in years of so great plenty men are generally more negligent in their reaping, and therefore the relics are more.
In like manner thou shalt deal, i.e. 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: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
But the seventh year thou shall let it rest, and lie still,…. From tillage, and make its fruits common, as the Targum of Jonathan; the note of Jarchi is, “let it rest”, from perfect tillage, as ploughing and sowing; “and lie still”, from dunging and harrowing, or weeding: this law was intended to show that God was the original proprietor and owner of this land, and that the Israelites held it under him; and to teach them to depend upon and trust in his providence; as well as that there might be both rest for the land, and so it became more fruitful afterwards, having by this rest renewed its vigour, and also for servants and cattle; and that the poor might have an equal share in the fruits of the earth, and appear to be joint lords of it with others under God, as it follows:
that the poor of thy people may eat: that which grows up of itself, of which there were great quantities; for the sixth year bringing forth for three years, a great deal of seed fell, which grew up again; and especially, as through plenty they were not so careful to gather it all up; and besides this, there were the fruits of trees, of vines, olives, c. which brought forth their fruit in course as usual, and which were all this year common to poor and rich so that the former had an equal propriety and share with the latter:
and what they leave, the beasts of the field shall eat; signifying that there should be such plenty that there would be enough for all, and to spare; that there would be much left, and which should be the portion of the beasts of the field, and who would also be sufficiently provided for by the produce the earth brought forth of itself, as herbage, c. and the fruits the poor left:
in like manner thou shall deal with thy vineyard, and with thy oliveyard that is, these were not to be pruned, nor the grapes and olives gathered, but were to be in common with all: a larger account is given of this law in Le 25:2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(11) That the poor of thy people may eat.For fuller particulars see Lev. 25:1-7. The owner was to have no larger part of the seventh years produce than any one else. He was to take his share with the hireling, the stranger, and even the cattle, which during this year were to browse where they pleased.
Thy vineyard . . . Thy oliveyard.These would bear a full average produce, and the boon to the poor man would in these respects have been very considerable. Corn, wine, and oil were the staple commodities of Palestine (Deu. 8:8; 2Ki. 18:32, &c.).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
11. The seventh year rest This provision for a sabbatic year is one of the most remarkable enactments of the Mosaic legislation, but we have no evidence that it was ever observed by the nation . It is repeated in fuller form in Lev 25:1-7, and is there associated with the law for the fiftieth year jubilee . The far-reaching and ennobling influences upon a people of the faithful observance of this law must needs be very great . It would (1 . ) teach that the land was God’s rather than the people’s . (2 . ) It would afford a rest to the soil, which would be materially helped by remaining fallow one year in seven . (3 . ) Inasmuch as it has been repeatedly proven that a man will do more and better work by resting one day in seven, it is at least presumable that, by proper care in cultivation, and one year’s rest in seven, the soil will yield as much or more than when no sabbatic year is observed. (4.) It would help to bring all classes of the people into closer sympathy, and remove some of the incitements to anarchical socialism. (5.) It would tend to cultivate the best sentiments of humanity and regard, alike for man and beast. (6.) It would afford extraordinary advantages for mental and moral culture. (7.) It would beget a most beautiful confidence in the providence of God. No people’s faith in God, not even ancient Israel’s, seems ever to have been sufficient to attempt the observance of this law. Hence the judgment of seventy years’ exile and desolation, “until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths.” 2Ch 36:21. Even the resolution to observe the seventh year, after the exile, (Neh 10:31,) does not appear to have been kept . Here is a decisive argument against critics who dispute the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch on the ground that the laws therein recorded were not observed before the exile . We have no historical evidence that this law was ever observed .
Rest and lie still The parallel passage in Lev 25:4, shows that this was intended to stop all sowing and cultivation for the year; not, as some have supposed, that the tilling should go on as usual, but the crops be left to the poor. The thought, rather, is, that the poor of thy people may be allowed free appropriation of such products as grew without sowing and cultivation. No land-owner should that year claim the natural products of the soil for himself.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Exo 23:11 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.
Ver. 11. But the seventh year. ] That they might learn to live by faith, and be at good leisure to wait upon God. Deu 31:10-12 Let every one of us keep a spiritual Sabbath, saith Ignatius, a M , , Better apaid of the meditation of the law, than of the relaxation and rest from labour.
a Ep, iii. ad Magnes.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
and. Some codices, with Samaritan Pentateuch and Septuagint, have this in text; it need not, therefore, be in italics.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
the seventh: Lev 25:2-7, Lev 25:11, Lev 25:12, Lev 25:20, Lev 25:22, Lev 26:34, Lev 26:35
oliveyard: or, olive-trees
Reciprocal: Lev 2:12 – the oblation Lev 25:4 – General Lev 25:6 – General Deu 15:1 – General Neh 10:31 – and that we Jer 34:8 – to proclaim Jer 34:14 – At the