Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Leviticus 25:8
And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.
8 17. The 50th year or year of Jubile. In each such year landed property shall revert to its original owner, and the price to be paid in buying and selling such possessions shall be estimated in accordance with the distance of the transaction from that year.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The land was to be divided by lot among the families of the Israelites when the possession of it was obtained. Num 26:52-56; Num 33:54, etc. At the end of every seventh sabbatical cycle of years, in the year of Jubilee, each field or estate that might have been alienated was to be restored to the family to which it had been originally allotted.
Lev 25:8
Seven sabbaths of years – seven weeks of years.
Lev 25:9
Cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound – Rather, cause the sound of the cornet to go through (the land). The word jubile does not occur in this verse in the Hebrew. The trumpet is the shofar shophar, i. e. the cornet (rendered shawm in the Prayer-Book version of Psa 98:7), either the horn of some animal or a tube of metal shaped like one. As the sound of the cornet (see Lev 25:10 note) was the signal of the descent of Yahweh when He came down upon Sinai to take Israel into covenant with Himself Exo 19:13, Exo 19:16, Exo 19:19; Exo 20:18, so the same sound announced, at the close of the great day of atonement, after the Evening sacrifice, the year which restored each Israelite to the freedom and the blessings of the covenant.
Lev 25:10
The fiftieth year – The Jubilee probably coincided with each seventh sabbatical year, and was called the fiftieth, as being the last of a series of which the first was the preceding Jubilee.
A jubile – Commonly spelled jubilee. The original word first occurs in Exo 19:13, where it is rendered trumpet, margin cornet. It most probably denotes the sound of the cornet, not the cornet itself, and is derived from a root, signifying to flow abundantly, which by a familiar metaphor might be applied to sound.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 8. Thou shalt number seven Sabbaths of years] This seems to state that the jubilee was to be celebrated on the forty-ninth year; but in Lev 25:10; Lev 25:11 it is said, Ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and, A jubilee shall this fiftieth year be. Probably in this verse Moses either includes the preceding jubilee, and thus with the forty-ninth makes up the number fifty; or he speaks of proclaiming the jubilee on the forty-ninth, and celebrating it on the fiftieth year current. Some think it was celebrated on the forty-ninth year, as is stated in Le 25:8; and this prevented the Sabbatical year, or seventh year of rest, from being confounded with the jubilee, which it must otherwise have been, had the celebration of this great solemnity taken place on the fiftieth year; but it is most likely that the fiftieth was the real jubilee.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
8-11. thou shalt number sevensabbaths of yearsThis most extraordinary of all civilinstitutions, which received the name of “Jubilee” from aHebrew word signifying a musical instrument, a horn ortrumpet, began on the tenth day of the seventh month, or the greatday of atonement, when, by order of the public authorities, the soundof trumpets proclaimed the beginning of the universal redemption. Allprisoners and captives obtained their liberties, slaves were declaredfree, and debtors were absolved. The land, as on the sabbatic year,was neither sowed nor reaped, but allowed to enjoy with itsinhabitants a sabbath of repose; and its natural produce was thecommon property of all. Moreover, every inheritance throughout theland of Judea was restored to its original owner.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee,…. Or weeks of years; and there being seven days in a week, and a day being put for a year, seven weeks of years made forty nine years; the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan, and Jarchi, interpret it seven “shemittas”, or sabbatical years; and a sabbatical year being every seventh year, made the same number;
seven times seven years: or forty nine years, as follows;
and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be forty and nine years; just such a space of years there was between each jubilee, which, as afterwards said, was the fiftieth year; so as there were a seventh day sabbath, and a fiftieth day sabbath, the day of Pentecost, so there were a seventh year sabbath, or sabbatical year, and a fiftieth year sabbath.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The law for the Year of Jubilee refers first of all to its observance (Lev 25:8-12), and secondly to its effects ( a) upon the possession of property (vv. 13-34), and ( b) upon the personal freedom of the Israelites (vv. 35-55).
Lev 25:8-9 Keeping the year of jubilee. Lev 25:8, Lev 25:9. Seven Sabbaths of years – i.e., year-Sabbaths or sabbatical years, or seven times seven years, the time of seven year-Sabbaths, that is to say, 49 years – they were to count, and then at the expiration of that time to cause the trumpet of jubilee to go (sound) through the whole land on the tenth of the seventh month, i.e., the day of atonement, to proclaim the entrance of the year of jubilee. This mode of announcement was closely connected with the idea of the year itself. The blowing of trumpets, or blast of the far-sounding horn ( shophar , see at Lev 23:24), was the signal of the descent of the Lord upon Sinai, to raise Israel to be His people, to receive them into His covenant, to unite them to Himself, and bless them through His covenant of grace (Exo 19:13, Exo 19:16, Exo 19:19; Exo 20:18). Just as the people were to come up to the mountain at the sounding of the , or the voice of the shophar , to commemorate its union with the Lord, so at the expiration of the seventh sabbatical year the trumpet-blast was to announce to the covenant nation the gracious presence of its God, and the coming of the year which was to bring “liberty throughout the land to all that dwelt therein” (Lev 25:10), – deliverance from bondage (Lev 25:40.), return to their property and family (Lev 25:10, Lev 25:13), and release from the bitter labour of cultivating the land (Lev 25:11, Lev 25:12). This year of grace as proclaimed and began with the day of atonement of every seventh sabbatical year, to show that it was only with the full forgiveness of sins that the blessed liberty of the children of God could possibly commence. This grand year of grace was to return after seven times seven years; i.e., as is expressly stated in Lev 25:10, every fiftieth year was to be sanctified as a year of jubilee. By this regulation of the time, the view held by R. Jehuda, and the chronologists and antiquarians who have followed him, that every seventh sabbatical year, i.e., the 49th year, was to be kept as the year of jubilee, is proved to be at variance with the text, and the fiftieth year is shown to be the year of rest, in which the sabbatical idea attained its fullest realization, and reached its earthly temporal close.
Lev 25:10 The words, “Ye shall proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof,” are more closely defined by the two clauses commencing with in Lev 25:10 and Lev 25:11. “A trumpet-blast shall it be to you, that ye return every one to his own possession, and every one to his family:” a still further explanation is given in Lev 25:23-34 and 39-55. This was to be the fruit or effect of the blast, i.e., of the year commencing with the blast, and hence the year was called “the year of liberty,” or free year, in Eze 46:17. , from to flow with a rushing noise, does not mean jubilation or the time of jubilation ( Ges., Kn., and others); but wherever it is not applied to the year of jubilee, it signifies only the loud blast of a trumpet (Exo 19:13; Jos 6:5). This meaning also applies here in Lev 25:10, Lev 25:11 and Lev 25:12; whilst in Lev 25:15, Lev 25:28, Lev 25:30, Lev 25:31, Lev 25:33, Lev 27:18, and Num 36:4, it is used as an abbreviated expression for , the year of the trumpet-blast.
Lev 25:11-12 The other effect of the fiftieth year proclaimed with the trumpet-blast consisted in the fact that the Israelites were not to sow or reap, just as in the sabbatical year (see Lev 25:4, Lev 25:5). “For it is ,” i.e., not “jubilation or time of jubilation,” but “the time or year of the trumpet-blast, it shall be holy to you,” i.e., a sabbatical time, which is to be holy to you like the day of the trumpet-blast (Lev 25:23, Lev 25:24).
Leviticus 25:13-34 One of the effects of the year of freedom is mentioned here, viz., the return of every man to his own possession; and the way is prepared for it by a warning against overreaching in the sale of land, and the assignment of a reason for this.
Lev 25:14-17 In the purchase and sale of pieces of land no one was to oppress another, i.e., to overreach him by false statements as to its value and produce. applies specially to the oppression of foreigners (Lev 19:33; Exo 22:20), of slaves (Deu 23:17), of the poor, widows, and orphans (Jer 22:3; Eze 18:8) in civil matters, by overreaching them or taking their property away. The inf. abs. : as in Gen 41:43. The singular suffix in is to be understood distributively of a particular Israelite.
Lev 25:15-16 The purchase and sale were to be regulated by the number of years that had elapsed since the year of jubilee, so that they were only to sell the produce of the yearly revenues up to the next jubilee year, and made the price higher or lower according to the larger or smaller number of the years.
Lev 25:17-19 Overreaching and oppression God would avenge; they were therefore to fear before Him. On the other hand, if they kept His commandments and judgments, He would take care that they should dwell in the land in safety ( secure, free from anxiety), and be satisfied with the abundance of its produce. In this way Lev 25:18-22 fit on exceedingly well to what precedes.
(Note: To prove that this verse is an interpolation made by the Jehovist into the Elohistic writings, Knobel is obliged to resort to two groundless assumptions: viz., (1) to regard Lev 25:23 and Lev 25:24, which belong to what follows (Lev 25:25.) and lay down the general rule respecting the possession and redemption of land, as belonging to what precedes and connected with Lev 25:14-17; and (2) to explain Lev 25:18-22 in the most arbitrary manner, as a supplementary clause relating to the sabbatical year, whereas the promise that the sixth year should yield produce enough for three years (Lev 25:21, Lev 25:22) shows as clearly as possible that they treat of the year of jubilee together with the seventh sabbatical year which preceded it, and in Lev 25:20 the seventh year is mentioned simply as the beginning of the two years’ Sabbath which the land was to keep without either sowing or reaping.)
Lev 25:20-22 Jehovah would preserve them from want, without their sowing or reaping. He would bestow His blessing upon them in the sixth year, so that it should bear the produce of three ( for as in Gen 33:11); and when they sowed in the eighth year, they should eat the produce of the old year up to the ninth year, that is to say, till the harvest of that year. It is quite evident from Lev 25:21 and Lev 25:22, according to which the sixth year was to produce enough for three years, and the sowing for the ninth was to take place in the eighth, that not only the year of jubilee, but the sabbatical year also, commenced in the autumn, when they first began to sow for the coming year; so that the sowing was suspended from the autumn of the sixth year till the autumn of the seventh, and even till the autumn of the eighth, whenever the jubilee year came round, in which case both sowing and reaping were omitted for two years in succession, and consequently the produce of the sixth year, which was harvested in the seventh month of that year, must have sufficed for three years, not merely till the sowing in the autumn of the eight or fiftieth year, but till the harvest of the ninth or fifty-first year, as the Talmud and Rabbins of every age have understood the law.
Lev 25:23-27 What was already implied in the laws relating to the purchase and sale of the year’s produce (Lev 25:15, Lev 25:16), namely, that the land could not be alienated, is here clearly expressed; and at the same time the rule is laid down, showing how a man, who had been compelled by poverty to sell his patrimony, was to recover possession of it by redemption. In the first place, Lev 25:23 contains the general rule, “the land shall not be sold ” (lit., to annihilation), i.e., so as to vanish away from, or be for ever lost to, the seller. For “ the land belongs to Jehovah: ” the Israelites, to whom He would give it (Lev 25:2), were not actual owners or full possessors, so that they could do what they pleased with it, but “strangers and sojourners with Jehovah” in His land. Consequently (Lev 25:24) throughout the whole of the land of their possession they were to grant release, redemption to the land. There were three ways in which this could be done. The first case (Lev 25:25) was this: if a brother became poor and sold his property, his nearest redeemer was to come and release what his brother had sold, i.e., buy it back from the purchaser and restore it to its former possessor. The nearest redeemer was the relative upon whom this obligation rested according to the series mentioned in Lev 25:48, Lev 25:49. – The second case (Lev 25:26, Lev 25:27) was this: if any one had no redeemer, either because there were no relatives upon whom the obligation rested, or because they were all too poor, and he had earned and acquired sufficient to redeem it, he was to calculate the years of purchase, and return the surplus to the man who had bought it, i.e., as much as he had paid for the years that still remained up to the next year of jubilee, that so he might come into possession of it again. As the purchaser had only paid the amount of the annual harvests till the next year of jubilee, all that he could demand back was as much as he had paid for the years that still remained.
Lev 25:28 The third case was this: if a man had not earned as much as was required to make compensation for the recovery of the land, what he had sold was to remain in the possession of the buyer till the year of jubilee, and then it was to “go out,” i.e., to become free again, so that the impoverished seller could enter into possession without compensation. The buyer lost nothing by this, for he had fully recovered all that he paid for the annual harvests up to the year of jubilee, from the amount which those harvests yielded. Through these legal regulations every purchase of land became simply a lease for a term of years.
Lev 25:29-30 Alienation and redemption of houses. – Lev 25:29, Lev 25:30. On the sale of a dwelling-house in a wall-town (a town surrounded by a wall) there was to be redemption till the completion of the year of its purchase. , “ days (i.e., a definite period) shall its redemption be; ” that is to say, the right of redemption or repurchase should be retained. If it was not redeemed within the year, it remained to the buyer for ever for his descendants, and did not go out free in the year of jubilee. to arise for a possession, i.e., to become a fixed standing possession, as in Gen 23:17. for as in Lev 11:21 (see at Exo 21:8). This law is founded upon the assumption, that the houses in unwalled towns are not so closely connected with the ownership of the land, as that the alienation of the houses would alter the portion originally assigned to each family for a possession. Having been built by men, they belonged to their owners in full possession, whether they had received them just as they were at the conquest of the land, or had erected them for themselves. This last point of view, however, was altogether a subordinate one; for in the case of “the houses of the villages” (i.e., farm-buildings and villages, see Jos 13:23, etc.), which had no walls round them, it was not taken into consideration at all.
Lev 25:31 Such houses as these were to be reckoned as part of the land, and to be treated as landed property, with regard to redemption and restoration at the year of jubilee.
Lev 25:32 On the other hand, so far as the Levitical towns, viz., the houses of the Levites in the towns belonging to them, were concerned, there was to be eternal redemption for the Levites; that is to say, when they were parted with, the right of repurchase was never lost. (eternal) is to be understood as a contrast to the year allowed in the case of other houses (Lev 25:29, Lev 25:30).
Lev 25:33 “And whoever (if any one) redeems, i.e., buys, of the Levites, the house that is sold and (indeed in) the town of his possession is to go out free in the year of jubilee; for the houses of the Levitical towns are their (the Levites’) possession among the children of Israel.” The meaning is this: If any one bought a Levite’s house in one of the Levitical towns, the house he had bought was to revert to the Levite without compensation in the year of jubilee. The difficulty connected with the first clause is removed, if we understand the word (to redeem, i.e., to buy back), as the Rabbins do, in the sense of to buy, acquire. The use of for may be explained from the fact, that when the land was divided, the Levites did not receive either an inheritance in the land, or even the towns appointed for them to dwell in as their own property. The Levitical towns were allotted to the different tribes in which they were situated, with the simple obligation to set apart a certain number of dwelling-houses for the Levites, together with pasture-ground for their cattle in the precincts of the towns (cf. Num 35:1. and my Commentary on Joshua, p. 453 translation). If a non-Levite, therefore, bought a Levite’s house, it was in reality a repurchase of property belonging to his tribe, or the redemption of what the tribe had relinquished to the Levites as their dwelling and for their necessities.
(Note: This is the way in which it is correctly explained by Hiskuni: Utitur scriptura verbo redimendi non emendi, quia quidquid Levitae vendunt ex Israelitarum haereditate est, non ex ipsorum haerediatate. Nam ecce non habent partes in terra, unde omnis qui accipit aut emit ab illis est acsi redimeret, quoniam ecce initio ipsius possessio fuit . On the other hand, the proposal made by Ewald, Knobel, etc., after the example of the Vulgate, to supply before is not only an unnecessary conjecture, but is utterly unsuitable, inasmuch as the words “if one of the Levites does not redeem it” would restrict the right to the Levites without any perceptible reason; just as if a blood-relation on the female side, belonging to any other tribe, might not have done this.)
The words are an explanatory apposition – “and that in the town of his possession,” – and do not mean “whatever he had sold of his house-property or anything else in his town,” for the Levites had no other property in the town besides the houses, but “the house which he had sold, namely, in the town of his possession.” This implies that the right of reversion was only to apply to the houses ceded to the Levites in their own towns, and not to houses which they had acquired in other towns either by purchase or inheritance. The singular is used after a subject in the plural, because the copula agrees with the object (see Ewald, 319 c). As the Levites were to have no hereditary property in the land except the houses in the towns appointed for them, it was necessary that the possession of their houses should be secured to them for all time, if they were not to fall behind the other tribes.
Lev 25:34 The field of the pasture-ground of the Levitical towns was not to be sold. Beside the houses, the Levites were also to receive pasturage for their flocks (from to drive, to drive out the cattle) round about these cities (Num 35:2-3). These meadows were not to be saleable, and not even to be let till the year of jubilee; because, if they were sold, the Levites would have nothing left upon which to feed their cattle.
Leviticus 25:35-55 The second effect of the jubilee year, viz., the return of an Israelite, who had become a slave, to liberty and to his family, is also introduced with an exhortation to support an impoverished brother (Lev 25:35-38), and preserve to him his personal freedom.
Lev 25:35 “If thy brother (countryman, or member of the same tribe) becomes poor, and his hand trembles by thee, thou shalt lay hold of him;” i.e., if he is no longer able to sustain himself alone, thou shalt take him by the arm to help him out of his misfortune. “Let him live with thee as a stranger and sojourner.” introduces the apodosis (see Ges. 126, note 1).
Lev 25:36-41 If he borrowed money, they were not to demand interest; or if food, they were not to demand any addition, any larger quantity, when it was returned (cf. Exo 22:24; Deu 23:20-21), from fear of God, who had redeemed Israel out of bondage, to give them the land of Canaan. In Lev 25:37 is an abbreviation of , which only occurs here. – From Lev 25:39 onwards there follow the laws relating to the bondage of the Israelite, who had been obliged to sell himself from poverty. Lev 25:36-46 relate to his service in bondage to an (other) Israelite. The man to whom he had sold himself as servant was not to have slave-labour performed by him (Exo 1:14), but to keep him as a day-labourer and sojourner, and let him serve with him till the year of jubilee. He was then to go out free with his children, and return to his family and the possession of his fathers (his patrimony). This regulation is a supplement to the laws relating to the rights of Israel (Exo 21:2-6), though without a contradiction arising, as Knobel maintains, between the different rules laid down. In Ex 21 nothing at all is determined respecting the treatment of an Israelitish servant; it is simply stated that in the seventh year of his service he was to recover his liberty. This limit is not mentioned here, because the chapter before us simply treats of the influence of the year of jubilee upon the bondage of the Israelites. On this point it is decided, that the year of jubilee was to bring freedom even to the Israelite who had been brought into slavery by his poverty, – of course only to the man who was still in slavery when it commenced and had not served seven full years, provided, that is to say, that he had not renounced his claim to be set free at the end of his seven years’ service, according to Exo 21:5-6. We have no right to expect this exception to be expressly mentioned here, because it did not interfere with the idea of the year of jubilee. For whoever voluntarily renounced the claim to be set free, whether because the year of jubilee was still so far off that he did not expect to live to see it, or because he had found a better lot with his master than he could secure for himself in a state of freedom, had thereby made a voluntary renunciation of the liberty which the year of jubilee might have brought to him (see Oehler’s art. in Herzog’s Cycl., where the different views on this subject are given).
Lev 25:42-43 Because the Israelites were servants of Jehovah, who had redeemed them out of Pharaoh’s bondage and adopted them as His people (Exo 19:5; Exo 18:10, etc.), they were not to be sold “a selling of slaves,” i.e., not to be sold into actual slavery, and no one of them was to rule over another with severity (Lev 25:43, cf. Exo 1:13-14). “Through this principle slavery was completely abolished, so far as the people of the theocracy were concerned”’ ( Oehler).
Lev 25:44-46 As the Israelites could only hold in slavery servants and maid-servants whom they had bought of foreign nations, or foreigners who had settled in the land, these they might leave as an inheritance to their children, and “through them they might work,” i.e., have slave-labour performed, but not through their brethren the children of Israel (Lev 25:46, cf. Lev 25:43).
Lev 25:47-50 The servitude of an Israelite to a settler who had come to the possession of property, or a non-Israelite dwelling in the land, was to be redeemable at any time. If an Israelite had sold himself because of poverty to a foreign settler ( , to distinguish the non-Israelitish sojourner from the Israelitish, Lev 25:35), or to a stock of a foreigner, then one of his brethren, or his uncle, or his uncle’s son or some one of his kindred, was to redeem him; or if he came into the possession of property, he was to redeem himself. When this was done, the time was to be calculated from the year of purchase to the year of jubilee, and “the money of his purchase was to be according to the number of the years,” i.e., the price at which he had sold himself was to be distributed over the number of years that he would have to serve to the year of jubilee; and “according to the days of a day-labourer shall he be with him,” i.e., the time that he had worked was to be estimated as that of a day-labourer, and be put to the credit of the man to be redeemed.
Lev 25:51-52 According as there were few or many years to the year of jubilee would the redemption-money be paid be little or much. much in years: neuter, and as in Gen 7:21; Gen 8:17 etc. according to the measure of the same.
Lev 25:53 During the time of service the buyer was to keep him as a day-labourer year by year, i.e., as a labourer engaged for a term of years, and not rule over him with severe oppression. “ In thine eyes, ” i.e., so that thou (the nation addressed) seest it.
Lev 25:54-55 If he were not redeemed by these (the relations mentioned in Lev 25:48, Lev 25:49), he was to go out free in the year of jubilee along with his children, i.e., to be liberated without compensation. For (Lev 25:55) he was not to remain in bondage, because the Israelites were the servants of Jehovah (cf. Lev 25:42).
But although, through these arrangements, the year of jubilee helped every Israelite, who had fallen into poverty and slavery, to the recovery of his property and personal freedom, and thus the whole community was restored to its original condition as appointed by God, through the return of all the landed property that had been alienated in the course of years to its original proprietor the restoration of the theocratical state to its original condition was not the highest or ultimate object of the year of jubilee. The observance of sabbatical rest throughout the whole land, and by the whole nation, formed part of the liberty which it was to bring to the land and its inhabitants. In the year of jubilee, as in the sabbatical year, the land of Jehovah was to enjoy holy rest, and the nation of Jehovah to be set free from the bitter labour of cultivating the soil, and to live and refresh itself in blessed rest with the blessing which had been given to it by the Lord its God. In this way the year of jubilee became to the poor, oppressed, and suffering, in fact to the whole nation, a year of festivity and grace, which not only brought redemption to the captives and deliverance to the poor out of their distresses, but release to the whole congregation of the Lord from the bitter labour of this world; a time of refreshing, in which all oppression was to cease, and every member of the covenant nation find his redeemer in the Lord, who brought every one back to his own property and home. Because Jehovah had brought the children of Israel out of Egypt to give them the land of Canaan, where they were to live as His servants and serve Him, in the year of jubilee the nation and land of Jehovah were to celebrate a year of holy rest and refreshing before the Lord, and in this celebration to receive foretaste of the times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, which were to be brought to all men by One anointed with the Spirit of the Lord, who would come to preach the Gospel to the poor, to bind up the broken-hearted, to bring liberty to the captives and the opening of the prisons to them that were bound, to proclaim to all that mourn a year of grace from the Lord (Isa 61:1-3; Luk 4:17-21); and who will come again from heaven in the times of the restitution of all things to complete the , to glorify the whole creation into a kingdom of God, to restore everything that has been destroyed by sin from the beginning of the world, to abolish all the slavery of sin, establish the true liberty of the children of God, emancipate every creature from the bondage of vanity, under which it sighs on account of the sin of man, and introduce all His chosen into the kingdom of peace and everlasting blessedness, which was prepared for their inheritance before the foundation of the world (Act 3:19-20; Rom 8:19.; Mat 25:34; Col 1:12; 1Pe 1:4).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Institution of the Jubilee; the Year of the Jubilee. | B. C. 1490. |
8 And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. 9 Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. 10 And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. 11 A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed. 12 For it is the jubilee; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field. 13 In the year of this jubilee ye shall return every man unto his possession. 14 And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbour, or buyest ought of thy neighbour’s hand, ye shall not oppress one another: 15 According to the number of years after the jubilee thou shalt buy of thy neighbour, and according unto the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee: 16 According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it: for according to the number of the years of the fruits doth he sell unto thee. 17 Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am the LORD your God. 18 Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety. 19 And the land shall yield her fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety. 20 And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase: 21 Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years. 22 And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year; until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store.
Here is, I. The general institution of the jubilee, v. 8, c.
1. When it was to be observed: after seven sabbaths of years (<i>v. 8), whether the forty-ninth or fiftieth is a great question among learned men: that it should be the seventh sabbatical year, that is, the forty-ninth (which by a very common form of speech is called the fiftieth), seems to me most probable, and is, I think, made pretty clear and the objections removed by that learned chronologer Calvisius; but this is not a place for arguing the question. Seven sabbaths of weeks were reckoned from the passover to the feast of pentecost (or fiftieth day, for so pentecost signifies), and so seven sabbaths of years from one jubilee to another, and the seventh is called the fiftieth; and all this honour is put upon the sevenths for the sake of God’s resting the seventh day from the work of creation.
2. How it was to be proclaimed, with sound of trumpet in all parts of the country (v. 5), both to give notice to all persons of it, and to express their joy and triumph in it; and the word jobel, or jubilee, is supposed to signify some particular sound of the trumpet distinguishable from any other; for the trumpet that gives an uncertain sound is of little service, 1 Cor. xiv. 8. The trumpet was sounded in the close of the day of atonement; thence the jubilee commenced, and very fitly; when they had been humbling and afflicting their souls for sin, then they were made to hear this voice of joy and gladness, Ps. xi. 8. When their peace was made with God, then liberty was proclaimed; for the removal of guilt is necessary to make way for the entrance of all true comfort, Rom 5:1; Rom 5:2. In allusion to this solemn proclamation of the jubilee, it was foretold concerning our Lord Jesus that he should preach the acceptable year of the Lord, Isa. lxi. 2. He sent his apostles to proclaim it with the trumpet of the everlasting gospel, which they were to preach to every creature. And it stands still foretold that at the last day the trumpet shall sound, which shall release the dead out of the bondage of the grave, and restore us to our possessions.
3. What was to be done in that year extraordinary; besides the common rest of the land, which was observed every sabbatical year (Lev 25:11; Lev 25:12), and the release of personal debts (Deu 15:2; Deu 15:3), there was to be the legal restoration of every Israelite to all the property, and all the liberty, which had been alienated from him since the last jubilee; so that never was any people so secured in their liberty and property (those glories of a people) as Israel was. Effectual care was taken that while they kept close to God these should not only not be taken from them by the violence of others, but not thrown away by their own folly.
(1.) The property which every man had in his dividend of the land of Canaan could not be alienated any longer than till the year of jubilee, and then he or his should return to it, and have a title to it as undisputed, and the possession of it as undisturbed, as ever (Lev 25:10; Lev 25:13): “You shall return every man to his possession; so that if a man had sold or mortgaged his estate, or any part of it, it should then return to him or his heirs, free of all charge and encumbrance. Now this was no wrong to the purchaser, because the year of jubilee was fixed, and every man knew when it would come, and made his bargain accordingly. By our law indeed, if lands be granted to a man and his heirs, upon condition that he should never sell or alienate them, the grant is good, but the condition is void and repugnant: Iniquum est ingenuis hominibus (say the lawyers) non esse liberam rerum suarum alienationem–It is unjust to prevent free men from alienating their own possessions. Yet it is agreed in the books that if the king grant lands to a man in fee upon condition he shall not alienate, the condition is good. Now God would show his people Israel that their land was his, and they were his tenants; and therefore he ties them up that they shall not have power to sell, but only to make leases for any term of years, not going beyond the next jubilee. By this means it was provided, [1.] That their genealogies should be carefully preserved, which would be of use for clearing our Saviour’s pedigree. [2.] That the distinction of tribes should be kept up; for, though a man might purchase lands in another tribe, yet he could not retain them longer than till the year of jubilee, and then they would revert of course. [3.] That none should grow exorbitantly rich, by laying house to house, and field to field (Isa. v. 8), but should rather apply themselves to the cultivating of what they had than the enlarging of their possessions. The wisdom of the Roman commonwealth sometimes provided that no man should be master of above 500 acres. [4.] That no family should be sunk and ruined, and condemned to perpetual poverty. This particular care God took for the support of the honour of that people, and the preserving, not only of that good land to the nation in general, but of every man’s share to his family in particular, for a perpetual inheritance, that it might the better typify that good part which shall never be taken away from those that have it.
(2.) The liberty which every man was born to, if it were sold or forfeited, should likewise return at the year of jubilee: You shall return every man to his family, v. 10. Those that were sold into other families thereby became strangers to their own; but in this year of redemption they were to return. This was typical of our redemption by Christ from the slavery of sin and Satan, and our restoration to the glorious liberty of the children of God. Some compute that the very year in which Christ died was a year of jubilee, and the last that ever was kept. But, however that be, we are sure it is the Son that makes us free, and then we are free indeed.
II. A law upon this occasion against oppression in buying and selling of land; neither the buyer nor the seller must overreach, v. 14-17. In short, the buyer must not give less, nor the seller take more, than the just value of the thing, considered as necessarily returning at the year of jubilee. It must be settled what the clear yearly value of the land was, and then how many years’ purchase it was worth till the year of jubilee. But they must reckon only the years of the fruits (v. 15), and therefore must discount for the sabbatical years. It is easy to observe that the nearer the jubilee was the less must the value of the land be. According to the fewness of the years thou shalt diminish the price. But we do not find it so easy practically to infer thence that the nearer the world comes to its period the less value we should put upon the things of it: because the time is short, and the fashion of the world passeth away, let those that buy be as though they possessed not. One would put little value on an old house, that is ready to drop down. All bargains ought to be made by this rule, You shall not oppress one another, nor take advantage of one another’s ignorance or necessity, but thou shalt fear thy God. Note, The fear of God reigning in the heart would effectually restrain us from doing any wrong to our neighbour in word or deed; for, though man be not, God is the avenger of those that go beyond or defraud their brethren, 1 Thess. iv. 6. Perhaps Nehemiah refers to this very law (ch. v. 15), where he tells us that he did not oppress those he had under his power, because of the fear of God.
III. Assurance given them that they should be no losers, but great gainers, by observing these years of rest. It is promised, 1. That they should be safe: You shall dwell in the land in safety, v. 18, and again, v. 19. The word signifies both outward safety and inward security and confidence of spirit, that they should be quiet both from evil and from the fear of evil. 2. That they should be rich: You shall eat your fill. Note, If we be careful to do our duty, we may cheerfully trust God with our comfort. 3. That they should not want food convenient that year in which they did neither sow nor reap: I will command my blessing in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years, v. 21. This was, (1.) A standing miracle, that, whereas at other times one year did but serve to bring in another, the productions of the sixth year should serve to bring in the ninth. Note, The blessing of God upon our provision will make a little go a great way, and satisfy even the poor with bread, Ps. cxxxi. 15. (2.) A lasting memorial of the manna which was given double on the sixth day for two days. (3.) It was intended for an encouragement to all God’s people, in all ages, to trust him in the way of duty, and to cast their care upon him. There is nothing lost by faith and self-denial in our obedience.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Verses 8-17:
One of Israel’s most important religious festivals was the Jubilee Year. This occurred the year following the seventh cycle of the sabbatical year.
“Jubilee,” yobel, “time of shouting,” every 50th year. It was announced by the blowing of a trumpet (shophar), verse 9.
The Year of Jubilee began on the tenth day of the seventh month, the day of Yom Kippur (Le 16).
There were two purposes of the Jubilee Year.
I. To proclaim liberty unto the inhabitants of the Land; and
2. To return every man unto his possession.
The Land belonged to Jehovah; the people of Israel were but tenants. They might maintain undisputed possession of a parcel of land for many years, but at the fiftieth year, it reverted to the one to whom Jehovah had assigned it, or to his representative. An Israelite might sell the parcel that was his inheritance, but the transaction must be with that understanding. The purchase price was reckoned by computing the value of the harvests until the next Jubilee Year. This was another effective provision for preserving the integrity of the family unit.
No Israelite might “oppress” his fellow-citizen by demanding more than the just price of land in view of the Jubilee Year.
Twice each century Israel was required to demonstrate a remarkable degree of faith. The Jubilee year occurred the year following the sabbatical year. This meant that the land must lie fallow for two years in succession, rather than one. The Israelite must trust in God to provide for both these years.
The Jubilee Year may portray that time in Earth’s history when Jesus will return and rule over all the Earth for one thousand years, Re 10:4, 6. This will be a time of restoration for this Planet, when man shall be restored his rightful inheritance and will have dominion over Earth, as God intended, Ge 1:26, 27; Isa 2:1-5; 11:1-9; 65:17-25.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
8. And thou shalt number seven. The third kind of Sabbath follows, which was composed of forty-nine, or seven times seven years. This was the most illustrious Sabbath, since the state of the people, both as to their persons and their houses and property, was renewed; and although in this way God had regard to the public good, gave relief to the poor, so that their liberty should not be destroyed, and preserved also the order laid down by Himself; still there is no question but that He thus added an additional stimulus to incite the Jews to honor the Sabbath. For it was a kind of imposing memorial of the sacred rest, to see slaves emancipated and become suddenly free; houses and lands returning to their former possessors who had sold them; and in fine all things assuming a new face. They called this year Jobel, from the sound of the ram’s horn, whereby liberty and the restitution of property were proclaimed; but as I have said, its main feature was the solemnity which shewed them to be separated from other nations to be a peculiar and holy nation to God; nay, the renewal of all things had reference to this, that being redeemed anew in the great Sabbath, they might entirely devote themselves to God their Deliverer.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
b. THE YEAR OF JUBILEE 25:855
RULES FOR THE OBSERVANCE OF THE JUBILEE 25:822
TEXT 25:822
8
And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years, and there shall be unto thee the days of seven sabbaths of years, even forty and nine years.
9
Then shalt thou send abroad the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month; in the day of atonement shall ye send abroad the trumpet throughout all your land.
10
And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.
11
A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of the undressed vines.
12
For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field.
13
In this year of jubilee ye shall return every man unto his possession.
14
And if thou sell aught unto thy neighbor, or buy of thy neighbors hand, ye shall not wrong one another.
15
According to the number of years after the jubilee thou shalt buy of thy neighbor, and according unto the number of years of the crops he shall sell unto thee.
16
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 the number of the crops doth he sell unto thee.
17
And ye shall not wrong one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am Jehovah your God.
18
Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep mine ordinances and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety.
19
And the land shall yield its fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety.
20
And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase;
21
then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for the three years.
22
And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat of the fruits, the old store; until the ninth year, until its fruits come in, ye shall eat the old store.
THOUGHT QUESTIONS 25:822
591.
Was the year of Jubilee in the 49th or the 50th year?
592.
On what annual feast day was the trumpet sounded for the year of Jubilee?
593.
This was surely a day of liberty. Mention two liberations.
594.
There was also liberation from harvesting. Was this good news?
595.
Who made the original division of the land to decide the ancestral property?
596.
Please explain Lev. 25:14 in its context.
597.
No property was actually sold. How would you define what happened?
598.
The land was not being sold, only the number of crops until Jubilee. Was there any problem with this arrangement? Discuss.
599.
Someone could take advantage of his neighbor. How? What was intended to prevent this?
600.
God promised safety and enough food. Upon what conditions?
601.
Why the increase for three years? Cf. Lev. 25:21.
602.
There was a very significant purpose to the observance of the year of Jubilee. What was it? What lesson is in it for us? Cf. Heb. 11:13; 1Pe. 2:11-17.
PARAPHRASE 25:822
Every fiftieth year, on the Day of Atonement, let the trumpets blow loud and long throughout the land. For the fiftieth year shall be holy, a time to proclaim liberty throughout the land to all enslaved debtors, and a time for the canceling of all public and private debts. It shall be a year when all the family estates sold to others shall be returned to the original owners or their heirs. What a happy year it will be! In it you shall not sow, nor gather crops nor grapes; for it is a holy Year of Jubilee for you. That year your food shall be the volunteer crops that grow wild in the fields. Yes, during the Year of Jubilee everyone shall return home to his original family possession; if he has sold it, it shall be his again! Because of this, if the land is sold or bought during the preceding forty-nine years, a fair price shall be arrived at by counting the number of years until the Jubilee. If the Jubilee is many years away, the price will be high; if few years, the price will be low; for what you are really doing is selling the number of crops the new owner will get from the land before it is returned to you. You must fear your God and not over-charge! For I am Jehovah. Obey My laws if you want to live safely in the land. When you obey, the land will yield bumper crops and you can eat your fill in safety. But you will ask, What shall we eat the seventh year, since we are not allowed to plant or harvest crops that year? The answer is, I will bless you with bumper crops the sixth year that will last you until the crops of the eighth year are harvested!
COMMENT 25:822
Lev. 25:8-13 In the following verses we have the prelude to a most meaningful time in the life of the Hebrew man or woman. The seventh day reminded him of his deliverance from Egyptian bondage, i.e. that he belonged to God by right of deliverance from death and slavery. The seventh month spoke to him again and again of Gods provisions for him in the several feasts of the month. The seventh year told him of Gods ownership of the land. Now the climactic, once-in-a-lifetime experience, the year of Jubilee. Seven times seven yearsthe year of deliverance and restoration. It was announced with the sound of the silver trumpets. Perhaps these were rams horns plated with silver and fitted with a mouth-piece of gold. How we would like to share with the sincere Israelite all the wonder, excitement and joy this glorious year brought. Perhaps we can share a little by a careful understanding of each verse.
It was on the close of the great day of atonement that the loud blasts from the trumpets was heard . . . when the Hebrews realized that they had peace of mind, that their heavenly Father had annulled their sins, and that they had become reunited to Him through His forgiving mercy, every Israelite was called upon to proclaim throughout the land, by nine blasts of the trumpet, that he too had given the soil rest, that he had freed every encumbered family estate, and that he had given liberty to every slave, who was now to rejoin his kindred. Inasmuch as God had forgiven his debts, he also was to forgive his debtors. (Ginsburg)
Since the Day of Atonement was on the tenth day of the first month of the religious calendar of Israel, the year of Jubilee was counted as beginning from the first day of the month Tishri (i.e. according to Jewish tradition). The Feast of Trumpets occurred on the first day of Tishri, hence the blowing of the trumpets of the new year was an announcement for the slaves that liberty was at the door. In the interim of ten days, the slaves were said to have put on garlands of flowers (by provision and permission of their masters); they ate, drank and rejoiced in eager anticipation of the coming year of Jubilee. If Israel began the counting of the years only after they had taken possession of the land, this would have placed the first year of Jubilee on the sixty-fourth year after they came into the promised land. The observance of Jubilee was almost identical to the sabbath year. Indeed every fifty years then were what amounted to two successive sabbath years. In contemplating the return to their ancestral possessions we can say with Bonar, . . . we see a picture of human happiness in one of its most natural and intelligible forms. You see parents rejoicing for their childrens sake, and children for their own, in being once more allowed to sit under their vine and fig tree, and pluck the flowers and fruit of a region so sweet, and balmy, and abundant, You see their happy countenances, and eyes bright with joy; and the holy look toward heaven of the man of faith and prayer, who thanks the Lord for all. They forget the past in the joy of the present. Past losses are made up. Nor is one solitary individual forgotten. Every man has his portion.
Lev. 25:14-18 Satan has always been present, even in Eden, to distort to his own advantage all the good gifts of God. In what way could the law of Jubilee be abused? We can think of at least two ways, and we are sure there are others: (1) charging excessive lease money for the use of the land. All that could actually be sold was the number of crops to be produced by the land. Misrepresentation of what had been produced on the land, and therefore what could be expected in the future would be one way of defrauding your neighbor. According to tradition one-sixth was the maximum mark-up for any sale. Two years was the minimal time. Accurate records of what the land had produced plus one-sixth interest was allowed, but not more; (2) the sabbath years could be easily counted in the sale when in fact no crop would be forthcoming. The sale amounted to the total number of crops so the price was lower and lower as the year of Jubilee approached. We are sure there were ways to oppress and cheat and intimidate, even as there are today. Only reverence toward God can offset greed and lust. Remember, if you do not answer to your neighbor, you will most assuredly answer to God. God reminds Israel that His statutes are not only for reading, they are for doing!
Lev. 25:19-22 The safety of the nation was contingent upon their obedience to His laws. As God is Israels strong tower and wall of defense, it is by keeping His commandments that the Israelites will enjoy the security which other nations endeavor to obtain by great labour and mighty armies. (Ibid) Why would anyone ask the question: . . . what shall we eat the seventh year? Someone had not taught or someone had not listened. The promises were clear and sure. Cf. Deu. 28:8. Couldnt they remember Gods provision of manna on the sixth day in excess to cover the seventh day? Hadnt He provided every sixth year for the sabbath years? What was wrong with their memory?or their confidence in the character of a loving living heavenly Father? Perhaps the same thing that affects our memory and faith.
FACT QUESTIONS 25:822
603.
Show the relation of the year of Jubilee to the sabbath day, the sabbath month, and the sabbath year.
604.
How was the year announced? When?
605.
How do the words of our Lord, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors relate to the year of Jubilee?
606.
What supposedly happened in the first ten days of the month of Tishri?
607.
When was the first year of Jubilee observed?
608.
Describe in your own words the happiness that must have prevailed in the year of Jubilee.
609.
In what two possible ways could the year of Jubilee be abused?
610.
Israel would enjoy prosperity and safety upon what conditions?
611.
Why would anyone ask the question what shall we eat the seventh year?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(8) And thou shalt number.Better, And thou shalt count unto thee, as the Authorised Version renders the same phrase in Lev. 23:15.
Number seven sabbaths of years.Better, count seven weeks of years (see Lev. 23:15). The seven days of each week stand for so many years, so that seven weeks of years make forty-nine years. Hence the explanation in the next clause: Seven times seven years. As the observance of the jubile, like that of the sabbatical year, was only to become obligatory when the Israelites had taken possession of the promised land (see Lev. 25:2), and as the first sabbatical year, according to the authorities during the second Temple, came into operation in the twenty-first year after their entrance into Canaan (see Lev. 25:2), the first jubile was celebrated in the sixty-fourth year after they came into the land of promise.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
THE YEAR OF JUBILEE, Lev 25:8-55.
Twice in each century occurred a year of renewal and restoration, in which all lands which had been alienated reverted to the families of those to whom they had been originally allotted by Joshua; all bondmen of Hebrew blood were liberated, and, according to Josephus, all debts due from one Israelite to another were remitted, as were all debts due from one Israelite to another in the sabbatical year, (Deu 15:1-2,) an item omitted in the full account of the jubilee by Philo, and positively negatived by Maimonides and the Mishna, though the reference of the latter to the jubilee is denied by Kitto’s Cyclopaedia. There were no special sacrifices appointed, nor even the reading of the law to the people, as in the sabbatical year. It is impossible for us to conceive the general outburst of joy that gladdened all the land when the bondmen tasted again the sweets of liberty, and returned to their ancestral possessions, their families, and the graves of their sires. “In vain would sleep invite them to repose their hearts would be too full to feel the lassitude of nature; and the night would be spent in gratitude and praise. What a lively emblem of the Gospel of Christ, which is peculiarly addressed to the poor!” Bush. There is no mention of the jubilee in the book of Deuteronomy, and the only other reference to it in the Pentateuch is quite incidental, in the appeal of the tribe of Manasseh for some legal enactment against the alienation of their lands by heiresses marrying out of their tribe. Num 36:4.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
8. Seven sabbaths of years The jubilee occurred immediately after the seventh sabbatical year. Hence, as will be seen in Lev 25:11, there were two successive years in which the land kept a sabbath. Ewald and others quote Isa 37:30 in proof of the jubilee succeeding the sabbath year, from which reference Gesenius dissents.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Year of Yubile. The Year of Grand Release ( Lev 25:8-55 ).
The year of grand release might well never have been put fully into practise throughout the whole of Israel, as it required full ownership of all the land, and as we know some tribes found difficulty in possessing the land (Jdg 1:27-36). But we cannot discount the fact that it might well have been put into practise in the early days in the parts which were securely taken. It was certainly expected that it would be (Num 36:4). The early enthusiasm would suggest that it would be applied in the early days in those areas where it could be applied, the areas which were securely subjugated, for example in the days of the elders who outlived Joshua (Jos 2:7), and even beyond in some form. We may even surmise that it was the monarchy with its ways that finally brought it to an end.
But whether fully carried out or not it would certainly provide a guide to the people of what God expected of them in their behaviour towards each other, would emphasise that the whole land belonged in the final analysis to Yahweh, being given to them by Him for their use, and would set their thoughts on good practise with regard to different aspects of commercial life and their attitude towards their ‘brothers’, their fellow-Israelites.
It demonstrated that Yahweh frowned on greed, on the practise of adding field to field and building up large estates for themselves (Isa 5:8), while the principles with regard to creditors (compare also Deu 15:1-2), and bondservice, were no doubt also carried through, at least to some extent, to the advantage of all in the areas where they were practised. The years of first enthusiasm and struggle would be the very time when such principles would carried through. Dogmatism is ruled out, however, for we actually know very little about the behaviour of the tribes from this point of view in the period of Joshua and Judges.
So these provisions of the year of Yubile could well have been put into practise in certain areas, possibly even over hundreds of years, without our being aware of it, even though the organisation and application of it nationally in the land as a whole would probably have been a feat beyond the tribes in periods when they were splintered, or some were subject to foreign rule. Thus its ideal fulfilment would have been restricted due to the circumstances of the time and the continued presence in the land of non-Israelites in large numbers. But that is not to say that no attempt was made to carry it out in some parts, especially in that part first captured in the highlands and in Transjordan.
For we should note how the Book of Ruth gives us glimpses of practises connected with this legislation in the action of the Kinsman Redeemer (Rth 2:20; Rth 3:4; Rth 3:9; Rth 3:13; Rth 4:3-14), even though it is only brief. And the story of Naboth and his vineyard illustrates how, even in the kingdom which had split off, the rights of a man to his family land were seen as a sacrosanct to a king brought up on God’s laws (1Ki 21:3-4). That incident also, however, illustrated how foreign ideas of kingship were gradually altering those rights (1Ki 21:7). Thus if we had we other similar literature we might get a different picture.
The ideal kingship was intended to carry this idea on. It looked forward to the future Kingly Rule of God. But once the idea of kingship based on the ideas of surrounding countries took over, with its great demands, its taxes, and its need to reward favourites, the large scale fulfilment would become almost an impossibility, and totally unacceptable to the nobles and princes who began wanting more for themselves (thus Isa 5:8). The kingdom of God was rejected by the desire for the kingdom of this world. Although some have traced the effects of similar provisions in the kingships of the reforming kings such as Hezekiah and Josiah.
Certainly Ezekiel saw the future in terms of it, and stressed that the true Prince to come would not break this law and thrust people out of the land of their inheritance. ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh, “If the prince gives a gift to any of his sons, it is his inheritance, it shall belong to his sons. But if he gives a gift from his inheritance to one of his servants, it shall be his until the year of liberty; then it shall return to the prince . But as for his inheritance, it shall be for his sons. Moreover the prince shall not take from the people’s inheritance, thrusting them out of their possession; he shall give his sons inheritance from his own possession so that My people shall not be scattered, every man from his possession ”’ (Eze 46:16-18).
So the year of Yubile and what lay behind it was Israel’s equivalent of the coming Kingly Rule of God and the everlasting Messianic kingdom put in terms appreciated by an agricultural community.
The Timing and Purpose of the Year of Yubile ( Lev 25:8-19 ).
The year of Yubile was not just a year like any other year calendarwise. It commenced not on the first of the first month, Abib (Exo 12:2) but on the tenth of the seventh month, the Day of Atonement. While then, coming at the end of forty nine years, it could be described as ‘the fiftieth’, it was not actually a year like any other year. It was overlapped on one side by the forty ninth year, and on the other by the first year of the new series. We must not tie the ancients down to our strict ideas of calendars.
Lev 25:8
“And you shall number seven sabbaths of years to you, seven times seven years; and there shall be to you the days of seven sabbaths of years, even forty and nine years.”
The principle was that after seven consecutive sabbatical years (each ending a seven year period) there would come the ‘fiftieth’ year which should be the year of Yubile, the year of grand release.
Lev 25:9
“Then shall you send abroad the loud ram’s horn on the tenth day of the seventh month; in the day of atonement shall you send abroad the ram’s horn throughout all your land.”
And on the Day of Atonement of that forty ninth year the rams’ horn (shophar) should sound throughout the land and the year of grand release would begin. The forty ninth year would already be a sabbatical year, and therefore a year of solemn thought, thus the solemn Day of Atonement was a good day for commencing the activities of the year of grand release. First Israel could rid itself of its burden of sin, and then it could set about remedying the commercial and agricultural situation for all ‘true-born’ Israelites. All would be restored to the visualised perfect beginning once the land was subjugated and divided among all Israel.
Lev 25:10
“And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a yubile to you. And you shall return every man to his possession, and you shall return every man to his family.”
It was to be a hallowed year, a year set apart to the glory of Yahweh, a year when Israelite bondservants would gain their release, and all agricultural land and village property would revert to its original owners.
Lev 25:11
“A yubile shall that fiftieth year be to you: you shall not sow, nor reap that which grows of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of the undressed vines.”
It was to be like the sabbatical years in that the land was to be left fallow, and in it no sowing, reaping or organised gathering of grapes was to take place. Instead all that was in the fields and the vineyards would be open for anyone who wanted it. all could gather to their hearts content, for the produce that year was Yahweh’s.
Lev 25:12
“For it is a yubile; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat its increase out of the field.”
“For it is a yubile.” Unfortunately we do not really know what yubile means. The term was so obscure that Joshua had to explain it in terms of the shophar, ‘the ram’s horn of Yubile’ (Jos 6:6-8). This demonstrates the age of the concept. It was thus connected with the triumphal entry into the land. It comes from an unused verbal stem which was connected with running and flowing. But whatever it indicated it was a year of grand release of one form or another, with the releasing of property, bondmen and debts and a period when men reverted to living off the land without labour. It was to be very special to them. It may indicate a time of the flowing forward of God’s purposes.
Lev 25:13
“In this year of yubile you shall return every man to his possession.”
Repeating the contents of verse 10 in true ancient fashion he repeats that in that year of Yubile every man was to return to his possession, that is would again receive the land originally given to him and his family once the conquest had taken place, the principle behind this being that that family could never totally lose its inheritance whatever went on during the fifty year period. A black sheep in the family could not permanently lose the family its inheritance. In the end it would always revert to them. This repetition then leads on to an expansion to explain the idea more fully.
Lev 25:14-16
“And if you sell aught to your neighbour, or buy of your neighbour’s hand, you shall not wrong one another. According to the number of years after the yubile you shall buy of your neighbour, and according to the number of years of the crops he shall sell to you. According to the multitude of the years you shall increase its price, and according to the fewness of the years you shall diminish its price, for the number of the crops does he sell to you.”
Those who bought or sold property were to take this situation into account. They must not wrong one another. The purchase/sale price must always take into account the time left to the year of Yubile. It must be based on the amount and number of crops which were likely to be produced from the land between the purchase/sale date and the year of Yubile.
Lev 25:17
“And you shall not wrong one another; but you shall fear your God: for I am Yahweh your God.”
To wrong one another would be against the whole principle of what God was laying down. Its purpose was for the good of all and to prevent excessive greed. In all dealings in these matters they were therefore to fear God, remembering that He Is Yahweh, and therefore act in accordance with all the principles that He had laid down, remembering that they were accountable to Him..
Lev 25:18-19
“Wherefore you shall do my statutes, and keep my ordinances and do them, and you shall dwell in the land in safety. And the land shall yield its fruit, and you shall eat your fill, and dwell in it in safety.”
For this was His promise. They were to do His statutes and keep His ordinances as laid down through Moses, and He in His turn would ensure that the land yielded its fruit, and that they could eat their fill. And it is doubly stressed that if they did these things they would dwell in safety.
What does the year of Yubile mean to us? It is a concept. It reminds us that God’s purposes go forward to a specific goal, a time when all will be restored and all God’s people will receive the blessings that God has for them, when all will be put right. Whatever the future holds we need not fear, for one day will come the glorious year of Yubile, the year of restoration, the year of liberty. Daniel describes it in Dan 9:24. It is a reminder of our glorious heavenly future, a future of permanence of blessing that nothing can take away.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Year of Jubilee Lev 25:8-55 teaches the children of Israel about observing the year of Jubilee.
Lev 25:39-40 Comments The Hired Servant – We, as servants of Jesus, are bondservants, and not hired servants.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Year of Jubilee
v. 8. And thou shalt number seven Sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven Sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.
v. 9. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, v. 10. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof. v. 11. A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you; ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed, v. 12. For it is the jubilee; it shall be holy unto you; ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field, v. 13. In the year of this jubilee ye shall return every man unto his possession, v. 14. And if thou sell aught unto thy neighbor, or buyest aught of thy neighbor’s hand, ye shall not oppress one another, v. 15. according to the number of years after the jubilee thou shalt buy of thy neighbor, and according unto the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee; v. 16. according to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it; for according to the number of the years of the fruits doth he sell unto thee. v. 17. Ye shall not therefore oppress one another v. 18. Wherefore ye shall do My statutes and keep My judgments, v. 19. And the land shall yield her fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, v. 20. And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? Behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase.
v. 21. Then I will command My blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years. v. 22. And ye shall sow the eighth year, v. 23. The land shall not be sold forever, v. 24. And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land;
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Lev 25:8. &c. And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee Or, Seven weeks of years unto thee. As the sabbatical year was to be every seventh year, so the year of jubilee was to be every seventh sabbatical year; and though of greater dignity, and honoured with some higher privileges, was, in other respects, the same with the sabbatical year mentioned in the foregoing verses. This is the rather to be noted, as some have conceived that the sabbatical year differed from that of the jubilee. It was proclaimed by sound of trumpet through the whole country upon the great day of atonement, i.e. on the tenth of our September; from whence it is most reasonably concluded, that the sabbatical year also had its commencement at the same time. It is called the year of jubilee, as that word is formed from a Hebrew noun, signifying the sound of a trumpet, which was used to proclaim it. See Exo 19:13. Gen 4:21. On this year, not only the usual rest of the sabbatical year was given to the land, Lev 25:11-12 but liberty was proclaimed to all the inhabitants of the land, Lev 25:10. Every ancient owner of lands and estates, which had been alienated by sale, was to be restored to his possession: every Israelitish slave, set free, was to return to the family he belonged to; so that, how often so ever a man’s estate had been sold or alienated, from one jubilee to another, or how many hands soever it had passed through, yet, in fifty years, the estate must revert to the heirs of the persons who were first possessed of it. Many and great were the advantages arising to the public from these excellent laws respecting the sabbatical year, and the year of jubilee.* 1. The people were thus put in mind that the earth brought not forth of itself, but by the fructifying influences of the divine power, which consequently served to beget in them a trust in God and his providence: therefore God promised to command his blessing upon them in the sixth year, and to make the earth bring forth a triple increase; see 20th and 21st verses. It was a curb to avarice; habituating them to the exercises of humanity towards their slaves and beasts, of mercy and liberality to the poor: and Philo observes, as we have before remarked, that it was also a wise, political contrivance, to let the earth rest in order to recruit its strength. 2. It provided against all ambitious designs of private persons, or persons in authority, against the public liberty; for no person, in any of the tribes, was allowed by this constitution to procure such estates as could give them hopes of success in oppressing their brethren and fellow-subjects. They had no riches to bribe indigent persons to assist them; nor could there, at any time, be any considerable number of indigent persons to be corrupted: the power in the hands of so many freeholders of each tribe was so unspeakably superior to any power in the hands of one, or of a few men, that it is impossible to conceive how any such ambitious designs should succeed, if any persons had been found weak enough to attempt them. 3. This equal and moderate provision for every person wisely cut off the means of luxury, with the temptations to it from example: it almost necessarily put the Hebrew nation upon industry and frugality; and yet gave to every one such a property, with such an easy state of liberty, that they had sufficient reason to esteem and value them, and endeavour to preserve and maintain them. 4. A provision was thus made for settling and maintaining a numerous and brave militia of 600,000 men; which, if their force was rightly directed and used, would not only be a sufficient defence against any attempts of their less powerful neighbours, but, considering the natural security of their country, into which no inroads could be made but through very difficult passes, would be a force sufficient to defend them against the more powerful empires. 5. Thus, too, the Almighty excellently provided for fixing the Jews to the land of Canaan, and keeping them united; since all their possessions were so entailed, that the right heir could never be wholly excluded from his estate. 6. Thus a perfect distinction of tribes and families was preserved; for which end their genealogies were of necessity to be carefully kept, that they might be able to prove their right to the inheritance of their ancestors. By this means the tribe and family of the MESSIAH were fully ascertained when he was born, in order that it might be clearly proved that he was of the tribe of Judah, and of the lineage of David, as was foretold of him by the prophets. 7. Further, this institution was made subservient to religion; for the people were then peculiarly to be instructed in the law of God, which was appointed to be read this year in the audience of all Israel, men, women, and children, when they assembled before God at the feast of tabernacles. See Deu 31:10-11; Deu 12:8. This excellent institution not only served to these civil and religious uses, but also was typical of the great year of gospel-salvation, which, in allusion to it, is styled by the prophet the year of God’s redeemed, and the acceptable year of the Lord, upon which the gospel trumpet proclaimed liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. Read Isa 61:1, &c. and Lev 27:13. Let it just be observed, that the time when the glad signal of jubilee was given was the 10th day of the seventh month; a day whereon the future expiation of the Messiah was clearly exhibited; see ch. Lev 23:27 and ch. Lev 16:29 and what I have there remarked on the goat that was slain, and on that which was sent away; whereby is signified that our jubilee begins in the atonement of Jesus Christ, as theirs began on the day on which it was prefigured. The intermission of labour, the cancelling of debts, the delivery from bondage, the reversion of all inheritances, bear an evident reference to the great spiritual blessings of the Gospel; which gives rest to our souls, remission of our sins, release from their bondage, and restoration to our glorious and never-failing inheritance in heaven.
* See Cunaeus de Repub. Heb. lib. 1: cap. 3. Lowman’s Dissert. on the Civil Government of the Hebrews, p. 47, &c. and L’Enfant and Beausobre’s Introduction to the New Testament, p. 165.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
In this calculation it should seem that the year of jubilee was the nine and fortieth year; and that then the trumpet was sounded. But what a joy must it have been to every poor bond-servant, and especially to him that was under a rigorous master. I have no doubt in my own mind, but that there was a peculiarity in the sound, which though very few in the camp of Israel, if any, by reason of the distance of time from one to another in forty-nine years being between, had ever heard before; yet all perfectly well understood. The cruel tyrant over his poor servant, certainly understood by it, that his oppression was over: and the wretched captive felt in it the mercy of the LORD’S voice. But, Reader! what a faint image is this of that sweet jubilee trumpet, which sounds everlasting redemption through JESUS. Joh 8:36 . If the Reader feels himself interested, as he ought, in this place, to enquire further concerning this trumpet of jubilee, and wherein it differed from others in its sound and signification; he may soon discover that this must have been the case, from other trumpets which were in use in the camp. There was the Fast trumpet. Joe 2:1 . The War trumpets and the calling of the Assemblies. Num 10:2-10 . And what the Psalmist calls the joyful sound. Psa 89:15 . But, Reader! what joyful sound in the camp of Israel, could equal that which the gospel brings of ransom to poor captive sinners, in the complete redemption by the LORD JESUS? Is it not now that the jubilee trumpet is sounded in the day (which is a continued day in all its saving effects) of his atonement? And is not the same trumpet forever sounding the acceptable year of the LORD. Isa 61:2 , with Luk 4:18-19 . Pause, my soul, and ask thyself, whether thou hast heard this joyful sound, now in the present day of grace; by which alone thou wilt be looking forward, with a pleasing hope of hearing that trumpet sound in the day of judgment; when all that are in their graves shall come forth. Joh 5:28-29 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Lev 25:8 And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.
Ver. 8. Seven Sabbaths of years. ] See on Lev 25:4 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
seven sabbaths of years. 7 x 7 = 49. See App-10.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Lev 23:15, Gen 2:2
Reciprocal: Lev 4:6 – seven times Lev 25:21 – three years Jos 6:4 – seven times Dan 9:24 – Seventy weeks Luk 4:19 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Lev 25:8. Thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee Besides the rest of the seventh year, God now appoints, as another perpetual ordinance, that every fiftieth year should be celebrated as an extraordinary year of rest, freedom, and rejoicing, of which public notice was to be given through the whole country, by sound of trumpet. On this year every ancient owner of lands and estates, that had been alienated by sale, was to be restored to his possession; and every Israelitish slave set at perfect liberty, to return to the family to which he belonged. So that how often soever an estate had been sold or alienated between one jubilee and another, or how many hands soever it had passed through, yet, in fifty years, or at the next jubilee, it must return to the heirs of the persons who were first possessed of it. All this was intended to shadow forth that true liberty from mens spiritual debts and slaveries which was to be purchased by Christ, and to be published to the world by the sound of the gospel.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Lev 25:8-38. The Year of Jubile.This law contains two large provisions, the return of estates to their original owners, and the liberation of Hebrew slaves, both in the fiftieth year. It also contains a section which refers to the sabbatical year (Lev 25:17-24) and a law against the exploitation of poor Israelites (Lev 25:35-38). Of these the second at least (as perhaps the first) belongs to H. With the law of Jubile the case is different (see p. 102). A right of redemption certainly did exist (cf. Ruth 3 and Jer 32:7, and the reference to the year of liberty, Eze 46:17); but where we should have expected a reference to this law had it been known (Isa 5:8, Mic 2:5, Neh 5:11; Neh 10:31; cf. Chapman, Introd. to Pent., p. 129) there is a significant silence. It is easiest to understand the appearance of the law if we suppose the idea of the Jubile to have arisen after the downfall of the Judan kingdom, when the evils of the latifundia could be attacked by legislators who could work, as it were, in vacuo. As an ideal, however, it deserves high praise, and it forms the most explicit statement of the two deep-rooted Hebrew convictions, alike social and religious, that the unlimited growth of estates was contrary to the will of Yahweh, the real and sole owner of the land (see especially Lev 25:23), and that Hebrews must always be treated by Hebrews in the last resort as brothers. The section contains many marks of the special language of H, though it has apparently been worked over later.
Lev 25:8-18. The Proclamation of the Year of Release.The analogy between Jubile and Pentecost is clear. Jubile is probably derived from a word meaning ram (rams horn trumpet). On the seventh month as the beginning of the year, cf. Leviticus 16. According to this law, there can be no permanent alienation or sale of property (cf. 1Ki 21:1-16), but only a lease, with its price regulated according to the distance of the Jubile year.
Lev 25:19-22. A practical difficulty connected with the seventh year of fallow (cf. Lev 25:6). It seems to be here assumed that the year begins in spring (as according to the later reckoning), hence there is neither harvest nor sowing; thus in the next year also there will be no harvest and nothing to eat till the harvest of the year after. It is said that in modern Palestine when a field lies fallow there is no sowing till after three seasons ploughing. This difficulty, however, is not implied in Exo 23:10 f. For the sentiment, cf. Exo 16:23.
Lev 25:23-28. Redemption at the Jubile.If possible, alienated land is to be redeemed before the Jubile, if necessary by the help of a relative. In each case, the price is to be in proportion to the interval before the fiftieth year, when the land will go out, i.e. revert to its original owner automatically.
Lev 25:29-34. Urban Property.An exception is made in this case: if not repurchased within a year the transference is absolute. The general idea of redemption goes back to the period when Hebrew life was almost entirely agricultural and rural, and walled cities mostly Canaanite. Levitical property, however, does not come under this exception; Lev 25:33 should probably read. If a Levite does not redeem his property before the jubile, it shall revert to him then.
Lev 25:35-38. Generosity.A broad command to prevent anything approaching pauperism, characteristic of H. The same rule is obeyed by the different castes in India and makes a poor-law unnecessary. Usury does not simply mean unwarrantably high interest. In a community of small holders, to ask a return for a loan would be to take an unneighbourly advantage of anothers need (p. 112).
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
2. The year of jubilee 25:8-55
"The Jubilee legislation found in Leviticus 25 presents a vision of social and economic reform unsurpassed in the ancient Near East." [Note: Robert Gnuse, "Jubilee Legislation in Leviticus: Israel’s Vision of Social Reform," Biblical Theology Bulletin 15:2 (April 1985):43.]
The word "jubilee" probably comes from the Hebrew yabal, meaning "to bring [forth]," as in the bringing forth of produce. [Note: See Robert North, Sociology of the Biblical Jubilee, pp. 96-97.] The year of jubilee did for the land what the Day of Atonement did for the people. This year removed the disturbance or confusion of God’s will for the land that resulted from the activity of sinners eventually. During this year God brought the land back into the condition that He intended for it. The fact that the priests announced the year of jubilee on the Day of Atonement (Lev 25:9) confirms this correspondence.
"The main purpose of these laws is to prevent the utter ruin of debtors." [Note: Wenham, The Book . . ., p. 317.]
However this law also remedied the evils of slavery, destitution, and exhausting toil.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The observance of the year of jubilee 25:8-12
The Israelites were to observe the year of jubilee every fiftieth year, the year following seven seven-year periods. Wenham believed the jubilee was a short year only 49 days long inserted into the seventh month of the forty-ninth year [Note: Ibid., p. 319. See the discussion in Ross, pp. 458-59.] This is a minority view. On the Day of Atonement of that year a priest was to blow the ram’s horn (shophar) to announce the beginning of the jubilee year. The use of the ram’s horn was significant. With this horn God announced His descent on Mt. Sinai, called Israel to be His people, received them into His covenant, united them to Himself, and began to bless them (Exo 19:13; Exo 19:16; Exo 19:19; Exo 20:18). The year began on the Day of Atonement ". . . to show that it was only with the full forgiveness of sins that the blessed liberty of the children of God could possibly commence." [Note: Keil and Delitzsch, 2:458.]
No sowing or reaping was to take place, as during the sabbatical years (Lev 25:11). God promised to provide for His people as they rested in response to His gracious promise (Lev 25:18-23).
"As Israel is God’s servant, so the land is Israel’s servant. As Israel must cease from her daily work and be restored, so the land must cease from its annual work and be restored. Thus there is a horizontal implementation of the vertical covenant relationship; the redemption of Israelites who lost their freedom and property comes in the year of jubilee (Lev 25:8-12; Lev 25:28), the fiftieth year." [Note: Herold H. P. Dressler, "The Sabbath in the Old Testament," in From Sabbath to Lord’s Day, pp. 30-31.]
"The Year of Jubilee is not mentioned in the Old Testament outside the Pentateuch. There is no direct biblical evidence regarding its observance in Israel’s history, but if its practice was normal, there might have been no occasion to mention it. On the other hand, the apparent failure of Israelites to keep the sabbatical years during the monarchial period (cf. Lev 26:34-35; Lev 26:43; 2Ch 36:20-21) suggests that the Jubilee might also have been violated." [Note: Lindsey, p. 211.]
Lev 25:10 is the motto on the Liberty Bell that hangs in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
THE JUBILEE
Lev 25:8-12
“And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and there shall be unto thee the days of seven sabbaths of years, even forty and nine years. Then shalt thou send abroad the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month; in the day of atonement shall ye send abroad the trumpet throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of the undressed vines. For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field.”
The remainder of this chapter, Lev 25:8-55, is occupied with this ordinance of the jubilee year; an observance absolutely without a parallel in any nation, and which has to do with the solution of some of the most difficult social problems, not only of that time, but also of our own. Seven weeks of years, each terminating with the sabbatic year of solemn rest for the land, were to be numbered, i.e., forty-nine full years, of which the last was a sabbatic year, beginning, as always, with the feast of atonement in the tenth day of the seventh month. And then when, at its expiration, the day of atonement came round again, at the beginning of the fiftieth year of this reckoning, at the close, as would appear, of the solemn expiatory ritual of the day, throughout all the land of Israel the loud trumpet was to be sounded, proclaiming “liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.” The ordinance is given in Lev 25:8-12 above.
It appears that the liberty thus proclaimed was threefold:
(1) liberty to the man who, through the reverses of life, had become dispossessed from his family inheritance in the land, to return to it again;
(2) liberty to every Hebrew slave, so that in the jubilee he became a free man again;
(3) the liberty of release from toil in the cultivation of the land, -a feature, in this case, even more remarkable than in the sabbatic year, because already one such sabbatic year had but just closed when the jubilee year immediately succeeded.
Why this year should be called a jubilee (Hebrews yobel) is a vexed question, on which scholars are far from unanimous; but as it is of no practical importance, there is no need to enter on the discussion here. To suppose that these enactments should have originated, as the radical critics claim, in post-exilian days, when, under the existing social and political conditions, their observance was impossible, is utterly absurd. Not only so, but in view of the admitted neglect even of the sabbatic year, -an ordinance certainly less difficult to carry out in practice, -during four hundred and ninety years of Israels history, the supposition that the law of the jubilee should have been first promulgated at any earlier post-Mosaic period is scarcely less incredible.