1Jehovah spoke to Moses [while he was] on Mount Sinai and told him, 2‘Speak to the children of Israel and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving to you, the ground must [be allowed] to rest during its Sabbaths to Jehovah. 3You may plant your fields, prune your vines, and gather their fruitage for six years, 4but the seventh year will be a Sabbath during which the land should rest. During this Sabbath to Jehovah, you may not plant your fields, prune your vines, 5or gather anything that starts to grow of its own in your fields. Nor may you completely gather the sacred grapes, for it is to be a year of rest for the ground. 6For, during the Sabbaths on the land, [there will be enough] food for you, your male and female servants, those who work for you, and for any aliens that live among you. 7And as for your cattle and the wild animals that live on your land; they may eat anything that they wish. 8‘Then you must keep track and [count off] seven Sabbaths of years (seven times seven years) to make seven weeks of years, or forty-nine years. 9Then in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month (on the Day of Atonement), you must sound a trumpet and send out a proclamation throughout the entire land with trumpeting. 10For that year (the fiftieth year) is holy, and you must proclaim a Release on the land and upon all that live on it. For it is to be a year of setting free. It’s a Signal to you that each person may return to his home and family. 11‘The fiftieth year must be a Signal of Release among you. You may not plant, nor may you harvest any of the produce that grows from the ground on its own, or gather any of its sacred fruit. 12For it is to be the Signal of Release, and it must be holy to you, so you must eat the [stored] crops that you have taken from the fields. 13‘In the year of the Release Signal, everyone must [be allowed] to return home. 14And if you sell [your land] to a neighbor, or if you should buy your neighbor’s [land], it should not be [held permanently]. 15So, count the number of years after each Release [Year] when you purchase [land] from your neighbor, then [figure out] how many years [you may own it] and how much you will likely harvest from it… 16the more years, the higher the [land’s] value. And when there are few years, there is less value, for there will be fewer crops, so [the price] should be [set lower]. 17No man should oppress his neighbor, for you must fear your God Jehovah. I am Jehovah your God. 18‘You must keep all My Laws and all My decisions and obey them. For if you follow and obey them, you will live in the land in safety, 19the ground will provide abundant yields, you will have plenty to eat, and you will live there in security. 20‘Now, if you should ask, What will we eat during the seventh year, if we don’t plant anything or pick our fruit? 21I will send My blessings in the sixth year, and the land will [have] produced abundant crops during [the previous] three years. 22Then you will start planting again in the eighth year, and eat from your stored crops until the ninth year… until its crop comes in, you will eat from the stored crops. 23‘No land can be sold permanently, for all the land is Mine, and you are just aliens and travelers before Me. 24So, any land that you [buy] must also be allowed to be repurchased. 25Therefore, if your brother who lives near you is poor and has to sell [you] some of his land, and his relative should come to assist him, he must be allowed to buy back the land that his brother has sold. 26Or if he has no such relative, and he starts to prosper and finds enough money to buy back [the land] himself, 27he must calculate how many years the land has been sold, and pay the person who he sold it to a fair amount, and then it should be returned. 28But if he hasn’t prospered enough to buy back the property, the one who bought it will own the land through the sixth year before the year of Release; then it should be returned, and its owner may go back to his land. 29– 30– 31– 32– 33– 34– 35‘And if your brother who lives among you becomes poor and needs to [borrow money] from you; you must help him as you would an alien or a traveler, and allow your brother to keep living among you. 36You must not charge him interest or [tell him] to pay you more, for you must fear your God. I am Jehovah… and you must [help] your brother to keep living among you. 37You must not lend your money to him with interest, and you must not lend him any food and expect him to pay you back with more. 38For I am Jehovah your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of CanaAn… and to be your God. 39‘And if your brother should become so bad off that he sells himself to you, he must not serve you and work as your slave. 40You must treat him like a hired person or as a traveler, and he will only work for you until the Year of Release. 41Then during the Release, he and his children will leave as a family, and they will hurry back to their family possession, 42because they are My servants who I brought out of the land of Egypt. So they can’t be sold as slaves, 43nor may you force them into hard labor, for you must fear Jehovah your God. 44‘If you choose to purchase male and female slaves, buy them from the nations that that live around you. 45You may also buy the sons of the travelers that live among you. You may buy them and their relatives… all that live in your land may become your possession 46and may be left as an inheritance to your children after you, and be your [family] possession through the ages. However, you must never oppress your brothers of the children of Israel by forcing them to do hard labor. 47‘And if an alien or a traveler who lives among you should become rich, and your brother who is in need is sold to the alien or traveler that lives among you, or to an [Israelite] convert; 48after he has been sold, one of his brothers should buy him back. 49An uncle, a cousin, or another close relative from his tribe must be allowed to buy him… or if he gets wealthy, he may buy himself back. 50‘The person who buys him must calculate how many years there are from the time he sold himself until the Year of Release, and pay the amount that would be paid to a hired person during that number of years. 51And if anyone has [enough money] to pay [the wages] for all those years, he must pay the ransom. 52And if there is just a short time until the Year of Release, then he will pay the ransom [for that short period]. 53[And the person who buys him] must treat him as hired help through the years… you must not force him into hard labor! 54‘And if he can’t pay his own fair ransom, he and his children must be set free in the Year of Release. 55For the children of Israel are My servants… they are My attendants who I brought out of the land of Egypt.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 2 SABBATH OF THE SEVENTH YEAR. (
Lev 25:1-
Lev 25:7)
When ye come into the land which I give you--It has been questioned on what year, after the occupation of Canaan, the sabbatic year began to be observed. Some think it was the seventh year after their entrance. But others, considering that as the first six years were spent in the conquest and division of the land (
Josh 5:12), and that the sabbatical year was to be observed after six years of agriculture, maintain that the observance did not commence till the fourteenth year.
the land keep a sabbath unto the Lord--This was a very peculiar arrangement. Not only all agricultural processes were to be intermitted every seventh year, but the cultivators had no right to the soil. It lay entirely fallow, and its spontaneous produce was the common property of the poor and the stranger, the cattle and game. This year of rest was to invigorate the productive powers of the land, as the weekly Sabbath was a refreshment to men and cattle. It commenced immediately after the feast of ingathering, and it was calculated to teach the people, in a remarkable manner, the reality of the presence and providential power of God.
8 THE JUBILEE. (Lev. 25:8-23)
thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years--This most extraordinary of all civil institutions, which received the name of "Jubilee" from a Hebrew word signifying a musical instrument, a horn or trumpet, began on the tenth day of the seventh month, or the great day of atonement, when, by order of the public authorities, the sound of trumpets proclaimed the beginning of the universal redemption. All prisoners and captives obtained their liberties, slaves were declared free, and debtors were absolved. The land, as on the sabbatic year, was neither sowed nor reaped, but allowed to enjoy with its inhabitants a sabbath of repose; and its natural produce was the common property of all. Moreover, every inheritance throughout the land of Judea was restored to its original owner.
10 ye shall hallow the fiftieth year--Much difference of opinion exists as to whether the jubilee was observed on the forty-ninth, or, in round numbers, it is called the fiftieth. The prevailing opinion, both in ancient and modern times, has been in favor of the latter.
12 ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field, &c.--All that the ground yielded spontaneously during that period might be eaten for their necessary subsistence, but no persons were at liberty to hoard or form a private stock in reserve.
13 ye shall return every man unto his possession, &c.--Inheritances, from whatever cause, and how frequently soever they had been alienated, came back into the hands of the original proprietors. This law of entail, by which the right heir could never be excluded, was a provision of great wisdom for preserving families and tribes perfectly distinct, and their genealogies faithfully recorded, in order that all might have evidence to establish their right to the ancestral property. Hence the tribe and family of Christ were readily discovered at his birth.
17 Ye shall not oppress one another, but thou shalt fear thy God--This, which is the same as
Lev 25:14, related to the sale or purchase of possessions and the duty of paying an honest and equitable regard, on both sides, to the limited period during which the bargain could stand. The object of the legislator was, as far as possible, to maintain the original order of families, and an equality of condition among the people.
21 I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years, &c.--A provision was made, by the special interposition of God, to supply the deficiency of food which would otherwise have resulted from the suspension of all labor during the sabbatic year. The sixth year was to yield a miraculous supply for three continuous years. And the remark is applicable to the year of Jubilee as well as the sabbatic year. (See allusions to this extraordinary provision in
2Kgs 19:29;
Isa 37:30). None but a legislator who was conscious of acting under divine authority would have staked his character on so singular an enactment as that of the sabbatic year; and none but a people who had witnessed the fulfilment of the divine promise would have been induced to suspend their agricultural preparations on a recurrence of a periodical Jubilee.
23 The land shall not be sold for ever--or, "be quite cut off," as the Margin better renders it. The land was God's, and, in prosecution of an important design, He gave it to the people of His choice, dividing it among their tribes and families--who, however, held it of Him merely as tenants-at-will and had no right or power of disposing of it to strangers. In necessitous circumstances, individuals might effect a temporary sale. But they possessed the right of redeeming it, at any time, on payment of an adequate compensation to the present holder; and by the enactments of the Jubilee they recovered it free--so that the land was rendered inalienable. (See an exception to this law,
Lev 27:20).
29 if a man sell a dwelling house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold--All sales of houses were subject to the same condition. But there was a difference between the houses of villages (which, being connected with agriculture, were treated as parts of the land) and houses possessed by trading people or foreigners in walled towns, which could only be redeemed within the year after the sale; if not then redeemed, these did not revert to the former owner at the Jubilee.
32 Notwithstanding the cities of the Levites, &c.--The Levites, having no possessions but their towns and their houses, the law conferred on them the same privileges that were granted to the lands of the other Israelites. A certain portion of the lands surrounding the Levitical cities was appropriated to them for the pasturage of their cattle and flocks (
Num 35:4-
Num 35:5). This was a permanent endowment for the support of the ministry and could not be alienated for any time. The Levites, however, were at liberty to make exchanges among themselves; and a priest might sell his house, garden, and right of pasture to another priest, but not to an Israelite of another tribe (
Jer 41:7-
Jer 41:9).
35 if thy brother be waxen poor, . . . relieve him--This was a most benevolent provision for the poor and unfortunate, designed to aid them or alleviate the evils of their condition. Whether a native Israelite or a mere sojourner, his richer neighbor was required to give him food, lodging, and a supply of money without usury. Usury was severely condemned (
Ps 15:5;
Ezek 18:8,
Ezek 18:17), but the prohibition cannot be considered as applicable to the modern practice of men in business, borrowing and lending at legal rates of interest.
39 if thy brother . . . be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee, thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bond-servant--An Israelite might be compelled, through misfortune, not only to mortgage his inheritance, but himself. In the event of his being reduced to this distress, he was to be treated not as a slave, but a hired servant whose engagement was temporary, and who might, through the friendly aid of a relative, be redeemed at any time before the Jubilee. The ransom money was determined on a most equitable principle. Taking account of the number of years from the proposal to redeem and the Jubilee, of the current wages of labor for that time, and multiplying the remaining years by that sum, the amount was to be paid to the master for his redemption. But if no such friendly interposition was made for a Hebrew slave, he continued in servitude till the year of Jubilee, when, as a matter of course, he regained his liberty, as well as his inheritance. Viewed in the various aspects in which it is presented in this chapter, the Jubilee was an admirable institution, and subservient in an eminent degree to uphold the interests of religion, social order, and freedom among the Israelites.