Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament
(yôbēl). Trumpet, ram's horn, jubilee. This noun is most likely derived from the root yābal (BDB), though some think the root is more appropriately ybl "toss" or the Phoenician ybl "ram." From usage, it appears that two roots may be represented in the singular noun form. The horn employed to call assemblies and announce one's presence in Ex 19:13 and Josh 6 most likely derives from the Phoenician ybl "ram," since the horn is probably made from the ram's horn. This term is distinct from šōpār which is the general and most common word for any kind of trumpet or horn. Some think the yôbēl in Josh 6 refers to the same "horn" that is employed at the beginning of the year of jubilee. On the other hand, this noun in Lev and Num is never translated, but transliterated by the word "jubilee." The context of these passages is the "year of jubilee" when the land lies fallow, all possessions (especially the land, its produce, and slaves) revert to the original owners, and produce is provided for the people by Yahweh's blessing upon the land in the previous year, therefore it seems that the derivation of "jubilee" is probably from yābal "to bring (forth)." The produce is "brought forth" to provide for the fallow jubilee year, and property is "brought" or "returned" to the original owners. The "year of jubilee" begins with the blast of the šōpār on the Day of Atonement each fiftieth year. It is a year that is holy (separated) unto Yahweh (Lev 25:10–15).[1]
Holman Bible Dictionary
YEAR OF JUBILEE The fiftieth year after seven cycles of seven years (Leviticus 25:10) in which The Year of Jubilee prevented the Israelites from oppression of one another (Leviticus 25:17). It had a leveling effect of This year was a constant reminder of God's interest in economic freedom (Ezekiel 46:17). Purchase of property was actually tantamount to assuming a lease for a maximum of forty-nine years, and the seller always retained the right to cancel the purchase by settling with the buyer on the amount of money that was still payable, taking into account the number of years that the buyer had made use of the property. If the seller was either incapable or not desirous of making use of this right of redemption, the property nevertheless returned to his possession automatically in the next Year of Jubilee. So the sale of a house, for example, was equivalent to renting it for a specified period of time (Leviticus 25:29-34). This made it difficult to accumulate vast permanent holdings of wealth (compare Isaiah 5:8; Micah 2:2). God's designed arrangement was against both large estates and pauperism. The Israelites were repeatedly given the opportunity to begin anew, and the impoverished were enabled to maintain themselves in society. This year also reflected God's provision for the soil's conservation (Leviticus 25:11-12,Leviticus 25:18-21). During the Year of Jubilee, the Israelites were once again taught that they were to live in faith that the Lord would satisfy their needs (compare Exodus 16:17-18). |
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Adam Clarke
Chapter 25 The law concerning the Sabbatical or seventh year repeated, 1-7. The law relative to the jubilee, or fiftieth year, and the hallowing of the fiftieth, 8-12. In the year of jubilee every one to return unto his possessions, 13. None to oppress another in buying and selling, 14. Purchases to be rated from jubilee to jubilee, according to the number of years unexpired, 15-17. Promises to obedience, 18,19. Promises relative to the Sabbatical year, 20-22. No inheritance must be finally alienated, 23,24. No advantage to be taken of a man's poverty in buying his land, 25-28. Ordinances relative to the selling of a house in a walled city, 29,30; in a village, 31. Houses of the Levites may be redeemed at any time, 32,33. The fields of the Levites in the suburbs must not be sold, 34. No usury to be taken from a poor brother, 35-38. If an Israelite be sold to an Israelite, he must not be obliged to serve as a slave, 39, but be as a hired servant or as a sojourner, till the year of jubilee, 40, when he and his family shall have liberty to depart, 41; because God claims all Israelites as his servants, having redeemed them from bondage in Egypt, 42,43. The Israelites are permitted to have bond-men and bond-women of the heathens, who, being bought with their money, shall be considered as their property, 44-46. If an Israelite, grown poor, be sold to a sojourner who has waxed rich, he may be redeemed by one of his relatives, an uncle or uncle's son, 47-49. In the interim between the jubilees, he may be redeemed; but if not redeemed, he shall go free in the jubilee, 50-54. Obedience enforced by God's right over them as his servants, 55. Notes on Chapter 25 Verse 2. The land keep a Sabbath Verse 8. Thou shalt number seven Sabbaths of years Verse 11. A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be The jubilee seems to have been typical, 1. Of the great time of release, the Gospel dispensation, when all who believe in Christ Jesus are redeemed from the bondage of sin-repossess the favour and image of God, the only inheritance of the human soul, having all debts cancelled, and the right of inheritance restored. To this the prophet Isaiah seems to allude, Isaiah 26:13, and particularly Isaiah 61:1-3. 2. Of the general resurrection. "It is," says Mr. Parkhurst, "a lively prefiguration of the grand consummation of time, which will be introduced in like manner by the trump of God, 1 Corinthians 15:52, when the children and heirs of God shall be delivered from all their forfeitures, and restored to the eternal inheritance allotted to them by their Father; and thenceforth rest from their labours, and be supported in life and happiness by what the field of God shall supply." It is worthy of remark that the jubilee was not proclaimed till the tenth day of the seventh month, on the very day when the great annual atonement was made for the sins of the people; and does not this prove that the great liberty or redemption from thraldom, published under the Gospel, could not take place till the great Atonement, the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, had been offered up? See Leviticus 25:9. Verse 14. Ye shall not oppress one another Verse 15. According to the number of years Verse 20. What shall we eat the seventh year? Verse 23. The land shall not be sold for ever-the land is mine Verse 25. Any of his kin come to redeem it Verse 29. Sell a dwelling house in a walled city Verse 32. The cities of the Levites Verse 36. Take thou no usury of him Verse 42. For they are my servants Verse 43. Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour Verse 50. The price of his sale shall be, Verse 55. For unto me the children of THE jubilee was a wonderful institution, and was of very great service to the religion, freedom, and independence of the Jewish people. "The motive of this law," says Calmet, "was to prevent the rich from oppressing the poor, and reducing them to perpetual slavery; and that they should not get possession of all the lands by way of purchase, mortgage, or, lastly, usurpation. That debts should not be multiplied too much, lest thereby the poor should be entirely ruined; and that slaves should not continue always, they, their wives and children, in servitude. Besides, Moses intended to preserve, as much as possible, personal liberty, an equality of property, and the regular order of families, among the Hebrews. Lastly, he designed that the people should be strongly attached to their country, lands, and inheritances; that they should have an affection for them, and consider them as estates which descended to them from their ancestors which they were to leave to their posterity, without any fear of their going ultimately out of their families." But this institution especially pointed out the redemption of man by Christ Jesus: 1. Through him, he who was in debt to God's justice had his debt discharged, and his sin forgiven. 2. He who sold himself for naught, who was a bondslave of sin and Satan, regains his liberty and becomes a son of God through faith in his blood. 3. He who by transgression had forfeited all right and title to the kingdom of God, becomes an heir of God, and a joint heir with Christ. Heaven, his forfeited inheritance, is restored, for the kingdom of heaven is open to all believers; and thus, redeemed from his debt, restored to his liberty, united to the heavenly family, and re-entitled to his inheritance, he goes on his way rejoicing, till he enters the paradise of his Maker, and is for ever with the Lord. Reader, hast thou applied for this redemption? Does not the trumpet of the jubilee, the glad tidings of salvation by Christ Jesus, sound in the land? Surely it does. Why then continue a bond-slave of sin, a child of wrath, and an heir of hell, when such a salvation is offered unto thee without money and without price? O suffer not this provision to be made ultimately in vain for thee! For what art thou advantaged if thou gain the whole world and lose thy soul? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright Statement Bibliography Information |
Tyndale Concise Bible Dictionary
JUBILEE YEAR* Year of emancipation and restoration to be kept every 50 years. For
The word "jubilee" simply means a ram's horn; it came to mean a trumpet made from or in the shape of a ram's horn. Such horns were exclusively for religious use. The sacred trumpet gave its name to the year of the ram's horn, the jubilee year—a year to which the people of God were summoned in a striking and holy way. It was not simply a release from labor, not just a rest, but a year belonging to the Lord. In Leviticus 25 this exact expression occurs in connection with the seventh year rather than expressly with the jubilee year. Functionally such a year was a Sabbath rest for the land, and it brought enjoyment "to the Lord" (Lv 25:4). But nothing could more directly express the implications and orientations of the 50th year.
Lordship The first principle of the jubilee is God's lordship over the whole earth, acknowledged by his people in their obedience to his command to set the year aside in this way. Just as the Sabbath expressed his right to order life, giving it the shape of six days' work and one day's rest, and just as the seventh year, linked in Deuteronomy 31:9–13 with the reading of his law, expressed his right to command the obedience of his people, so the 50th year expressed his sovereign possession of all: land, people, means of production, and life itself. Take the typical case of debtor and creditor. When God brought his people into possession of the land, he gave to each his inheritance. In a given circumstance a man might be compelled to sell his land in whole or part, but it must come back to him: "The land must never be sold on a permanent basis because it really belongs to me. You are only foreigners and tenants living with me" (Lv 25:23, nlt). In this verse "foreigners" carries the meaning "stateless persons," "refugees," "those who have sought political asylum"—in a word, those who have no rights except what mercy concedes. Such are the people of God and such they must acknowledge themselves to be when the jubilee year comes around. When a piece of real estate changed hands, the seller might congratulate himself on the astuteness with which he had solved his problem, and the buyer might rejoice in his skillful acquisitiveness, but in the Year of Jubilee seller and buyer alike are compelled to confess a different truth: neither is master, either of his own welfare or of the person and goods of another. Each has a Master in heaven.
Redemption According to the ordinance, the trumpet that heralded the year was sounded on the Day of Atonement (Lv 25:9). That was the day on which the Lord proclaimed his people clean before him from all their sins (16:30). Forgiveness of sins ushered in the jubilee year. The verb "to redeem" and the noun "redemption" had a strong commercial use in the recovery of property pledged against loans of money, and in the 50th year these words would have sounded and resounded as debtors confessed that they could not "redeem" and creditors forewent their "redemption" rights, each using the very vocabulary of the Lord's action at the exodus (Ex 6:6). This is what the Lord had done for his people, and the divine action must be the norm of the human. Brotherly generosity is urged (Lv 25:35–38), liberty is granted (vv 39–43), and slavery in perpetuity is forbidden (vv 47–55) simply because the divine redemptive act makes the redeemed into brothers, brings them into the Lord's servitude, and cancels the bondage that would otherwise be theirs forever.
Rest The correlative of redemption is rest. This rest is vividly illustrated and enforced as Moses legislates rest from all the toil connected with promoting next year's crop (Lv 25:4); rest from the toil of harvesting, for the people of God were to live hand to mouth, gathering only what and when need dictated (vv 5–7); rest from the anxious burden of debts incurred; and rest from slavery (vv 10). Like the Sabbath, this rest would have meant exactly what it said: freedom from toil; relaxation, refreshment, and recreation. Very likely tiredness was as endemic among the people of God then as now, and grace drew near to give them a holiday. But equally with the Sabbath, release from the preoccupations of staying alive created time to be preoccupied with the Lord, his worship, his Word, and the life that pleases him. We can understand Isaiah 58 as binding the ideals of Sabbath and jubilee together. The Lord frees his people not for unbroken idleness but for the redirection of life toward himself. The jubilee year was thus a deliberate opting out of the rat race; it called a halt to acquisitiveness; it abandoned concern over the pressure to stay alive. It reordered priorities, giving a chance to appraise the use of time and the selection of objectives. For a whole year the people of God stood back, rested, ceased from the good in order to attain the best.
Faith But this standing back from life was not in the style of a dropout. It was the action of responsible faith. No one on earth can escape questions such as "What shall we eat?" The Lord foresees and provides (Lv 25:20); grace provides so that God's people can enjoy the ordinances of grace (cf. Ex 16:29). When he commands a year off, he enables them to take it. The 50th year was a living testimony to his faithfulness. The last season of sowing and reaping would have been the 49th year; in the final 7th year in the series the people would live off the casual growth; and in the 50th year nothing but the sheer attentive faithfulness of their God could provide for them (Lv 25:21). Here indeed their faith would be put to the test, for God spoke a word of majestic promise and called on them to believe. At the heart of their jubilee they took God at his word and found him faithful.
Obedience Biblically, it is a central characteristic of the people of God that they do what he commands for no other reason than that he commands it. In the ordinance of the 50th year the people of God must show themselves as his obedient ones, and in fact their obedience is the guarantee of continuance in the land he has granted to them. Thus, for example, Leviticus 26:34–35 teaches that loss of tenure and loss of liberty is directly related to contravention of the principle of the Sabbath, found on the seventh day, seventh year, and jubilee year. Refusal to obey goes hand in hand with loss of possession, leaving behind an empty land, which then enjoys the Sabbath rest it never received from its disobedient inhabitants.
Hope In the 50th year the people lived in the light of the forgiveness of sins, walked by obedience in harmony with the God who redeemed them, and in freedom from toil, received from the ground its life-sustaining benefits without any sweat on their brows (Gn 2:16; 3:19). It was a sort of Eden restored, the curse momentarily held in abeyance—but also a prolonged foretaste of the coming day when the promises would all be fulfilled, the blood of the covenant efficacious without hindrance, the prisoners of hope (i.e., who had waited in hope for their release) freed, and the trumpet of liberation heard throughout the world (Is 27:13; Zec 9:11–14). The Year of Jubilee in a limited but real way foreshadowed what would yet be the eternal inheritance and bliss of the people of God.
See also Feasts and Festivals of Israel.[2]
Harper's Bible Dictionary
Jubilee, the fiftieth year occurring at the end of seven Sabbatical cycles of seven years each, in which all land was returned to its ancestral owners and all Israelite slaves were freed. The Jubilee is described in Lev. 25:8-17, 23-55; 27:16-25; and Num. 36:4. It was proclaimed with the blowing of the shophar (trumpet made from a ram's horn) on the Day of Atonement. (Hebrew yovel, 'Jubilee,' takes its name from the ram's horn.) The land was also left fallow in the Jubilee Year. The Jubilee was observed in the seventh Sabbatical in
Easton
Jubilee — a joyful shout or clangour of trumpets, the name of the great semi-centennial festival of the Hebrews. It lasted for a year. During this year the land was to be fallow, and the Israelites were only permitted to gather the spontaneous produce of the fields (Lev. 25:11, 12). All landed property during that year reverted to its original owner (13–34; 27:16–24), and all who were slaves were set free (25:39–54), and all debts were remitted.
The return of the jubilee year was proclaimed by a blast of trumpets which sounded throughout the land. There is no record in Scripture of the actual observance of this festival, but there are numerous allusions (Isa. 5:7, 8, 9, 10; 61:1, 2; Ezek. 7:12, 13; Neh. 5:1–19; 2 Chr. 36:21) which place it beyond a doubt that it was observed.
The advantages of this institution were manifold. "1. It would prevent the accumulation of land on the part of a few to the detriment of the community at large. 2. It would render it impossible for any one to be born to absolute poverty, since every one had his hereditary land. 3. It would preclude those inequalities which are produced by extremes of riches and poverty, and which make one man domineer over another. 4. It would utterly do away with slavery. 5. It would afford a fresh opportunity to those who were reduced by adverse circumstances to begin again their career of industry in the patrimony which they had temporarily forfeited. 6. It would periodically rectify the disorders which crept into the state in the course of time, preclude the division of the people into nobles and plebeians, and preserve the theocracy inviolate." [4]
יבל (21 / 21)
Lev 25:10 | | its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, |
Lev 25:11 | | fiftieth • year shall be a jubilee for you; in it |
Lev 25:12 | | For it is a jubilee. It shall be holy to you. |
Lev 25:13 | | In • this year of • jubilee each of you shall |
Lev 25:15 | | according to the number of years after the jubilee, |
Lev 25:28 | | until the year of • jubilee. • In the jubilee it |
Lev 25:28 | | jubilee. • In the jubilee it shall be released, |
Lev 25:30 | | throughout his generations; it shall not be released in the jubilee. |
Lev 25:31 | | and they shall be released in the jubilee. |
Lev 25:33 | | a city they possess shall be released in the jubilee. |
Lev 25:40 | | He shall serve with you until the year of the jubilee. |
Lev 25:50 | | jubilee, and the price of his sale shall vary with |
Lev 25:52 | | years until the year of • jubilee, • he shall calculate • • |
Lev 25:54 | | him shall be released in the year of • jubilee. |
Lev 27:17 | | jubilee, • the • valuation shall stand, |
Lev 27:18 | | the jubilee, then the priest shall calculate • • • |
Lev 27:18 | | jubilee, and a deduction shall be made from the • |
Lev 27:21 | | when it is released in the jubilee, shall be a holy |
Lev 27:23 | | jubilee, and the man shall give • the • |
Lev 27:24 | | jubilee the field shall return to him from • |
Num 36:4 | | And when the jubilee of the people of |
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
| Printed from the Blue Letter Bible International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia Jubilee Year (shenath ha-yobhel; etos tes apheseos; annus jubilaeus, "year of jubilee" (Le 25:13), or simply ha-yobhel, "the jubilee" (Le 25:28; compare Nu 36:4), the King James Version and the English Revised Version Jubile): The Hebrew word yobhel stands for qeren ha-yobhel, meaning the horn of a ram. Now, such a horn can be made into a trumpet, and thus the word yobhel came to be used as a synonym of trumpet. According to Le 25:9 a loud trumpet should proclaim liberty throughout the country on the 10th day of the 7th month (the Day of Atonement), after the lapse of 7 sabbaths of years = 49 years. In this manner, every 50th year was to be announced as a jubilee year. All real property should automatically revert to its original owner (Le 25:10; compare 25:13), and those who, compelled by poverty, had sold themselves as slaves to their brothers, should regain their liberty (Le 25:10; compare 25:39). In addition to this, the Jubilee Year was to be observed after the manner of the sabbatic year, i.e. there should be neither sowing nor reaping nor pruning of vines, and everybody was expected to live on what the fields and the vineyards produced "of themselves," and no attempt should be made at storing up the products of the land (Le 25:11 f). Thus there are three distinct factors constituting the essential features of the Jubilee Year: personal liberty, restitution of property, and what we might call the simple life. 1. Personal The 50th year was to be a time in which liberty should be proclaimed to all the inhabitants of the country. We should, indeed, diminish the import of this institution if we should apply it only to those who were to be freed from the bonds of physical servitude. Undoubtedly, they must have been the foremost in realizing its beneficial effects. But the law was intended to benefit all, the masters as well as the servants. They should never lose sight of their being brothers and citizens of theocratic kingdom. They owed their life to God and were subject to His sovereign will. Only through loyalty to Him were they free and could ever hope to be free and independent of all other masters. 2. Restitution of Property: The institution of the Jubilee Year should become the means of fixing the price of real property (Le 25:15 f; compare 25:25-28); moreover, it should exclude the possibility of selling any piece of land permanently (Le 25:23), the next verse furnishing the motive: "The land is mine: for ye are strangers and sojourners with me." The same rule was to be applied to dwelling-houses outside of the walled cities (Le 25:31), and also to the houses owned by Levites, although they were built within walled cities (Le 25:32). In the same manner the price of Hebrew slaves was to vary according to the proximity of the Jubilee Year (Le 25:47-54). This passage deals with the enslaving of a Hebrew by a foreigner living among the Jews; it goes without saying that the same rule would hold good in the case of a Hebrew selling himself to one of his own people. In Le 27:17-25 we find a similar arrangement respecting such lands that were "sanctified unto Yahweh." In all these cases the original owner was at liberty to redeem his property at any time, or have it redeemed by some of his nearest relatives (25:25-27,29,48 ff; 27:19). The crowning feature, though, was the full restitution of all real property in the Jubilee Year. The primary object of this regulation was, of course, the reversion of all hereditary property to the family which originally possessed it, and the reestablishment of the original arrangement regarding the division of the land. But that was not all; for this legal disposition and regulation of external matters was closely connected with the high calling of the Jewish people. It was a part of the Divine plan looking forward to the salvation of mankind. "The deepest meaning of it (the Jubilee Year) is to be found in the apokatastasis tes basileias tou theou, i.e. in the restoring of all that which in the course of time was perverted by man's sin, in the removing of all slavery of sin, in the establishing of the true liberty of the children of God, and in the delivering of the creation from the bondage of corruption to which it was subjected on account of man's depravity" (Ro 8:19 )( compare Keil, Manual of Biblical Archaeology). In the Year of Jubilee a great future era of Yahweh's favor is foreshadowed, that period which, according to Isa 61:1-3, shall be ushered in to all those that labor and are heavy laden, by Him who was anointed by the spirit of the Lord Yahweh. 3. The Simple Life: The Jubilee Year, being the crowning point of all sabbatical institutions, gave the finishing touch as it were to the whole cycle of sabbatic days, months and years. It is, therefore, quite appropriate that it should be a year of rest for the land like the preceding sabbatic year (Le 25:11 f). It follows, of course, that in this instance there were two years, one after the other, in which there should be no sowing or systematic ingathering. This seems to be clear from Le 25:18-22: "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." Thus in the 7th and 8th years the people were to live on what the fields had produced in the 6th year and whatever grew spontaneously. This shows the reason why we may say that one of the factors constituting the Jubilee Year was the "simple life." They could not help but live simply for two consecutive years. Nobody can deny that this afforded ample opportunity to develop the habit of living within very limited means. And again we see that this external part of the matter did not fully come up to the intention of the Lawgiver. It was not the simple life as such that He had in view, but rather the laying down of its moral and religious foundations. In this connection we must again refer to Le 25:18-22, "What shall we eat the seventh year?" The answer is very simple and yet of surpassing grandeur: "Then I will command my blessing upon you," etc. Nothing was expected of the people but faith in Yahweh and confidence in His power, which was not to be shaken by any doubtful reflection. And right here we have found the root of the simple life: no life without the true God, and no simplicity of life without true faith in Him. "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Mt 4:4; compare De 8:3). We may well ask: Did the Jewish people ever observe the Jubilee Year? There is no reason why they should not have observed it in pre-exilic times (compare Lotz in The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, X, under the word "Sabbatical Year" and "Year of Jubilee"). Perhaps they signally failed in it, and if so, we should not be surprised at all. Not that the institution in itself was cumbered with any obstacles that could not have been overcome; but what is more common than unbelief and unwillingness to trust absolutely in Yahweh? Or, was it observed in post-exilic times? Here, too, we are in the dark. There is, indeed, a tradition according to which the Jubilee Year has never been observed—neither in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah nor at any later period. The truth of this seems to be corroborated by the silence of Josephus, who, while referring quite frequently to the sabbatic year, never once mentions the Year of Jubilee. Written by William Baur Cite This Page: (explanation of citations) Baur, William. "Jubilee Year," International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia. Edited by James Orr. Blue Letter Bible. 1913. 5 May 2003. 30 Dec 2006. |
Torrey's New Topical Textbook
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Feast of Jubilee, The Held every fiftieth year Began upon the day of atonement CALLED THE
Was specially holy Proclaimed by trumpets ENACTMENTS RESPECTING
Houses in walled cities not redeemed within a year, exempted from the benefit of Value of devoted property calculated from Illustrative of the Gospel |
Year of liberty Jewish Encyclopedia.Com
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= "trumpets of rams' horns"; Josh. vi. 4), though Ibn Ezra thinks it signifies the transfer of properties (comp. 
; Isa. xviii. 7). So important was the law regarding the jubilee that, like the Decalogue, it was ascribed to the legislation on 
, end); this result agrees with that of Maimonides, though it is reached by a different method of calculation. Rabbenu Hananeel claims that the closing of shebi'it—that is, shemi
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When will be the next Jubilee year?
by Rabbi Naftali Silberberg
The Jubilee year was only celebrated when all the Jews dwelled in the
When the Messiah comes, all the Jews will return to the Land of Israel and we will once again begin counting the years and celebrating the Jubilee
Very soon, when the Messiah comes, all the Jews will return to the Land of Israel
The Temple
The Sabbatical Year
Though not strictly connected with the
Smith's Bible Dictionary
- the name. --The name jubilee is derived from the Hebrew jobel , the joyful shout or clangor of trumpets, by which the year of jubilee was announced.
- The time of its celebration. --It was celebrated every fiftieth year, marking the half century; so that it followed the seventh sabbatic year, and for two years in succession the land lay fallow. It was announced by the blowing of trumpets on the day of atonement (about the 1st of October), the tenth day of the first month of the Israelites' civil year (the seventh of their ecclesiastical year).
- The laws connected with the jubilee. --These embrace three points: (1) Rest for the soil. (Leviticus 25:11,12) The land was to lie fallow, and there was to be no tillage as on the ordinary sabbatic year. The land was not to be sown, nor the vineyards and oliveyards dressed; and neither the spontaneous fruits of the soil nor the produce of the vine and olive was to be gathered, but all was to be left for the poor, the slave, the stranger and the cattle. (Exodus 23:10,11) The law was accompanied by a promise of treble fertility int he sixth year, the fruit of which was to be eaten till the harvest sown in the eighth year was reaped in the ninth. (Leviticus 25:20-22) But the people were not debarred from other sources of subsistence, nor was the year to be spent in idleness. They could fish and hunt, take care of their bees and flocks, repair their buildings and furniture, and manufacture their clothing. (2) Reversion of landed property. "The Israelites had a portion of land divided to each family by lot. This portion of the promised land they held of God, and were not to dispose of it as their property in fee-simple. Hence no Israelite could part with his landed estate but for a term of years only. When the jubilee arrived, it again reverted to the original owners." --Bush. This applied to fields and houses in the country and to houses of the Levites in walled cities; but other houses in such cities, if not redeemed within a year from their sale, remained the perpetual property of the buyer. (3) The manumission of those Israelites who had become slaves. "Apparently this periodic emancipation applied to every class of Hebrew servants --to him who had sold himself because he had become too poor to provide for his family, to him who had been taken and sold for debt, and to him who had been sold into servitude for crime. Noticeably, this law provides for the family rights of the servant." --Cowles' Hebrew History
- The reasons for the institution of the jubilee. --It was to be a remedy for those evils which accompany human society and human government; and had these laws been observed, they would have made the Jewish nation the most prosperous and perfect that ever existed. (1) The jubilee tended to abolish poverty. It prevented large and permanent accumulations of wealth. It gave unfortunate families an opportunity to begin over again with a fair start in life. It particularly favored the poor, without injustice to the rich. (2) It tended to abolish slavery, and in fact did abolish it; and it greatly mitigated it while it existed. "The effect of this law was at once to lift from the heart the terrible incubus of a life-long bondage --that sense of a hopeless doom which knows no relief till death." --Cowles. (3) "As an agricultural people, they would have much leisure; they would observe the sabbatic spirit of the year by using its leisure for the instruction of their families in the law, and for acts of devotion; and in accordance with this there was a solemn reading of the law to the people assembled at the feast of tabernacles." --Smith's larger Dictionary. (4) "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."
- Mode of celebration. --"The Bible says nothing of the mode of celebration, except that it was to be proclaimed by trumpets, and that it was to be a sabbatic year. Tradition tells us that every Israelite blew nine blasts, so as to make the trumpet literally 'sound throughout the land,' and that from the feast of trumpets or new year till the day of atonement (ten days after), the slaves were neither manumitted to return to their homes, nor made use of by their master, but ate, drank and rejoiced; and when the day of atonement came, the judges blew the trumpets, the slaves were manumitted to go to their homes, and the fields were set free." --McClintock and Strong.
- How long observed. --Though very little is said about its observance in the Bible history of the Jews, yet it is referred to, and was no doubt observed with more or less faithfulness, till the Babylonish captivity. --ED.)
Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology
Year beginning on the Day of Atonement every fiftieth year and proclaiming a nationwide release for Hebrew society. The word "jubilee" comes from the Hebrew word yobel, ("ram's horn") for the sounding of the ram's horn signalled the Jubilee's beginning. Another related Hebrew word is deror ("release, liberty").
The key text, Leviticus 25:8-55, describes the festival's three basic features. First, as in the sabbath year (Lev 25:2-7), the land was to be fallow. The people were not to farm the land, but were to eat what grew naturally. Both people and land should enjoy their release.
Second, all Hebrew slaves were to go free. The law allowed poor people to become slaves to pay their debts. Owners were to treat their Hebrew slaves kindly. All slaves were to be freed in the Year of Jubilee.
Third, the land reverted to its original owner. This practice ensured that no citizen would remain poor or a slave forever. A person who sold land to another was really selling a certain number of crops, so the number of years before the Jubilee, determined the sale price. Property within walled cities did not revert in the Year of Jubilee except for the property of the Levites, which was always redeemable. A few other modifications of the normal procedure also existed. Daughters who inherited land had to marry within their own tribes in order to keep the land (Num 36:4). The law also prevented individuals from abusing the reversion principle. People who vowed a portion of their fields to the Lord and then sold them to escape their vows could never get their land back; rather, the ownership transferred to the priests (Lev 27:21).
The Year of Jubilee contained two important theological implications. First, the land belonged to the Lord, who determined its proper use. The people were to avoid selfish accumulation of land (Isa 5:8), for it did not really belong to them. Second, God's people were to be free. Even when one was in slavery, redemption was possible. In any case, the Year of Jubilee freed all. Freedom was always the ultimate goal.
Unfortunately, evidence from the Old Testament seems to indicate that
Bryan E. Beyer
See also Feastsand Festivals of Israel
Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology. Edited by Walter A. Elwell
Copyright © 1996 by Walter A. Elwell. Published by Baker Books, a division of
Baker Book House Company,
All rights reserved. Used by permission.
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Bibliography Information
Elwell, Walter A. "Entry for 'Jubilee, Year of'". "Evangelical Dictionary of Theology". <http://www.biblestudytools.net/Dictionaries/BakerEvangelicalDictionary/bed.cgi?number=T394>. 1997.
Leviticus 25
John Wesley's Explanatory notes on the whole bible
Chapter Overview:
In token of his peculiar right to the
- That every seventh year should be a year of rest, ver. 1 - 7.
- That every fiftieth year should be a year of jubilee, ver. 8 - 17.
A peculiar blessing annext, ver. 18 - 22.
The land sold may be redeemed: if not, it shall revert at the year of jubilee, only with some exceptions, ver. 23 - 34.
Usury forbidden, ver. 35 - 38.
Jewish servants to be released at the jubilee, ver. 39.
but heathens might be retained, ver. 40 - 46.
Of an Israelite that sold himself to a stranger, ver. 47 - 55.
Verses:
In mount Sinai - That is, near mount Sinai. So the Hebrew particle beth is sometimes used. So there is no need to disturb the history in this place. | |
When ye come into the land - So as to be settled in it; for the time of the wars was not to be accounted, nor the time before Joshua's distribution of the land among them. Keep a sabbath - That is, enjoy rest and freedom from plowing, and tilling. Unto the Lord - In obedience and unto the honour of God. This was instituted,
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A sabbath of rest to the land - They were neither to do any work about it, nor expect any harvest from it. All yearly labours were to be intermitted in the seventh year, as much as daily labours on the seventh day. | |
Of its own accord - From the grains that fell out of the ears the last reaping time. Thou shalt not reap - That is, as thy own peculiarly, but only so as others may reap it with thee, for present food. Undressed - Not cut off by thee, but suffered to grow for the use of the poor. | |
The sabbath of the land - That is, the growth of the sabbath, or that fruit which groweth in the sabbatical year. For thy servant - For all promiscuously, to take food from thence as they need it. | |
The jubilee - Signified the true liberty from our spiritual debts and slaveries to be purchased by Christ, and to be published to the world by the sound of the gospel. The seventh month - Which was the first month of the year for civil affairs; the jubilee therefore began in that month; and, as it seems, upon this very tenth day, when the trumpet sounded, as other feasts generally began when the trumpet sounded. In the day of atonement - A very fit time, that when they fasted and prayed for God's mercy to them in the pardon of their sins, then they might exercise their charity to men in forgiving their debts; and to teach us, that the foundation of all solid comfort must be laid in repentance and atonement for our sins through Christ. | |
The fiftieth year - The year of jubilee was not the forty and ninth year, as some learned men think, but precisely the fiftieth. The old weekly sabbath is called the seventh day, because it truly was so, being next after the six days of the week and distinct from them all: and the year of release is called the seventh year, Leviticus 25:4, as immediately following the six years, Leviticus 25:3, and distinct from them all.And in like manner the jubilee is called the fiftieth year, because it comes next after seven tines seven or forty - nine years, Leviticus 25:8, and is distinct from them all. Unto all the inhabitants - Understand such as were Israelites; principally to all servants, even to such as would not and did not go out at the seventh year, and to the poor, who now were acquitted from all their debts, and restored to their possessions. Jubilee - So called either from the Hebrew word Jobel which signifies first a ram, and then a ram's horn, by the sound whereof it was proclaimed; or from Jubal the inventor of musical instruments, Genesis 4:21, because it was celebrated with music and all expressions ofjoy. Unto his possession - Which had been sold or otherwise alienated from him. This law was not at all unjust, because all buyers and sellers had an eye to this condition in their bargains; but it was expedient in many regards, as
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It shall be holy - So it was, because it was sequestered in great part from worldly employments and dedicated to God, and to the exercise of holy joy and thankfulness; and because it was a type of that holy and happy jubilee which they were to expect and enjoy under the Messiah. The increase thereof - Such things as it produced of itself. Out of the field - Whence they in common with others might take it as they needed it; but must not put it into barns, See Leviticus 25:5, and 23:11. | |
Ye shall not oppress - Neither the seller by requiring more, nor the buyer by taking the advantage from his brother's necessities to give him less than the worth of it. | |
Years of fruits - Or, fruitful years; for there were some unfruitful years; those wherein they were not allowed to sow or reap. | |
Years of fruits - Or, For the number of the fruits. The meaning is, he selleth not the land, but only the fruits thereof, and that for a certain time. | |
For three years - Not compleatly, but in great part, namely, for that part of the 6th year which was between the beginning of harvest and the beginning of the 7th year, for the whole 7th year, and for that part of the 8th year which was before the harvest, which reached almost until the beginning of the ninth year. This is added to shew the equity of this command. As God would hereby try their faith and obedience, so he gave them an eminent proof of his own exact providence and tender care over them in making provisions suitable to their necessities. | |
Old fruit - Of the sixth year principally, if not solely. | |
For ever - So as to be for ever alienated from the family of him that sells it. Or, absolutely and properly, so as to become the property of the buyer: Or, to the extermination or utter cutting off, namely, of the seller, from all hopes and possibility of redemption. The land is mine - Procured for you by my power, given to you by my grace and bounty, and the right of propriety reserved by me. With me - That is, in my land or houses: thus he is said to sojourn with another that dwells in his house. Howsoever in your own or other mens opinions you pass for lords and proprietors, yet in truth, ye are but strangers and sojourners, not to possess the land for ever, but only for a season, and to leave it to such as I have appointed for it. | |
A redemption - A right of redemption in the time and manner following. | |
If any of his kin come - Or, If the redeemer come, being near akin to him, who in this was an eminent type of Christ, who was made near akin to us by taking our flesh, that he might perform the work of redemption for us. | |
The years of the sale - That is, from the time of the sale to the jubilee. See above, Leviticus 25:15,16.The overplus - That is, a convenient price for the years from this redemption to the jubilee. | |
Go out - That is, out of the buyer's hand, without any redemption money. | |
It shall not go out - The reasons before alledged for lands do not hold in such houses; there was no danger of confusion in tribes or families by the alienation of houses. The seller also had a greater propriety in houses than in lands, as being commonly built by the owner's cost and diligence, and therefore had a fuller power to dispose of them. Besides, God would hereby encourage persons to buy and possess houses in such places, as frequency and fulness of inhabitants in cities, was a great strength, honour and advantage to the whole land. | |
In the villages - Because they belonged to and were necessary for the management of the lands. | |
May not be sold - Not sold at all, partly, because it was of absolute necessity for them for the keeping of their cattle, and partly because these were no enclosures, but common fields, in which all the Levites that lived in such a city had an interest, and therefore no particular Levite could dispose of his part in it. | |
A sojourner - Understand it of proselytes only, for of other strangers they were permitted to take usury, Deuteronomy 23:20. | |
Of him - That is, of thy brother, whether he be Israelite, or proselyte. Or increase - All kinds of usury are in this case forbidden, whether of money, or of victuals, or of any thing that is commonly lent by one man to another upon usury, or upon condition of receiving the thing lent with advantage and overplus. If one borrow in his necessity, there can be no doubt but this law is binding still. But it cannot be thought to bind, where money is borrowed for purchase of lands, trade, or other improvements. For there it is reasonable, that the lender share with the borrower in the profit. | |
As a bond - man - Neither for the time, for ever, nor for the manner, with the hardest and vilest kinds of service, rigorously and severely exacted. | |
Then shall he depart - Thou shalt not suffer him or his to abide longer in thy service, as thou mightest do in the year of release, 21:2,6. | |
They are my servants - They, no less than you, are members of my church and people; such as I have chosen out of all the world to serve me here, and to enjoy me hereafter, and therefore are not to be oppressed, neither are you absolute lords over them to deal with them as you please. | |
Fear thy God - Though thou dost not fear them who are in thy power, and unable to right themselves, yet fear that God who hath commanded thee to use them kindly, and who can and will avenge their cause, if thou oppress them. | |
The flock - Heb. root, that is, one of the root or flock. So the word root is elsewhere used for the branch or progeny growing from it. He seems to note one of a foreign race and country, transplanted into the land of Israel, and there having taken root amongst the people of God, yet even such an one, though he hath some privilege by it, shall not have power to keep an Hebrew servant from the benefit of redemption. | |
According to the time of an hired servant - Allowance shall be made for the time wherein he hath served, proportionable to that which is given to an hired servant for so long service, because his condition is in this like theirs; it is not properly his person, but his work and labour that was sold. | |
In thy sight - Thou shalt not suffer this to be done, but whethe thou art a magistrate, or a private person, thou shalt take care according to thy capacity to get it remedied. |
Bible Knowledge Commentary
1. the sabbatical year (25:1-7)
25:1-7. Much as people were to work six days and then rest on the Sabbath, so the land on which they lived was to be worked for six years (v. 3) and then allowed to rest on the seventh or sabbatical year (v. 4). No sowing, pruning, reaping, or harvesting was to be done during that seventh year (vv. 4-5). Any spontaneous yield of the land could be consumed for food by anyone (not just the owner), but there was to be no organized harvest and no selling of the produce to others (vv. 6-7; cf. Ex. 23:11). So for one-seventh of the time landowners and the landless were on an equal footing in living off the land. Thus the sabbatical year brought a cessation of all normal agricultural activity. A second purpose of that year is given in the supplemental passage (Deut. 15:1-11), the canceling of all debts. Also a freeing of slaves occurred at this time (Deut. 15:12-18; Ex. 21:2-6; but also see comments on Lev. 25:39-55).
2. the year of jubilee (25:8-55)
The
a. Regulations for the observance of the Jubilee (25:8-22)
25:8-13. Every seventh sabbatical year (i.e., every 49th year) was to be followed by a Year of Jubilee (yôḇēl, perhaps originally meaning "ram" or "ram's horn," taken from the horn blown to announce the year, but the LXX took it to mean "release") which (though apparently begun on the first day of the seventh month) was officially announced by a trumpet blast on the 10th day (i.e., the Day of Atonement, v. 9). (For the inclusive-reckoning view according to which the 50th year was actually the 49th, see R. North, The Sociology of the Biblical Jubilee. Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute, 1954, pp. 109-12; for the "leap year" view that the Jubilee was a short year only 49 days in length inserted into the seventh month of the 49th year, see Wenham, Leviticus, p. 319.)
The motto for the year was to proclaim liberty (i.e., release) throughout the land with the primary purpose of getting family property and the family back together again (vv. 10, 13). This meant that all property (except in walled cities, cf. vv. 29-30) was to be restored to its original owners (i.e., tenants, cf. v. 23), and all Hebrew slaves were to be released to return to their family property. Also, as during the preceding sabbatical year, the land was to enjoy a second straight year of rest (vv. 11-12; cf. vv. 4-7).
25:14-17. While selling land was not ideal, it was sometimes necessary. Then it was to be done fairly, the price computed on the basis of the number of years since the Jubilee, that is, computing the number of years left for harvesting crops until the next Jubilee would return the land to its original owner. In other words what one was really selling was the number of crops, a limited lease on the land paid in full in advance.
25:18-22. God's blessing in the land was promised for obedience to His laws, both freedom from want and freedom from war (v. 19; cf. 26:3-13; Deut. 28:1-14). This was particularly applied to the obvious fear an Israelite would have in the face of two successive years of neither planting nor harvesting his crops (Lev. 25:20). God promised an abundant harvest in the sixth year, sufficient to carry over until the harvest of the ninth year comes in.
b. The relation of the redemption of property to the Jubilee (25:23-38)
25:23-24. The
25:25-28. A Hebrew who becomes poor and so must sell some of his property to survive should be helped by his nearest relative (gō'ēl), who should redeem or buy back the land (cf. Ruth 3:12-4:6; Jer. 32:7-12), or perhaps he would later be able to redeem it himself, the value to be determined with reference to the date of the Jubilee (cf. vv. 16, 50-53). Otherwise, as a last resort, it would be returned to him in the Year of Jubilee.
25:29-34. Two exceptions are mentioned concerning the redemption of property. The Jubilee release did not apply to a house in a walled city, and one could not be redeemed more than a year after its sale. The second exception pertained to Levites (mentioned only here in the Book of Leviticus, though the priests, of course, were Levites) who always had the right to redeem their city property, which was also covered by the release of the Jubilee.
25:35-38. Pride should not keep a man from treating a poor countryman with as much hospitality as he would show an alien or temporary resident. Nor should interest of any kind be taken from a poor person (vv. 36-37), God's generosity to His people being their example.
c. The relation of the redemption of slaves to the Jubilee (25:39-55)
Though slavery was permitted under the Mosaic Law with certain restrictions, even Gentile slaves were given some protection, such as rest on the Sabbath (Ex. 20:10; Deut. 5:14) and prohibition of mistreatment (Ex. 21:20-21; Deut. 23:15-16). As God's servants the Israelites were not to be enslaved to any other master (Lev. 25:55). Yet a poor Hebrew might have to enter a type of temporary slavery, a situation more humane than 19th-century debtors' prisons. Hebrew slaves had broader rights than Gentile slaves and so a Hebrew's master's power over him was more restricted (vv. 39-43). This was in keeping with the slave's status as a servant of the Lord.
25:39-43. A Hebrew slave was to be treated as a hired worker rather than as a slave (cf. v. 43). Both he and his children who were born in the master's household were to be released in the Year of Jubilee. They were not to be sold as slaves to others. According to Exodus 21:1-11 and Deuteronomy 15:12-18, a Hebrew slave could be released after six years of service, but it is not clear how this correlated with the release of the Jubilee.
25:44-46. Gentile slaves were exempt from these restrictions, so they were slaves for life and could be willed as inherited property.
25:47-55. Whether purchased by a fellow Israelite (vv. 39-43) or a resident alien (vv. 47-53), a Hebrew slave could be redeemed by laws similar to the redemption of property (cf. vv. 23-28). Ideally, a relative would free him by paying off the debt which forced him into slavery (vv. 48-49). Or if he prospered he could redeem himself. If neither of these measures was possible, he would be released in the Year of Jubilee.
The Year of Jubilee is not mentioned in the Old Testament outside the Pentateuch. There is no direct biblical evidence regarding its observance in
The New Bible Commentary
25:1–54 The sabbatical and jubilee years
After ch. 19, this has probably been the most influential chapter in Leviticus, through its concern for economic and social justice, its influence on prophecy of the end times and on Jesus, and its use by certain strands of Christian social ethics. As much as ch. 19, it reminds us forcefully that Israel's passion for holiness was not confined to ritual and religious matters, but permeated the whole economic structure of life. It is a complex chapter, in which three distinct economic practices have been thrown closely together, along with parenthetical sections and exceptive clauses. These were: the sabbatical (seventh) year; the jubilee year (fiftieth); and redemption procedures (at any time).
25:1–7 The sabbatical year. This is an expansion of the fallow year law of Ex. 23:10–11. The land was to be allowed 'rest', like human beings with their weekly Sabbath, in the seventh year. The humanitarian motive given in Exodus has been expanded by the annual gleaning rights already prescribed in Leviticus (19:9–10; 23:22). The sabbatical year was further developed in Dt. 15:1–2 into a year in which debts (or more probably the pledges given for loans) were to be released. (On the relation between the sabbatical laws, see Wright, God's People in God's Land, pp. 141–151, 249–259.)
25:8–55 The jubilee. This is introduced as the fiftieth year to follow the seventh sabbatical year, though some scholars believe it was the forty-ninth year itself. It has also been suggested that it was a short 'year' of forty-nine days, inserted into the seventh month of the forty-ninth year, to bring Israel's lunar calendar back into line with the solar year. (See Wenham, Leviticus, pp. 302, 319.) V 10 presents the twin concepts that are fundamental to the whole institution, namely liberty and return. Those who had incurred debts were released from what remained unrepaid (OT law assumes that every effort should be made to honour debts) and from any bondage which their debt had required. They were thus able to 'return' to full ownership of any land that the family had been forced to surrender to a creditor as guarantee for loans. The law had the effect, therefore, of reuniting the family on its ancestral land, not later than a generation after the original debts were incurred. It was these two components of the jubilee, freedom and restoration, that coloured the use of the idea of jubilee in prophetic and later NT thought.
13–17 The financial implications of a recurring jubilee are spelt out in these verses.
18–22 This encouragement to observe the sabbatical regulations promises special blessing in the preceding year, in answer to a very natural question (20). The theological principle was that obedience to the economic legislation of
23–24 These central verses in the chapter constitute a heading to the remaining paragraphs, which are primarily concerned with the economic redemption of land and persons, interwoven with the jubilee. Two vitally important principles are expressed in v 23. First, the theology of the land. As the divine landlord, God dictated how the land should be divided and used, which meant that
The second principle of v 23 is the status of the Israelites as aliens and my tenants. These terms ('strangers and sojourners'; rsv), describe a class of people who resided among the Israelites in
The Israelites were to regard their status before God as analogous to that of their own residential dependents to themselves. Thus, they had no ultimate title to the land—it was owned by God. Nevertheless, they could enjoy secure benefits of it under his protection and in dependence on him. So the terms are not (as they might sound in English, especially with the unwarranted insertion of but in the niv) a denial of rights, but rather an affirmation of a relationship of protected dependency. The practical effect of this model for
25–55 These verses contain the practical details of redemption and jubilee. There are three descending stages of poverty with required responses, each introduced by the phrase if one of your countrymen becomes poor (25–28, 35–38, 39–43 + 47–53). These are interrupted by sections dealing with houses in cities and Levite properties (29–34) and non-Israelite slaves (44–46).
The first response was redemption (25–28). Initially, the Israelite landowner who was in economic difficulties, would sell, or offer to sell, some of his land. To keep it within the family, it was first of all the duty of the nearest kinsman either to buy it (if it was still on offer, e.g. Je. 32) or to redeem it (if it had been sold, e.g. Ru. 4). Secondly, the seller retained the right to redeem it for himself, if he later recovered the means to do so. Thirdly, and in any case, the property, whether sold or redeemed by a kinsman, reverted to the original family in the year of jubilee. Houses in cities were exempt from normal redemption and jubilee rules, since they were not part of the economic productive base for a family. This exception did not apply to the property of Levites, since they had no tribal lands (29–34).
If the poorer brother's plight worsened, presumably even after several such sales of land, it then became the duty of the kinsman to maintain him as a dependent labourer, by means of interest-free loans (35–38).
In the event of a total economic collapse, such that the poorer kinsman had no more land left to sell or pledge for loans, he and his whole family could sell themselves to the wealthier kinsman, i.e. enter into bonded service to him. The debtor Israelite was not to be treated like a slave, but rather as a resident employee. This undesirable state of affairs was to continue only until the next jubilee, i.e. not more than one more generation. Then the debtor and/or his children (the original debtor may have died, but the next generation were to benefit from the jubilee; 41, 54) were to recover their original patrimony of land and be enabled to make a fresh start. This law was intended to preserve the viability of Israelite landowning households, and so did not apply to foreign slaves, who were not part of the land-tenure system (44–46). The OT had many other laws to protect the interests of such slaves.
If a man had entered this debt-bondage outside the clan, then an obligation lay on the whole clan (48–49) to prevent this loss of a whole family by exercising their duty to redeem him. They also had the duty to see that a non-Israelite creditor behaved as an Israelite should towards an Israelite debtor, and that the jubilee provisions were applied eventually.
Thus, the main aim of redemption was the preservation of the land and persons of the clan; whereas the main beneficiary of the jubilee was the extended family, or 'father's house'. The jubilee was thus a mechanism to prevent the accumulation of land in the hands of fewer and wealthier Israelites, and to preserve the socio-economic fabric of multiple household land tenure with the comparative equality and independent viability of the smallest family-plus-land units. The wisdom of all this in a day of take-overs, bigger and bigger conglomerates and monopolistic multi-national business seems very obvious.
The theological and ethical development of the jubilee
In the Old Testament. Although it is not known whether the jubilee was put into practice in ancient Israel (there is no record of it in the narratives, but equally there is no record of any observance of the Day of Atonement), the two main thrusts of the jubilee, liberty and restoration, were both easily transferred from the strictly economic provision of the jubilee itself to a wider metaphorical application. The idea of redemption and return are combined in the future vision of Is. 35, and put alongside a transformation of nature itself. The mission of the Servant of Yahweh in Isaiah has strong elements of the restorative plan of God for his people, aimed specifically at the weak and oppressed (Is. 42:1–7). Is. 58 is an attack on cultic observance without social justice and calls for liberation of the oppressed (v 6), specifically focusing on one's own kinship obligations (v 7). Most clearly of all, Is. 61 uses jubilee images to portray the one anointed as the herald of Yahweh to 'evangelize' the poor, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and to announce the year of Yahweh's favour—almost certainly an allusion to a jubilee year. Thus, within the Old Testament itself, the jubilee attracted a future imagery, but without losing its ethical challenge for justice to the oppressed in contemporary history.
In the New Testament. Jesus announced the inbreaking of the reign of God, in his own ministry. The '
Contemporary application. The jubilee still remains a powerful model in formulating Christian biblical ethics. Its primary assumptions and objectives can be used as a guide and critique for our own ethical agenda in the modern world.
Economically, the jubilee existed to protect a form of land tenure that was based on a fair and widespread distribution of the land, and to prevent the accumulation of ownership in the hands of a wealthy few. This echoes the creation principle that the whole earth is given by God to all humanity, who act as co-stewards of its resources. There is a parallel between the affirmation of Lv. 25:23, in respect of Israel, that 'the land is mine', and the affirmation of Ps. 24:1 in respect of humanity as a whole, that 'The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it'. The moral principles of the jubilee are, therefore, meant to apply to all on the basis of the moral consistency of God. What he required of
Socially, the jubilee embodied a practical concern for the family unit. In Israel's case, this meant the extended family, the 'father's house', which was a sizeable group of related nuclear families descended in the male line from a living progenitor, including up to three or four generations. This was the smallest unit in
Theologically, the jubilee was based upon several central affirmations of
To this historical dimension was added the recurring experience of forgiveness, for the jubilee was proclaimed on the Day of Atonement (9). To know yourself forgiven by God was to issue in practical remission of debts and bondages for fellow-Israelites. And, as we have seen, the inbuilt future hope of the literal jubilee, blended with an eschatological hope of God's final restoration of humanity and nature to his original purpose. To apply the jubilee model, then, requires that people face the sovereignty of God, trust his providence, know his redemptive action, experience his atonement, practise his justice and hope in his promise. The wholeness of the model embraces the church's evangelistic mission, its personal and social ethics and its future hope. [7]
Tyndale Concise Bible Commentary
25:1–55 SPECIAL YEARS
The focus of the sabbatical year and the Year of Jubilee was on the Promised Land of Canaan (25:2). The purpose of the sabbatical year (25:1–7) was to concede that the basics of life are God's. Failure to keep this year resulted in the seventy years of captivity in
Old Testament Feasts and Their Significance | |
Sabbath | This looked back to the Creation and the Mosaic covenant (Exod. 20:11; 31:12–17) and forward to the believer's rest in Christ's finished work (Heb. 4:1–11). |
Passover | This looked back to Israel's redemption from bondage in Egypt (Pesach, Exod. 12:1–30) and forward to the redemption from sin through Christ (1 Cor. 5:7). |
Unleavened Bread | This looked back to Israel's separation from Egypt (Matsah, Exod. 13:1–10) and forward to the fellowship possible because of Christ (1 Cor. 5:7–8; 1 John 1:1–4). |
Firstfruits | This looked back to the first harvest God gave |
Feast of Weeks | Later known as Pentecost, this celebration looked back to the firstfruits of the grain harvest (Shevuoth, Lev. 23:16) and forward to God's first harvest of the redeemed in Christ (Acts 2). |
Trumpets | This looked back to the beginning of the civil year (Rosh Hashana, Lev. 23:23–25; 25:9) and forward to the regathering of God's people (Ezek. 37:12–14; 1 Cor. 15:52). |
Day of Atonement | This looked back to the need for cleansing from national sin (Yom Kippur, Lev. 16) and forward to Christ's atonement (Heb. 9:28) and Israel's repentance (Zech. 12:10–13:1). |
Tabernacles, or Booths | This looked back to the wilderness wanderings (Succoth, Lev. 23:43) and forward to |
JFB
Le 25:1–7. Sabbath of the Seventh Year.
2–4. When ye come into the land which I give you—It has been questioned on what year, after the occupation of
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.
Le 25:8–23. The Jubilee.
8–11. 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
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 Le 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, 22. 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 2Ki 19:29; Is 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.
23–28. 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, Le 27:20).
29–31. 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.
32–34. Notwithstanding the cities of the Levites—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 (Nu 35:4, 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 (Je 41:7–9).
35–38. 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; Ez 18:8, 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.
39–46. 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.[9]
Wilmington
25:1–34 Respect for the land: "Give it a regular rest." The Israelites were to work their land for six years, then allow it to lie fallow the seventh year. God reassured them that if they would obey this command, he would provide them a bumper crop during the sixth year.
Each 50th year was to be the Year of Jubilee, a time of rejoicing. The land was to remain idle and was to be returned to its original owners. Any land sold could be redeemed by the original owner until the jubilee year, when it would automatically return to him. This was to remind
25:35–55 The poor: Servants, not slaves.
Slavery in Bible times was a social and economic institution not unlike in postbiblical times. Israelites could become slaves voluntarily, for financial security or to repay a debt to a fellow Israelite (25:39); or involuntarily, as God's way of punishing their disobedience (Jer. 5:19; 17:4). Voluntary slaves could eventually earn their freedom. Enslavement of foreigners by Israelites was always involuntary, either by capture (1 Sam. 17:9), purchase from a slave market (22:11; 25:44; compare Ezek. 27:13), or birth to a slave (Gen. 17:23; Lev. 22:11).
The Bible never condoned slavery, but it recognized slavery as an economic reality and sought to regulate its practice. Israelite servants were eligible for release after six years of service (Exod. 21:2–4; Deut. 15:12–18), and at the Year of Jubilee even if they hadn't served six years (25:40). If a man died childless, a designated slave, whether Israelite or foreign, could inherit his property.
Despite such safeguards, to be a slave usually meant poverty and lack of control over one's destiny. Nevertheless, to be the slave of a great person was considered an honor; thus Moses and the prophets considered themselves "servants of God," and Paul in NT times would take pride in calling himself Christ's slave (see Rom. 6:16–22; 1 Cor. 6:20; 7:22; Phil. 1:1).
the nine festivals. In All, God Designated Nine Special Festivals and Rest Times for
The Three Kinds of Sabbath Speak of God's Creative Work, Coming in Endless Cycles of Seven Just as God Rested on the Seventh Day:
• The weekly Sabbath (23:1–3; Exod. 20:8–11)
• The seventh year Sabbath (25:1–7; Exod. 23:10–11)
• The 50th year Sabbath (Jubilee) (25:8–17)
Although Their Full Significance Would Be Seen Only After the Death and Resurrection of the Messiah, the Other Six Annual Festivals Speak of God's Redemptive Work:
• Passover (23:4–8) speaks of
• The Festival of Firstfruits (23:9–14) foreshadows the Resurrection (1 Cor. 15:23).
• The Festival of Harvest (Pentecost) (23:15–22) would mark the coming of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2).
• The Festival of Trumpets (23:23–25) speaks of the Rapture and the Second Coming (1 Thess. 4:13–18).
• The Day of Atonement (23:26–32) speaks both of Calvary and of
• The Festival of Shelters (23:33–44) speaks of God dwelling with his people during the Millennium (Rev. 20:1–6; 21:3).[10]
The Bible REader's Companion
Festival | Date | Meaning |
Passover | 14 Nisan (Mar/Apr) | A memorial festival, celebrated in the home. Each family ate a Passover meal symbolizing their solidarity with the Exodus generation the night God struck the Egyptians and passed over Jewish homes (see Ex. 12). This was the first day of the religious year, for it marked God's redemption of His people from slavery in |
Unleavened Bread | 15–21 Nisan (Mar/Apr) | A week-long period marked by sacrifices, during which the people ate bread made without yeast, as a reminder of their forefather's hasty departure from |
Firstfruits | 16 Nisan (Mar/Apr) | A celebration of thanksgiving, held at harvesttime, during which the first newly ripened barley was presented to the Lord. The symbolism foreshadows the resurrection of Jesus, called a firstfruit in 1 Cor. 15:20–23. |
Pentecost (Weeks) | 5 Sivan (May/Jun) | New grain is offered in thanksgiving to the Lord, and special sacrifices are offered. It is significant the Holy Spirit came on the Day of Pentecost, and 3,000 were converted. These first Christians were representative of the millions God will harvest from our lost race as His own. |
Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah) | 1 Tishri (Sept/Oct) | This day of rest was the first day in |
Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) | 10 Tishri (Sept/Oct) | On this solemn day of fasting and prayer the high priest entered the innermost room of the sanctuary and made atonement for "all the sins" of the people of |
Tabernacles (Succoth) | 15–21 Tishri (Sept/Oct) | During this week the people of |
NOTE: Later other festivals celebrating God's work in
Leviticus 25
Outline Place Finder OFFERINGS CLEANNESS ATONEMENT HOLINESS WORSHIP BACK to Outline | Chapter summary. Worship is more than celebrating God's presence. It is also serving God's purpose. Moses now gives Key verses. 25:36–37: Help, do not take advantage of, the poor. Personal application. The godly help the less fortunate. |
INSIGHT
"The land" (25:23–24). When
Poverty. O.T. law makes special provision for the poor, and does not assume that poverty is "their own fault." Here is how law provides for the poor, as seen in this and other O.T. passages. (1) Judges were required not to favor the wealthy in civil cases (19:15). (2) Family land could not be lost permanently, but every 50 years was to be returned to the original owners. This meant every half-century all Israelites were recapitalized, and given the means to support themselves (Lev. 25). (3) The poor were to gather crops from others' lands during the Sabbatical year, when no crop could be cultivated or harvested by the owner (Ex. 23:10–11). (4) During regular harvests the poor were allowed in the fields, to gather anything that fell to the ground or was left on a tree after one picking of fruit (vv. 10–11; Lev. 19:10). (5) Loans to poor Israelites were to carry no interest, and sales of food were to include no profit (25:35–37). (6) Every seventh year any outstanding debt still owed was to be forgiven completely (Deut. 15:7–11). (7) Regular collections were made every third year of a tithe on crops. Food gathered was to be stored locally, for distribution to the needy (14:28–29). (8) A person truly poverty-stricken could sell himself as a temporary slave to a fellow Israelite. At the end of just seven years he was to be freed, and provided with enough resources to give him a fresh start (Lev. 25:39–54; Deut. 15:12–18). By this means the temporary slave could pay off old debts, live for seven years as a "trainee" in the employ of a successful Israelite, and then have help to get himself on his own feet.
This unique system demonstrates God's deep concern for the poor and oppressed. It challenges us to find ways to help them become self-supporting.
Slavery. Seen in its context as a way to help the poor, O.T. slavery was not the oppressive institution we have learned to hate. Yes, a slave was subject to his master's will. But the condition was temporary, it carried many benefits, and the slave was guaranteed humane treatment by his master (25:42–43).
This ideal was not always realized. Jeremiah speaks of those who pressed their fellow Jews into permanent slavery (cf. Jer. 34). Documents from the first century show that inhabitants of
Redemption. To "redeem" means to buy back. The right to buy back family land or persons sold to another is affirmed in this chapter. When an individual had no resources with which to redeem his land or himself, a near relation had the right to redeem for him. Christ had to become a true human being so that as our Near Kinsman, He could pay the price that bought us back for God.[12]
Deut. 15
The Bible Knowledge Commentary
15:1. The sabbatical year or year of release was also commanded in Exodus 23:10-11 and Leviticus 25:1-7. However, while these verses stated that in the seventh year the land was to lie fallow without any crops being planted they did not mention the cancellation of debts. Only here did Moses prescribe this requirement. At the end of every seven years is a Hebrew idiom which means "during the seventh year." The law of cancellation is stated in Deuteronomy 15:1 and explained in verses 2-11.
15:2-6. The words cancel the loan could mean the loan was to be completely eliminated. Or they could mean it was to be canceled only during the seventh year. That is, payment could not be demanded in the seventh year, but after the seventh year the loan would still have to be repaid. In favor of this second view is the fact that during the seventh year when the land was to lie fallow an Israelite debtor would not have the means to repay his debt, but in the next six years he would. (The debts of a foreign businessman—i.e., a foreigner but not a "resident alien"; cf. 14:29—were not canceled. This was because he did not let his land lie fallow or suspend his normal source of income for a year as the Israelites did.)
In spite of this argument, however, it is more likely that the debt was canceled completely and permanently. Several points favor this: (1) This view is more consonant with the generosity the Lord had expressed toward
15:7-11. Moses left the realm of law for a moment to appeal to his fellow Israelites' hearts. The law of debt cancellation (vv. 1-6) was intended to instill a spirit of generosity within the Israelites and thus a freedom from the love of money and things. Therefore a calculating Israelite was guilty of sin if he refused a loan for a poor brother (v. 7; cf. needy brother, v. 9) out of fear that it might not be repaid since the seventh year was near. Being hardened or tightfisted meant he was not trusting the Lord to bless . . . all his work. Solomon may have been meditating on these words of Moses when he wrote, "One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty" (Prov. 11:24). Moses summarized the attitude the Israelites should have toward those in need: be openhanded (Deut. 15:8, 11). The sad confession, there will always be poor people in the land, is perhaps a tragic foreshadowing of
b. The freeing of servants (15:12-18)
15:12-15. Sometimes a person unable to pay his debts would sell himself as a servant to his creditor. If the size of his debt meant he must work for six years, he was to be freed in the seventh year. This did not correspond to the year of debt cancellation (vv. 1-6), but was the seventh year of that person's work as a servant. The Lord had previously made it clear that six full years of a person's life were enough to make up for defaulting on a loan (cf. Ex. 21:2). However, in Deuteronomy Moses added that the employer must do more than free the servant; he must also supply him liberally with livestock, grain, and wine in accord with the way the Lord had blessed him.
After six years the servant would have little or nothing, so to send him away empty-handed would have jeopardized his freedom all over again.
Obedience to this command would serve the valuable purpose of reminding employers of the grace God had shown Israel in redeeming her from Egypt (cf. Deut. 24:18, 22). It would remind them that their own welfare also depended on that grace.
15:16-17. Moses also provided for a servant who had become too attached to a family to leave it. The employer was to pierce the servant's earlobe with an awl to indicate he was the man's servant for life (cf. comments on Ex. 21:5-6).
15:18. Moses offered a double motivation to one who was perhaps too greedy to set his servant free. In fairness he should realize that it would have cost him at least twice as much if he had hired someone for six years. Second, if in faith he would obey the command to release his servant, the Lord would bless him in everything he would do. This promise of blessing in return for obedience is stated often in Deuteronomy, four times in this chapter alone (vv. 4, 6, 10, 18).
6. the law of firstborn animals (15:19-23)
The law regarding firstborn animals may have occurred here in Moses' sermon because, like the laws of canceling debts and releasing servants, it involved giving up one's possessions. This law was first recorded in Exodus 13:11-15. It was pedagogical: sacrificing firstborn animals reminded the Israelites of their redemption from
According to Exodus 22:29-30 the firstborn were to be sacrificed on the eighth day after birth. Firstborn animal sacrifices were also used to help support the priests (Num. 18:15-18).
15:19. In Israel's livestock every firstborn male was to be completely set apart for the Lord. Its owner received no benefit on his farm from the animal; firstborn . . . oxen were not to plow; firstborn . . . sheep were not to be shorn. (Goats are also mentioned in Num. 18:17.)
15:20. Annually (presumably during one of the annual feasts; cf. 6:16) the young firstborn animals were to be taken to the central sanctuary to be sacrificed. The sacrificed animals were then eaten there in a communal meal with one's family.
15:21-23. An imperfect firstborn animal was not acceptable as a sacrifice (cf. 17:1), so it was to be treated like a game animal (cf. 12:15; 14:4-5)—eaten at home but not sacrificed. As stated previously (12:16, 23-24) the blood of such animals was not to be eaten.[13]
the New Bible Commentary
15:1–18 Remitting debts and releasing slaves. The day-by-day life of
Once again, dealings with fellow-Israelites are on a different footing from dealings with foreigners (see 14:21). The laws, therefore, continue to build on the idea of
Debts were to be cancelled in the seventh year of a seven-year cycle. Since loans were to be made without interest (23:19–20; Ex. 22:25), they were purely an act of assistance to those who had fallen on hard times (as a result, perhaps, of a bad harvest) rather than a means of enriching the lender. The motive for lending lies in the nature of
The call to be generous is developed further in vs 7–11. The laws are well aware of the self-interest which enters into human planning, and the possibility, therefore, that a loan might be refused because the seventh year is approaching. This is because the borrower may not have the time (or the desire!) to repay before the lender is obliged to write off the loan. (It is not clear, incidentally, whether the loan is intended to be cancelled altogether, or merely suspended until the seventh year is past. In either case considerable self-sacrifice is required of the lender.) The NT too puts no limit on the generosity required of givers (
At this point the laws of Deuteronomy come close to an open-ended commitment to other people of a sort which cannot easily be wrapped up in laws at all. (Cf. Lv. 19:18, which seems to make this point when it urges Israelites to 'love your neighbour as yourself'.) These things are hard to try in courts. However v 9c suggests that the obligations imposed here were very real. They could, it seems, be tested by others, and certainly by God.
Slavery in
15:19–23 The firstlings. All firstborn, both human and among domestic animals, were specially dedicated to the Lord. For the animals this meant sacrifice; humans were substituted by the sacrifice of another animal (Ex. 13:2, 13, 15).
Firstlings here, like the tithe, were made part of an annual feast at the place of worship. Imperfect animals, which were by definition not fit for sacrifice, might be eaten non-sacrificially (21–23). The regulations here are rather like those for non-sacrificial slaughter generally (12:13–28), the chief concern being the proper disposal of the blood.
The law of firstlings (as of sacrifices in general) stresses the offerer's willingness to part with what he might feel is rightfully his own. There is something in common, therefore, between this law and the preceding commands regarding debt and slave-release. In each case,
Tyndale Concise Bible Commentary
15:1–23 SABBATICAL YEARS
Sabbatical years and the period immediately prior to them were to be full of generous acts by the Israelites in light of their redemption by God. The motivation for that generosity was to be their remembrance of being redeemed out of Egyptian slavery. It is debated whether the debt of 15:1–6 was to be canceled permanently or simply suspended for the year. Servitude could be rendered for the repayment of a debt (15:12–18). But the limit was six years unless the slave requested to become a lifelong servant.[15]
JFB
De 15:1–11. The Seventh Year, a Year of Release for the Poor.
1. At the end of every seven years—during the last of the seven, that is, the sabbatical year (Ex 21:2; 23:11; Le 25:4; Je 34:14).
2. Every creditor that lendeth ought unto his neighbour shall release it—not by an absolute discharge of the debt, but by passing over that year without exacting payment. The relief was temporary and peculiar to that year during which there was a total suspension of agricultural labor.
he shall not exact it … of his brother—that is, an Israelite, so called in opposition to a stranger or foreigner.
because it is called the Lord's release—The reason for acquitting a debtor at that particular period proceeded from obedience to the command, and a regard for the honor, of God; an acknowledgment of holding their property of Him, and gratitude for His kindness.
3. Of a foreigner thou mayest exact it again—Admission to all the religious privileges of the Israelites was freely granted to heathen proselytes, though this spiritual incorporation did not always imply an equal participation of civil rights and privileges (Le 25:44; Je 34:14; compare 1Ch 22:2; 2Ch 2:17).
4. Save when there shall be no poor man among you—Apparently a qualifying clause added to limit the application of the foregoing statement [De 15:3]; so that "the brother" to be released pointed to a poor borrower, whereas it is implied that if he were rich, the restoration of the loan might be demanded even during that year. But the words may properly be rendered (as on the Margin) to the end, in order that there may be no poor among you—that is, that none be reduced to inconvenient straits and poverty by unseasonable exaction of debts at a time when there was no labor and no produce, and that all may enjoy comfort and prosperity, which will be the case through the special blessing of God on the land, provided they are obedient.
7–11. If there be among you a poor man … thou shalt not harden thine heart—Lest the foregoing law should prevent the Israelites lending to the poor, Moses here admonishes them against so mean and selfish a spirit and exhorts them to give in a liberal spirit of charity and kindness, which will secure the divine blessing (Ro 12:8; 2Co 9:7).
11. For the poor shall never cease out of the land—Although every Israelite on the conquest of Canaan became the owner of property, yet in the providence of God who foresaw the event, it was permitted, partly as a punishment of disobedience and partly for the exercise of benevolent and charitable feelings, that "the poor should never cease out of the land."
De 15:12–19. Hebrew Servants' Freedom.
12. if thy brother, an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee—The last extremity of an insolvent debtor, when his house or land was not sufficient to cancel his debt, was to be sold as a slave with his family (Le 25:39; 2Ki 4:1; Ne 5:1–13; Job 24:9; Mt 18:25). The term of servitude could not last beyond six years. They obtained their freedom either after six years from the time of their sale or before the end of the seventh year. At the year of jubilee, such slaves were emancipated even if their six years of service were not completed [see on Le 25:39].
13–15. thou shalt not let him go away empty—A seasonable and wise provision for enabling a poor unfortunate to regain his original status in society, and the motive urged for his kindness and humanity to the Hebrew slave was the remembrance that the whole nation was once a degraded and persecuted band of helots in
16, 17. if he say unto thee, I will not go away from thee—If they declined to avail themselves of the privilege of release and chose to remain with their master, then by a peculiar form of ceremony they became a party to the transaction, voluntarily sold themselves to their employer, and continued in his service till death.
18. he hath been worth a double hired servant to thee—that is, he is entitled to double wages because his service was more advantageous to you, being both without wages and for a length of time, whereas hired servants were engaged yearly (Le 25:53), or at most for three years (Is 16:14).
19. All the firstling males of thy herd and of thy flock thou shalt sanctify unto the Lord thy God—(See on Ex 13:2; also see Ex 22:30).
thou shalt do not work with the firstling of thy bullock—that is, the second firstlings (see De 12:17, 18; 14:23).[16]
The Bible REader's Companion
Deuteronomy 14–16
Outline Place Finder CONSIDER COVENANT COMMIT CONCLUSION BACK to Outline | Chapter summary. These chapters continue the theme of worship under the Mosaic Covenant, introduced in Deuteronomy 12. Key verses. 15:4–5: A right relationship with God will transform society. Personal application. Worship goes beyond Sunday. Key concepts. Clean, unclean Leviticus 11. Tithe Numbers 17-18. God's choice of Israel Deuteronomy 7. Brotherly love John 13, Hebrews 13. Slavery Leviticus 25. Work Genesis 4-5. Passover Exodus 12. Poor and oppressed Leviticus 25. |
INSIGHT
Mourning (14:1–3). Pagan mourning rites are not appropriate for a people whom God has chosen. Our relationship with God makes death a different kind of event than for those who do not know Him.
Why two sets of dishes? (14:21b) No one knows the reason for the command not to cook a young goat in its mother's milk. But the orthodox Jew keeps two sets of dishes, one for meat and one for milk products, lest this command be violated by chance.
Always (14:23). Different Heb. constructions are used that cast "always" as either "for all time" or as "continually."
The third-year tithe (14:28). Some believe this is a separate tithe, in addition to the one to be paid at the central sanctuary. It was to be used to provide food for the poor.
"There should be no poor" (15:4). There is no conflict between verses 4 and 11, which says "there will always be poor people in the land." The land itself was rich, so poverty was not necessary. The problem then, as now, was with people who piled up more than they needed at the expense of others.
Lending, borrowing. The O.T. teaching on this topic is unique.
The warning in 15:9 against harboring the "wicked thought" of refusing to help a poor brother is significant. Poverty in any land is the result of sin, and the "hardhearted" and "tightfisted" will face the judgment of God.
The pierced ear (15:16–17). In Scripture the ear represents a person's capacity to perceive and respond. So the pierced ear symbolizes the servant's choice to open his ear, and respond obediently to his master for life. What a picture of the believer, who is to keep spiritual ears open to God, and respond obediently to His Word.
Slavery (15:12–18). Laws governing slavery in
Joy and mourning (16:14). The verse portrays religious festivals as a time of joy, even for orphans and widows. The Talmud sees an important principle in this verse, and rules that even the traditional seven days of mourning (shiva) observed for the newly dead must be set aside, and the mourner join in the festivities of the holy days. Even personal tragedy can be transcended in celebrating what God has done for His people. And what He most surely will do.[17]
BDB Brown, Driver, Briggs, A Hebrew-English Lexicon of the Old Testament, 1905
[1]R. Laird Harris, Robert Laird Harris, Gleason Leonard Archer and Bruce K. Waltke, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, electronic ed. (Chicago: Moody Press, 1999, c1980), 358.
nlt New Living Translation
[2]Elwell, Walter A. ; Comfort, Philip Wesley: Tyndale Bible Dictionary.
[3]Achtemeier, Paul J. ; Harper & Row, Publishers ; Society of Biblical Literature: Harper's Bible Dictionary. 1st ed.
[4]
1 1 Kings 21:3; Isa. 5:8; 37:30; 61:1–3; Ezek. 1:1; 7:12; Micah 2:2.
2 Neh. 10:31; 1 Macc. 6:49, 53; Jos. Antiq. 13. 8, 1; 14. 10, 6; xv. 1, 2; Jew. Wars, 1. 2–4.
3 Antiq. 11. 8, 6.
1 Mish. Stev. 6. 1.
[5]Alfred Edersheim, The
cf. confer, compare
i.e. id est, that is
[6]John F. Walvoord, Roy B. Zuck and
rsv (New) Revised Standard Version
cf. compare
niv New International Version
[7]D. A. Carson, New Bible Commentary : 21st Century Edition, Rev. Ed. of: The New Bible Commentary. 3rd Ed. / Edited by D. Guthrie, J.A. Motyer. 1970., 4th ed. (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, Ill., USA: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994), Le 24:10.
[8]Robert B. Hughes, J. Carl Laney and Robert B. Hughes, Tyndale Concise Bible Commentary, Rev. Ed. of: New Bible Companion. 1990.; Includes Index., The Tyndale reference library (
[9]Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, A. R. Fausset et al., A Commentary, Critical and Explanatory, on the Old and New Testaments, On Spine: Critical and Explanatory Commentary. (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), Le 25:1.
[10]H. L. Willmington, Willmington's Bible Handbook (Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers, 1997), 71.
[11]Larry Richards, The Bible Reader's Companion, Includes Index. (Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books, 1991), 89.
[12]Larry Richards, The Bible Reader's Companion, Includes Index. (Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books, 1991), 90.
i.e. id est, that is
cf. confer, compare
[13]John F. Walvoord, Roy B. Zuck and
Cf. compare
[14]D. A. Carson, New Bible Commentary : 21st Century Edition, Rev. Ed. of: The New Bible Commentary. 3rd Ed. / Edited by D. Guthrie, J.A. Motyer. 1970., 4th ed. (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, Ill., USA: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994), Dt 15:1.
[15]Robert B. Hughes, J. Carl Laney and Robert B. Hughes, Tyndale Concise Bible Commentary, Rev. Ed. of: New Bible Companion. 1990.; Includes Index., The Tyndale reference library (
[16]Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, A. R. Fausset et al., A Commentary, Critical and Explanatory, on the Old and New Testaments, On Spine: Critical and Explanatory Commentary. (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), Dt 15:1.
[17]Larry Richards, The Bible Reader's Companion, Includes Index. (Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books, 1991), 129.
1 comment:
While I am a Christian you may find the following interesting. I have written a book on biblical history. The name of the book is "The Fourth Day: Why the Bible is Historically Accurate". Presently, biblical history uses the events of the Bible and the theories of secular historians to develop the biblical timeline. I take a unique approach in my book by using only information from the Bible to develop the biblical timeline. By doing this I have uncovered several historical questions. Did the Persian Empire only last 21 years or over 200 years? Is there a 300 year period in Egypt's history, shortly after the Biblical Exodus, in which Egypt did not have a Pharoah? Was Ahasuerus of the book of Esther, claimed by experts to be Xerxes, actually Cyrus? My book can be viewed on lulu.com at the following address: http://www.lulu.com/dmthompson
Thanks,
Darren Thompson
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