Leviticus 25 provides instructions for the Sabbatical year and the Jubilee, emphasizing rest for the land and provisions for the poor. The Sabbatical year, observed every seventh year, mandates that no farming occurs and the harvest that grows naturally is shared with those in need, reinforcing God's ownership of the land and care for social justice. The Jubilee, occurring every fiftieth year, serves to restore property and freedom, embodying deeper spiritual significance and prefiguring Christ's message of liberation.

1. LEVITICUS 25 COMMENTARY
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
The Sabbath Year
1 The Lord said to Moses at Mount Sinai,
BARNES, "The sabbatical year and the year of Jubilee belong to that great sabbatical
system which runs through the religious observances of the Law, but rest upon moral
rather than upon formally religious ground. It is not, therefore, without reason that they
are here set apart from the set times which fell strictly within the sphere of religious
observances.
GILL, "And the Lord spake unto Moses in Mount Sinai,.... Not when Moses was
with the Lord on that mount forty days, but after he came down from thence, even after
the tabernacle was set up, while the children of Israel where encamped about that
mountain, and before they took their journey from thence; for they continued some time
in the wilderness of Sinai, and here it was the Lord spoke to Moses; for the words may be
rendered "by" or "near Mount Sinai" (g); and so Josephus (h) says, the following laws
were delivered to Moses, when Israel was encamped under Mount Sinai:
HENRY 1-7, “The law of Moses laid a great deal of stress upon the sabbath, the
sanctification of which was the earliest and most ancient of all divine institutions,
designed for the keeping up of the knowledge and worship of the Creator among men;
that law not only revived the observance of the weekly sabbath, but, for the further
advancement of the honour of them, added the institution of a sabbatical year: In the
seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, Lev_25:4. And hence the Jews
collect that vulgar tradition that after the world has stood six thousand years (a
thousand years being to God as one day) it shall cease, and the eternal sabbath shall
succeed - a weak foundation on which to build the fixing of that day and hour which it is
God's prerogative to know. This sabbatical year began in September, at the end of
harvest, the seventh month of their ecclesiastical year: and the law was, 1. That at the
seed-time, which immediately followed the end of their in-gathering, they should sow no
corn in their land, and that they should not in the spring dress their vineyards, and
consequently that they should not expect either harvest or vintage the next year. 2. That
what their ground did produce of itself they should not claim any property or use in,
otherwise than from hand to mouth, but leave it for the poor, servants, strangers, and
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2. cattle, Lev_25:5-7. It must be a sabbath of rest to the land; they must neither do any
work about it, nor expect any fruit from it; all annual labours must be intermitted in the
seventh year, as much as daily labours on the seventh day. The Jews say they “began not
to reckon for the sabbatical year till they had completed the conquest of Canaan, which
was in the eighth year of Joshua; the seventh year after that was the first sabbatical year,
and so the fiftieth year was the jubilee.” This year there was to be a general release of
debts (Deu_15:1, Deu_15:2), and a public reading of the law in the feast (Deu_31:10,
Deu_31:11), to make it the more solemn. Now, (1.) God would hereby show them that he
was their landlord, and that they were tenants at will under him. Landlords are wont to
stipulate with their tenants when they shall break up their ground, how long they shall
till it, and when they shall let it rest: God would thus give, grant, and convey, that good
land to them, under such provisos and limitations as should let them know that they
were not proprietors, but dependents on their Lord. (2.) It was a kindness to their land
to let it rest sometimes, and would keep it in heart (as our husbandmen express it) for
posterity, whose satisfaction God would have them to consult, and not to use the ground
as if it were designed only for one age. (3.) When they were thus for a whole year taken
off from all country business, they would have the more leisure to attend the exercises of
religion, and to get the knowledge of God and his law. (4.) They were hereby taught to be
charitable and generous, and not to engross all to themselves, but to be willing that
others should share with them in the gifts of God's bounty, which the earth brought
forth of itself. (5.) They were brought to live in a constant dependence upon the divine
providence, finding that, as man lives not by bread alone, so he has bread, not by his
own industry alone, but, if God pleases, by the word of blessing from the mouth of God,
without any care or pains of man, Mat_4:4. (6.) They were reminded of the easy life man
lived in paradise, when he ate of every good thing, not, as since, in the sweat of his face.
Labour and toil came in with sin. (7.) They were taught to consider how the poor lived,
that did neither sow nor reap, even by the blessing of God upon a little. (8.) This year of
rest typified the spiritual rest which all believers enter into through Christ, our true
Noah, who giveth us comfort and rest concerning our work, and the toil of our hands,
because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed, Gen_5:29. Through him we are
eased of the burden of worldly care and labour, both being sanctified and sweetened to
us, and we are enabled and encouraged to live by faith. And, as the fruits of this sabbath
of the land were enjoyed in common, so the salvation wrought out by Christ is a common
salvation; and this sabbatical year seems to have been revived in the Christian church,
when the believers had all things common, Act_2:44.
K&D, "The law for the sabbatical and jubilee years brings to a close the laws given to
Moses by Jehovah upon Mount Sinai. This is shown by the words of the heading (Lev_
25:1), which point back to Exo_34:32, and bind together into an inward unity the whole
round of laws that Moses received from God upon the mountain, and then gradually
announced to the people. The same words are repeated, not only in Lev_7:38 at the close
of the laws of sacrifice, but also at Lev_26:46, at the close of the promises and threats
which follow the law for the sabbatical and jubilee years, and lastly, at Lev_27:34, after
the supplementary law concerning vows. The institution of the jubilee years corresponds
to the institution of the day of atonement (ch. 16). Just as all the sins and uncleannesses
of the whole congregation, which had remained unatoned for and uncleansed in the
course of the year, were to be wiped away by the all-embracing expiation of the yearly
recurring day of atonement, and an undisturbed relation to be restored between Jehovah
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3. and His people; so, by the appointment of the year of jubilee, the disturbance and
confusion of the divinely appointed relations, which had been introduced in the course
of time through the inconstancy of all human or earthly things, were to be removed by
the appointment of the year of jubilee, and the kingdom of Israel to be brought back to
its original condition. The next chapter (ch. 26) bears the same relation to the giving of
the law upon Sinai as Exo_23:20-33 to the covenant rights in Ex 20:22-23:19.
COFFMAN, “This chapter deals exclusively with the Jubilee, the super-sabbatical
year which followed the seventh sabbatical year, the same being every fiftieth year
of the Jewish calendar. Its being legislated in Leviticus ties it emphatically to the
ordinary sabbath and to the sabbatical years, meaning that there could not have
been, in any strict sense, the keeping of the sabbath day unless these extensions of it
in sabbatical years and the ultimate Jubilee were also observed. It is imperative to
understand the unity of all the sabbath laws, and it is the failure of present-day
sabbatarianism to receive this that utterly discredits and nullifies it. Some people in
our times indeed pretend to observe the sabbath day, but they do not keep the
sabbath until these Divine extensions of it are also honored. The old Israel was
condemned for not observing the sabbath years, and God sent the whole nation into
captivity for a period of 70 years to make up for the period of 490 years in which
they had failed to observe them (2 Chronicles 36:20-21). Thus, keeping the sabbath
days meant nothing unless the sabbath years were also observed.
The very name "Jubilee" is of great interest. It has come to be the name of all great
celebrations such as Golden Weddings, etc.; and Queen Victoria celebrated her
Jubilee on the 50th anniversary of her coming to the throne of the British Empire
(1837-1887). Spelled as "Jubile" in the KJV, the word derives from the Hebrew
word for "trumpet,"[1] for it was the blowing of the trumpet on the Day of
Atonement that signaled the beginning of the Jubilee. In fact, Tyndale translated the
word for Jubilee as "a yere of hornes blowinge," "the trompett yere," and "the
horne yere" (Leviticus 25:10,15,28).[2] The word "Jubilee" is an onomatopoetic
word, that is, "imitation of a joyful shout, or cry of joy, later accommodated to
mean the sound of the trumpet ushering in the season of joy."[3] The word for
Jubilee is a very ancient word, and along with certain instructions attending the
divine regulations concerning it (as in Leviticus 25:30) suggests a time-frame during
the second millennium B.C.[4] It is therefore foolish to suppose that, "The Jubilee
arose after the downfall of the Judean kingdom."[5] As a matter of fact, the Jewish
Scriptures affirm that it was the failure of Israel to observe the sabbatical years for
a period of 490 years (seventy of them being not observed) that God sent them into
captivity (2 Chronicles 36:20,21) until the land should have its 70 sabbaticals as God
had commanded, hence, the duration of the captivity.
The answer of whether or not the Jews ever faithfully observed their Jubilees
appears to be that they did not. There is no Biblical reference to their ever having
done so, and, in fact, the Jubilee is not mentioned at all except in this chapter, six
times in Leviticus 27, and once in Numbers 36:4, where it is mentioned as an event
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4. in the future. Their failure to observe it might have resulted from the difficulty they
might have had in determining the date from which they were to begin counting.
This would have been true because the better part of a generation was to elapse
before they as a whole people actually entered Canaan, and some parts of it were
occupied before other parts, and some tribes received their inheritance at different
times from others. That very great and important spiritual significance lay in these
instructions for the Jubilee is certain, because, when Jesus Christ began his ministry
(Luke 4), there appears to be a direct reference to the Jubilee in his words: "He
anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor ... to proclaim release to the
captives ... to set at liberty them that are bruised ... to proclaim the acceptable year
of the Lord" (Luke 4:18-19). Such a declaration is all but a dogmatic affirmation of
the Christian dispensation as earth's Jubilee. Of course, it would be the slaves to sin
who would be released, and the captives held in the service of Satan who would
receive their liberty through Christ.
For other interesting observations regarding the Jubilee, see several paragraphs at
the end of this chapter.
Wenham's outline divides the chapter into three divisions:
I. The Jubilee - a sabbath for the land (Leviticus 25:1-22).
II. The Jubilee - and the redemption of property (Leviticus 25:23-38).
III. The Jubilee - and the redemption of slaves (Leviticus 25:39-55).
"And Jehovah spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying, Speak unto the children of
Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall
the land keep a sabbath unto Jehovah. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six
years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruits thereof; but in the
seventh year shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath unto Jehovah:
thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. That which groweth of
itself of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, and the grapes of thy undressed vine thou
shalt not gather: it shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. And the sabbath of the
land shall be for food for you; for thee, and for thy servant and for thy maid, and
for thy hired servant and for thy stranger, who sojourn with thee. And for thy
cattle, and for the beasts that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be for
food."
"Jehovah spake unto Moses in mount Sinai ..." "This shows that all related here
was delivered to Moses in the first month of the second year after their coming out
of Egypt (Numbers 10:11-12).[6] Keil pointed out that the effect of this statement is
that of "binding together in an inward unity the whole round of laws that Moses
received from God upon the mountain, and announced gradually unto the
people."[7] The same words are repeated three other times in Leviticus (Leviticus
7:38; 26:46; and Leviticus 27:34).
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5. "The seventh year shall be a sabbath of solemn rest ..." Despite there having been a
certain benefit that accrued to the soil through its lying idle on the seventh year, one
cannot believe that it was merely the land's benefit that God had in mind back of
the regulations in this chapter. This was an antidote for human greed and an
affirmation of God's ownership of the land, and of his concern for the poor and even
for the wildlife.
"That which groweth of itself ..." ("Of its own accord ..." KJV) (Leviticus 25:5).
This is of interest, because "It is the only example of its in KJV being used as a
neuter possessive, which in the KJV was almost always expressed by "his" as the
possessive neuter pronoun. In the KJV of 1611, it is printed it; `that which groweth
of it owne accorde'."[8]
"The sabbath of the land shall be for food ..." (Leviticus 25:6). This means that
what grew of its own accord could be used for food, but that no reaping of the
voluntary yield was allowed. Note also that a garden was not prohibited. It was the
fields and vineyards upon which the prohibition lay. "Exodus 23:10f mentions only
the poor and the wild beasts as beneficiaries of this institution";[9] but here the
`owner' or tenant is also included.
COKE, “Verse 1
Leviticus 25:1. The Lord spake—in mount Sinai— The particle rendered in, might,
with as much propriety, be rendered at, or near. The word sabbath, Leviticus 25:2.
&c. would have been better translated throughout this chapter by the word rest, as
in the margin of our English Bibles. The first mention of this extraordinary
institution is made, Exodus 23:11 where the reason of it is, in part, assigned. It was
to take place every seventh year, after their settlement in Canaan. The first
sabbatical year was celebrated by the children of Israel, as it is thought, on the
seventh year after their coming into the land of Canaan: this year was reckoned not
from Abib, or March, but from Tisri, or September; but of this see more on
Leviticus 25:8.
ELLICOTT, “(1) And the Lord spake unto Moses.—This chapter should properly
have followed Leviticus 23, since the institutions of the sabbatical year, and the
jubile which it discusses, are closely connected with the regulations about the
festivals laid down in that chapter. The isolation of these ordinances from the rest of
the festivals cannot be satisfactorily explained on any other principle than that
which the authorities during the second Temple laid down, viz., that many of the
sections are transposed, and that “there is no strict sequence in the Law.”
In Mount Sinai.—That is, in the mountainous regions of Sinai. The expression
“mountain” is often used to denote a mountainous tract of country (Numbers 12:9;
Deuteronomy 1:2; Joshua 14:12, &c.). Accordingly, this divine communication was
made to Moses when the Israelites were encamped in the neighbourhood of Sinai,
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6. where they remained in the wilderness for twelve months after their exodus from
Egypt (Numbers 10:11-12).
EBC,”THE SABBATIC YEAR AND THE JUBILEE
Leviticus 25:1-55
THE system of annually recurring sabbatic times, as given in chapter 23,
culminated in the sabbatic seventh month. But this remarkable system of
sabbatisms extended still further, and besides the sacred seventh day, the seventh
week, and seventh month, included also a sabbatic seventh year; and beyond that, as
the, ultimate expression of the sabbatic idea, following the seventh seven of years,
came the hallowed fiftieth year, known as the jubilee. And the law concerning these
two last-named periods is recorded in this twenty-fifth chapter of Leviticus.
First (Leviticus 25:1-5), is given the ordinance of the sabbatic seventh year, in the
following words: "When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land
keep a sabbath unto the Lord. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou
shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruits thereof; but in the seventh year
shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath unto the Lord: thou shalt
neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. That which groweth of itself of thy
harvest thou shalt not reap, and the grapes of thy undressed vine thou shalt not
gather: it shall be a year of solemn rest for the land."
This sacred year is thus here described as a sabbath for the land unto the Lord, -a
sabbath shabbathon; that is, a sabbath in a special and eminent sense. No public
religious gatherings were ordered, however, neither was labour of every kind
prohibited. It was strictly a year of rest for the land, and for the people in so far as
this was involved in that fact. There was to be no sowing or reaping, even of what
might grow of itself; no pruning of vineyard or fruit trees, nor gathering of their
fruit. These regulations thus involved the total suspension of agricultural labour for
this entire period.
It was further ordered (Leviticus 25:6-7) that during this year the spontaneous
produce of the land should be equally free to all, both man and beast:
"The sabbath of the land shall be for food for you; for thee, and for thy servant and
for thy maid, and for thy hired servant and for thy stranger that sojourn with thee;
and for thy cattle, and for the beasts that are in thy land, shall all the increase
thereof be for food."
That this cannot be regarded as merely a regulation of a communistic character,
designed simply to affirm the absolute equality of all men in right to the product of
the soil, is evident from the fact that the beasts also are included in the terms of the
law. The object was quite different, as we shall shortly see.
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7. That it should be regarded as possible for a whole people thus to live off the
spontaneous produce of self-sowed grain may seem incredible to us who dwell in less
propitious lands; and yet travellers tell us that in the Palestine of today, with its rich
soil and kindly climate, the various food grains continuously propagate themselves
without cultivation; and that in Albania, also, two and three successive harvests are
sometimes reaped as the result of one sowing. So, even apart from the special
blessing from the Lord promised to them if they would obey this command, the
supply of at least the necessities of life was possible from the spontaneous product of
the sabbath of the land. Though less than usual, it might easily be sufficient.
Deuteronomy 15:1-11, it is ordered also that the seventh year should be "a year of
release" to the debtor; not indeed as regards all debts, but loans only; nor,
apparently, that even these should be released absolutely, but that throughout the
seventh year the claim of the creditor was to be in abeyance. The regulation may
naturally be regarded as consequent upon this fundamental law regarding the
sabbath of the land. The income of the year being much less than usual, the debtor,
presumably, might often find it difficult to pay; whence this restriction on collection
of debt during this period.
The central thought of this ordinance then is this, that man’s right in the soil and its
product, originally granted from God, during this sabbatic year reverted to the
Giver; who, again, by ordering that all exclusive rights of individuals in the produce
of their estates should be suspended for this year, placed, for so long, the rich and
the poor on an absolute equality as regards means of sustenance.
TRAPP, “Leviticus 25:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying,
Ver. 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses in Mount Sinai.] Posthuman, returning
from the eastern parts, is, by Sulpitius, (a) brought in thus speaking: I saw the Red
Sea, I went up Mount Sinai, the very top whereof, reaching up almost to heaven,
cannot be come at.
Leviticus 25:2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come
into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD.
2 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When
you enter the land I am going to give you, the land
itself must observe a sabbath to the Lord.
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8. CLARKE, "The land keep a Sabbath - See this ordinance explained, Exo_23:11
(note). It may be asked here: if it required all the annual produce of the field to support
the inhabitants, how could the people be nourished the seventh year, when no produce
was received from the fields? To this it may be answered, that God sent his blessing in an
especial manner on the sixth year, (see Lev_25:21, Lev_25:22), and it brought forth fruit
for three years. How astonishing and convincing was this miracle! Could there possibly
be any deception here? No! The miracle speaks for itself, proves the Divine authenticity
of the law, and takes every prop and stay from the system that wishes to convict the
Mosaic ordinances of imposture. See Exo_23:11. It is evident from this that the Mosaic
law must have had a Divine origin, as no man in his senses, without God’s authority,
could have made such an ordinance as this; for the sixth year, from its promulgation,
would have amply refuted his pretensions to a Divine mission.
GILL, "Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them,.... What follows,
being what the whole body of the people would be under obligation to observe, and
therefore must be delivered to them all, at least to the heads and elders of the people,
and by them to the rest:
when ye come into the land which I give you; the land of Canaan, and until they
came thither, the following law concerning the sabbatical year could not take place; and
as Maimonides (i) says, it was only used in the land of Israel, and no where else,
according to this text, and that both before and after the temple was built:
JAMISON 2-4, “When ye come into the land which I give you — It has been
questioned on what year, after the occupation of Canaan, the sabbatic year began to be
observed. Some think it was the seventh year after their entrance. But others,
considering that as the first six years were spent in the conquest and division of the land
(Jos_5:12), and that the sabbatical year was to be observed after six years of agriculture,
maintain that the observance did not commence till the fourteenth year.
the land keep a sabbath unto the Lord — This was a very peculiar arrangement.
Not only all agricultural processes were to be intermitted every seventh year, but the
cultivators had no right to the soil. It lay entirely fallow, and its spontaneous produce
was the common property of the poor and the stranger, the cattle and game. This year of
rest was to invigorate the productive powers of the land, as the weekly Sabbath was a
refreshment to men and cattle. It commenced immediately after the feast of ingathering,
and it was calculated to teach the people, in a remarkable manner, the reality of the
presence and providential power of God.
K&D 2-4, “The Sabbatical Year. - When Israel had come into the land which the Lord
gave to it, it was to sanctify it to the Lord by the observance of a Sabbath. As the nation
at large, with its labourers and beasts of burden, was to keep a Sabbath or day of rest
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9. every seventh day of the week, so the land which they filled was to rest (to keep, ‫י‬ ָ‫בּ‬ַ‫שׁ‬ ‫ת‬ ַ‫ב‬ָ‫שׁ‬
as in Lev_23:32) a Sabbath to the Lord. Six years they were to sow the field and cut the
vineyard, i.e., cultivate the corn-fields, vineyards, and olive-yards (Exo_23:11 : see the
remarks on cerem at Lev_19:10), and gather in their produce; but in the seventh year the
land was to keep a Sabbath of rest (Sabbath sabbathon, Exo_31:15), a Sabbath consecrated
to the Lord (see Exo_20:10); and in this year the land was neither to be tilled nor reaped
(cf. Exo_23:10-11). ‫ר‬ ַ‫ָמ‬‫ז‬ in Kal applies only to the cutting of grapes, and so also in
Niphal, Isa_5:6; hence zemorah, a vine-branch (Num_13:23), and mazmerah, a pruning-
knife (Isa_2:4, etc.).
(Note: The meaning to sin and play, which is peculiar to the Piel, and is derived
from zamar, to hum, has hardly anything to do with this. At all events the connection
has not yet been shown to be a probable one. See Hupfeld, Psa_4:1-8 pp. 421-2, note.)
The omission of sowing and reaping presupposed that the sabbatical year commenced
with the civil year, in the autumn of the sixth year of labour, and not with the
ecclesiastical year, on the first of Abib (Nisan), and that it lasted till the autumn of the
seventh year, when the cultivation of the land would commence again with the
preparation of the ground and the sowing of the seed for the eighth year; and with this
the command to proclaim the jubilee year on “the tenth day of the seventh month”
throughout all the land (Lev_25:9), and the calculation in Lev_25:21, Lev_25:22, fully
agree.
ELLICOTT, “ (2) When ye come into the land.—Better, When ye be come into the
land, as the Authorised Version renders the same phrase in Leviticus 14:34. (See
Note on Leviticus 19:23.) This is the fourth instance in Leviticus of a law being given
prospectively which had no immediate bearing on the condition of Israel. (See
Leviticus 14:34; Leviticus 19:23; Leviticus 23:10.) According to the authorities
during the second Temple this law came into operation in the twenty-first year after
the Israelites entered Canaan. As the conquest of the promised land occupied them
seven years (Joshua 14:10), and as the division of it between the different tribes took
seven years more (Joshua 18:1, &c.), the real cultivation of the land only began at
the end of the second seven years. Hence the first seventh year in which laws of the
sabbatical year came into operation was the twenty-first year after their entrance
into Canaan.
Then shall the land keep a sabbath.—For which the marginal rendering is “rest,”
i.e., a sabbath. For the import of this phrase see Note on Leviticus 23:32. The
septennial sabbath is to be to the land what the weekly sabbath is to the whole earth.
Just as the seventh day is dedicated to God in recognition of His being the Creator
of the world, so the seventh year is to be consecrated to Him in acknowledgment
that He is the owner of the land. Hence, like the weekly sabbath (Exodus 20:10;
Leviticus 23:3; Deuteronomy 5:14), the seventh year sabbath is belonging “unto the
Lord.” (See Leviticus 25:4.)
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10. TRAPP, “Ver. 2. Then shall the land keep a Sabbath.] By their weekly Sabbath they
professed that themselves belonged to God, though Seneca jeers them for it, as those
that cast away the seventh part of their time. By this seventh year Sabbath, they
professed that their land belonged to God, and that they were only his hinds, his
tenants, and tithemen. Hence it is called the Lord’s land, [Hosea 9:3] and
Immanuel’s. [Isaiah 8:8]
PETT, “Leviticus 25:2
“Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When you come into the land
which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath to Yahweh.”
He was to inform the children of Israel that not only must they keep Sabbath every
seventh day, but the land must keep sabbath as well every seventh year. Once they
had entered the land and it had been distributed to them as their gift from Him,
they were to observe a sabbath rest for the land after every period of six years, a
period again in which they did no labour.
WHEDON, “ THE SABBATICAL YEAR, Leviticus 25:1-7.
2. The land keep a sabbath — Literally, rest a sabbath. The soil was to lie untilled.
Hence this law was not applicable to Israel’s wilderness life, where there was no
tillage. We are not to be restricted to the literalism of the text, and to insist that the
first year in Canaan must be sabbatical. The land was not properly given till it was
conquered. Hence the best Jewish authorities teach that this law became obligatory
fourteen years after the first entrance into the Promised Land, seven years being
consumed in the conquest, and seven more in the allotment.
BI 2-55, “A Sabbath of rest unto the land.
The sabbatic year and jubilee
1. I do not suppose that these sabbatic regulations referred severally to separate and
distinct things. The seventh day, the seventh month, the seventh year, and the year of
jubilee, as I take them, all express the same great thought, and are related to each
other in signification as the different sections of a telescope. They fold into each
other. The one is only a repetition of the other on a larger scale. And they all range in
the same line to give a focus for gazing the further into the depths and minuter
details of one and the same scene. We have sabbaths of days, and sabbaths of
months, and sabbaths of years, and septenaries of years, all multiplied in each other
with augmenting interest, to indicate the approach of some one great seventh of time
when all God’s gracious dealings with man shall come to their culmination, and to
point the eye of hope to some one grand ultimate sabbath, in which the weary world
shall repose from its long turmoil and all its inhabitants keep jubilee.
2. The word “Jubilee” is of doubtful origin and signification. Some derive it from a
verb which means to recall, restore, bring back; which would very appropriately
designate an arrangement which recalled the absent, restored the captive, and
brought back alienated estates. Some trace it to Jubal, the inventor of musical
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11. instruments, and suppose that this year was named after him from its being a year of
mirth and joy, of which music is a common attendant and expression. Our English
word “jovial” may perhaps be traceable to this origin. Others think it a word meant
to denote the extraordinary sounding of trumpets with which this particular year was
always introduced, some making it refer to the kind of instruments used, and others
to the particular kind of note produced. But, after all, it may have been a name
invented for the occasion, and intended to, carry its meaning in its sound, or to get it
from the nature of the period which it was thenceforward to designate. It is a word
which, if not in sound, yet in its associations, connects with the sublimest joys,
ushered in with thrilling and triumphant proclamations.
I. First of all, it is to be A sabbath—a consecrated and holy rest. The year of jubilee was
the intensest and sublimest of the sabbatic periods. The Sabbath is the jewel of days. It is
the marked and hallowed seventh, in which God saw creation finished, and the great
Maker sat down complacently to view the admirable products of His wisdom, love, and
power—blessed type of a still more blessed rest, when He shall sit down to view
redemption finished, the years brought to their perfect consummation, and the life of the
world in its full and peaceful bloom. The jubilee is therefore to be the crown of
dispensations, and the ultimate glory of the ages, when the Son of God shall rest from
the long work of the new creation, and sit down with His saints to enjoy it for ever and
ever.
II. In the next place it is to be the period of restitution. Everything seemed to go back to
the happy condition in which God had originally arranged things. Man, in this present
world, is a dispossessed proprietor. God gave him possessions and prerogatives which
have been wrested from him. God made him but a little lower than the angels, crowned
him with glory and honour, and set him over the works of His hands. All creatures were
given to him for his service, and he was to “have dominion over every living thing that
moveth upon the earth.” But where is all that glory and dominion now? How has the
gold faded and the power waned How much are we now at the mercy of what was meant
to serve and obey us! Gone, are our once glorious estates. Gone, the high freedom which
once encompassed man. Gone, all the sublime dignity which once crowned him. But we
shall not always remain in this poverty and disgrace. Those old estates have not gone
from us for ever. When the great joyous trump of jubilee shall sound, the homesteads of
our fathers shall return to us again, nor strangers more traverse those patrimonial halls.
III. Again, it shall be A time of release for all that are oppressed, imprisoned, or round.
The year of jubilee struck off the bonds of every Jewish captive, and threw open the
prison doors to all who had lost their liberty. We are all prisoners now. Though the
chains of sin be broken, the chains of flesh and remaining corruption still confine us and
abridge our freedom. Even those pious ones who have passed away from earth are still
held in the power of death. Their souls may be at rest, but their bodies are still shut up in
the pit of the grave. There still is groaning and “waiting for the adoption, to wit, the
redemption of our body.” But when the great trump of jubilee shall sound these
groanings shall cease and these fetters all dissolve.
IV. Another feature of that happy time is, that it shall be a time of regathering for the
scattered household. It is not possible in this world for families to keep together. A
thousand necessities are ever pressing upon us to scatter us out from our homes. The
common wants of life, to say nothing of aims and enterprises for good, honour, or
distinction, operate to drive asunder the most tenderly attached of households. And if we
should even succeed in overcoming dividing forces of this kind, there are others which
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12. do their work in a way which we cannot hinder. Death comes, and, one by one, the whole
circle is mowed down, and sleep in separate graves, mostly far apart. But there cometh a
day when all the households of the virtuous and good shall be complete. The year of
jubilee shall bring back the absent one. For when the Son of man shall come, “He shall
send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect
from the four winds, from the one end of heaven to the other.” Not one shall be
overlooked or forgotten.
V. But there is still another feature of this blessed time to come to which I will refer. The
sounding of that trump shall be the summons to a sacred feast upon the stores laid up by
the industry of preceding years. Though no sowing or gathering was to be done in the
year of jubilee, Israel was to have plenty. The bountiful hand of Heaven was to supply
them. Years going before were to furnish abundance for all the period of rest. The
Sabbath of the land was to be meat for them. Now is our harvest-time. The fields are
waving with beautiful golden products which God means that we shall gather and store
for our jubilee. Industry and toil are required. We must thrust in the sickle, and gather
the blessed sheaves, and lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven. It will not do to play
the sluggard while that ripe vintage is inviting us to gather. We must work while we may,
and lay up while it is within reach. When once the trumpet sounds it will be too late to
begin to lay up for the year of rest. (J. A. Seiss, D. D.)
The year sabbath
The great year-sabbath carried with it many important advantages and benefits that
belonged to no other period; and it is interesting to observe how accurately they all
symbolised the blessings conferred by the redemptive work of our Emmanuel.
I. One of these was the universal extinction of debt. Here is a man who has inherited
from his ancestors a narrow strip of land on the rocky slopes of Mount Ephraim. He
cultivates a small vineyard on the hillside, sows a few patches of wheat and barley, and
has a few cows and bullocks grazing in his little meadow. With health and good seasons
he could supply the modest wants of his household, and escape the necessity of debt. But
calamities have befallen him. Under the pressure of his needs he has been compelled to
contract debts, hoping that more auspicious days would enable him to discharge them.
But those days come not. His creditors grow stern and exacting, demand immediate
payment, and threaten to eject him from his heritage, cast him into prison, and sell his
children into slavery. Still he struggles on. Yet, toil as he may, he cannot master the
difficulties that environ him. The encumbrance is too heavy, the danger too near and too
pressing. But just as he is on the point of giving up all further effort and resigning
himself to despair, the morning of the jubilee breaks over the land. The joyful
acclamations that welcome its coming swell out on the air and reach him among the
hills. Blessed sounds are they to him! They tell him that his trials are ended, his home
secure; and that, by the benign decree of Israel’s God, he may now go forth to his daily
labour, safe from the peril that has menaced him so long. Go with me to the debtor’s gaol
in Jerusalem, and look at another on whom adversity has dealt blows still more terrible.
Liable to claims which he could not meet, he was stripped of all that he possessed. There
was no kinsman rich enough, or generous enough, to redeem his property or become
surety for his person, and his creditors, having the power, shut him up in prison. Many
years have passed since then. He has lost all reckoning of time—has forgotten to note the
slow years, as they drag wearily by him—forgotten that the hour of deliverance is
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13. drawing nigh. The Day of Atonement dawns in the heavens, but he knows it not. He
hears the loud trumpets proclaiming the year-sabbath without any thought of their
meaning. The door of his cell is thrown open; he is told that the jubilee has come, and
that he is free. Rising listlessly from his bed of straw, he looks round amazed and
stupefied. The truth at last flashes upon him, and with a low, trembling cry of
thanksgiving, he goes forth to tread the green earth once more, to feel the soft breath of
spring, and exult in the bright sun and sky. Call to mind how many cases, analogous to
those now supposed, there must have been in Israel at each recurrence of the year of
release, and you will be able to form some conception of the blessings connected with
that sacred season. Nor can you fail to perceive with what force and beauty the feature
which we have considered illustrates the grace of the gospel. By our numerous and
aggravated sins we have come under tremendous liabilities to the justice of God, and
have incurred an amount of obligation which no human arithmetic can compute, and no
human efforts can liquidate. Judgment has been entered against us in the court of
heaven, execution issued; and the stern messenger, Death, only awaits the Divine signal
to bear us away to the dungeons of hell. But in this fearful exigency the Saviour has
interposed for our rescue. By faith in His atoning sacrifice our mighty debt is cancelled;
the uttermost farthing is paid; the demands of the law are satisfied; and through the
suretyship of Him who died for us, we stand exonerated before the tribunal of Infinite
Holiness.
II. In the year-sabbath there was an end of bondage. See that slave delving and
sweltering in the hot cane-fields of Jericho, condemned to toil through the long summer
day under a burning summer sun, without rest, and without reward. His childhood was
passed on the breezy heights of Carmel, among babbling brooks, the singing of birds,
and the odour of flowers. There he grew up, a bold, free-hearted youth, erect and tall,
with an eye keen as a falcon’s and a foot fleet as the roe which he chased on the
mountain-side. But misfortune, swifter still, overtook him. A ruthless claimant, to whom
his parents were indebted, seized him, and doomed him to bondage. Look at him now.
Slavery has bowed his strong frame, and stiffened his elastic limbs, and on the brow,
once so joyous, sits hopeless gloom. As he bends to his task, what sad memories are busy
within him! He thinks of the dear ones far away—of his happy boyhood—of all that he
might have been—of the hard lot that has been his instead—and tears, bitter tears, are on
his bronzed cheek. But while he thus muses and weeps his ear catches the distant note of
a trumpet. Now it is nearer, louder. It comes rolling down the gorges of the wilderness in
the way toward Jerusalem, bounding from cliff to cliff, and pouring its jocund waves
upon the plain below. Others take up the strain, and send it from wall and housetop,
from crag and valley, till the very air seems alive with it. For a moment he listens
uncertain; then shouting, “The jubilee, the jubilee!” tears off the badge of his servitude—
stands up a freeman—and with the stride of a giant, journeys back to the scenes where
his heart has ever been. By nature we are all the subjects of a moral thraldom as grinding
as it is criminal. We are the slaves of our own depravity, “sold under sin,” and “led by the
devil at his will.” But the Cross of Christ touches our chains, and they are shivered into
fragments; His grace rends the serf-livery from our spirits, and we walk forth in the joy
of a blessed emancipation.
III. The jubilee brought with it the restoration of property. Picture to yourselves an
Israelite thrust out by adversity from the inheritance of his ancestors. He has struggled
hard to keep the old home; but losses have fallen heavily upon him and he must depart.
The roof beneath which he was born, the streams by which he has walked, the fields he
has tilled, the trees in whose shade he has reclined, the graves where his fathers sleep, all
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14. must be left, and left, alas I in the keeping of strangers. He casts one long, farewell look
on the scene which he loves so well, and then, with wife and little ones, goes forth an
exile. Years pass on. Farther and farther he wanders, finding no resting-place, and
“dragging at each remove a lengthening chain.” But, hark I a trumpet-blast breaks upon
the air. It is caught up and repeated from city and hamlet, from hill-top and glen, from
highways and byways, till the whole land rings with the joyous echo. The wanderer hears
it. His heart knows and feels it. It is the jubilee signal. Oh, with what rapture does he
now hasten back to the home once more his own! Old friends greet his return; old
familiar faces smile upon him; hands that he grasped in youth now grasp his in happy
welcome. The days of his exile are over. He is among his kindred again. And what an
image is there here of our own restoration by the gospel to the heritage which we have
lost! Our condition, as fallen creatures, resembles that of the beggared Jew driven out
from his birthright. Our sins have stripped us of cur all. The original holiness of our
nature, the likeness and favour of God, our kindred with angels, our title to a blessed
immortality, are gone, and gone beyond our power to recover. But the mercy of God has
provided for us a jubilee. By believing in His only-begotten Son we receive back, aye,
more than receive back, our alienated inheritance. We are again invested with a glorious
property, and made rich with a wealth which empires could not bestow.
IV. The year-sabbath was intended to be a season of harmony and repose. During its
continuance the land was to rest, the implements of husbandry to be put away, and
labour to cease, that social intercourse and kindly feeling might be cultivated without
restraint. There was to be no strife, no oppression; all disputes were to be laid aside, all
contentions abandoned; and society in every rank was to present one unbroken scene of
brotherhood and peace. How beautifully does this feature of the sacred year prefigure
the results which Christianity contemplates. Its design is to impart to all who truly
embrace it a peace which comes from heaven, and is the earnest of heaven, and then to
unite them to each other in one harmonious and holy fraternity. All its elements, all its
tendencies, are those of union and love. Mankind shall become one great family. Public
and private animosities, the jar of conflicting interests, the opposition of classes, the
insolence of the rich, the overbearing of the strong, shall be remembered only to excite
wonder that they could ever have been. Then will be the jubilee of the creation, the great
Sabbath of the world. Over the face of humanity, long agitated by wrong, and struggle,
and sin, shall come a holy calm; like the quiet of a still eventide after the turmoil of a
tempestuous day, when the winds have gone down, and the clouds disappear, and the
blue sky breaks forth, and the setting sun sprinkles gold over the smiling land and the
sleeping waters. And this universal peace on earth will be the prelude of everlasting
peace in heaven.
V. One more evangelic analogy of the year-sabbath may be traced in the extent and
fulness given to its proclamation. “Ye shall make the trumpet sound throughout all your
land.” The manner in which this was done was very interesting and suggestive. As the
time for proclaiming the jubilee drew on a company of priests was stationed at the door
of the Tabernacle or Temple, each with a silver trumpet in his hand. The Levites in the
cities and towns, and every householder in the nation, were also furnished with silver
trumpets. When the hour had arrived, the company of priests sounded the appointed
signal. Those in their immediate neighbourhood repeated it. It was answered by the
Levites and the inhabitants of the next town. And thus it was sent on from dwelling to
dwelling, from city to city, from mountain to mountain, from tribe to tribe, till the
farthest borders of the land echoed and re-echoed with the glad music. The sounding of
the silver trumpets was unquestionably a symbol of the proclamation of the gospel. The
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15. ministers of Christ are commanded to publish redemption by His blood, and to invite
the disinherited and the ruined to return to their Father’s house. And in the work of
spreading this message all the people of God are to bear part. The tidings of mercy
announced by the priests and Levites are to be taken up by private Christians and
carried out into all the walks of life. At the fireside, in the Sabbath-school class, in the
social circle, in the resorts of business, the trumpet is to be sounded. Neighbour should
sound it to neighbour, village to village, city to city, land to land, until the most distant
and secluded spot on the globe has been penetrated by the joyful summons. And the
hour is at hand when this blessed consummation shall be realised. Peal out, O trumpet
of redemption l along our storm-swept skies, ringing over land and sea, proclaiming the
end of sin, the end of travail, and heralding the birth of the new spiritual creation in
which dwelleth righteousness. (Dr. Ide.)
The purpose of the sabbatical year
The principal object of the sabbatical year, at least in the eyes of the Levitical legislator,
was not its economic usefulness in invigorating the soil, or any other of the many
material advantages which have been attributed to it, but its spiritual significance as a
general Sabbath devoted to God; for as the week is a complete cycle for the labour of
man, so is the year for the cultivation and produce of the land; and man was to rest every
seventh day, and the land every seventh year, in order that, by sacrificing one day’s
labour and one year’s produce, the Israelite might express his gratitude to the mercy of
God who blesses his works, and who sustains him during the temporary suspension of
his efforts. He was to be reminded that the treasures of the earth were indeed created for
the benefit of man, but that he should not use them selfishly and greedily; and on the
other hand, that the soil had indeed been laden with God’s curse, but that His bounty
gives abundance and grants respite from wearying toil. Who will assert that these and
similar abstract ideas, which underlie the laws of the sabbatical year were conceived in
the early Mosaic age, or could be profitably conveyed to the untutored people who meant
to worship their Deliverer by dancing round the golden image of a calf? The views of
Philo, who gives the oldest comment on our laws, may be briefly stated. Moses thought
the number seven, he observes, worthy of such reverence, being “the pure and ever
virgin number,” that he ordained in every seventh year the remission of debts in order
“to assist the poor, and train the rich to humanity”; he commanded that then the people
should leave the land fallow and untilled, and “deliberately let slip out of their hands
certain and valuable revenues,” in order to teach them not to be “wholly devoted to gain,
but even willingly to submit to some loss,” and thus to prepare them to bear patiently
any mischance or calamity; he desired, moreover, to intimate that it was sinful to weigh
down and oppress man with burdens, since even the earth, which has no feelings of
pleasure or of pain, was to enjoy a period of relaxation; and that all benefits bestowed
upon our fellow-men are sure to meet with reward and requital, since even the
inanimate earth, after having been allowed to rest for one year, gratefully returns this
favour by producing in the next year much larger crops than usual; just as athletes, by
alternating recreation and exertion “as with a well-regulated harmony,” greatly enhance
their strength, and are at last able to perform wonders of endurance; or as nature has
wisely ordained man to work and to sleep by turns, that he may not be worn oat by toil.
But the lawgiver’s chief object was “humanity, which he thought fit to weave in with
every part of his legislation, stamping on all who study the Holy Scriptures a sociable
and humane disposition.” With this view he “raised the poor from their apparent lowly
15

16. condition, and freed them from the reproach of being beggars,” by “appointing times
when, as if they bad been deriving a revenue from their own properties, they found
themselves in the possession of plenty, being suddenly enriched by the gift of God, who
had invited them to share with the possessors themselves in the number of the sacred
seven.” In these remarks the charitable and moral motives of the sabbatical year are
admirably, but its theocratic tendencies imperfectly, unfolded; nor can Philo be expected
to appreciate the gradual development manifest in the various Books of the Pentateuch:
in the law of Leviticus charity is no more than an incidental and subordinate object. (M.
M. Kalisch, Ph. D.)
A sabbath of rest unto the land
I. Divine ownership in the soil
II. Man’s highest interests are not material and earthly.
III. Neighbourliness and benevolence should be cultivated.
IV. Reliance on God, in implicit obedience to his will. To desist from effort to provide for
their own maintenance would—
1. Elicit their faith in the fatherly care of God.
2. Summon them to a religious use of the time which God had set free from secular
toils.
3. Incite them to grateful thoughts of God’s dealings with them as His people, and
win them to a renewed recognition that they were “not their own,” but His, who had
redeemed and still cared for them.
V. Sabbatic rest: heaven’s gracious law for earthly toilers, Man needs the Sabbath pause,
in order to realise—
1. That higher possibilities are opened to him by God’s grace, than to be a servant of
the soil on which he dwells.
2. That God desires of men the devotion of fixed seasons, and leisurely hours for
sacred meditation and fellowship with the skies. (W. H. Jellie.)
The Sabbath of the fields
1. Palestine was designed and arranged by God, when He laid the foundations of the
earth and divided to the nations their inheritance, to be a natural fortress for the
preservation of religious truth and purity; a home in which a covenant people might
be trained and educated, in the household of God and directly under His eye, to be
zealous of good works themselves, and to be a royal priesthood to mankind—to carry
out in their history God’s promise to the founder of their race, that in him should all
the families of the earth be blessed. And therefore God surrounded it with natural
fortifications which kept it separate and secluded—even although placed in the very
midst of the most concentrated populations of the world, in the very focus towards
which their intercourse with one another radiated—until the objects of the hermit
training and discipline of its inhabitants were accomplished.
16

17. 2. The Jews could not help being a nation of farmers. As a new seed of Adam,
subjected to a new trial of obedience, they were placed in this new garden of Eden, to
dress and keep it, in order that through their tilling of the ground the wilderness and
the solitary place might be made glad, and the desert to rejoice and blossom as the
rose. Their thoughts, bounded on every side by impassable walls, were turned inward
upon their own country for the development of patriotism and the formation of a
more compact and concentrated national life. Their energies were employed
exclusively in the cultivation of the soil, and in developing to the utmost the
resources of the land. And very rich and varied were these resources. No other
country in the world presented, within a similar limited area, such diversities of soil
and climate.
3. It was in beautiful accordance with all these natural provisions of the country for
the isolation of the people during the ages of their discipline under God’s special care
to be the benefactors of mankind, that the remarkable arrangements of the seventh
or sabbatical year were Divinely instituted. Every seventh year was holy unto the
Lord, as well as every seventh day. During that whole year the entire nation kept
holiday. The people were not, indeed, absolutely idle; for that would have proved
demoralising, and neutralised the beneficent nature of the whole arrangement. Much
of their time was spent in religious observances, and in hearing and studying the law
of God. Their attention was directed from their ordinary material affairs to their
spiritual concerns. And although all cultivation of arable land was strictly forbidden,
they had still to look after their sheep and cattle, and to tend with more or less care
their gardens anti orchards; while, doubtless, a good portion of their leisure would
be occupied with the repair of their houses, implements of husbandry and domestic
furniture, and in weaving and the various other economical arts. At the end of a
week, or seven of these sabbaths of the years—or after the lapse of forty-nine years—
the sabbatical scale, beginning with the seventh day and going on to the seventh
month and the seventh year, received its completion in the year of jubilee. This was
the great political sabbath of the people and of the land. The sabbath day was the rest
of the individual; the sabbath year was the rest of each farm and household; while
the jubilee was the rest of the whole commonwealth, for it was only as a member of
the state that each Israelite could participate in its provisions.
4. What was the design of these remarkable sabbatical years, confining our attention
solely to their agricultural relations, and leaving out of sight their other provisions?
Why were these sabbaths of the fields instituted? The first reason must obviously
have reference to the soil itself; for the ladder of all the human relations, social,
political, and religious, necessarily rests upon the tilling of the ground. It was to
benefit the land itself in the first instance, that the sabbaths of the fields were
ordained. The whole arable land of the country was to lie fallow a whole year at fixed
recurring intervals, so that during these long periods of rest it might acquire, from
the atmosphere, from the operations of the elements and of animal life, and from the
decay of the plants which it spontaneously produced, the fertile substances which it
had lost. More than most soils, that of Palestine needed this complete periodical rest.
Being principally composed of disintegrated limestone, and very loose, light, and dry
in its texture, it parted, under the influence of an arid climate, very easily with its
phosphates and other fertilising materials. But upon this physical reason there were
based very important moral reasons for the sabbaths of the fields. It was required
that the whole land should rest periodically, not only that its fertility might be
preserved, but also in order to limit the rights and check the sense of property in it.
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18. The earth and all the fulness thereof are indeed the Lord’s, as the Creator and
Preserver of all things; but, in a very special sense, the Land of Promise was His
property. He let out His vineyard to husbandmen who should render unto Him the
spiritual fruits thereof; and the rent which He required as Superior was that one year
in seven, and one year in forty-nine years, the land should lie fallow—should pass
from the yoke of man to the liberty of God—should be offered up a sacrifice, as it
were, unto Him upon the great mountain-altar of Palestine. The very abstinence
from agricultural work during the sabbaths of the fields—the self-denial in refraining
periodically for a whole year to till the ground—the trustfulness needed in looking to
God for bread during so long a period of enforced rest—the confidence that He would
in previous years secure from the land an increase adequate to meet the strain which
the law of the sabbatical year laid upon its productive energies—all this was but a
repetition of the conditions annexed to the possession of Eden, namely, that Adam
should abstain from eating the forbidden fruit. The sabbaths of the fields were a trial
of the faith of the Israelites, a test of their obedience. Only so long as they kept these
sabbaths, abstained from eating the forbidden fruit of their fields, did the land yield
to them its abundance, and nourish them with its fruits of life. “The land is Mine,”
said God, when enacting this sabbatical law; “for ye are strangers and sojourners
with Me.” The Israelites were living as truly a tent life—a life of pilgrims and
strangers on earth amid their settled possessions in Canaan—as they had been in
their wanderings in the wilderness. But, further still, the sabbaths of the fields
connected, in a most beautiful and interesting manner, the agriculture of the
Israelites with the institutions of their religion. The law enacting them was given in
words corresponding to those of the fourth commandment: the one was only an
extension of the other. The natural, social, and spiritual uses of the sabbath day
suggested those of the sabbath year. The same sacredness and Divine obligation
attached to the one as to the other. Under the theocratic government of Israel, the
sanctuary and the farm lay within the same circle of holy influences. But perhaps the
most interesting of all the aspects of the sabbaths of the fields was their relation to
the future—their prophetic character. As the sabbath day pointed forward to the true
and final rest that remaineth to the people of God, so the sabbatical year and the year
of jubilee pointed forward to the jubilee of the world—the times of refreshing and the
restitution of all things spoken of by all the prophets—the regeneration and the
glorious kingdom to be inherited by the true Israel of God when they shall receive
back an hundredfold all that they have lost. The sabbath day commemorated the
relief of man from the burden of toil imposed upon him because of his sin; the
sabbaths of the fields the relief of nature from the curse on the ground for man’s
sake. The year of rest for worn-out nature was a prefiguration of the change which is
in store for the outward world, when every wilderness shall become a fruitful field,
and instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree, and out of which it shall issue as a
new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.
5. But, alas! beneficient as it was, a law so peculiar, and requiring so much faith and
self-denial, was not thoroughly and uninterruptedly observed. After four centuries of
obedience, during which the land preserved its primitive fertility, and there were no
famines arising from impoverishment of the soil, but only from unusual droughts
and other atmospheric causes, the people ceased to keep the fallow year, not only
through want of trust in God’s providence amid so peculiar a mode of living, but also
through the moral corruption of the times. Then the land, originally the most fertile
in the world, became one of the most capricious and uncertain; the store of fertilising
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19. materials was rapidly used up by incessant cultivation; and that state of things which
Moses foretold took place—“And your strength shall be spent in vain, for your land
shall not yield its increase.” Famine after famine, some of them of excessive severity
and long continuance, arising from the overdriving and exhaustion of the soil, swept
over the land and decimated the people. Henceforth the disregard of the sabbatical
year became the burden of every prophetical denunciation, and “the voice of
historian and prophet was one continual wail of famine.” In this painful extremity of
the country’s fortunes, the judgment threatened by Moses against the violation of the
fallow year was inflicted—“And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw
out a sword after you, and your land shall be desolate and your cities waste. Then
shall the land enjoy her sabbaths as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your
enemies’ land; even then shall the land rest and enjoy her sabbaths. As long as it lieth
desolate it shall rest, because it did not rest in your sabbaths when ye dwelt upon it.”
Throughout the Babylonish captivity there was a continuous fallow of seventy years.
During all that long period the fields of Palestine lay desolate, were neither sown nor
reaped; and by this timely and much-needed rest the land recovered a large portion
of its old fertility. And thus God graciously mingled mercy and judgment; combined
the punishment of His people with the renovation of their inheritance. Weary,
footsore, in tears, the saddened exiles returned to their native land, taught by their
own experience that it is an evil and a bitter thing to sin against God. (H. Macmillan,
D. D.)
Lessons from the sabbatical year
I. That the lord was the sole proprietor of the land.
II. That the land had resting upon it, continually, the favour of the lord.
III. That the divine favour provides for the well-being of every living thing.
IV. That of every living thing, man is the nearest and dearest to the great creator.
V. That the great creator teaches moral truths to man by means of works of nature. (F.
W. Brown.)
The year of jubilee.—
The jubilee year: its fourfold significance
I. The christian dispensation of gospel liberty and rest (see Luk_4:18-21).
II. The believer’s privileged life of sacred release and joy (cf. Eph_1:13-14; Heb_4:9;
Heb_8:12).
III. The millennial age, of established righteousness and peace (see Isa_66:18-23; Rev_
20:2-5).
IV. The heavenly state of eternal security and serenity (see 2Pe_3:13; Rev_14:13; Rev_
21:4). In the application of the jubilee incidents to each of these grand fulfilments of its
symbolism, the following facts stand out clearly:—
1. Bounty. God gave a supernatural abundance the year preceding the jubilee, that in
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20. the enjoyment of vast supplies there should be no necessity for toil, no occasion for
care see Lev_25:21). And assuredly there is
(1) Bounty in the provisions of the gospel (1Ti_1:14).
(2) Fulness of grace for the believer in Jesus (2Co_4:15; Tit_3:6).
(3) Abundance of good to be enjoyed in the millennial age (Psa_72:7).
(4) Limitless bliss in the heavenly land (Psa_16:2),
2. Rest. That sabbatic year was to be consecrated to repose; the land was to be
allowed to rest; the toiler was to cease from toil. Every want was supplied without the
weariness of labour. Equally true of the—
(1) Gospel rest which Christianity announces (Mat_11:29).
(2) Believer’s rest which faith secures (Heb_4:3).
(3) Millennial rest for a wearied Church (Rev_20:2-3).
(4) Heavenly rest for Christ’s redeemed followers (Rev_14:13).
3. Liberty. All bondservants were set free the moment the jubilee trumpet sounded
(Lev_25:39-44). And assuredly this finds verification in the—
(1) Liberty which Christ proclaimed to souls enslaved in sin and fear (Luk_4:18;
Heb_2:15).
(2) Spiritual freedom realised by faith (Rom_8:15; Joh_8:36).
(3) Emancipation from thraldom which shall distinguish the millennial reign
(Isa_49:8-9).
(4) Glorious liberty of the children of God in heaven (Rom_8:21; Rev_21:24-25).
4. Restitution. If the Israelite had parted with his inheritance, its possession was
restored to him in the year of jubilee, and that without payment (Lev_25:25-37).
So—
(1) The redemption of Christ recovers for man all that sin had forfeited.
(2) Believers in Jesus regain all the virtue, happiness, and hopes which the fall
had ruined.
(3) The weary and wronged world would enjoy paradisal gladness through
Christ’s millennial sway.
(4) Heaven will realise all which on earth had been desired, and restore all which
death had desolated.
V. Let it be marked that the jubilee, with all its blessings, was consequent upon
atonement. Not till the blood of expiation had been shed, and the living goat had borne
into the land of oblivion the sins which (ceremonially) had been transferred to it, did the
silver trumpets peal forth their exultant notes, proclaiming liberty and rest, restitution
and rectitude for the people. And it is because of Christ’s atonement that—
(1) Christianity has come to sinful man, with all its tidings of good and wealth of
salvation (Joh_1:29; Eph_1:6).
(2) Spiritual blessings are inherited by the believer in Jesus (Rom_5:11).
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21. (3) The Church will enjoy the sabbatic millennial glory (Rev_19:11-14).
(4) Heaven will be the eternal possession of the redeemed (Rev_8:14-17; Rev_
14:3 ?). (W. H. Jellie.)
The year of jubilee
I. Let us look at the gospel age as the world’s jubilee. And notice particularly that the
jubilee year was ushered in on the Day of Atonement. Now, how is it with our jubilee?
Was it not also ushered in by atonement? The prophets foretold the coming of the
acceptable year, but there was no jubilee Until Christ came, and there was no true trump
of jubilee until after Christ had died. Three clays He lay in the grave, and the third day
He rose again, and then after forty days He ascended, the Great High Priest, and entered
into the Holiest Place, bearing there His own blood. Then, the atonement having been
made, He sends down the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and His servants go forth
everywhere preaching the jubilee that had come in—a jubilee based upon an infinite
atonement. Now, it is equally true that the atonement of Christ must usher in all gospel
proclamations. There is no gospel without the atonement, any more than there was any
trump of jubilee without first the atonement day. A bloodless gospel is no gospel, but
hell’s choicest weapon. A gospel that ignores the Lamb slain is worse than no gospel at
all, for it not merely leaves men in their original ignorance, but stupefies and
chloroforms them with a fresh lie. Let us look for a moment at a few of the chief things
included in gospel preaching, and see how they are all connected with the great day of
Christ’s atonement.
1. Certainly, peace must be classed among the first and chiefest notes. The gospel,
like an angel, flies through the world, crying, “Peace!—Peace!—Peace!” Methinks,
this is one of the sweetest notes in the whole of gospel harmony. But what kind of
peace is the gospel peace? It is peace that is based on blood!
2. If peace be one of the chief notes in the gospel, surely we may place by its side
remission of sins. Oh, let us tell it out that God can forgive all sin, though He cannot
overlook one. By all means tell it out that God can remit all iniquity—that there is no
sinner so wicked that God cannot forgive him, no sin so heinous that it cannot be
pardoned; but remember, remission of sins, like peace, is based on the blood.
3. Cleansing is also one of the most sounded notes of the gospel, and it is a blessed
thing to be able to tell a sinner that however sin-stained he is he can yet be purified,
and that the soul that is black as perdition can be made as white as wool, and that the
soul that is crimson dyed with iniquity may yet be so cleansed that even the driven
snow shall look black in comparison. But remember that it is the blood that cleanses.
Now, notice next, that the jubilee was proclaimed with trumpet-note.
The atonement has been made, and from every hill-top the note is heard.
1. And who blows the trumpet? Why, man. It must have been joyous work to him. No
angel but would have coveted the honour, but it is man that receives the commission
for the work, and surely, he will blow it best, for as he blows he says, “I am blowing
good news unto myself.” Perhaps the man on yonder hill-top owed a debt and knew
not how to pay. Oh, with what right good will would that man blow the trumpet!
Says he, “I am blowing my own debt away.” Or perhaps that other man had a boy
that was in prison. Says he, “I will blow a blast that shall be heard far and wide, for I
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22. am blowing a note that will open the prison doors to my own boy.” He had got an
exile, perhaps, afar off, and for family reasons that boy had been unable to return
home. “The moment this note is heard,” says the trumpeter, “the exiled one will be
able to come back again.” So the man blows, ay, as no angel or seraph could have
blown. So no angel could preach the gospel like the man who is himself saved by the
gospel. When we preach Christ we may well preach Him with a holy ecstacy, for we
preach that which saves us; and when me are telling the tale of atonement made we
may tell it out with all the whole soul. The trumpets were blown by man.
2. And then observe, they were blown everywhere. This is what you and I have to do.
We have to help to sound the trumpet throughout all the land. Go, blow it amongst
the great ones of the earth, and tell kings and potentates that they must be born
again. Go and blow the note amongst the humblest and the poorest that fill our
mission halls and theatres and tell how Christ can save the vilest. Go and be Christ-
like, and proclaim to the perishing everywhere that the acceptable year of the Lord is
come, and that He is willing to bind up broken-hearted ones, and to open the prison-
doors unto all captives.
3. We notice further that the notes of the jubilee trumpet and the notes of the gospel
are identical. What was it that that trumpet proclaimed? First and foremost it
proclaimed a return to all exiles and to all who were banished from their homes. I
think I see the father when that trumpet sounds; he pulls the bolt back and takes the
chain down and says, “My boy will be back soon. For years he has been shut out of
the home. We did not care to have him in.” That boy perhaps had offended in
something, and did not care to show his face in the neighbourhood, so for many a
long year the father had sighed to see his face again. But the moment he heard that
note he says, “See that the door is not fastened till he comes back. My boy has heard
the note as quickly as I have. Depend upon it that by this time his face is turned
homeward.” The trumpet sounded “home sweet home,” to all banished ones. There
was a pale captive in a dungeon; but the trumpet note found its way between the iron
bars, and I think I see him as he says, “Now jailor, off with these fetters I and off with
them quickly! You have no power to keep me in durance vile a moment longer.” See
how he flings the shackles down on the floor and stretches his unfettered arms with
ecstacy! That trump said to him the one glorious word “Liberty!” These were some of
the notes that the trumpet of jubilee sounded; but, oh, does not the gospel trumpet
sound not merely the same notes, but the same notes pitched to a higher “Selah,”
still.
II. now when does the soul receive its jubilee? I can imagine one saying, “Well, my case
is a very bad one indeed. It is all very well to be talking about a jubilee age, but that and a
jubilee heart are two different things.” I know it, and I think I can understand you. Do I
not express your feelings when I put the matter thus:—“I am everything that you have
spoken about, I am an exile far from my Father’s house, I am a captive, and the iron eats
into my soul. I am a debtor, and I feel that I owe that which I can never pay. I am over
head and ears; I am drowned in debt. I am a miserable bankrupt. I cannot pay a farthing
in the pound. I am a lost man. How am I ever to have a jubilee?” Why, I tell thee, thou
wilt have a jubilee the very moment thou believest the report of the jubilee trumpet.
Thank God, the jubilee of the soul can come any day. It is not once in fifty years, or once
in fifty days, or once in fifty hours, or once in fifty minutes. God is willing to give
salvation any moment. The moment thou acceptest Christ, the moment thou believest
the report of the gospel, that moment shall thy jubilee come. Remember, that it is not
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23. enough to have the gospel preached all round about you. It is not enough to live in a
gospel age. There must be a personal reception of the truth. (A. G. Brown.)
The jubilee
I. The tendency of society to go wrong. The evils remedied by the jubilee were—
1. Debt.
2. Slavery.
3. Destitution.
4. Exhausting toil.
II. The constant interposition of god to put society right. (Homilist.)
The year of jubilee
I. Man’s need of occasional best from toil. The Hebrew system was remarkable for the
number and variety of its provisions for this. By the emphasis thus given to rest, God
hallowed it as being both a duty and privilege. It is needful in this age of excessive
labour, when the struggle for wealth consumes men’s energies so fast, and makes them
so weary and prematurely old and broken. We can think of many who ought to take a
sabbatic year of rest, and then add to it a year of jubilee.
II. All men are entitled to a share of god’s bounty. Men were not allowed in the jubilee
year to store up aught of what grew in the fields. God was manifestly the sole author of
it. It was to be distributed, therefore, like the other pure bounties of His hand, like the
rain and the sunshine, to all alike. This happened every sabbatic year, as well as in the
jubilee. Christian faith endorses this. The fact of holding a title to a piece of land does
not warrant one in engrossing to himself all that it yields. Christian charity says,
“Distribute the benefit of it.”
III. The welfare of society is imperilled by the acquisition of great landed estates. The
operation of the jubilee was to prevent the accumulation of land in the hands of a few. If
in the course of fifty years such an accumulation occurred, the jubilee redistributed it.
The public good demanded its general division among the people. Great Britain suffers
greatly from excessive concentration in the ownership of land. The principle of charity, if
given full operation, would restrain excessive accumulation.
IV. The dignity of man viewed as a ransomed child of God is another idea embodied in
the jubilee (Lev_25:42). (A. H. Currier.)
The year of jubilee
I. Its origin. It stands connected with two of the leading Jewish institutions.
1. With the weekly sabbath. It comes from the sabbath by two steps; first, by the
institution of a sabbath for the land, falling on every seventh year; and secondly, by
the conferring of a special sanctity on the seventh of these land sabbaths.
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24. 2. With the Day of Atonement.
II. Its provisions. Restoration—
1. Debtor released from debts.
2. Slave released from bondage.
3. Exile restored to inheritance.
III. Its lessons for ourselves.
1. The coming of Christ was the inauguration of a greater jubilee, bringing world-
wide and lasting blessings. We too are debtors, debtors to the law in the whole round
of its requirements; we are slaves to sin and Satan; we have forfeited our fair
inheritance of innocence and heaven. But hear how Christ ushers in His ministry
(Luk_4:16-21).
2. With us as with the Jews it is still on the Day of Atonement that the jubilee
trumpet sounds. Our liberty and restoration have been dearly won (1Pe_1:18-19).
With the Jews the neglect of the Day of Atonement led to the loss of the jubilee. And
if the atonement of which we speak so much has never yet been anything to us, in our
sense of the need of it, in our quest after the blessing of it, to us there has been no
jubilee—we are yet in our sins. Will we be less in earnest than the debtor or the slave
when we have so much more need to be in earnest? (Walter Roberts, M. A.)
The year of jubilee
I. Its peculiar features.
1. It was a great boon to all sorrowing ones.
(1) Every captive was liberated.
(2) The exiled wanderer returned.
(3) The oppressed debtor was released from his debts.
(4) The unfortunate poor were restored to their ancestral heritage.
(5) Families that had been separated were now reunited.
(6) Every estate reverted to the families to whom they were originally allotted in
the conquest of Canaan.
2. All this was intimately connected with the Day of Atonement.
3. It was to be a year of perfect freedom from toil.
4. Every business transaction had reference to the year of jubilee.
II. Its typical meaning.
1. It has special reference to the millennial glory of Israel in the land which Jehovah
keeps for them through all generations.
(1) God claims Canaan as He does no other.
(2) God has honoured Canaan as He has no other.
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25. (a) There His throne and sanctuary were.
(b) There His priests ministered, and His prophets spoke.
(c) There His own Son was born, grew up, worked, wept, suffered, died, and
rose again.
(d) When Jesus returns, His feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives.
2. It is a beautiful and correct type of heaven.
(1) Where every believer will enter upon his inheritance, and enter into his
perfect rest.
(2) Where all exile, captivity, separation, poverty and oppression will for ever
cease. (D. C. Hughes, M. A.)
The jubilee; or, The degenerative and corrective forces of society
I. The degenerative forces of society are in itself. Debt. Slavery. Poverty. Materialism.
II. The corrective forces of society are from God.
1. Man is superior to property. The violation of this truth is the ruin of society, and it
is violated every day.
2. God is the disposer of property. “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof.”
3. Society has higher wants than property. Spiritual services. (Homilist.)
The resemblance between the year of jubilee and the gospel
I. In the blessings imparted.
1. Remission of debts (see Act_13:38).
2. Liberation from bondage (see Rom_6:22).
3. Restoration of forfeited possessions (see 1Pe_1:4).
4. Freedom from toil (see Heb_4:3).
5. Abundant provisions and universal joy (see 1Pe_1:8).
II. The jubilee was to be proclaimed on a particular day and in a peculiar way.
1. On the Day of Atonement (Lev_25:9; see Luk_24:46-47).
2. It was announced by the sound of trumpets (Lev_25:9; see Rom_10:14-15). The
proclamation was to be to all (see Mar_16:15).
III. The blessedness of the gospel dispensation as experienced by believers,
1. The personal enjoyment of liberty (see Rom_8:21; Gal_5:1).
(1) Liberty from Satan.
(2) From the world.
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26. (3) From mental darkness and sin.
2. The realisation of rest (see Isa_14:3).
(1) Rest in Christ.
(2) From works.
(3) In labour.
(4) In prospect.
3. The possession of abundance (see Rom_5:20-21).
(1) The word.
(2) The sacraments.
(3) Joy.
(4) Holy Ghost.
(5) Glory.
4. The enjoyment of salvation (see Isa_12:2).
(1) Present salvation.
(2) Perfect and complete salvation.
(3) Everlasting and infinite salvation. (T. B. Baker.)
The joyful sound
One interpretation of the word “jubilee” connects it, in a wild sort of way, with a
rabbinical legend concerning the ram caught in the thicket, at the time when Abraham
was tempted to sacrifice his son Isaac. It was fabled in the foolish tradition that the body
of this animal was burned to ashes, but God raised it to life again afterwards by miracle.
Then out of its skin was made the mantle that Elijah wore in the wilderness; out of its
entrails were fashioned strings for the harp which David played upon. From one of its
horns was constructed the trumpet which was blown upon Mount Sinai; from the other,
the trumpet which remained to be blown at the coming of the Messiah. So some of the
early commentators said that the term “jubilee” was derived from an Arabic word that
signified a ram. But the latter and better interpretation is referred to an expression in the
Book of Joshua (Jos_6:5). There the verse would read, rendered literally, “as they draw
out with the horn of jubilee.” The meaning seems to be, that this name of “jubilee” was
not given to the instrument exactly, but to the note it uttered—the peculiar clanging,
continuous, vibrating sound of a horn. The word most likely represents the prolonged,
quick-rushing, far-reaching, deeply penetrating blast of the trumpet as it swept across
the whole land. As we press into the investigation of this most interesting portion of
Hebrew history, we must pause long enough at the beginning to insist on the connection
of the great Day of Atonement with the great Day of Jubilee. It came right after it in date.
It appears right after it in the record of institution; and in spiritual teaching it is
indispensably associated with it. There can be no jubilee in God’s universe till atonement
for sin is completed.
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27. I. The type.
1. What was the design of the jubilee year as God gave it? A necessary question this
is, but the answer will not be difficult if we take into consideration the entire story of
the institution. In general, it appears to have been placed in the midst of human life
as a barrier against the three greatest ills humanity is heir to. It insisted on relief
from overwork. One grand idea of the ordinance was rest—rest to the soil, rest to the
toilers upon it. The jubilee also demanded deliverance from oppression. There will be
found reward for the closest study in just searching out in detail the skilful
provisions made to relieve the weight of every kind of bond-service permitted in
those times. A consideration for such exigency is inserted in the commandment.
There is one for the “brother,” and one for the “stranger,” and one for the
“sojourner.” All servants are here declared to be God’s servants, as the whole land is
declared to be God’s land. And in this great year of grace the time has come for all
slaves to go free—free for ever. The jubilee likewise ordered release from obligation.
Among all the weights and worries of human life surely one of the cruellest is debt.
“Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats?” It is only
natural that they should; for human nature knows little change. The wisest man in
the world once said plainly: “The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is
servant to the lender.” Here again is an intervention from heaven in behalf of
distressed debtors. The law made provision for the restoration of estates, and
clearance from usury at the end of the fiftieth year.
2. What was the welcome of the jubilee as the people gave it reception? There can be
but one answer: A great glad day of universal rejoicing it was through the length and
breadth of the land.
II. The antitype. In general, it may be said that the sound of those trumpets was the
symbol of the proclamation of Christ’s gospel over all the earth. The purpose of this
gospel was to check the deteriorating forces in human society; to set up principles which
would deliver men from all weights and oppressions of sin and sinners.
1. So there is such a thing as a jubilee in the heart. When the bondage of corruption
is broken, the debt of transgression paid, the handwriting that was against us (Col_
2:14) taken away and nailed to the Cross, the soul freed indeed because freed by the
truth, our Redeemer surely coming (Job_19:25) and certain to stand on the earth—
then it is that there seems to sound a great joy of deliverance through all the nature
of the regenerate man I
2. There is such a thing as a jubilee in the Church. Times have been in history when
piety was low, and godly men failed; the ways of Zion mourned, the city sat solitary,
the fires on the altars were dim in the ashes. Then came a rushing sound of spiritual
presence, almost like a pressure, and a blast of silver trumpets, calling to activity, to
penitence, to singing, and to religious life again. The Redeemer came to Zion (Isa_
59:20), and unto them that turned from transgression in Jacob.
3. There is such a thing as a jubilee in the state. Poets are singing about, “the good
time coming”; but it has not yet arrived. Still, it is promised (Isa_61:1-2).
4. There is such a thing as a jubilee in the world. This is the final restitution, the day
of all days on the earth. Of course, the blessing will come through the Church; but
the whole race will share something of its vast benediction. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.)
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28. The jubilee a type of the gospel
—
I. Its primary purpose.
1. Kind and benevolent.
2. Wise and politic.
3. Good and beneficial.
II. Its typical reference.
1. The jubilee of grace.
2. The jubilee of glory.
III. Its joyful commencement (Psa_89:15). (Wm. Sleigh.)
Jubilee gladness
The Old Testament jubilee was meant to be a type of the entire New Testament
dispensation in three points, imaging by its sabbatic character the gospel rest in Christ,
by its unreserved deliverance of captives and slaves the Christian redemption from guilt
and spiritual bondage, and by its universal restitution of property to the poor and needy
the fulness of that inheritance which is treasured up for all the faithful in Christ, whose
unsearchable riches, like the national possessions, opened up by the jubilee, enrich all,
without impoverishing any who make good their title.
I. The first element of jubilee gladness, common to the Jew of old and the Christian
amid the celebrations of the gospel age, is the joy of distinction or of privilege. There was
not a single memorial of blessing or promise, temporal or spiritual, which the jubilee did
not recall, and hold up before the eyes of that most favoured nation, so that it was on
God’s part an impressive reiteration of His covenant, and on their part a grateful
recognition that they were indeed a “chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a peculiar
people.” The Christian Church, and we as members of it, are privileged—
1. As to safety.
2. As to character.
3. As to work.
4. As to suffering.
II. The second great element of the gladness of jubilee is the joy of stability and
progression. Traces of progress are to be found in every leading country of the Christian
world. The last half century has seen the cause of missions pass through all its phases,
and encounter all its perils from ridicule, neglect, hope deferred, till now it ranks
perhaps as the most distinctive and glorious feature of our age.
III. The third element in the jubilee gladness is the joy of anticipation or consummation.
We believe that faith and hope shall in God’s own time effect a marvellous conquest of
this long-revolted earth, and that love, working in a united and purified Church, shall
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29. through great periods gather up and treasure the spoils of victory. But it is to Christ’s
coming that we look forward and hasten, as the crown and consummation of Christian
hope. (J. Cairns.)
Land tenure
All men ultimately get their living out of the soil. There never will be a process by which
the original elements that enter into food will be manufactured into food. We may fly in
the air, or travel around the earth with the sun; but we shall never take the unorganised
substances that form grass and grain and the flesh of animals, and directly convert them
into food; they must first be organised into vital forms. Hence, questions pertaining to
land are the most imperative that come before men. To get man rightly related to the
soil, in such a way that he shall most easily get his food from it, this is the underlying
question of all history, its keynote and largest achievement. The chief struggles in all
ages and nations have turned upon this relation. There are two forces at work in the
matter, both proceeding out of what seems almost an instinct for ownership of the soil.
The earth is our mother, and she woos us perpetually to herself. To own some spot of
land, and be able to say, “This is mine,” is one of the sweetest of personal feelings; it
declares our kinship with this natural world that nurses our life and upholds our feet.
These two forces that draw men to the soil are, first, a natural, almost instinctive sense
of keeping close to the source of life, as a wise general does not allow himself to be
separated from his supplies. The other force is the pride and greed and love of power of
the strong. Here is a triple-woven force out of which has sprung by far the greater part of
the injustice and oppression that have afflicted the race. The possession of the soil is the
surest exponent and standing-ground of worldly force. Everything else may fail: the
hearts of men, coined treasures, ships and houses, bonds and promises to pay, but so
long as society keeps a man in the possession of land he is so far forth strong; he has a
place to stand in, the fortifications built by nature, and the arms and defences that
spring perpetually out of the earth; he realises the fable of Antaeus. The remarkable
feature of the Jewish Commonwealth is its anticipatory legislation against probable, and
otherwise certain abuses. The struggles of other nations, and the skill of statesmanship,
have been to correct abuses; in the Jewish Commonwealth they were foreseen and
provided against. There are no words to express the wonder felt by the student of social
science as he first measures the significance of that feature of the Jewish state known as
the year of jubilee. It is little understood, hidden away in an uninteresting book, stated in
ancient and blind phraseology, a thing of long past ages, nevertheless it remains the
most exalted piece of statesmanship the world has known—an example of social sagacity,
and broad, far-reaching wisdom, such as we look for in vain in the annals of any other
nation. It settled at the outset the problem that no other people ever solved except
through ages of struggle and revolution. The Hebrew nation existed under the
consciousness of a covenant with Jehovah. It would be petty criticism that pried into the
origin of this belief, moved by contempt at the seeming presumption of this little nation
of fugitive slaves—petty and narrow indeed! It were wiser and more scientific to regard
every nation as under covenant with God, if it but had the wisdom to know it. That this
nation discerned the eternal fact, and wrought it into the foundations of their State, only
shows its insight into the nature of the State, and its receptivity of inspired truth. It does
not lessen the wisdom of this legislation that it probably did not meet the exigencies of
the later development of the nation, nor even that its details may have become a
hindrance in the more complex state of society that followed the captivity when it
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30. probably ceased to be enforced. Its wisdom is to be found in its previsionary features, in
its reversal of ordinary history, that is, it planted the nation on equal rights at the outset
instead of leaving them to be achieved by struggle, and in its assertion of the general
principle that it is wise to keep the body of the people as near the source of their
subsistence as possible. It was not given up until it had educated and grounded the
nation in those conceptions of practical righteousness that are found in the pages of the
prophets, through whom they have become the inspiration of the world. Its design and
effect are evident. It was a bar to monopoly of the land. All greed and pride in this
direction were limited. One might add field to field for a series of years, but after a time
the process ceased and the lands went back to their original owners. The purpose was to
make such a habit unprofitable, to keep the resources of society evenly distributed, to
prevent the rich from becoming too rich and the poor hopelessly poor, to undo
misfortune, to give those who had erred through sloth or improvidence an opportunity
to improve the lessons of poverty, to prevent children from reaping the faults of their
parents; one generation might squander its portion but the next was not forced to inherit
the consequences. Though a political measure, it is informed with spiritual significance.
It is throughout instinct with mercy. It taught humanity. It rebuked and repressed the
great sins. It was in keeping with the underlying fact of the national history which was
deliverance, and, as well, with the central idea of the world, which is redemption,
redemption from evil however caused and of whatever kind. It was an assertion of
perpetual hope, hope which, though long delayed, comes at last to all, and every man
returns to the possessions his Creator gave him. It was in its profoundest meaning a
prophecy wrought into the practical economy of a nation. It shadows forth the recovery
from evil, the undoing of all burdens that weigh down humanity, the eternal inheritance
awaiting God’s children when his cycle is complete. This ancient piece of statesmanship
is full of pointed lessons for these modern times. It cannot be reproduced in form, but it
still teaches the ever necessary lesson, float nations and corporations and individuals are
always forgetting, that the world belongs to all men by the gift of God. It teaches the
wisdom of showing mercy to the poor and unfortunate, and the unwisdom of permitting
endless monopolies and limitless increase of wealth. It is the business of the State to see
that these things are restricted, as both right and safe, as necessary for the rich as for the
poor. The methods employed may sometimes seem to lack in technical justice, but there
is a righteousness that lies back of formal justice. As the world goes, the forms of justice
are apt to become the instruments of oppression in the hands of the avaricious, the
proud, and the strong. These three always lie in wait to oppress the poor, the humble,
and the weak; and their choicest instruments are those legal forms and institutions that
are necessary to society. But they have their limits by a law which is above all such laws
and formal institutions. When wealth oppresses the poor, or keeps them at the mere
living point, when monopolies tax the people, whenever a few own the soil, however
legal the form of possession, when there is any process going on by which the rich are
growing richer and the poor poorer, there is a Divine justice above all formal justice, that
steps in and declares that such processes must stop. (T. T. Munger.)
The year of jubilee
The principal and distinguishing point in the jubilee year was, that all landed property
reverted to its original possessors. The institution was this: the people coming as a whole
people, consisting of distinct tribes and families, and settling down upon the territory,
God says, “This land is Mine; I give it to you, in distinct portions for your distinct
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31. families, never to be alienated.” So that the, proper way of putting it, in our modern
language, would be that the land, the freehold of any estate never could be sold, but only
the produce of it for so many years. It never could go entirely out of the family to whom
it belonged. But the price to be given would vary according to the nearness or the
distance of the jubilee year; according to the number of years till that time, less or more
would be paid for the produce of the land; for when that time came the lands were given
up by those who had bought the produce of them till then, and everybody went back to
his original paternal possession. Houses that were built in villages, and connected with
the open field, were subject also to that law; and they went back. But houses that were
built in cities were not subject to that law. At any time during the years that preceded the
jubilee, any portion of land, any field or farm, could be redeemed; if the man that had
parted with it could go and offer the money it was worth, he could demand it; any of his
relatives could redeem it in the same way. They could only do this for one year with a
house in a city; after that it went from them entirely. But the principal point in the
jubilee year was this liberty, this remission of debts, this return of everybody to their
original inheritance, which might have been parted with by vice, by improvidence, by
indiscretion, or which might have gone from them by misfortune and unavoidable
vicissitude. The objects of this very peculiar institution, I think it is fair to suppose,
might be such as these. It was intended to produce a recollection in the mind of the
people, of the manner in which God had brought them in, and settled them there, and
given them their possessions; and of course, of their peculiar covenant relation to Him.
It would have a tendency also to prevent the rise of a large landed power, that might
become an oppressive and tyrannical aristocracy. It would certainly have a tendency also
to make the people very careful about their genealogies, in order that they might easily
establish their claim to such and such property. And that, we think—the distinctness and
clearness of the genealogy with respect to the tribes and families—had also a bearing
upon the prophecies respecting the Messiah and His coming through a particular tribe
and family. It was intended, perhaps, or at least it would have that tendency, even to
mitigate the evils that men by their indiscretion and improvidence might bring upon
themselves and upon their families; give to them, as it were, another chance of
recovering themselves, or at least to their descendants, of recovering possessions that
ought to have been kept. And altogether, the influence of it would be, I think, to diffuse a
very humanising and kind and happy feeling throughout the whole community. (T.
Binney.)
Results of jubilee year
It was in ancient Israel, as in the heavens above us, whose luminaries, after a certain
period of time has elapsed, always return to the same place in the firmament, and the
same relative position to each other. The sun, for instance, although changing his place
daily, shall rise and set, twelve months from this date, at the same hour, and appear at
his meridian in the same spot as to-day. Corresponding to that, or like the revolution of a
wheel, which restores every spoke to its former place, society, whatever change
meanwhile took place in personal liberty or hereditary property, returned, among the
old Hebrews, to the very same state in which it was at the commencement of those fifty
years whose close brought in the jubilee. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)
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32. Liberty through Christ
It is a sad sight to see men bound with chains, so that they cannot use their limbs. And if
they arc shut up in prison, as well as bound with chains, this is still more sad. But there
are chains and prisons for the souls of men, as well as for their bodies. If we give way to
any sin, that sin binds our souls so that they can have no more freedom of action than
our bodies would have if they were bound in chains of iron. This is what is meant in one
of the beautiful collects of our Church, in which we pray that we may “be delivered from
the bands of those sins which by our frailty we have committed.” And this is the reason
why the Bible speaks of men as being “taken captive by Satan at his will” (2Ti_2:26). He
tempts men to commit sins, and then binds them in the chains of those sins; and in this
way they are made his prisoners or captives. And when Jesus seeks a poor sinner, and
converts him by His grace; when He delivers him from the power of his sins, changes his
heart, and helps him to lead a new life, then it is that He is blessing that man by giving
liberty to the captive. But there are no chains that Satan makes for men so strong as
those which he fastens on the soul of the poor drunkard. He is bound hand and foot. The
prison in which he is made captive has walls so thick, and doors so strongly bolted and
barred, that he never can get out by any efforts of his own. But Jesus is able to break the
strongest chain by which any poor drunkard was ever bound, and to open the prison
door in spite of all the bolts and bars that may secure it. Here is an illustration of this
statement, which I know to be true. One day, while Mr. Moody was preaching in our city,
I received a letter written by a person who signed himself “A Reformed Drunkard.” He
wished me to read this letter in the noonday meeting for the encouragement of those
who were trying to break loose from the chains by which the drunkard is bound. And I
did read it there. The writer of this letter called to see me before I read it in public, that I
might be sure it was all right. I was surprised at his appearance when I saw him. He was
as fine-looking, gentlemanly a man as I had ever seen. He was intelligent and well
educated. This was his story, as briefly as I can give it. “My family,” he said, “is one of the
most respectable in Philadelphia. They belong to the Society of Friends. My mother, now
in heaven, was formerly a preacher in the Society. For seven years I had been a
confirmed drunkard. By this terrible evil I had lost my money, my business, my
character, my health, my friends, and my self-respect. It had even separated me from my
wife and family, and made me an outcast from society. I was lost to all that was good. I
had tried again and again to stop drinking, but in vain. I had taken different medicines,
and had signed the temperance pledge a number of times, but without any benefit.
Everybody said my case was hopeless. At last, when I was in a public hospital, sick with
that dreadful disease which drunkenness causes, called delirium tremens, and was given
up to die; then, as I believe, in answer to the prayers of my sainted mother, I was led to
look to Jesus. I called on Him for help. He heard my cry, and helped me. By the power of
His grace He broke the strong chains of that dreadful sin by which I had been bound,
and which nothing but the grace of God can break. I rose from my sick bed a changed
man. By the help which Jesus gave me I was able to stop drinking. And now for months I
have been a sober man. I am restored to health, to happiness, and usefulness, to my
friends and to my family, and am on the way to heaven, where I hope to meet that
beloved mother through whose prayers I have been saved. “Such was this man’s story.
Here we see how Jesus gives deliverance to the captives. And what He did for this poor
prisoner of sin and Satan He is able and willing to do for all who call upon Him. And if
He has power to help men in this way, then it may well be said that He was “sent to bless
them.” (Richard Newton, D. D.)
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33. The sinner’s chains are self forged
It is told of a famous smith of mediaeval times, that having been taken prisoner and
immured in a dungeon, he conceived the idea of escaping, and began to examine the
chain that bound him, with a view to discover some flaw that might make it easier to be
broken. His hope was vain, for he found, from marks upon it, that it was one of his own
workmanship, and it had always been his boast that none could ever break a chain that
he had forged. And now it was his own chain that bound him. It is thus with the sinner.
His own hands have forged the chain that binds him, a chain which in endless and
evermultiplying coils is around his soul, and which no human hand can break. Yet is
there a hand can break it—the hand of Him who brings “liberty to the captives, and the
opening of the prison to them that are bound.” (Preacher’s Lantern.)
Freedom through Christ
It is stated on good authority that when the old Emperor of Russia died, he made the
present Emperor promise to set all those serfs free. So the present emperor called the
Imperial Council together, and said, “I want to see if you can make some plan by which
we can set these men free.” They were the proprietors of these serfs, and, of course, they
didn’t want to free them. The Imperial Council was in session for six long months, and
one evening they sent in their decision, sealed, that it was not right, and it is said that he
went down to the Greek Church, partook of the sacrament, and went to his palace; and
the next morning there was a great commotion, and people could not understand it.
Great cannons were brought up around his palace, and in a little while 65,000 soldiers
were gathered around the royal palace; and just at twelve o’clock at midnight there came
out what we call a proclamation, but what they call a ukase, to the serfs of Russia, that
they were free for ever. It spread through the empire, and a shout went through the
nation, “The men born in slavery are set free!” They had found one that had set them
free. Wasn’t that good news? But here is the news of the gospel, that every man born in
sin, and taken captive by Satan, can be set free through the power of the Lord Jesus.(T.
De Witt Talmage.)
Deliverance from sin
Sin is the great evil of the world. It has infected all hearts, and there is none righteous—
no, not one. This is the witness of Scripture: “All have sinned and come short of the glory
of God.” But it needs no revelation to tell men this. The wise ones of the heathen world
before Christ came to bear the same testimony, l learned Greek, called Xenophon, said,
“It is clear that I have two souls; when the good one gets the upper hand it does right;
when the evil it enters on wicked courses.” A still wiser man, named Plato, used the
image of a good and bad horse, yoked to a chariot, and driven by the same charioteer.
There are two powers at work in human nature, dragging in different directions. And
Crates, another great man of olden times, said that it was impossible to find a man who
had not fallen; just as every pomegranate had a bad grain in it, so every character had
some flaw, some seed of corruption. So we find that men of heathen lands to-day, who
have never heard the name of Christ, echo the cry of the Apostle Paul, “O wretched man
that I Am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” They feel their bondage to
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34. evil; they feel their need of a deliverance. Now Jesus is the Saviour of men. Only Christ
has borne this great name. Mohammed is prophet; Buddha is teacher only; Jesus is
Saviour. He can deliver us from the bondage of sin. One of my friends, who is a
missionary in China, told me the other day that the creed of many a Christian convert
may be summed up in a sentence: “I believe that Jesus Christ is able to deliver me from
the opium habit.” The gospel wins them by the promise of deliverance from that frightful
vice. They begin with that. They put the saving power of Jesus to the proof. “I am given
up to every sin you can imagine,” said Liu Kisa Shan; “I am an opium smoker, a libertine,
a gambler, a drunkard, an unfilial man, and everything that is bad. Can Christ Jesus save
me?” He had strolled into the chapel at Hankow, and the preacher’s words had stirred
the hope of deliverance in his heart. “Can Christ Jesus save me?” “Yes; He can, and He
will,” said the preacher. And they knelt down together and cried to Him for salvation.
And the new heart was given of which we were talking last week. And Liu went home to
his friends, to show them how great things the Lord had done for him; and is to-day the
centre of a gospel work where once he was notorious for evil living. Jesus saves men to-
day. He can save you, for “He is able to save unto the uttermost all that come unto God
through Him.” (Howard James.)
Released from debt
The great Henry Clay was once placed in a position where he could not refuse a favorer,
and yet where he would not have credited himself with doing anything to earn the
release he received. He owed £2,000 at the Northern Bank of Kentucky, and his note for
that amount had been renewed from time to time, in spite of all his efforts to contrive a
way to meet it—until the debt became a source of almost hopeless anxiety to him. The
thought of it intruded upon him everywhere, and embarrassed his work, and worried his
rest. The day for payment would come again, and find him as helpless as ever. He chafed
like a lion in a net. Whether or not he ever betrayed his uneasiness, there were at least a
few who came to know its secret—and with results such as he was the last man to expect.
He went into the bank one morning on the old errand. “I have called to see about my
debt.” The cashier replied, “It has been paid; you don’t owe us anything.” He was struck
with amazement, and, under strong emotion, he turned and went out. Those men who
paid the embarrassed statesman’s debt did it because they loved him. Christ Jesus loved
us so well that He died to release us from the sins of the past, and became Surety
Himself for our debt to God’s broken law which we never could pay. We never earned
such a boon. It was only His love that gave it. (Christian Age.)
Ye shall not therefore oppress one another.
The oppressor rebuked and the oppression removed
I. The oppression which now exists, and which it is our duty to remove. There can be no
doubt that there is a fierce spirit of competition abroad—a spirit which pervades every
trade, which enters every profession, which stalks about our exchange, sits by the
merchant and the banker at their desks, opens the shop early and closes it late, excites
angry feeling and envy, makes the man of business anxious and excited abroad, sullen or
fretful at home, which unfastens the restraints of religion and honour, interposes
between neighbour and neighbour, friend and friend, relation and relation: it suggests
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35. enterprises which are rash, bargains which are hard, speculations of doubtful morality,
and acts which once would have made the honest cheek to glow with the blush of shame.
This spirit it is which leads to fearful embarrassments, unlawful expedients, a wretched
parsimony, a false appearance, a costly display, a feverish existence, an untimely end.
Oh! if there be a people to whom it is a duty to sound this warning, “Take heed and
beware of covetousness,” that nation is our own. It has been most truly said, that the
“desire of accumulation is the source of all our greatness and all our baseness. It is at
once our glory and our shame. It is the cause of our commerce, of our navy, of our
military triumphs, of our enormous wealth, and our marvellous inventions; and it is the
cause of our factions and animosities, of our squalid pauperism, and the worse than
heathen degradation of our population.” This spirit has burst forth with such a fearful
wide-spreading influence that men begin to look aghast, and wonder what it will lead to.
Poets have sung of such a time; the Word of God has warned us against it; statesmen are
meditating upon it; the press is thundering against it; and very late—alas! too late!-the
pulpit is giving utterance to the wise, loving counsels of One who said, “A man’s life
consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesses.” Now, before I
proceed to place before you the oppression which prevails, and the serious consequences
which are resulting from it, let me ask, however this question may affect yourself,
whether you would wish such a state of things to go on unchecked and unrebuked?
Would you wish the fever of speculation, of competition, to increase? Would you wish
the spirit of dissatisfaction amongst the working classes to strengthen? There can be no
question that whilst many schemes of Christian benevolence and piety have been started
and carried out, having reference to other lands, there has prevailed amongst ourselves a
wretchedness and depth of suffering which ought long ago to have been investigated and
relieved. This misery has been unheeded, not because other objects have enlisted
sympathy and received attention—for that would be a foul libel upon that charity which
“never faileth,” and can alike stretch forth its arms to succour the African slave and bend
down to whisper comfort and advice to the miserable at home—but there has grown up
so silently and gradually a monster evil, that even the victims themselves have been slow
to discern its character, and slower still to suggest a remedy. The human frame is limited
in its power of enduring fatigue; and when we consider that there are thousands who are
employed in constant labour for more than twelve hours, often, too, in an unwholesome
atmosphere and in a constrained position, you will be prepared for the statement, made
upon medical testimony, that impaired, exhausted frames, and often an untimely death,
are the fruits of this system. Oh! think, I pray, of these bitter wrongs; think of the agony
of spirit, the long-protracted hopeless effort, the attenuated frame, the hollow cheek, the
chilled eye, the tottering limbs, the constant heart weight, the cheerless room, the
sleepless night, the voiceless, gnawing feeling of despair; yes, think of this occurring in
London, with its churches, and Houses of Parliament, and Exeter Hall meetings, and
greetings to Crimean heroes, and running to help some sturdy vagabond beggar, and
then remember, with shame and confusion of face, that it has been written, “Ye shall not
therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am the Lord your God.”
II. It would not be of any use if we were to content ourselves with sighing over all these
miseries, instead of inquiring what steps may be taken to alleviate and redress them. I
have, therefore, drawn your attention to that painful subject in the hope of inducing you
to sympathise with the efforts which are now made, especially by the Early Closing
Association, to ameliorate the condition of the working classes. It is very satisfactory,
then, and encouraging to feel, that the interests of the employer and the employed are in
this respect identical; for it is evident that it cannot be for the advantage of the employer
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36. that, the health, and energy, and spirit, and moral principle of those he employs should
be undermined. The manufacturer would soon suffer if the quality of his raw material
became deteriorated; and if the stamina of England’s working men became weakened,
her producing power would necessarily become less. Now it is encouraging to find that
the employers of labour are themselves becoming more alive to the necessity of
something being done. I could easily multiply instances of employers who are alive to the
duty as well as advantage of taking steps to improve the condition of the employed. And
what are these steps? The closing earlier every day, the payment of wages on Thursday
or Friday, or, at all events, at an early hour on Saturday, and the Saturday half-holiday.
Are these inconsistent with the interests of employers? Far from it. We have ample
testimony to prove that the labourers so relieved will apply themselves with increased
alacrity to their work, animated with gratitude to their employers, and stimulated by a
new-found hope. Then will the English home resume its cheerfulness; then will the
husband and father taste the delights which purify and soften, and then, too, will the
Sabbath dawn on many who will spring forth to perform its hallowed duties, to feel its
soothing influence, and to worship in the courts of Him who hath said—“Ye shall not
oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am the Lord your God.” (C. F. S.
Money, M. A.)
Laws of trade-wages
It is said that John Wanamaker, when a girl told him that she could not possibly live on
the three and a half dollars a week that he offered her, replied: “I know it, but the fact is
that I am overrun with applications from girls, daughters of mechanics, tradesmen, &c.,
who have their homes already, and use their wages merely for dress, and they set the
scale. “The story of the employer who coolly told a girl who came with the same
complaint: “Most of our girls have gentlemen friends who provide for them; you had
better do the same,” has been not only widely told, but widely believed. A gentleman
went to a wealthy importer on Broadway to ask for a situation for a friend, and received
the reply: “He had better not come here. The fact is, all our men are underpaid, but we
can get all we want at present wages. Why should we pay any more?” It is notorious that
an immense amount of the “piecework” done by women for the great stores and
manufactories is done by those who merely wish to provide themselves with some
additional comforts. So instances innumerable might be given of the fact that the wage-
earners suffer most from the competition of those who are, at least in a measure,
independent. That this is wrong and unjust will be acknowledged at once by all right-
minded people. The remedy, however, is not so easily recognised. As a rule, it has been
supposed to lie with the employed themselves. It is said that these others have no right
to work at such low terms. Undoubtedly, if all were unselfish, there would result much
alleviation of the difficulty. There is, however, another phase of the case to which we
would call attention, and that is the responsibility of the employer. How far is it right for
a man to accept of service for which he does not pay a fair price—i.e., a price such that
the one who receives it can live upon it fairly and comfortably? There are, of course,
limitations. No iron rule can be laid down. Inexperience cannot claim the same as
experience, extravagance should not lay down the law for economy. Yet, after all, every
employer knows perfectly well whether or not he is paying what are called “living
wages.” It is much the fashion to decry the Mosaic laws as belonging to a period and
state of society entirely foreign to modern needs. No one, however, who carefully studies
those laws can fail to recognise the fact that they touch very closely upon the demands
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37. that we hear on every side for a more equal distribution of property, a more just relation
between employer and employed. The German Empire has already endorsed the same
principle in stating clearly the obligation of the community to provide for its individual
member’s. The Occident is not the Orient. Anglo-Saxons are not Semites; but the
fundamental law that one man shall not oppress another, by taking advantage of his
necessities is just as true now and here as it was in the desert of Arabia many centuries
ago. (Hom. Review.)
What shall we eat the seventh year?—
I. Let us first listen to the question. “What shall we eat the seventh year?” Now this was a
question of mere nature. Grace had nothing to do with it. It is man trusting in his own
native strength, man who judges all things by his own reason, man who goes no further
in his belief than what he can see and what he can understand. Human nature can
understand ploughing and reaping. Nature can comprehend scattering the seed. Nature
can believe in a self-dependent life, but nature cannot understand renouncing all human
activity and living absolutely on Jehovah’s blessing, and, therefore, in a spirit of
querulous unbelief, it asks, “But what shall we eat?” Asking this question is virtually to
arraign God at the bar of Reason, and say, “It is all very well to tell us that we are not to
plough, and not to gather, and not to reap; but what shall we eat? We shall starve if we
are only to feed on what Thou givest us. If we do this thing we shall have empty barns,
and empty barns will mean empty mouths, and empty mouths will mean national ruin
and death.” Thus blinded nature always argues, and will not trust for more than it can
see. A plough that can be beheld is valued far before a God that can only be believed.
Now is not this a question continually being asked in the present day? Is it not being put
by some here this morning? There is one yonder asking it in this wise: If I do all that God
tells me, how shall I get on in life or make my way? If I conduct my business according to
high Christian principles, if I give absolute and complete obedience to all the commands
of Scripture, if I keep my fingers clean of those things that defile the world’s hands, and
if I maintain my integrity, and refuse to stoop to all the petty little meannesses that I find
common in the business of the world, well, then, what shall I eat? May I not as well put
up the shutters at once? This very matter was brought before me only yesterday by a
professing Christian. Said he, “Sir, it is all very well for you to talk as you do, and right
you should, but if we don’t do these little things, our children will have to suffer for it.
We are living in the world, and we have to do in a measure as the world does, for if we
don’t, what shall we eat?” Thus unbelief steps in, and says, “Perfect obedience to God
means starvation.” Whilst on the other hand faith replies, “Perfect obedience means a
feast on blessing.” Faith cares not from whence the supply may come; faith troubles not
about probable results; it obeys God’s commands, asks no questions, and raises no
objections. Let us not, however, be too hard on these persons, for this question is often
asked more in a spirit of anxiety than a disposition to cavil. A timid believer, with no
thought of limiting the Holy One of Israel, may put the question in some such form as
this: “Well, sir, it is all very true what you say, and God forbid I should doubt His
providence, but supposing I should be sick during this year—supposing I should have a
long, weary illness, that keeps me from work for weeks! What should I do? Facts are
stubborn things, and if I cannot earn a penny, how am I to purchase anything for the
family? If there is to be a long cessation from employment, what shall we eat?” Or, it may
be, there are some already in this position, who are saying, “It is easy, sir, for you to
stand up on that platform and talk, but you would alter your language if you were in my
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38. place. Look! When I scan the horizon, I cannot see one harvest-field that I am likely to
reap this year. If I go to all my barns I find them empty; if I go to my trees I find them
stripped. Humanly speaking, I can see no hope of anything but hardship and privation,
and the question of my heart this morning is, ‘What shall we eat this year?’ and though I
have asked it a hundred times, I seem no nearer the solution of the problem.” Well, dear
friend, you have my heart’s truest sympathy, and I would that I could help you, and all
like you, but yet I must say, “Trust in God and do the right.” “I will command My
blessing,” is God’s answer to your question of anxiety. Sometimes, however, the question
is asked more from curiosity than even anxiety. It is in such spirit that we ask the
question this morning, “What shall we eat?” It is not a question whether God will give us
food or not; we know He will; but we should like to know what manner of food it is He
will put into our mouths this seventh year. Will it be the same as last year or better? Will
there be a new flavour about it, or a repetition of the old savour? Shall it be fruit from a
new tree, or new fruit from an old tree? What shall be our kind of experience during this
year? Shall we, during its months, eat of the fruit of Canaan, or shall we be satisfied with
the manna of the wilderness?
II. Well, we will try now to give you the answer as you have it in the text. We shall live on
the blessing of our God. Israel had to learn one truth, and that one truth was this—that
God’s blessing was worth more than all their own efforts; that if God spake a word of
commanding blessing, it was worth more to them than all their ploughs and agricultural
labour. Beloved, is not this true for you? Have not you in three ways to learn the lesson
that the Lord will provide? It will be true this year in your life as far as temporal matters
are concerned. It is not the expenditure of brain power, or the employment of arm
muscle that will win you your bread; it is the blessing of God resting on you. There is
nought apart from that; and we pray that you may acknowledge the precious truth, and
at the end of this year say, concerning your gettings, “It is because Jehovah has
commanded His blessing.” But there is a higher life you and I have to live, and that is
soul life. How will that be maintained this year? I answer—By the blessing of God. No
man has power to keep the fire within his own soul aglow; no man has might sufficient
to keep his own faith from staggering; no one has self-contained ability to keep his own
heart from wandering. And how true will it be in reference to us as a Church! The
preacher this year must look to God for his texts. “The Lord will provide” must be
recognised even in that. It is not the service, it is the blessing on the service. It is not the
word, it is the blessing on the word. It is the dew that is on the manna that makes it so
refreshing; it is Jehovah’s benediction that alone satisfies; and though we may drive our
own plough, and though we may try and scatter the seed broadcast on every hand, yet if
you obtain one spiritual feast this year, the speaker steps back and says it is not of him. If
God makes him a means of blessing unto one soul, it is neither he nor his sermon, it is
the Lord’s commanded blessing that has refreshed the heart. Had we time, we might
show you how this applies to everything in connection with the Church. Our schools will
prosper just as Heaven’s blessing is their portion. There is one other thought which
arises naturally out of the subject; it is this, that the answer to the question, “What shall
we eat the seventh year” is “Exactly the same as you had on the sixth year,” because you
will observe, if you look at the context, that God gave them a double blessing on the sixth
year, so that the trees yielded twice their wont—treble rather—and the fields a threefold
harvest. So that on the seventh and eighth years they had no new kind of fruit to that
they had on the sixth. It was the same fruit, and of the same flavour. (A. G. Brown.)
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39. Man need not despair of—Providence
See, then, and sink it into your heart soundly, what God is able to do for you touching all
worldly necessaries, if you will obey Him and trust in Him. Such a promise in Exodus He
made also, to keep all things in safety for them at home, while they were at Jerusalem
serving Him according to this law. And what loss had the shepherds when they left their
flocks in the fields and went to the child Jesus, according as the angel had told them? Let
this place again strengthen your faith against all objections of flesh and blood, made
from natural reasons and causes as they seem to men. For if the Lord be able, even then
when the earth is weakest, having been worn out with continual tillage, five years
together, to make the sixth year bring forth a triple blessing, enough for that year, for the
seventh year, and for the eighth year, till harvest were ready; what unseasonable
weather, what barrenness of land, what this, what that, shall make a man despair of
God’s providence for things needful? Leave God to Himself, and to His almighty power:
do you your duty, fear Him, love Him, serve Him, obey Him with a true heart, call upon
your children and servants to do the like, and you shall see the lovingkindness of the
Lord to your comfort. These things shall be cast upon you, and He that knoweth your
charge, and gave you that charge, will never fail you nor them of what is fit. You see here
what He can do, and let it profit you. I will tell you the feeling of my heart further in this
point, and thus I reason: Can God be thus strong when the land is weak, and will He be
thus strong to the comfort of His servants? Why, then, cannot He be, or why will He not
be, strong in my weakness, in your weakness, and in every man and woman’s weakness
that believe in Him? Away, Fear, away, I may not hearken unto thee! when I am weakest
He will be strongest. For His power is best seen in weakness, and I will put my whole
trust and confidence in Him, drawing an argument with David from my weakness to
move Him, and not to discomfort me. Heal me, O Lord, for I am weak. My weakness
shall drive me unto Thee, not from Thee, and I will tarry Thy good leisure. Lord
strengthen me, Lord comfort me, and under the covering of Thy wings let me be safe
from all temptations displeasing Thee and hurting me! (Bp. Babington.)
Practical reliance upon God
A faithful and zealous Methodist minister in North Carolina writes to a friend in
Calcutta: “There are two cotton factories here, and my charge consists chiefly of the
proprietors, operatives, and others connected with the factories. The proprietors are
Christians and Methodists, and stand ready to do what they can for the cause of Christ.
The leading man takes a lively interest in our Church work, and teaches a large class of
little boys in our Sabbath School, although weighed down by the cares of an immense
business all the week. When the new factory was built, the building, with all its
machinery, was solemnly dedicated, by a public religious service, to be used for the glory
of God. Two years ago a great revival was in progress here. Mr.—stopped the factory that
all hands might attend the meetings. He received an urgent order from New York for
goods. He replied that the goods could not be furnished. They telegraphed from New
York that they must have the goods. Then the wires flashed back the message: ‘ The Lord
is at work; the factories will not run this week.’ Would that we had more such men!
Christ requires that money as well as intellect and heart, be consecrated to Him. ‘The
silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine, saith the Lord of hosts.’“ Surely the Lord would say
to that millowner, as He said to the Canaanitish woman, Great is thy faith! (Indian
Witness.)
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40. The land is Mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with Me.—
The Hebrew system of land tenure
I. The first and fundamental principle of the land system prescribed to the chosen
people who were to inhabit this typical land was, that the land belonged to Jehovah, and
was to be held by the people immediately of and under him, as their sovereign and
paramount superior and lord.
II. Flowing naturally—indeed, one might say logically—from the principle of the Divine
ownership of the soil, and its possession by the Israelites as the Lord’s chosen people, is
the next feature of the Israelitish land system—viz., The equal partition of the land
among the whole families constituting the nation (see Num_26:1-65.). It is to be noticed
that, in the actual division of the land, each tribe was to receive its allotment in
proportion to its numerical extent, distinct from the others; and that the tribal allotment
was thereafter to be apportioned among the whole families composing the tribe, so that
each should have its own definite share. Besides, it was subsequently provided that an
allotment in the territory of one tribe should never become the possession of any
member of a different tribe, so that heiresses or heiress-portioners, could marry only “in
the family of the tribe of their father.” These subsidiary enactments, doubtless, had
reference specially to the peculiar character and aims of the Israelitish constitution. They
tended to preserve and perpetuate family and tribal traditions and sentiments; they
facilitated the keeping of accurate genealogical records; they provided a basis for the
practical operation of the law of jubilee; they promoted the self-government of the
people by the graduated judicatories of the family and the tribe; and they, at the same
time, welded the people into one compact commonwealth, by the bonds of an equal
interest in the soil. It is, of course, impossible here even to glance at the much-discussed
question of the relative merits of an aristocratic or a peasant proprietory, of large or
small landowners, of extensive or limited farms. But it is interesting to notice that, in the
Israelitish land legislation, we have precisely and practically that system of peasant
proprietory which we find existing and flourishing in many countries, and to which not a
few of those who have given the most independent and thoughtful and earnest attention
to the matter, look for the solution of the difficulties which are gathering around the
subject in our own land.
III. The next feature of the Israelitish land system is, that the return to be made by the
people for their lands was precisely the same as that which Joseph fixed to be paid by the
Egyptian crown tenantry—viz., One-fifth of the gross annual produce. In the case of the
Israelites, however, this fifth was divided into two-tenths, and its payment was
prescribed in a form breathing the spirit rather of grateful religious acknowledgment
than of strict legal exaction.
IV. The next characteristic of the Israelitish land system is, that the land thus allotted to
the people, and held by them as the vassals of the Lord, was inalienable. “The land shall
not be sold for ever, for the land is Mine, saith the Lord.” It was clearly requisite, for the
maintenance of the essential characteristics of the Israelitish constitution, and for the
realisation of the national destiny, that the land should be inalienable. A system which
permitted of the aggregation, more or less rapidly, of the land of the country into the
hands of the few; and of the consequent detachment, more or less extensively, of the
population from the soil, would have been fatal to the preservation of the national
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41. existence and to the realisation of the national destiny. The law distinctly and absolutely
forbade the sale or alienation of the land, and fortified the prohibition by the enactments
against usury or interest. The successive landholders had, therefore, in reality, only a
different interest in it; and it was equitable and conceivably beneficial that they should
possess the power of disposing of this limited interest. Innocent misfortune might
compel, or other causes might induce, them to part with it. And this the law of jubilee
enabled them to do. By that law the landholder was enabled to dispose of the usufruct—
the right to the fruits—of the land for a period not exceeding, at its ultimate possible
limit, the interval between the age of twenty, when a male Israelite attained full majority,
and seventy, the estimated end of a normal human life. All that the landholder was
empowered to dispose of was his own liferent interest. But neither the seller nor the
purchaser knew what would be the certain duration of that interest; and in these days
actuarial tables, exhibiting the average expectation of human life, did not exist. The law
of jubilee therefore stepped in and converted each liferent interest into an interest
terminating at the next jubilee; and the purchaser paid for it a price corresponding to the
number of years intervening between the sale and the jubilee, under deduction of the
sabbatic or fallow years. But the disposal even of this limited interest in the soil was not
an absolute or irredeemable one. The power to sell it at all was a concession to human
frailty or necessity. It was not to be presumed that a true-hearted Israelite would alienate
his interest in the soil of the covenanted land except under the severe pressure of adverse
circumstances. Indeed, so strong do we find this attachment to the soil that even in the
troublous times of Ahab, Naboth repels the overtures of the king for his land with the
exclamation, “The Lord forbid it me that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto
thee” (1Ki_21:3). And so, to afford an opportunity for the redemption of the land, if the
circumstances of the seller should improve, or a kinsman be willing to take his place, the
law of jubilee provided that the seller or his kinsman should at any time be entitled to
redeem the liferent by paying to the purchaser the value of the usufruct for the period
still to elapse between the redemption and the jubilee, calculated on the basis of the
original price. It is only to be noticed further that the prohibition to alienate did not
extend to dwelling-houses in walled cities. As these were not in any way connected with
the agricultural occupancy of the land they might be sold in perpetuity; but to prevent
coercion, or thoughtless disposal, or hardship from other causes, the law provided a
species of annus deliberandi, so that the house could be redeemed at the stipulated price
at any time before the expiry of a year from the day of sale, after which it became
irredeemable. The law of jubilee had, of course, a national as well as an individual
purpose, a religious as well as a secular significance. It was part of that great system of
types which ran through the whole of Mosaism. It made provision for the periodical
removal or modification of the inequalities which sprang up among the people in the
course of years. It prevented families being permanently impoverished through the
incapacity, the profligacy, or the misfortune of an individual member. It periodically
restored all diverted lands to their true owners, freed of all encumbrances and trammels.
It was a national rejuvenescence, a periodical restoration and renewal of the original
constitution of the commonwealth, and an infusion of fresh life and spirit into the whole
community!
V. The only other portion of the Israelitish land system that remains to be noticed is the
law of succession. The Israelitish law of inheritance is expressed in Num_27:8-11. The
Mosaic law makes no provision regarding the testamentary disposal of property; and the
idea of such a power is excluded both by its fundamental principle, to which we have
adverted, and by the system of heritable succession which it expressly prescribes. The
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42. principle that the land was the Lord’s and that the successive generations of Israelites
were merely “strangers” temporarily “sojourning” upon it, necessarily excluded the
power of posthumous settlement no less than that of alienation during life. (R. Reid.)
Sojourners with God
The institution of the jubilee year had more than one purpose. As a social arrangement it
tended to prevent extremes of wealth and poverty. As a ceremonial institution it was the
completion of the law of the sabbath. It was appointed to enforce, and to make the whole
fabric of the national wealth rest upon, this thought contained in the text. The land was
not theirs to sell—they had only a beneficial occupation. They were only like a band of
wanderers settling for a while, by permission of the Owner, on His estate.
I. Here is the lesson of god’s proprietorship and our stewardship. “The land is Mine.”
1. This thought should nurture thankfulness. The darkest night is filled with light,
and the loneliest place blazes with angel faces, and the stoniest pillow is soft to him
who sees everywhere the ladder that knits earth with heaven, and to whom all his
blessings are as the messengers that descend it on errands of mercy and lead up the
heart to the God from whom they come.
2. This thought should bring submission. We should not murmur, however we may
regret, if the Landowner takes back a bit of the land which He has let us occupy. He
does not take it away for His advantage, but “for our profit”—that we may be driven
to claim a better inheritance in Himself than we can find even in the best of His gifts.
3. This thought should produce a sense of responsibility in the use of all we have.
II. Here is the lesson of the transiency of our stay on earth. “Ye are strangers and
sojourners.”
1. The contrast between the external world and our stay in it
2. The constant change and progression of life.
3. The true and only permanent home. Use the transient as preparation for the
eternal.
III. Here is the lesson of trust. “With Me.” We have companionship even when most
solitary. Whoever goes, God abides. (Homilist.)
Land laws among other nations
Some knowledge of our ordinance reached heathen authors; thus Diodor of Sicily writes:
“Moses divided the land by lot, giving equal portions to the private citizens, but larger
ones to the priests; and he forbade the former to sell their lands, lest some greedily buy
up many allotments, eject the less prosperous, and thus cause a decrease of the
population.” Among other ancient nations we find some arrangements slightly
analogous to the Biblical laws. Lycurgus, after having distributed the land essentially in
equal parts, made it infamous for any one either to buy another’s possession or to sell his
own; yet by permitting the citizens to give their property away or to bequeath it, he
paved the way for that which eventually happened that “some had far too much, others
42

43. too little, by which means the land came into few hands.” Solon enacted a law restraining
persons from acquiring land beyond a given limit. Plato believed that no one ought to
possess more than four times as much as the lowest income or as “a single lot.” The
Locrians were forbidden to sell their ancient patrimony or their original lots of land
unless notoriously compelled by distress; and in some other countries it was unlawful to
sell such lands on any account. The Dalmatae made a partition of their land every eighth
year. With a view of equalising the property of the citizens Phaleas of Chalcedon
ordained that the rich should give marriage portions, but never receive any, while the
poor should always receive but never give them. Yet even these and similar measures,
imperfect and desultory compared with the complete and well-balanced law of the
Pentateuch, were found impracticable, and for the most part remained a dead letter.
Aristotle thus comments on equality of property: “It is possible that an equality of goods
is established, and yet that this may be either too great, when it leads to a luxurious
living, or too little when it obliges the people to live hard. Hence it is evident that the
legislator must aim at a proper medium or a moderate sufficiency for all. And yet it is
even of more consequence that the citizens should entertain a similarity of feelings than
an equality of property; but this can only be if they are properly educated under the
direction of the laws.” Would the great philosopher, had he known the legislation of the
Pentateach, have found in it the realisation of his ideal? He certainly describes with
precision its main features. (M. M. Kalisch, Ph. D.)
3 For six years sow your fields, and for six years
prune your vineyards and gather their crops.
BARNES, "Vineyard - Rather, fruit-garden. The Hebrew word is a general one for a
plantation of fruit-trees.
GILL, "Six years thou shalt sow thy field,.... Under which is comprehended
everything relating to agriculture, both before and after sowing, as dunging the land,
ploughing and harrowing it, treading the corn, reaping and gathering it in; see Exo_
23:10,
and six years thou shall prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof;
which is not to be restrained to vineyards only, but to be extended to oliveyards,
orchards and gardens, and to the planting and cultivating of them, and gathering in the
fruits of them.
PETT, “Leviticus 25:3
43

44. “Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard,
and gather in its fruits,”
Compare Exodus 23:11. For six years things were to go on as normal. They were to
sow and prune and gather. The land was theirs to do what they liked with. They
must work to make the most of it.
4 But in the seventh year the land is to have a year
of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow
your fields or prune your vineyards.
BARNES, "A sabbath of rest - See Lev_23:3 note. The express prohibition of
sowing and reaping, and of pruning and gathering, affords a presumption in favor of the
sabbatical year beginning, like the year of Jubilee Lev_25:9, in the first month of the
civil year Lev_23:24, the seventh of the sacred year, when the land was cleared of the
crops of the preceding year.
The great material advantage of the institution must have been the increased fertility
of the soil from its lying fallow one year out of seven, at a time when neither the rotation
of crops nor the art of manuring were understood. It must also have kept up a salutary
habit of economy in the storing of grain. Compare Gen_41:48-56. Its great spiritual
lesson was that there was no such thing as absolute ownership in the land vested in any
man, that the soil was the property of Yahweh, that it was to be held in trust for Him,
and not to be abused by overworking, but to be made the most of for the good of every
creature which dwelt upon it.
GILL, "But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land,....
From all tillage of it, from planting and cultivating any sort of trees in it; and even from
digging pits, ditches; and caves, as say the Jewish writers (m): and this was typical of
that rest which believers enter into under the Gospel dispensation, and of the rest in the
new Jerusalem state, and especially in the ultimate glory; not only from the labours of
the body, but of the mind, through sin, Satan, doubts and fears, and through conflicts
with various enemies, and when even all spiritual labours and services will be at an end
but that of praise:
a sabbath for the Lord; for his honour and glory, to ascertain his property in the
land, to show the power of his providence, and display his goodness in his care of all
creatures, without any means used by them:
44

45. thou shalt neither sow thy field nor prune thy vineyard; under which are
comprehended all acts of agriculture, which respect the cultivation of vines, olives, figs,
and, according to the Misnah (n), there were some instruments which it was not lawful
to sell to an artificer in the seventh year, such as a plough, with all belonging to it, a yoke,
a fan, a spade, but he may sell him a scythe, or a sickle, or a cart, and all its instruments;
and which the commentators (o) interpret of one that is suspected of working in that
year; the house of Shammai say, an heifer that ploughed might not be sold that year.
COKE, “Leviticus 25:4. A sabbath for the Lord— As the weekly sabbath was a
testimony of their belief in and homage to God the Creator, so the yearly sabbath
was a public testimony that their land was consecrated to the same God; that he had
settled them in it as his true worshippers, and that they held it as tenants under him,
their great lord and proprietor. We do not mention the wise and merciful ends of
this institution, as they come with more propriety under what we have to say
concerning the jubilee.
ELLICOTT, “ (4) The seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest.—Literally, the
seventh year shall be a rest of solemn resting, or a sabbath of sabbaths. For the
import of this phrase see Note on Leviticus 16:31. Like the weekly sabbath, the
seventh year is to be the Lord’s sabbath. The soil is therefore to have a perfect rest.
Thou shalt neither sow thy field.—What constitutes cultivation, and how much of
labour was regarded as transgressing this law, may be seen from the following
canons which obtained during the second Temple. No one was allowed to plant trees
in the sabbatical year, nor to cut off dried-up branches, to break off withered leaves,
to smoke under the plants in order to kill the insects, nor to besmear the unripe fruit
with any kind of soil in order to protect them, &c. Any one who committed one of
these things received the prescribed number of stripes. As much land, however,
might be cultivated as was required for the payment of taxes as well as for growing
the barley required for the omer or wave sheaf at the Passover, and wheat for the
two wave-loaves at Pentecost.
TRAPP, “Leviticus 25:4 But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the
land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy
vineyard.
Ver. 4. A Sabbath of rest unto the land.] This and the jubilee year shadowed our
eternal rest. [Colossians 2:16-17 Hebrews 4:9] (l.) Every seventh day they rested
from their labours. (2.) Every seventh year the ground rested. (3.) Every seventh
seventh (as some reckon it) was the jubilean Sabbath: at which time all debts were
remitted, prisoners released, mortgages restored to the right inheritors. The great
and eternal Sabbath comprehends all these. How then should we breathe after it,
and even go forth to meet it, as the Jews do their weekly Sabbath, beginning it an
hour sooner than the law required? and this they called their Sabbatulum, or little
Sabbath.
45

46. PETT, “Leviticus 25:4
“But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to
Yahweh. You shall neither sow your field, nor prune your vineyard.”
But when the seventh year came all was to cease. The land must be allowed to rest.
They must cease from work. They must neither sow nor prune. It was to be a
sabbath of solemn rest for the land, and for themselves. It would be a year in which
their thoughts could be turned on to covenant matters, and to doing good. It was a
period when God and His ways were to be central in their thoughts. It was intended
to be in this seventh year that the whole law was read at the Feast of Tabernacles
(Deuteronomy 31:10-13). It was to be their Sabbatical.
WHEDON, “ 4. A sabbath for the Lord — This was Jehovah’s sabbath, because it
rested solely on his authority, and not because it was to be devoted to acts of
worship, sacrifices, and holy convocations. The ground of this requirement is not
revealed. It may have been for the benefit of the soil, which uninterrupted
cultivation with little manuring would have exhausted, or it may have had regard to
moral ends only.
Neither sow thy field — It is evident that the sabbatical year must have been
conterminous with the civil year, when the land was cleared of the crops. The sacred
year, beginning seven months earlier, would have been inconvenient to observe as a
sabbatical year, inasmuch as there must have been either sowing or reaping, else
there would be a loss of the crops of two years.
5 Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the
grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have
a year of rest.
BARNES, "Vine undressed - That is, “unpruned”; literally “Nazarite vine”, the
figure being taken from the unshorn locks of the Nazarite. Num_6:5.
GILL, "That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not
reap,.... That which sprung up of itself from grains of corn, shed in the harvest of the
preceding year, without any ploughing or sowing; he might reap it, but not as at other
46

47. times, the whole of it, and gather it as his own property, but only somewhat of it in
common with others for his, present use:
neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed; which was on this year forbid to
be dressed; the grapes of which he might gather in common with others, but not as in
other years, all of them, and as peculiarly his own: the words may be rendered, "the
grapes of thy separations" (p); either such as in other years he used to separate for
himself, and forbid others gathering them, but now made them common; or which he
did not labour in the cultivation of, but abstained from it:
for it is a year of rest unto the land; which is repeated, that it may be observed.
K&D, "“That which has fallen out (been shaken out) of thy harvest (i.e., the corn
which had grown from the grains of the previous harvest that had fallen out) thou shalt
not reap, and the grapes of thine uncut thou shalt not gather.” ‫יר‬ִ‫ָז‬‫נ‬, the Nazarite, who
let his hair grow freely without cutting it (Num_6:5), is used figuratively, both here and
in Lev_25:11, to denote a vine not pruned, since by being left to put forth all its
productive power it was consecrated to the Lord. The Roman poets employ a similar
figure, and speak of the viridis coma of the vine (Tibull. i. 7, 34; Propert. ii. 15, 12).
COKE, “Leviticus 25:5. It is a year of rest unto the land— It is a known rule in
husbandry, that land requires rest; and therefore it is generally laid fallow, in order
to recruit its strength: this, doubtless, among others, was a reason for the present
institution. The sabbath of the land, in the next verse, signifies the accidental crop
which grew in the sabbatical year; sabbath, by a metonymy, being put for the crop
of the sabbath, or sabbatical year. Houbigant renders it, erunt terrae quiescentis
fructus, the fruit of the earth at rest shall be. The grapes of thy vine undressed,
should rather be rendered, as in the margin of our English Bibles, the grapes of the
separation; i.e. the grapes which are separated, alienated, or set apart from private
property to public utility. See Leviticus 25:11.
Note; (1.) The salvation of the Gospel is a common salvation; and all the great and
precious promises of pardon and adoption, strength, consolation, &c. which grow in
the field of grace, are to be gathered freely: whosoever will, let him come. (2.) When
we have for the few years of life toiled to subdue the stubborn soil of our hearts, we
shall at last sit down, and rest from our labours, in the enjoyment of an eternal
sabbath in glory.
ELLICOTT, “ (5) That which groweth of its own accord.—Not only is every owner
of land to desist from cultivating it, but the spontaneous growth of the fields from
seeds which accidentally fell down at the harvest, as well as from old roots, are not
to be gathered, or no harvest is to be made of it.
Neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed.—Literally, thy Nazarite vine, the
vine which bears the character of a Nazarite, or of being separated or consecrated to
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48. God. As the seventh year is the sabbath of the Lord, being consecrated to Him, the
vine of this year is consecrated to Him. Hence the Greek version (LXX.) translates it
“the grapes of thy consecration,” and hence, too, the marginal rendering “of thy
separations.” The passage is also interpreted “thou shalt not gather the grapes from
which thou hast separated and debarred other people, and which thou hast not
declared common property.”
TRAPP, “Leviticus 25:5 That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou
shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: [for] it is a year of
rest unto the land.
Ver. 5. Thou shalt not reap,] sc., All at once, as other years: but now some, and then
some, for thy necessary food. (a)
PETT, “Leviticus 25:5
“That which grows of itself of your harvest you shall not reap, and the grapes of
your undressed vine you shall not gather. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the
land.”
Indeed they must go further. They must not gather in an organised way what grows
of itself, neither reaping, nor gathering grapes and fruit. They must treat the land as
if it was not theirs. What grew on the land should be seen as God’s and would be
open to anyone to collect. The ‘landowner’ would in that year simply have the same
rights as everyone else. It was a time for sharing all that they had.
WHEDON, “ 5. Vine undressed — Hebrew, consecrated or Nazarite, because he left
his hair unshorn. Numbers 6:5. The Roman poets speak of the viridis coma, the
green hair of the vine.
Shalt not reap — This prohibits reaping to garner or to sell, but not for immediate
eating. It will be observed that in Leviticus 25:3-5 all labor is not forbidden, but
only that which is strictly agricultural. Mechanical pursuits, such as tool-making,
carpentry, the manufacture of cloth and of clothing, and the making and repair of
furniture, were admissible, as well as certain semi-agricultural labors, as ditching,
fence-building, terrace-making, sheep-shearing, care of bees and flocks, to which
may be added hunting, fishing, and trafficking.
6 Whatever the land yields during the sabbath
year will be food for you—for yourself, your male
and female servants, and the hired worker and
48

49. temporary resident who live among you,
BARNES, "The sabbath of the land shall be meat for you - That is, the
produce of the untilled land (its “increase,” Lev_25:7) shall be food for the whole of you
in common, rich and poor without distinction Exo_23:11.
GILL, "And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you,...., That is, that which
grew up of itself but of the land, or on trees, vines, olives, &c. undressed, should be the
meat or food on which they should live that year: and this comprehends everything that
is fit for food, and also for drink, and for anointing, and even for the lighting of lamps, as
in the Misnah (q):
for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid; the owner of the fields and
vineyards, he and his family, wife, children, and servants, might eat of the fruits of them
in common with others; for whereas it is elsewhere said, Exo_23:11, "that the poor of thy
people may eat", this is observed here, lest anyone should think the rich are forbid eating
them, as Jarchi remarks:
and for thy hired servant, and for the stranger that sojourneth with thee:
which the same writer interprets of Gentiles; the food of this year was common to
masters and servants, to rich and poor, to Israelites and Gentiles; all had an equal right
unto, and share therein; which might be an emblem of the first times of the Gospel, in
which all things were had in common, Act_4:32, and typical of the communion of saints
in things spiritual; in salvation by Jesus Christ, common to Jews and Gentiles, high and
low, bond and free; in the free and full forgiveness of sins by his blood; and in
justification by his righteousness, which is unto all, and upon all them that believe, for
there is no difference; in the participation of faith, and other graces, which are alike
precious, and in the enjoyment of promises, privileges, and ordinances, and even of
eternal life itself.
K&D 6-7, ““And the Sabbath of the land (i.e., the produce of the sabbatical year or
year of rest, whatever grew that year without cultivation) shall be to you for food, for
thee and thy servant,...and for the beasts that are in thy land shall all its produce be for
food.” The meaning is, that what grew of itself was not to be reaped by the owner of the
land, but that masters and servants, labourers and visitors, cattle and game, were to eat
thereof away from the field (cf. Lev_25:12). The produce arising without tilling or
sowing was to be a common good for man and beast. According to Exo_23:11, it was to
belong to the poor and needy; but the owner was not forbidden to partake of it also, so
that there can be no discrepancy discovered between this passage and the verse before
us. The produce referred to would be by no means inconsiderable, particularly if there
had not been a careful gleaning after the harvest, or the corn had become over-ripe. In
the fertile portions of Palestine, especially in the plain of Jezreel and on the table-land of
Galilee, as well as in other parts, large quantities of wheat and other cereals are still self-
49

50. sown from the ripe ears, the over-flowing of which is not gathered by any of the
inhabitants of the land. Strabo gives a similar account of Albania, viz., that in many
parts a field once sown will bear fruit twice and even three times, the first yield being as
much as fifty-fold. The intention of his law was not so much to secure the physical
recreation of both the land and people, however useful and necessary this might be for
men, animals, and land in this sublunary world; but the land was to keep Sabbath to the
Lord in the seventh year. In the sabbatical year the land, which the Lord had given to His
people, was to observe a period of holy rest and refreshment to its Lord and God, just as
the congregation did on the Sabbath-day; and the hand of man was to be withheld from
the fields and fruit-gardens from working them, that they might yield their produce for
his use. The earth was to be saved from the hand of man exhausting its power for earthly
purposes as his own property, and to enjoy the holy rest with which God had blessed the
earth and all its productions after the creation. From this, Israel, as the nation of God,
was to learn, on the one hand, that although the earth was created for man, it was not
merely created for him to draw out its powers for his own use, but also to be holy to the
Lord, and participate in His blessed rest; and on the other hand, that the great purpose
for which the congregation of the Lord existed, did not consist in the uninterrupted
tilling of the earth, connected with bitter labour in the sweat of his brow (Gen_3:17,
Gen_3:19), but in the peaceful enjoyment of the fruits of the earth, which the Lord their
God had given them, and would give them still without the labour of their hands, if they
strove to keep His covenant and satisfy themselves with His grace. This intention of the
sabbatical year comes out still more plainly in the year of jubilee, in which the idea of the
sanctification of the whole land as the Lord's property is still more strongly expressed,
and whose inward connection with the sabbatical year is indicated by the fact that the
time for observing it was regulated by the sabbatical years (Lev_25:8).
ELLICOTT, “ (6) And the sabbath of the land.—That is, the growth or produce
during this sabbath of the land. For the figure of speech see Lev. .
Shall be meat for you.—That is, it shall serve as your food, but you must not trade
with it, or store it up. Hence, during the second Temple the produce of the
sabbatical year could only be used for direct consumption, and was not allowed to
be converted first into other articles and then used. Thus, for instance, though wood
of that year could be used as firewood, yet it was illegal to convert it first into coal
and then use the coal thus obtained from the wood, nor was it legal to convert
vegetables into medicines, or to give human food to animals.
For thee, and for thy servant . . . —The produce is to be left in the field for the free
use of the poor, the servant, &c. (See also Exodus 23:11.) Hence it was enacted
during the second Temple that “whoso locks up his vineyard, or hedges in his field,
or gathers all the fruit into his house in the sabbatical year breaks this law.”
Everything is to be left common, and every man has a right to every thing in every
place. Every man could only bring into his house a little at a time according to the
manner of things that are in common.”
TRAPP, “Leviticus 25:6 And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee,
50

51. and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy
stranger that sojourneth with thee,
Ver. 6. Shall be meat for you.] Thus God taught and inured them to depend upon
his providence, and to feed on faith, as some read that text. [Psalms 37:3] For
though the owner of the field might gather, even on that year, for the maintenance
of himself and family, yet he was neither to sow his field, thereby to increase his
harvest, nor to hedge his field, or lock up his vineyard, &c.
PETT, “Leviticus 25:6
“And the sabbath of the land shall be for food for you; for you, and for your servant
and for your maid, and for your hired servant and for your stranger, who sojourns
with you.”
So what grew on the land in that seventh year would be for everyone who went out
to collect it for themselves. There were to be no organised labour parties, no work
on the land organised by the owner. Anyone could go individually and collect what
he was able. It was to be an exercise in magnanimity. All could live off what the land
naturally produced under God. WHEDON, “Verse 6
6. The sabbath of the land — The spontaneous products of the soil during the
sabbatical year shall be meat, or common food, for all classes indiscriminately, lords
and servants, natives and foreigners, rich and poor, cattle and game. The
assignment of the produce of this year to the poor in Exodus 23:11, does not exclude
the landowner from equal participation also. The quantity of this self-sown harvest
is sometimes fiftyfold, according to Strabo, when the previous harvest was over ripe
and there was not careful gleaning. This may have been the designed character of
the sixth harvest.
Thy stranger — The thoshabh is one who lives permanently in the country, but
without the rights of a citizen; different from a ger, who may live there for a time.
7 as well as for your livestock and the wild
animals in your land. Whatever the land produces
may be eaten.
51

52. GILL, "And for thy cattle, and for the beasts that are in thy land,.... The
former signifies tame cattle, such as were kept at home, or in fields, or were used in
service, and the latter the wild beasts of the field:
shall all the increase thereof be meat; for the one, and for the other; Jarchi
remarks, that all the time a wild beast eats of the increase of the field, the cattle may be
fed at home; but when it ceaseth to the wild beast of the field, then it ceaseth to the cattle
at home; nay, the Jews are so strict in this matter, that they say that when there is no
food for the beasts in the field, men are obliged to bring out what they have in their
houses (r), see Isa_11:6.
ELLICOTT, “(7) And for thy cattle.—In accordance with the benign legislation
which obtained during the second Temple, the administrators of the law inferred
from this verse, and hence enacted, that the fruit of the seventh year may only be
eaten by man at home, as long as the kind is found in the field. “As long as the
animals eat the same kind in the field thou mayest eat what there is of it in the
house, but if the animal has consumed it all in the field thou art bound to remove
this kind from the house into the field.” (For the enactment which enjoins the
remission of debts in the sabbatical year, see Deuteronomy 15:1-3.) During the
second Temple the sabbatical year began on the first day of the month of Tishri,
which was the beginning of the civil year. The tillage, however, and the cultivation
of certain fields and gardens, were left off in the sixth year. The cultivation of corn-
fields ceased from the Feast of Passover, and orchards from Pentecost of the sixth
year. The reading of portions of the Law which is enjoined in Deuteronomy
31:10-13, was assigned during the second Temple to the king. At the termination of
the seventh fallow year, which coincided with the first day of the Feast of
Tabernacles of the eighth year, a wooden platform was erected in the outer court of
the Temple, on which the king was seated. The chief of the synagogue took the Book
of the Law, and gave it to the head of the synagogue, who gave it to the head of the
priests. He gave it to the high priest, and the latter handed it to the king, who stood
up to receive it. He then sat down again, and read the following seven sections :—(1)
Deuteronomy 1:1 to Deuteronomy 6:3; (2) Deuteronomy 6:4-8; (3) Deuteronomy
11:13-22; (4) Deuteronomy 14:22 to Deuteronomy 15:23; (5) Deuteronomy 16:12-19;
(6) Deuteronomy 17:14-20; (7) Deuteronomy 27:1 to Deuteronomy 28:68. The king
concluded with the same benedictions, which the high priest pronounced (see
Leviticus 16:27), only that he substituted the blessing for the festival for the
absolution of sins.
PETT, “Leviticus 25:7
“And for your cattle, and for the beasts that are in your land, shall all its increase be
for food.”
52

53. The produce of the land was also to be left to the cattle and to beasts generally. They
too were to be able to enter the land and eat what they would. The more ideal
equivalent is portrayed in Isaiah 11:6-9.
That this could not happen in all places at the same time in this way, once the land
was not captured as a whole, is clear to us. It could only happen piecemeal. It may
well have happened to the land distributed in the first distribution, in the hill
country and the lowlands, and later as more was gradually absorbed piecemeal it
could be worked into the system. It may even have been observed on a differing
basis in different localities. But the leaving fallow of the fields for a year was good
practise, and was also practised elsewhere, and would give the soil time to recover
and would actually be good for the land. And it was an indicator of God’s purpose
of fullness of blessing yet to come.
This year would also have been the year of release mentioned in Deuteronomy
15:1-2 where all loans to fellow-Israelites were to be written off. Although this was
no longer to apply once there were no poor people in the land. This attitude was
reflected in the teaching of Jesus about giving and lending (Matthew 5:42). And He
would point out that in His day ‘you have the poor always with you’ (John 12:8).
The Year of Jubilee
8 “‘Count off seven sabbath years—seven times
seven years—so that the seven sabbath years
amount to a period of forty-nine years.
BARNES, "Lev_25:8
Seven sabbaths of years - seven weeks of years.
CLARKE, "
Thou shalt number seven Sabbaths of years - This seems to state that the
jubilee was to be celebrated on the forty-ninth year; but in Lev_25:10 and Lev_25:11 it is
said, Ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and, A jubilee shall this fiftieth year be. Probably in
this verse Moses either includes the preceding jubilee, and thus with the forty-ninth
makes up the number fifty; or he speaks of proclaiming the jubilee on the forty-ninth,
and celebrating it on the fiftieth year current. Some think it was celebrated on the forty-
ninth year, as is stated in Lev_25:8; and this prevented the Sabbatical year, or seventh
53

54. year of rest, from being confounded with the jubilee, which it must otherwise have been,
had the celebration of this great solemnity taken place on the fiftieth year; but it is most
likely that the fiftieth was the real jubilee.
GILL, "And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee,.... Or weeks
of years; and there being seven days in a week, and a day being put for a year, seven
weeks of years made forty nine years; the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan, and Jarchi,
interpret it seven "shemittas", or sabbatical years; and a sabbatical year being every
seventh year, made the same number:
seven times seven years: or forty nine years, as follows:
and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be forty and nine years;
just such a space of years there was between each jubilee, which, as afterwards said, was
the fiftieth year; so as there were a seventh day sabbath, and a fiftieth day sabbath, the
day of Pentecost, so there were a seventh year sabbath, or sabbatical year, and a fiftieth
year sabbath.
HENRY 8-9, “Here is, I. The general institution of the jubilee, Lev_25:8. etc.
1. When it was to be observed: after seven sabbaths of years (Lev_25:8), whether the
forty-ninth or fiftieth is a great question among learned men: that it should be the
seventh sabbatical year, that is, the forty-ninth (which by a very common form of speech
is called the fiftieth), seems to me most probable, and is, I think, made pretty clear and
the objections removed by that learned chronologer Calvisius; but this is not a place for
arguing the question. Seven sabbaths of weeks were reckoned from the passover to the
feast of pentecost (or fiftieth day, for so pentecost signifies), and so seven sabbaths of
years from one jubilee to another, and the seventh is called the fiftieth; and all this
honour is put upon the sevenths for the sake of God's resting the seventh day from the
work of creation.
2. How it was to be proclaimed, with sound of trumpet in all parts of the country
(Lev_25:5), both to give notice to all persons of it, and to express their joy and triumph
in it; and the word jobel, or jubilee, is supposed to signify some particular sound of the
trumpet distinguishable from any other; for the trumpet that gives an uncertain sound is
of little service, 1Co_14:8. The trumpet was sounded in the close of the day of
atonement; thence the jubilee commenced, and very fitly; when they had been humbling
and afflicting their souls for sin, then they were made to hear this voice of joy and
gladness, Psa_51:8. When their peace was made with God, then liberty was proclaimed;
for the removal of guilt is necessary to make way for the entrance of all true comfort,
Rom_5:1, Rom_5:2. In allusion to this solemn proclamation of the jubilee, it was
foretold concerning our Lord Jesus that he should preach the acceptable year of the
Lord, Isa_61:2. He sent his apostles to proclaim it with the trumpet of the everlasting
gospel, which they were to preach to every creature. And it stands still foretold that at
the last day the trumpet shall sound, which shall release the dead out of the bondage of
the grave, and restore us to our possessions.
3. What was to be done in that year extraordinary; besides the common rest of the
land, which was observed every sabbatical year (Lev_25:11, Lev_25:12), and the release
of personal debts (Deu_15:2, Deu_15:3), there was to be the legal restoration of every
54

55. Israelite to all the property, and all the liberty, which had been alienated from him since
the last jubilee; so that never was any people so secured in their liberty and property
(those glories of a people) as Israel was. Effectual care was taken that while they kept
close to God these should not only not be taken from them by the violence of others, but
not thrown away by their own folly.
JAMISON, "Lev_25:8-23. The Jubilee.
thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years — This most extraordinary of all
civil institutions, which received the name of “Jubilee” from a Hebrew word signifying a
musical instrument, a horn or trumpet, began on the tenth day of the seventh month, or
the great day of atonement, when, by order of the public authorities, the sound of
trumpets proclaimed the beginning of the universal redemption. All prisoners and
captives obtained their liberties, slaves were declared free, and debtors were absolved.
The land, as on the sabbatic year, was neither sowed nor reaped, but allowed to enjoy
with its inhabitants a sabbath of repose; and its natural produce was the common
property of all. Moreover, every inheritance throughout the land of Judea was restored
to its original owner.
K&D, "The law for the Year of Jubilee refers first of all to its observance (Lev_
25:8-12), and secondly to its effects (a) upon the possession of property (vv. 13-34), and
(b) upon the personal freedom of the Israelites (vv. 35-55).
Lev_25:8-9
Keeping the year of jubilee. Lev_25:8, Lev_25:9. Seven Sabbaths of years - i.e., year-
Sabbaths or sabbatical years, or seven times seven years, the time of seven year-
Sabbaths, that is to say, 49 years - they were to count, and then at the expiration of that
time to cause the trumpet of jubilee to go (sound) through the whole land on the tenth of
the seventh month, i.e., the day of atonement, to proclaim the entrance of the year of
jubilee. This mode of announcement was closely connected with the idea of the year
itself. The blowing of trumpets, or blast of the far-sounding horn (shophar, see at Lev_
23:24), was the signal of the descent of the Lord upon Sinai, to raise Israel to be His
people, to receive them into His covenant, to unite them to Himself, and bless them
through His covenant of grace (Exo_19:13, Exo_19:16, Exo_19:19; Exo_20:18). Just as
the people were to come up to the mountain at the sounding of the ‫ל‬ ֵ‫ב‬ ‫,י‬ or the voice of
the shophar, to commemorate its union with the Lord, so at the expiration of the seventh
sabbatical year the trumpet-blast was to announce to the covenant nation the gracious
presence of its God, and the coming of the year which was to bring “liberty throughout
the land to all that dwelt therein” (Lev_25:10), - deliverance from bondage (Lev_
25:40.), return to their property and family (Lev_25:10, Lev_25:13), and release from
the bitter labour of cultivating the land (Lev_25:11, Lev_25:12). This year of grace as
proclaimed and began with the day of atonement of every seventh sabbatical year, to
show that it was only with the full forgiveness of sins that the blessed liberty of the
children of God could possibly commence. This grand year of grace was to return after
seven times seven years; i.e., as is expressly stated in Lev_25:10, every fiftieth year was
to be sanctified as a year of jubilee. By this regulation of the time, the view held by R.
Jehuda, and the chronologists and antiquarians who have followed him, that every
55

56. seventh sabbatical year, i.e., the 49th year, was to be kept as the year of jubilee, is proved
to be at variance with the text, and the fiftieth year is shown to be the year of rest, in
which the sabbatical idea attained its fullest realization, and reached its earthly temporal
close.
CALVIN, "8.And thou shalt number seven. The third kind of Sabbath follows,
which was composed of forty-nine, or seven times seven years. This was the most
illustrious Sabbath, since the state of the people, both as to their persons and their
houses and property, was renewed; and although in this way God had regard to the
public good, gave relief to the poor, so that their liberty should not be destroyed,
and preserved also the order laid down by Himself; still there is no question but that
He thus added an additional stimulus to incite the Jews to honor the Sabbath. For it
was a kind of imposing memorial of the sacred rest, to see slaves emancipated and
become suddenly free; houses and lands returning to their former possessors who
had sold them; and in fine all things assuming a new face. They called this year
Jobel, from the sound of the ram’s horn, whereby liberty and the restitution of
property were proclaimed; but as I have said, its main feature was the solemnity
which shewed them to be separated from other nations to be a peculiar and holy
nation to God; nay, the renewal of all things had reference to this, that being
redeemed anew in the great Sabbath, they might entirely devote themselves to God
their Deliverer.
COFFMAN, “Verse 8
"And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years;
and there shall be unto thee the days of seven sabbaths of years, even forty and nine
years. Then shalt thou send abroad the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh
month; in the day of atonement shall ye send abroad the trumpet throughout all
your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the
land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall
return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.
A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that
which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of the undressed vines. For it
is a jubilee; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the
field."
It is quite obvious that on the year of Jubilee, coming immediately following the
seventh sabbatical year, there would have been back to back sabbatical years, and
this has been such a problem to some that they have even attempted to make the
Jubilee correspond with the 49th year, but the text makes it certain that there were
in fact two sabbath years together. "The Jubilee occurred every fiftieth year, and
not as some suppose, in the forty-ninth."[10] See Leviticus 25:21, where God's
instructions mentioned particularly the "three years" increase promised on the year
before the two adjacent sabbath years.
"The loud trumpet ... on the day of atonement ..." (Leviticus 25:9). The word for
56

57. "Jubilee" testifies to the antiquity of Leviticus. "The title alone (Jubilee) is an
indication that it was an institution of great antiquity."[11]
"Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof ..." These
words are engraved upon the Liberty Bell situated in Independence Hall,
Philadelphia, but, in their original context, the words refer to slavery and not to
political subjection. Despite this, the words were a powerful motivation in the
Revolutionary War.
"Ye shall return every man to his possession ..." The meaning of this was that every
Israelite was to be returned to the ancestral lands which belonged to his forebearers.
God was the actual Owner of all the land, and any Israelite in possession of it was
merely a tenant at will. Whose will? God's will. The occupancy and crops produced
by the land in specified years could be sold, but title to the land was not
transferable. It always reverted on the Jubilee to their heirs and successors of those
persons to whom God had assigned it at the time when Joshua divided the land of
Canaan among the Twelve Tribes. People of all times and nations have praised this
arrangement, impractical as it most assuredly would be in our own times. The
Jubilee stressed God's absolute ownership of the land. It was God's right by
creation, and by right of maintenance. The Jubilee discouraged and prevented the
endless building of greater and greater estates and effectively prevented the
development of a culture in which wealthy owners of most of the land would be able
to oppress and defraud the poor. Although most scholars do not believe that Israel
ever actually observed the Jubilee, the preservation of land within families of the
original persons receiving it seems to have prevailed for a long time. The incidents
of Ruth (Ruth 4) and of Naboth (1 Kings 21) show that the law against alienation of
the land prevailed in those times, and the case of Naboth in particular shows the
hatred of that law by the Monarchy which succeeded in the ultimate nullification of
it. Isaiah decried those who "lay house to house, and field to field" (Isaiah 5:8).
These were the monopolists who were buying up all the land, contrary to the Word
of God.
"And ye shall return every man to his family ..." (Leviticus 25:9). This elaborates
the heralded clause, "Proclaim liberty ... to all the inhabitants ..." This meant liberty
from slavery. Slaves were to be emancipated in every sabbatical year, making six
years the maximum time that one could be a slave. The law of the sabbath year and
of the Jubilee "would not suffer it to be forgotten that the slave was a man,
protecting him in every way possible in those times."[12]
COKE, “Leviticus 25:8. &c. And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto
thee— Or, Seven weeks of years unto thee. As the sabbatical year was to be every
seventh year, so the year of jubilee was to be every seventh sabbatical year; and
though of greater dignity, and honoured with some higher privileges, was, in other
respects, the same with the sabbatical year mentioned in the foregoing verses. This is
the rather to be noted, as some have conceived that the sabbatical year differed from
that of the jubilee. It was proclaimed by sound of trumpet through the whole
57

58. country upon the great day of atonement, i.e. on the tenth of our September; from
whence it is most reasonably concluded, that the sabbatical year also had its
commencement at the same time. It is called the year of jubilee, as that word is
formed from a Hebrew noun, signifying the sound of a trumpet, which was used to
proclaim it. See Exodus 19:13. Genesis 4:21. On this year, not only the usual rest of
the sabbatical year was given to the land, Leviticus 25:11-12 but liberty was
proclaimed to all the inhabitants of the land, Leviticus 25:10. Every ancient owner
of lands and estates, which had been alienated by sale, was to be restored to his
possession: every Israelitish slave, set free, was to return to the family he belonged
to; so that, how often so ever a man's estate had been sold or alienated, from one
jubilee to another, or how many hands soever it had passed through, yet, in fifty
years, the estate must revert to the heirs of the persons who were first possessed of
it. Many and great were the advantages arising to the public from these excellent
laws respecting the sabbatical year, and the year of jubilee.* 1. The people were thus
put in mind that the earth brought not forth of itself, but by the fructifying
influences of the divine power, which consequently served to beget in them a trust in
God and his providence: therefore God promised to command his blessing upon
them in the sixth year, and to make the earth bring forth a triple increase; see 20th
and 21st verses. It was a curb to avarice; habituating them to the exercises of
humanity towards their slaves and beasts, of mercy and liberality to the poor: and
Philo observes, as we have before remarked, that it was also a wise, political
contrivance, to let the earth rest in order to recruit its strength. 2. It provided
against all ambitious designs of private persons, or persons in authority, against the
public liberty; for no person, in any of the tribes, was allowed by this constitution to
procure such estates as could give them hopes of success in oppressing their
brethren and fellow-subjects. They had no riches to bribe indigent persons to assist
them; nor could there, at any time, be any considerable number of indigent persons
to be corrupted: the power in the hands of so many freeholders of each tribe was so
unspeakably superior to any power in the hands of one, or of a few men, that it is
impossible to conceive how any such ambitious designs should succeed, if any
persons had been found weak enough to attempt them. 3. This equal and moderate
provision for every person wisely cut off the means of luxury, with the temptations
to it from example: it almost necessarily put the Hebrew nation upon industry and
frugality; and yet gave to every one such a property, with such an easy state of
liberty, that they had sufficient reason to esteem and value them, and endeavour to
preserve and maintain them. 4. A provision was thus made for settling and
maintaining a numerous and brave militia of 600,000 men; which, if their force was
rightly directed and used, would not only be a sufficient defence against any
attempts of their less powerful neighbours, but, considering the natural security of
their country, into which no inroads could be made but through very difficult
passes, would be a force sufficient to defend them against the more powerful
empires. 5. Thus, too, the Almighty excellently provided for fixing the Jews to the
land of Canaan, and keeping them united; since all their possessions were so
entailed, that the right heir could never be wholly excluded from his estate. 6. Thus
a perfect distinction of tribes and families was preserved; for which end their
genealogies were of necessity to be carefully kept, that they might be able to prove
58

59. their right to the inheritance of their ancestors. By this means the tribe and family
of the MESSIAH were fully ascertained when he was born, in order that it might be
clearly proved that he was of the tribe of Judah, and of the lineage of David, as was
foretold of him by the prophets. 7. Further, this institution was made subservient to
religion; for the people were then peculiarly to be instructed in the law of God,
which was appointed to be read this year in the audience of all Israel, men, women,
and children, when they assembled before God at the feast of tabernacles. See
Deuteronomy 31:10-11; Deuteronomy 12:8. This excellent institution not only served
to these civil and religious uses, but also was typical of the great year of gospel-
salvation, which, in allusion to it, is styled by the prophet the year of God's
redeemed, and the acceptable year of the Lord, upon which the gospel trumpet
proclaimed liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are
bound. Read Isaiah 61:1, &c. and Leviticus 27:13. Let it just be observed, that the
time when the glad signal of jubilee was given was the 10th day of the seventh
month; a day whereon the future expiation of the Messiah was clearly exhibited; see
ch. Leviticus 23:27 and ch. Leviticus 16:29 and what I have there remarked on the
goat that was slain, and on that which was sent away; whereby is signified that our
jubilee begins in the atonement of Jesus Christ, as theirs began on the day on which
it was prefigured. The intermission of labour, the cancelling of debts, the delivery
from bondage, the reversion of all inheritances, bear an evident reference to the
great spiritual blessings of the Gospel; which gives rest to our souls, remission of our
sins, release from their bondage, and restoration to our glorious and never-failing
inheritance in heaven.
* See Cunaeus de Repub. Heb. lib. 1: cap. 3. Lowman's Dissert. on the Civil
Government of the Hebrews, p. 47, &c. and L'Enfant and Beausobre's Introduction
to the New Testament, p. 165.
ELLICOTT, “ (8) And thou shalt number.—Better, And thou shalt count unto thee,
as the Authorised Version renders the same phrase in Leviticus 23:15.
Number seven sabbaths of years.—Better, count seven weeks of years (see Leviticus
23:15). The seven days of each week stand for so many years, so that seven weeks of
years make forty-nine years. Hence the explanation in the next clause: “Seven times
seven years.” As the observance of the jubile, like that of the sabbatical year, was
only to become obligatory when the Israelites had taken possession of the promised
land (see Leviticus 25:2), and as the first sabbatical year, according to the
authorities during the second Temple, came into operation in the twenty-first year
after their entrance into Canaan (see Leviticus 25:2), the first jubile was celebrated
in the sixty-fourth year after they came into the land of promise.
EBC, “THE JUBILEE
Leviticus 25:8-12
"And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years;
59

60. and there shall be unto thee the days of seven sabbaths of years, even forty and nine
years. Then shalt thou send abroad the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh
month; in the day of atonement shall ye send abroad the trumpet throughout all
your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the
land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall
return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.
A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that
which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of the undressed vines. For it
is a jubilee; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the
field."
The remainder of this chapter, Leviticus 25:8-55, is occupied with this ordinance of
the jubilee year; an observance absolutely without a parallel in any nation, and
which has to do with the solution of some of the most difficult social problems, not
only of that time, but also of our own. Seven weeks of years, each terminating with
the sabbatic year of solemn rest for the land, were to be numbered, i.e., forty-nine
full years, of which the last was a sabbatic year, beginning, as always, with the feast
of atonement in the tenth day of the seventh month. And then when, at its
expiration, the day of atonement came round again, at the beginning of the fiftieth
year of this reckoning, at the close, as would appear, of the solemn expiatory ritual
of the day, throughout all the land of Israel the loud trumpet was to be sounded,
proclaiming "liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." The
ordinance is given in Leviticus 25:8-12 above.
It appears that the liberty thus proclaimed was threefold:
(1) liberty to the man who, through the reverses of life, had become dispossessed
from his family inheritance in the land, to return to it again;
(2) liberty to every Hebrew slave, so that in the jubilee he became a free man again;
(3) the liberty of release from toil in the cultivation of the land, -a feature, in this
case, even more remarkable than in the sabbatic year, because already one such
sabbatic year had but just closed when the jubilee year immediately succeeded.
Why this year should be called a jubilee (Hebrews yobel) is a vexed question, on
which scholars are far from unanimous; but as it is of no practical importance,
there is no need to enter on the discussion here. To suppose that these enactments
should have originated, as the radical critics claim, in post-exilian days, when, under
the existing social and political conditions, their observance was impossible, is
utterly absurd. Not only so, but in view of the admitted neglect even of the sabbatic
year, -an ordinance certainly less difficult to carry out in practice, -during four
hundred and ninety years of Israel’s history, the supposition that the law of the
jubilee should have been first promulgated at any earlier post-Mosaic period is
scarcely less incredible.
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61. PETT, “Verses 8-19
The Year of Yubile. The Year of Grand Release (Leviticus 25:8-55).
The year of grand release might well never have been put fully into practise
throughout the whole of Israel, as it required full ownership of all the land, and as
we know some tribes found difficulty in possessing the land (Judges 1:27-36). But
we cannot discount the fact that it might well have been put into practise in the early
days in the parts which were securely taken. It was certainly expected that it would
be (Numbers 36:4). The early enthusiasm would suggest that it would be applied in
the early days in those areas where it could be applied, the areas which were
securely subjugated, for example in the days of the elders who outlived Joshua
(Joshua 2:7), and even beyond in some form. We may even surmise that it was the
monarchy with its ways that finally brought it to an end.
But whether fully carried out or not it would certainly provide a guide to the people
of what God expected of them in their behaviour towards each other, would
emphasise that the whole land belonged in the final analysis to Yahweh, being given
to them by Him for their use, and would set their thoughts on good practise with
regard to different aspects of commercial life and their attitude towards their
‘brothers’, their fellow-Israelites.
It demonstrated that Yahweh frowned on greed, on the practise of adding field to
field and building up large estates for themselves (Isaiah 5:8), while the principles
with regard to creditors (compare also Deuteronomy 15:1-2), and bondservice, were
no doubt also carried through, at least to some extent, to the advantage of all in the
areas where they were practised. The years of first enthusiasm and struggle would
be the very time when such principles would carried through. Dogmatism is ruled
out, however, for we actually know very little about the behaviour of the tribes from
this point of view in the period of Joshua and Judges.
So these provisions of the year of Yubile could well have been put into practise in
certain areas, possibly even over hundreds of years, without our being aware of it,
even though the organisation and application of it nationally in the land as a whole
would probably have been a feat beyond the tribes in periods when they were
splintered, or some were subject to foreign rule. Thus its ideal fulfilment would have
been restricted due to the circumstances of the time and the continued presence in
the land of non-Israelites in large numbers. But that is not to say that no attempt
was made to carry it out in some parts, especially in that part first captured in the
highlands and in Transjordan.
For we should note how the Book of Ruth gives us glimpses of practises connected
with this legislation in the action of the Kinsman Redeemer (Ruth 2:20; Ruth 3:4;
Ruth 3:9; Ruth 3:13; Ruth 4:3-14), even though it is only brief. And the story of
Naboth and his vineyard illustrates how, even in the kingdom which had split off,
the rights of a man to his family land were seen as a sacrosanct to a king brought up
61

62. on God’s laws (1 Kings 21:3-4). That incident also, however, illustrated how foreign
ideas of kingship were gradually altering those rights (1 Kings 21:7). Thus if we had
we other similar literature we might get a different picture.
The ideal kingship was intended to carry this idea on. It looked forward to the
future Kingly Rule of God. But once the idea of kingship based on the ideas of
surrounding countries took over, with its great demands, its taxes, and its need to
reward favourites, the large scale fulfilment would become almost an impossibility,
and totally unacceptable to the nobles and princes who began wanting more for
themselves (thus Isaiah 5:8). The kingdom of God was rejected by the desire for the
kingdom of this world. Although some have traced the effects of similar provisions
in the kingships of the reforming kings such as Hezekiah and Josiah.
Certainly Ezekiel saw the future in terms of it, and stressed that the true Prince to
come would not break this law and thrust people out of the land of their inheritance.
‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh, “If the prince gives a gift to any of his sons, it is his
inheritance, it shall belong to his sons. But if he gives a gift from his inheritance to
one of his servants, it shall be his until the year of liberty; then it shall return to the
prince . But as for his inheritance, it shall be for his sons. Moreover the prince shall
not take from the people’s inheritance, thrusting them out of their possession; he
shall give his sons inheritance from his own possession so that My people shall not
be scattered, every man from his possession”’ (Ezekiel 46:16-18).
So the year of Yubile and what lay behind it was Israel’s equivalent of the coming
Kingly Rule of God and the everlasting Messianic kingdom put in terms appreciated
by an agricultural community.
The Timing and Purpose of the Year of Yubile (Leviticus 25:8-19).
The year of Yubile was not just a year like any other year calendarwise. It
commenced not on the first of the first month, Abib (Exodus 12:2) but on the tenth
of the seventh month, the Day of Atonement. While then, coming at the end of forty
nine years, it could be described as ‘the fiftieth’, it was not actually a year like any
other year. It was overlapped on one side by the forty ninth year, and on the other
by the first year of the new series. We must not tie the ancients down to our strict
ideas of calendars.
Leviticus 25:8
“And you shall number seven sabbaths of years to you, seven times seven years; and
there shall be to you the days of seven sabbaths of years, even forty and nine years.”
The principle was that after seven consecutive sabbatical years (each ending a seven
year period) there would come the ‘fiftieth’ year which should be the year of Yubile,
the year of grand release.
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63. WHEDON, “ 8. Seven sabbaths of years — The jubilee occurred immediately after
the seventh sabbatical year. Hence, as will be seen in Leviticus 25:11, there were two
successive years in which the land kept a sabbath. Ewald and others quote Isaiah
37:30 in proof of the jubilee succeeding the sabbath year, from which reference
Gesenius dissents.
Verses 8-55
THE YEAR OF JUBILEE, Leviticus 25:8-55.
Twice in each century occurred a year of renewal and restoration, in which all lands
which had been alienated reverted to the families of those to whom they had been
originally allotted by Joshua; all bondmen of Hebrew blood were liberated, and,
according to Josephus, all debts due from one Israelite to another were remitted, as
were all debts due from one Israelite to another in the sabbatical year,
(Deuteronomy 15:1-2,) an item omitted in the full account of the jubilee by Philo,
and positively negatived by Maimonides and the Mishna, though the reference of
the latter to the jubilee is denied by Kitto’s Cyclopaedia. There were no special
sacrifices appointed, nor even the reading of the law to the people, as in the
sabbatical year. It is impossible for us to conceive the general outburst of joy that
gladdened all the land when the bondmen tasted again the sweets of liberty, and
returned to their ancestral possessions, their families, and the graves of their sires.
“In vain would sleep invite them to repose — their hearts would be too full to feel
the lassitude of nature; and the night would be spent in gratitude and praise. What
a lively emblem of the Gospel of Christ, which is peculiarly addressed to the
poor!” — Bush. There is no mention of the jubilee in the book of Deuteronomy, and
the only other reference to it in the Pentateuch is quite incidental, in the appeal of
the tribe of Manasseh for some legal enactment against the alienation of their lands
by heiresses marrying out of their tribe. Numbers 36:4.
9 Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on
the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of
Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your
land.
BARNES, "Lev_25:9
63

64. Cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound - Rather, cause the sound of the cornet
to go through (the land). The word jubile does not occur in this verse in the Hebrew. The
trumpet is the shofar ‫שׁפר‬ shôphār, i. e. the cornet (rendered “shawm” in the Prayer-
Book version of Psa_98:7), either the horn of some animal or a tube of metal shaped like
one. As the sound of the cornet (see Lev_25:10 note) was the signal of the descent of
Yahweh when He came down upon Sinai to take Israel into covenant with Himself Exo_
19:13, Exo_19:16, Exo_19:19; Exo_20:18, so the same sound announced, at the close of
the great day of atonement, after the Evening sacrifice, the year which restored each
Israelite to the freedom and the blessings of the covenant.
GILL, "Then shall thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound,.... At the
end of forty nine years, or at the beginning of the fiftieth; or "the trumpet of a loud
sound"; for here the word "jubilee" is not, which, according to some, was so called from
the peculiar sound of the trumpet on this day, different from all others; though others,
as Ben Melech, think, and the Jews commonly, that it had its name from the trumpet
itself, which they suppose was made of a ram's horn, "jobel", in the Arabic language,
signifying a ram; but the former reason is best; though perhaps it is best of all to derive
it from ‫,הוביל‬ "to bring back, restore, return", because at this time men were returned to
their liberty, estates, and families, as hereafter expressed:
on the tenth day of the seventh month; the month Tisri or September, the first day
of which was the beginning of the year for "jubilees" (s); for the computation of the
jubilee year was made from the first day of the month, though the trumpet was not
blown, and the rights of the year did not begin till the tenth, as Maimonides (t) observes:
in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all
your land; which day of atonement was on the tenth day of the said month, and a very
proper time it was to sound the trumpet, that after they had been afflicting themselves,
then to have joy and comfort; and when atonement was made for all their sins, then to
hear the joyful sound; and when it might be presumed they were in a good disposition to
release their servants, and restore the poor to their possessions, when they themselves
were favoured with the forgiveness of all their sins. This sounding was made throughout
all the land of Israel; throughout all the highways, as Aben Ezra, that all might know the
year of jubilee was come; and this was done by the order of the sanhedrim, as
Maimonides (u) says, and who, also observes, that from the beginning of the year, to the
day of atonement, servants were not released to their own houses, but did not serve their
masters, nor were fields returned to their owners; but servants ate, and drank, and
rejoiced, and wore garlands on their heads; and when the day of atonement came, the
sanhedrim blew the trumpet, and the servants were dismissed to their houses, and fields
returned to their owners.
COKE, “Leviticus 25:9. On the tenth day of the seventh month— Calmet observes
from Maimonides, that "though the jubilee year began on the first day of the month
Tizri, or September, yet neither were the slaves restored to liberty, nor the lands
returned to their first owners, till the tenth day of that month. The nine first days
were spent in pleasure and festivity, [which, it is to be feared, became too soon,]
almost like that of the Romans in their saturnalia, [instead of the exercises of true
devotion.] During these nine days the slaves did not work for their masters, but ate
64

65. and drank, &c. and every one put a crown upon his head. No sooner was the day of
solemn expiation come, which is the tenth of Tizri, but the counsellors of the
Sanhedrim ordered the trumpets to sound; and at that instant the slaves were
declared free, and the lands returned to their old owners." Note; Though civil
liberty is precious, how much more to be prized is the liberty of the Gospel—a
liberty which leads to no excess, which gives us the victory over ourselves, and ends
in the eternal enjoyment of the Sovereign Good!
ELLICOTT, “ (9) Cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound.—Better, cause the blast
of the cornet to sound; literally, cause to resound the cornet of loud sound.
According to the authorities during the second Temple, the cornets used on this
occasion, like those of the Feast of Trumpets or New Year, were of rams’ horns, they
were straight, and had their mouth-piece covered with gold.
In the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound.—Better, In the day of
atonement shall ye cause the cornet to sound. On the close of the great Day of
Atonement, when the Hebrews realised that they had peace of mind, that their
heavenly Father had annulled their sins, and that they had become reunited to Him
through His forgiving mercy, every Israelite was called upon to proclaim
throughout the land, by nine blasts of the cornet, that he too had given the soil rest,
that he had freed every encumbered family estate, and that he had given liberty to
every slave, who was now to rejoin his kindred. Inasmuch as God has forgiven his
debts, he also is to forgive his debtors.TRAPP, “Leviticus 25:9 Then shalt thou cause
the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth [day] of the seventh month, in the
day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.
Ver. 9. In the day of atonement.] Here began the jubilee: this feast was founded in a
fast. "They that sow in tears, shall reap in joy": neither is there any such comfort as
theirs that have soundly soaked themselves in godly sorrow. Pardon of sin is the
only foundation of all jubilees: and when God hath pardoned us, our hearts are in
fittest frame to pardon others.
PETT, “Leviticus 25:9
“Then shall you send abroad the loud ram’s horn on the tenth day of the seventh
month; in the day of atonement shall you send abroad the ram’s horn throughout all
your land.”
And on the Day of Atonement of that forty ninth year the rams’ horn (shophar)
should sound throughout the land and the year of grand release would begin. The
forty ninth year would already be a sabbatical year, and therefore a year of solemn
thought, thus the solemn Day of Atonement was a good day for commencing the
activities of the year of grand release. First Israel could rid itself of its burden of sin,
and then it could set about remedying the commercial and agricultural situation for
all ‘true-born’ Israelites. All would be restored to the visualised perfect beginning
once the land was subjugated and divided among all Israel.
65

66. WHEDON, “ 9. Cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound — Literally, thou shalt
cause a horn of loud clangor to pass through the land: R.V., “Send abroad the loud
trumpet.” The trumpets used in the proclamation of the jubilee appear to have been
curved horns, not the long, straight trumpets represented on the arch of Titus, (see
illustration, Numbers 4:7, note,) and which, according to Hengstenberg, are the only
ones represented in Egyptian sculptures and paintings. See Joshua 6:4, note.
Day of atonement — See chap. 16. It does not seem likely that this great fast was
disturbed by the joyful sound which, probably, burst forth in the afternoon when
the high priest had concluded the solemn services of atonement. This view gives a
deep significance to the jubilee, as a type of that era of gospel grace which follows
the propitiatory death of the Lamb of God, the great sin offering. To avoid the
incongruity of the jubilee and the great national fast on the same day, Hupfield
would emend the text, so as to make the jubilee occur ten days earlier, at the feast of
trumpets. See chap. xxiii, 24, note. According to Maimonides the interval of eight
days between the feast of trumpets and the jubilee was a sort of saturnalia or
carnival to all servants. On the tenth day the great Sanhedrin directed the trumpets
to be sounded, and at that instant the bondmen became free and the lands reverted
to their original owners.
All your land — We are not to suppose that one trumpet passed from place to place,
sounding through all the land, but many trumpets were simultaneously sounded by
the priests in all their cities, in accordance with Numbers 10:8. All the Jewish
writers assert that trumpets were sounded extensively all over the land — in the
mountains, in the streets, and at nearly every door — when the signal was given by
the proper authorities, called the “House of Judgment,” or the Great Sanhedrin.
The design was to reach the ear of every Hebrew who had alienated his inheritance
or divested himself of liberty.
10 Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim
liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants.
It shall be a jubilee for you; each of you is to
return to your family property and to your own
clan.
66

67. BARNES, "Lev_25:10
The fiftieth year - The Jubilee probably coincided with each seventh sabbatical year,
and was called the fiftieth, as being the last of a series of which the first was the
preceding Jubilee.
A jubile - Commonly spelled jubilee. The original word first occurs in Exo_19:13,
where it is rendered “trumpet,” margin “cornet.” It most probably denotes the sound of
the cornet, not the cornet itself, and is derived from a root, signifying to flow abundantly,
which by a familiar metaphor might be applied to sound.
GILL, "And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year,.... The year following the seven
sabbaths of years, or forty nine years; and which they were to sanctify by separating it
from all others, and devoting it to the uses it was to be put to, and the services done on
it, and by abstaining from the tillage of the land, sowing or reaping, and from the
cultivation of vines, olives, &c.
and proclaim liberty throughout all the land; to servants, both to those whose
ears were bored, and were to serve for ever, even unto the year of jubilee, and then be
released; and to those whose six years were not ended, from the time that they were
bought; for the jubilee year put an end to their servitude, let the time they had served be
what it would; for this year was a general release of servants, excepting bondmen and
bondmaids, who were never discharged; hence called the "year of liberty", Eze_46:17;
and Josephus (w) says, the word "jobel" or "jubilee" signifies "liberty":
unto all the inhabitants thereof; that were in servitude or poverty, excepting the
above mentioned; from hence the Jews gather, than when the tribes of Reuben and Gad,
and the half tribe of Manasseh, went into captivity, the jubilees ceased (x), since all the
inhabitants were not then in it; but that is a mistake, for the jubilees were continued
unto the coming of the Messiah, and perhaps never omitted but once, in the time of the
Babylonish captivity:
it shall be a jubilee unto you; to the Israelites, and to them only, as Aben Ezra
observes; it was a time of joy and gladness to them, especially to servants, who were now
free, and to the poor, who enjoyed their estates again:
and ye shall return every man unto his possession; which had been sold or
mortgaged to another, but now reverted to its original owner:
and ye shall return every man unto his family; who through poverty had sold
himself for a servant, and had lived in another family. The general design of this law was
to preserve the rights of freeborn Israelites, as to person and property, to prevent
perpetual servitude, and perpetual alienation of their estates; to continue families and
estates as they were originally, that some might not become too rich, and others too
poor; nor be blended, but the tribes and families might be kept distinct until the coming
of the Messiah, to whom the jubilee had a particular respect, and in whom it ceased. The
liberty proclaimed on this day was typical of that liberty from the bondage of sin, Satan,
and the law, which Christ is the author of, and is proclaimed by him in the Gospel, Gal_
5:1; a liberty of grace and glory, or the glorious liberty of the children of God: returning
to possessions and inheritances may be an emblem of the enjoyment of the heavenly
67

68. inheritance by the saints; though man by sin lost an earthly paradise, and came short of
the glory of God, yet through Christ his people are restored to a better inheritance, an
incorruptible one; to which they are begotten by his Spirit, have a right to it through his
righteousness, and a meetness for it by his grace, and of which the Holy Spirit is the
earnest and pledge, and into which Christ himself will introduce them. And the
returning of them to their families may signify the return of God's elect through Christ to
the family that is named of him; these were secretly of the family of God from all
eternity, being taken into it in the covenant of grace, as well as predestinated to the
adoption of children: but by the fall, and through a state of nature by it, they became
children of wrath, even as others; yet through redemption by Christ, and faith in him,
they receive the adoption of children, and openly appear to be of the family of God, 2Co_
6:18; and all this is proclaimed by the sound of the Gospel trumpet, which being a sound
of liberty, peace, pardon, righteousness, salvation, and eternal life by Christ, is a joyful
one, Psa_89:15; where the allusion seems to be to the jubilee trumpet.
HENRY 10-13, “ The property which every man had in his dividend of the land of
Canaan could not be alienated any longer than till the year of jubilee, and then he or his
should return to it, and have a title to it as undisputed, and the possession of it as
undisturbed, as ever (Lev_25:10, Lev_25:13): “You shall return every man to his
possession; so that if a man had sold or mortgaged his estate, or any part of it, it should
then return to him or his heirs, free of all charge and encumbrance. Now this was no
wrong to the purchaser, because the year of jubilee was fixed, and every man knew when
it would come, and made his bargain accordingly. By our law indeed, if lands be granted
to a man and his heirs, upon condition that he should never sell or alienate them, the
grant is good, but the condition is void and repugnant: Iniquum est ingenuis hominibus
(say the lawyers) non esse liberam rerum suarum alienationem - It is unjust to prevent
free men from alienating their own possessions. Yet it is agreed in the books that if the
king grant lands to a man in fee upon condition he shall not alienate, the condition is
good. Now God would show his people Israel that their land was his, and they were his
tenants; and therefore he ties them up that they shall not have power to sell, but only to
make leases for any term of years, not going beyond the next jubilee. By this means it
was provided, [1.] That their genealogies should be carefully preserved, which would be
of use for clearing our Saviour's pedigree. [2.] That the distinction of tribes should be
kept up; for, though a man might purchase lands in another tribe, yet he could not retain
them longer than till the year of jubilee, and then they would revert of course. [3.] That
none should grow exorbitantly rich, by laying house to house, and field to field (Isa_5:8),
but should rather apply themselves to the cultivating of what they had than the enlarging
of their possessions. The wisdom of the Roman commonwealth sometimes provided that
no man should be master of above 500 acres. [4.] That no family should be sunk and
ruined, and condemned to perpetual poverty. This particular care God took for the
support of the honour of that people, and the preserving, not only of that good land to
the nation in general, but of every man's share to his family in particular, for a perpetual
inheritance, that it might the better typify that good part which shall never be taken
away from those that have it.
(2.) The liberty which every man was born to, if it were sold or forfeited, should
likewise return at the year of jubilee: You shall return every man to his family, Lev_
25:10. Those that were sold into other families thereby became strangers to their own;
but in this year of redemption they were to return. This was typical of our redemption by
68

69. Christ from the slavery of sin and Satan, and our restoration to the glorious liberty of the
children of God. Some compute that the very year in which Christ died was a year of
jubilee, and the last that ever was kept. But, however that be, we are sure it is the Son
that makes us free, and then we are free indeed.
K&D, "Lev_25:10
The words, “Ye shall proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants
thereof,” are more closely defined by the two clauses commencing with ‫יא‬ ִ‫ה‬ ‫ל‬ ֵ‫ב‬ ‫י‬ in Lev_
25:10 and Lev_25:11. “A trumpet-blast shall it be to you, that ye return every one to his
own possession, and every one to his family:” a still further explanation is given in Lev_
25:23-34 and 39-55. This was to be the fruit or effect of the blast, i.e., of the year
commencing with the blast, and hence the year was called “the year of liberty,” or free
year, in Eze_46:17. ‫ל‬ ֵ‫ב‬ ‫,י‬ from ‫ל‬ ַ‫ָב‬‫י‬ to flow with a rushing noise, does not mean jubilation
or the time of jubilation (Ges., Kn., and others); but wherever it is not applied to the year
of jubilee, it signifies only the loud blast of a trumpet (Exo_19:13; Jos_6:5). This
meaning also applies here in Lev_25:10, Lev_25:11 and Lev_25:12; whilst in Lev_25:15,
Lev_25:28, Lev_25:30, Lev_25:31, Lev_25:33, Lev_27:18, and Num_36:4, it is used as
an abbreviated expression for ‫ל‬ ֵ‫ב‬ ‫י‬ ‫ַת‬‫נ‬ ְ‫,שׁ‬ the year of the trumpet-blast.
COKE, “Verse 10
Leviticus 25:10. Ye shall hallow the fiftieth year— i.e. Ye shall distinguish it from all
other years in the manner here appointed. The Hebrew is, the year of the fiftieth
year, which may either signify the year preceding the fiftieth year, or the fiftieth
year; a round number for 49. Calculators also should remember the great difference
between the commencement of the Jewish ecclesiastical and civil year. This and the
11th verse plainly prove what we have observed in a former note, that the year of
jubilee was only a more solemn sabbatical year. There is no mention of the jubilees,
but while the twelve tribes were in possession of the land of Canaan: the Talmudists
pretend that they ceased when the tribes of Gad, Reuben, and the half tribe of
Manasseh were carried into captivity; and they are not at all mentioned under the
second temple, though the sabbatical years continued still to be observed. Some
learned men have attempted to prove, by a calculation which appears pretty exact,
that if the Jews had still observed their jubilees, the fifteenth year of Tiberius, when
John the Baptist first began to preach, would have been a jubilee, and consequently
the last; since fifty years after that the Jewish commonwealth was no longer in
being. This particular is of some consequence in our disputes with the Jews, who
pretend that the Son of David will come during the last jubilee: and this also exactly
agrees with the design of the Gospel, and the end of John the Baptist's coming;
which was to proclaim the grand jubilee, the spiritual freedom of the children of
God, foretold by Zechariah 9:14 and prefigured by the jubilees of the Jews. See
Lamy Appar. chron. p. 142 and L'Enfant, &c. With respect to the chronological
disputes concerning the aera of the first jubilee, we take not upon us to determine
any thing: following Bishop Usher, we refer to his annals, and to the other writers
who have treated on the subject.
69

70. Ye shall return every man unto his possession, and—unto his family— This law,
which may be called the Agrarian law of the Jews, was so famous, that the heathens
themselves took notice of it; insomuch, that Diodorus Siculus says, lib. 11: that it
was not lawful for the Jews to sell their own inheritances, i.e. to alienate them for
ever from their families. Jameson well observes, that as Moses revived several of the
ancient and primitive institutions of the patriarchs, so this appointment of restoring
all slaves to their liberty, after a certain term of years, seems to have been one.
Considering that all mankind are free by nature, it is highly probable that it was an
original institution in the first laws of nations, that no person should absolutely lose
his freedom. Many of the ancient heathen writers intimate, that there was such an
appointment in the days of Saturn; and in commemoration of this original state of
freedom, the Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, and others, celebrated
annually a sort of saturnalia, wherein all slaves for a time enjoyed their freedom.
ELLICOTT, “Verse 10
(10) And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year.—Because it is here said “Ye shall hallow
the fiftieth year,” the authorities during the second Temple inferred that the good
work of the jubile is to begin with the first day of Tishri, which is the beginning of
the year, and which ought to be hallowed. Hence as new year was with the Hebrews
the preparation for the Day of Atonement, so it also became the prelude to the acts
of mercy which finally came into operation on the Day of Atonement. They
therefore began counting the cycle of the jubile from the first of Tishri, or new year,
though they proclaimed it on the tenth, or on the close of the Day of Atonement. In
accordance with this the authorities during the second Temple record that “from
the Feast of Trumpets [i.e., Tishri 1] till the Day of Atonement [i.e., Tishri 10], the
slaves were neither manumitted to return to their homes, nor were made use of by
their masters, but ate, drank, rejoiced, and wore garlands; and when the Day of
Atonement came the judges blew the cornet, the slaves were manumitted to return
to their homes, and the fields were set free.”
And proclaim liberty . . . unto all the inhabitants—That is, to all the Israelites, who
are the true possessors of the land. Hence the ancient authorities conclude that the
law of jubile was only in force as long as the whole Jewish nation dwelt in the land,
but not after the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh, were
carried into captivity by Pul and Tilgath-Pilneser kings of Assyria (1 Chronicles
5:26), because “all the inhabitants” of the land dwelt no longer in it. It is from this
declaration to proclaim liberty that the year of jubile is also called “the year of
freedom” (Ezekiel 46:17).
It shall be a jubile.—This is an abbreviation of the fuller form, “a year of jubile,”
used in the other passages of this chapter (see Leviticus 25:13; Leviticus 25:28;
Leviticus 25:40; Leviticus 25:50; Leviticus 25:52; Leviticus 25:54), and denotes “a
year proclaimed by the blast of the horn,” since the word yôbel signifies both ram’s
horn and the sound emitted from it.
70

71. And ye shall return every man.—See Leviticus 25:14-16; Leviticus 25:23-28.
Every man unto his family.—See Leviticus 25:39-40.
TRAPP, “Leviticus 25:10 And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty
throughout [all] the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto
you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every
man unto his family.
Ver. 10. And proclaim liberty.] See this expounded by the prophet Isaiah. [Isaiah
61:1-2 Luke 4:21] A most joyful jubilee indeed. In the year of Christ, 1617, the Pope
proclaimed a jubilee for the peace of Italy and Austria. The Protestants also of
Germany did the like, in honour of God, and for joy of the Reformation begun by
Luther in Germany, a just (a) hundred of years before.
PETT, “Leviticus 25:10
“And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to
all its inhabitants. It shall be a yubile to you. And you shall return every man to his
possession, and you shall return every man to his family.”
It was to be a hallowed year, a year set apart to the glory of Yahweh, a year when
Israelite bondservants would gain their release, and all agricultural land and village
property would revert to its original owners.
WHEDON, “Verse 10
10. The fiftieth year was to be set apart for specific purposes, to be not only a year of
rest but of release and restoration. To obviate the difficulty of two successive years
of rest for the soil and idleness for the people, much ingenuity has been exhibited in
trying to prove that the fiftieth means the forty-ninth! We prefer to let a clear,
unequivocal statement, involving no inconsistency nor physical impossibility, stand
as written by Moses. Thus the jubilee was strictly a pentecostal year, holding the
same relation to the preceding seven sabbatical years as the pentecost day did to the
seven sabbath days; substantially the same formula is used in each case. See
Leviticus 23:15-16.
Proclaim liberty… unto all — Not to all Hebrews only, but “to all sitting in her,”
that is, in the land. The only exception may have been those sold for theft, but even
this class is not excepted in the law. See concluding note, (2.)
Jubilee — The term yobhel, primarily signifies a ram or ram’s horn, and
secondarily, a cry of joy, as if from the verb yabhel, to shout joyfully. Others derive
it from the causative form of the same verb, with the signification to make go, hence,
71

72. to restore. We cannot speak with certainty on this obscure question. See Joshua 6:4,
note.
His possession — The land originally allotted to his ancestor by Joshua and the land
commission. See Numbers 34:17-28; Joshua 14:1, notes.
His family — From this he may have been separated either by selling himself, on
account of poverty, (Leviticus 25:39; Leviticus 25:47,) or by being sold by judicial
decree to compensate for a theft. Exodus 22:2-3.
11 The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do
not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or
harvest the untended vines.
CLARKE, "A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be - The literal meaning of the word
jubilee, ‫יובל‬ yobel in Hebrew, and ‫יוביל‬ yobil in the Samaritan, has not been well
ascertained. Josephus and the rabbins have caused many to err; the former says the
word signifies liberty; Ελευθεριαν δε σημαινει τουνομα, Antiq., l. 3, cap. 12, edit.
Haverc., vol. 1, p. 184; but the word liberty signifies rather the intention of the
institution, than the meaning of the Hebrew term. The rabbins say it signifies a ram’s
horn, because the trumpets which were used in proclaiming this solemnity were made
out of ram’s horns. This meaning is adopted in a few places in our translation, but none
of the ancient versions acknowledge this sense of the term, the Chaldee excepted. Some
derive it from ‫יבל‬ yabal, to bring, carry away, because the Israelites at this time carried
away the right of repossessing their inheritances which had been forfeited or alienated.
The most natural derivation is from ‫הוביל‬ hobil, to cause to bring back, or recall,
because estates, etc., which had been alienated, were then brought back to their
primitive owners. This was a wise and excellent institution, but appears to have been
little regarded by the Jews after the Babylonish captivity. Indeed, it is not mentioned
under the second temple, and the observance must have ceased among the Jews when
they were brought under a foreign yoke. 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 favor 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, Isa_
26:13, and particularly Isa_61:1-3.
72

73. 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, 1Co_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 labors, 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 Lev_25:9.
GILL, "A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you,.... Which, clearly shows,
that not the forty ninth year was the year of jubilee, as many learned men have asserted,
chiefly induced by this reason, because two years would come together in which were no
sowing reaping; but that God, that could cause the earth to forth fruit for three years,
Lev_25:21; could make it bring forth enough for four years; and in order to make their
sentiment agree with this passage, they are obliged to make the foregoing jubilee one of
the fifty, and begin their account from thence; but this could not be done in the first
account of the jubilee; of the name; see Gill on Lev_25:9,
ye shall not sow; in the year of jubilee, which shows also that this could not be the
forty ninth year, which of course being a sabbatical year, there would be no sowing,
reaping, &c. and so this law or instruction would be quite needless:
neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of
thy vine undressed; as in the sabbatical year; see Gill on Lev_25:5; the same with
respect to these things being to be observed in the year of jubilee, as in that; and so
Jarchi observes that the same that is said of the sabbatical year is said of the jubilee, two
holy years being found next to one another, the forty ninth year the sabbatical year, and
the fiftieth year the jubilee.
K&D, "Lev_25:11-12
The other effect of the fiftieth year proclaimed with the trumpet-blast consisted in the
fact that the Israelites were not to sow or reap, just as in the sabbatical year (see Lev_
25:4, Lev_25:5). “For it is ‫ל‬ ֵ‫ב‬ ‫”,י‬ i.e., not “jubilation or time of jubilation,” but “the time
or year of the trumpet-blast, it shall be holy to you,” i.e., a sabbatical time, which is to be
holy to you like the day of the trumpet-blast (Lev_25:23, Lev_25:24).
Leviticus 25:13-34
One of the effects of the year of freedom is mentioned here, viz., the return of every
man to his own possession; and the way is prepared for it by a warning against
overreaching in the sale of land, and the assignment of a reason for this.
ELLICOTT, “ (11) A jubile shall that fiftieth year be unto you.—According to the
unanimous testimony of the authorities during the second Temple, including Philo
73

74. (ii. 287-290) and Josephus (Antt. iii. 12, § 3), the jubile was observed every fiftieth
year, as is plainly enjoined both in the verse before us and in Leviticus 25:10. As the
forty-ninth year is the sabbatical year and the fiftieth year the jubile, there were two
successive fallow years.
Ye shall not sow.—As the fiftieth year is jubile, and partakes of the nature of the
sabbatical year, sowing and reaping are forbidden.
Neither reap that which groweth of itself in it.—That is, the spontaneous growth of
this year is not to be made into a regular harvest and stored up. (See Leviticus 25:5.)
Vine undressed.—See Leviticus 25:5.
TRAPP, “Leviticus 25:11 A jubile shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not
sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather [the grapes] in it of
thy vine undressed.
Ver. 11. A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be.] Or, That jubilee shall be unto you the
year of fifty years. This first Mosaical jubilee was in 1396 BC.
PETT, “Leviticus 25:11
“A yubile shall that fiftieth year be to you: you shall not sow, nor reap that which
grows of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of the undressed vines.”
It was to be like the sabbatical years in that the land was to be left fallow, and in it
no sowing, reaping or organised gathering of grapes was to take place. Instead all
that was in the fields and the vineyards would be open for anyone who wanted it. all
could gather to their hearts content, for the produce that year was Yahweh’s.
WHEDON, “Verse 11
11. Ye shall not sow, neither reap — This prohibition makes the fiftieth year
sabbatic, like the forty-ninth: the land being untilled two successive years. The
sustenance of the people in this case is provided for by the threefold productiveness
of the last secular year. See Leviticus 25:21.
Nor gather the grapes — It is probable that this applied only to the fields, and not to
the gardens attached to the houses.
12 For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat
only what is taken directly from the fields.
74

75. GILL, "For it is the jubilee, it shall be holy,.... Men being restored to their liberty,
possessions, and families, it must be matter of joy to them, and therefore this year was to
be separated from all others, and devoted to the ends and uses before mentioned; and
men were to live upon the spontaneous productions of the earth, without any tillage of
land, or cultivation of vines, &c.
ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field; they were not to reap corn, and
gather grapes and olives, and bring them into their barns and storehouses, as in other
years; but were to go out every day into their fields, and gather for present use, and all
were common to all sorts of men, and to cattle, as in the sabbatical year; See Gill on Lev_
25:7.
JAMISON, "ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field, etc. — 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.
ELLICOTT, “(12) Ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field.—Better, Ye shall
eat its produce from the field. Because it is the jubile, which must be observed as a
sacred institution, the spontaneous produce of this year is not to be stored, but as
much of it must each time be taken direct from the field as is wanted for daily
consumption.
PETT, “Leviticus 25:12
“For it is a yubile; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat its increase out of the field.”
“For it is a yubile.” Unfortunately we do not really know what yubile means. The
term was so obscure that Joshua had to explain it in terms of the shophar, ‘the
ram’s horn of Yubile’ (Joshua 6:6-8). This demonstrates the age of the concept. It
was thus connected with the triumphal entry into the land. It comes from an unused
verbal stem which was connected with running and flowing. But whatever it
indicated it was a year of grand release of one form or another, with the releasing of
property, bondmen and debts and a period when men reverted to living off the land
without labour. It was to be very special to them. It may indicate a time of the
flowing forward of God’s purposes.
13 “‘In this Year of Jubilee everyone is to return
to their own property.
75

76. GILL, "In the year of this jubilee,.... In the beginning of it, as Aben Ezra, though
not on the first day of Tisri, but the tenth day, the day of atonement, when the trumpet
was blown:
ye shall return every man unto his possession; which is repeated from Lev_
25:10; the reason of which, the Jews say, is to include gifts, and which, according to
them, are like sales, and returned in the year of "jubilee"; that is, if a man gave his estate
in possession to another, he returned to it, in the year of jubilee, equally as if he had sold
it; and therefore they observe the same phrase is twice used by Moses, to include gifts
(y): but perhaps the truer reason is, because this was a special business done at this
time, and of great importance; the word "return" being so often used, may serve to
confirm the sense of the word "jubilee", given previously; see Gill on Lev_25:9.
JAMISON, "ye shall return every man unto his possession, etc. —
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.
COFFMAN, “"In this year of Jubilee ye shall return every man unto his possession.
And if thou sell aught unto thy neighbor, or buy of thy neighbor's hand, ye shall not
wrong one another. According to the number of years after the jubilee thou shalt
buy of thy neighbor, and according unto the number of years of the crops he shall
sell unto thee. According to the multitude of the years thou shalt increase the price
thereof, and according to the fewness of the years thou shalt diminish the price of it;
for the number of crops doth he sell unto thee. And ye shall not wrong one another;
but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am Jehovah your God."
These verses simply meant that buying or selling land applied only to the
proportionate number of crops before the sabbatical year. The most that could be
sold would be 49 crops, and after that the land with its increase reverted to the
possessor whose rights were considered unalienable.
ELLICOTT, “(14) Ye shall not oppress one another.—Better, ye shall not overreach
any man his brother. Not only does the Law provide against the poor man losing his
land for ever, but enjoins that in the temporary sales the buyer and seller are not to
take undue advantage of each other’s circumstances. Hence it was enacted that if
any one bought or sold anything for a sixth part more than its value the aggrieved
party was entitled to have the excess returned to him, and if it amounted to more
than a sixth part, the contract could be rescinded altogether. The fact that the
phrase which is here translated “one another” in the Authorised Version is varied in
76

77. the Hebrew in Leviticus 25:17, where it is likewise rendered “one another,” shows
that it is not used in this idiomatic sense, but is designed to denote fellow-brethren,
members of the same community, those who are related to each other by race and
creed, as in Exodus 32:27, Jeremiah 31:34
EBC, “THE JUBILEE AND THE LAND
Leviticus 25:13-28
"In this year of jubilee ye shall return every man unto his possession. And if thou
sell aught unto thy neighbour, or buy of thy neighbour’s hand, ye shall not wrong
one another: according to the number of years after the jubilee thou shalt buy of thy
neighbour, and according unto the number of years of the crops he shall sell unto
thee. According to the multitude of the years thou shalt increase the price thereof,
and according to the fewness of the years thou shalt diminish the price of it; for the
number of the crops doth he sell unto thee. And ye shall not wrong one another; but
thou shalt fear thy God: for I am the Lord your God. Wherefore ye shall do My
statutes, and keep My judgments and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in
safety. And the land shall yield her fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein
in safety. And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall
not sow, nor gather in our increase: then I will command My blessing upon you in
the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for the three years. And ye shall sow the
eighth year, and eat of the fruits, the old store; until the ninth year, until her fruits
come in, ye shall eat the old store. And the land shall not be sold in perpetuity; for
the land is Mine: for ye are strangers and sojourners with Me. And in all the land of
your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land. If thy brother be waxen
poor, and sell some of his possession, then shall his kinsman that is next unto him
come, and shall redeem that which his brother hath sold. And if a man have no one
to redeem it, and he be waxen rich and find sufficient to redeem it then let him
count the years of the sale thereof, and restore the overplus unto the man to whom
he sold it; and he shall return unto his possession. But if he be not able to get it back
for himself, then that which he hath sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath
bought it until the year of jubilee: and in the jubilee it shall go out, and he shall
return unto his possession."
The remainder of the chapter (Leviticus 25:13-55) deals with the practical
application of this law of the jubilee to various cases. In Leviticus 25:13-28 we have
the application of the law to the case of property in land; in Leviticus 25:29-34, to
sales of dwelling houses; and the remaining verses (Leviticus 25:35-55) deal with the
application of this law to the institution of slavery.
As regards the first matter, the transfers of right in land, these in all cases were to
be governed by the fundamental principle enounced in Leviticus 25:23 : "The land
shall not be sold in perpetuity; for the land is Mine: for ye are strangers and
sojourners with Me."
77

78. Thus in the theocracy there was no such thing as either private or communal
ownership in land. Just as in some lands today the only owner of the land is the
king, so it was in Israel; but in this case the King was Jehovah. From this it follows
evidently, that properly speaking, according to this law, there could be no such
thing in Israel as a sale or purchase of land. All that any man could buy or sell was
the right to its products, and that, again, only for a limited time; for every fiftieth
year the land was to revert to the family to whom its use had been originally
assigned. Hence the regulations (Leviticus 25:14-19) regarding such transfers of the
right to the use of the land. They are all governed by the simple and equitable
principle that the price paid for the usufruct of the land was to be exactly
proportioned to the number of years which were to elapse between the date of the
sale and the reversion of the land, which would take place in the jubilee. Thus, the
price for such transfer of right in the first year of the jubilee period would be at its
maximum, because the sale covered the right to the produce of the land for forty-
nine years; while, on the other hand, in the case of a transfer made in the forty-
eighth year, the price would have fallen to a very small amount, as only the product
of one year’s cultivation remained to be sold, and after the ensuing sabbatic year the
land would revert in the jubilee to the original holder. The command to keep in
mind this principle, and not wrong one another, is enforced (Leviticus 25:17-19) by
the injunction to do this because of the fear of God; and by the promise that if Israel
will obey this law, they shall dwell in safety, and have abundance.
In Leviticus 25:24-28, after the declaration of the fundamental law that the land
belongs only to the Lord, and that they are to regard themselves as simply His
tenants, "sojourners with Him," a second application of the law is made. First, it is
ordered that in every case, and without reference to the year of jubilee, every
landholder who through stress of poverty may be obliged to sell the usufruct of his
land shall retain the right to redeem it. Three cases are assumed. First (Leviticus
25:25), it is ordered that if the poor man have lost his land, and have a kinsman who
is able to redeem it, he shall do so. Secondly (Leviticus 25:26), if he have no such
kinsman, but himself become able to redeem it, it shall be his privilege to do so. In
both cases alike, "the overplus," i.e., the value of the land for the years still
remaining till the jubilee, for which the purchaser had paid, is to be restored to him,
and then the land reverts at once, without waiting for the jubilee, to the original
proprietor. The third case (Leviticus 25:28) is that of the poor man who has no
kinsman to buy back his landholding, and never becomes able to do so himself. In
such a case, the purchaser was to hold it until the jubilee year, when the land
reverted without compensation to the family of the poor man who had transferred
it. That this was strictly equitable is self-evident, when we remember that, according
to the law previously laid down, the purchaser had only paid for the value of the
product of the land until the jubilee year; and when he had received its produce for
that time, naturally and in strict equity his right in the land terminated.
TRAPP, “Leviticus 25:14 And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbour, or buyest
[ought] of thy neighbour’s hand, ye shall not oppress one another:
78

79. Ver. 14. Ye shall not oppress.] But proceed by that golden rule, "Whatever ye would
that men should do to you, even so do ye to them."
PETT, “Leviticus 25:13
“In this year of yubile you shall return every man to his possession.”
Repeating the contents of verse 10 in true ancient fashion he repeats that in that
year of Yubile every man was to return to his possession, that is would again receive
the land originally given to him and his family once the conquest had taken place,
the principle behind this being that that family could never totally lose its
inheritance whatever went on during the fifty year period. A black sheep in the
family could not permanently lose the family its inheritance. In the end it would
always revert to them. This repetition then leads on to an expansion to explain the
idea more fully.
14 “‘If you sell land to any of your own people or
buy land from them, do not take advantage of
each other.
BARNES, "Sell ought - i. e., any piece of ground.
Oppress one another - Rather, overreach one another. (Compare 1Sa_12:3-4).
CLARKE, "Ye shall not oppress one another - Ye shall take no advantage of
each other’s ignorance either in buying or selling; for he that buys an article at less than
it is worth, or sells one for more than it is worth, taking advantage in both cases of the
ignorance of the vender or buyer, is no better than a thief, as he actually robs his
neighbor of as much property as he has bought the article at below or sold it above its
current value.
GILL, "And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbour,.... Any estate or possession,
house or land, at any time before the year of jubilee:
or buyest ought of thy neighbour's hand; of movable goods, as the Targum of
Jonathan interprets it; and so other Jewish writers (z) restrain this to goods which are
bought by hand, and delivered from hand to hand; and so they think that fields, and
79

80. servants, which they say are like to fields, are excluded hereby; but it seems to refer to
anything saleable, and chiefly to fields and vineyards, as the following verses show;
wherefore Diodorus Siculus, as quoted by Grotius, must be mistaken, when he says, it
was not counted lawful by the Jews to sell their inheritance, unless he means for ever, so
indeed they could not:
ye shall not oppress one another; the buyer giving too little, or the seller requiring
too much; no advantage was to be taken, either of the necessity of the one, or the
ignorance of the other, but a fair bargain was to be made, and the full value given,
neither too much nor too little. The Jews by "neighbour" understand an Israelite, and
not a Gentile (a); not that there might be no buying and selling at all between Jews and
Gentiles, or that the former might oppress and defraud the latter, though not an
Israelite; but lands and inheritances might not be sold at all to Gentiles, only to
Israelites.
HENRY 14-17, “ A law upon this occasion against oppression in buying and selling of
land; neither the buyer nor the seller must overreach, Lev_25:14-17. In short, the buyer
must not give less, nor the seller take more, than the just value of the thing, considered
as necessarily returning at the year of jubilee. It must be settled what the clear yearly
value of the land was, and then how many years' purchase it was worth till the year of
jubilee. But they must reckon only the years of the fruits (Lev_25:15), and therefore
must discount for the sabbatical years. It is easy to observe that the nearer the jubilee
was the less must the value of the land be. According to the fewness of the years thou
shalt diminish the price. But we do not find it so easy practically to infer thence that the
nearer the world comes to its period the less value we should put upon the things of it:
because the time is short, and the fashion of the world passeth away, let those that buy
be as though they possessed not. One would put little value on an old house, that is
ready to drop down. All bargains ought to be made by this rule, You shall not oppress
one another, nor take advantage of one another's ignorance or necessity, but thou shalt
fear thy God. Note, The fear of God reigning in the heart would effectually restrain us
from doing any wrong to our neighbour in word or deed; for, though man be not, God is
the avenger of those that go beyond or defraud their brethren, 1Th_4:6. Perhaps
Nehemiah refers to this very law (Neh_5:15), where he tells us that he did not oppress
those he had under his power, because of the fear of God.
K&D, "Lev_25:11-12
The other effect of the fiftieth year proclaimed with the trumpet-blast consisted in the
fact that the Israelites were not to sow or reap, just as in the sabbatical year (see Lev_
25:4, Lev_25:5). “For it is ‫ל‬ ֵ‫ב‬ ‫”,י‬ i.e., not “jubilation or time of jubilation,” but “the time
or year of the trumpet-blast, it shall be holy to you,” i.e., a sabbatical time, which is to be
holy to you like the day of the trumpet-blast (Lev_25:23, Lev_25:24).
Leviticus 25:13-34
One of the effects of the year of freedom is mentioned here, viz., the return of every
man to his own possession; and the way is prepared for it by a warning against
overreaching in the sale of land, and the assignment of a reason for this.
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81. COKE, “Leviticus 25:14. Ye shall not oppress one another— This would be
rendered more properly, shall not deceive one another; for the context evidently
proves that deceit, not oppression, was here the evil guarded against. The Chaldee,
Syriac, Arabic, &c. render it deceive.
PETT, “Leviticus 25:14-16
“And if you sell aught to your neighbour, or buy of your neighbour’s hand, you
shall not wrong one another. According to the number of years after the yubile you
shall buy of your neighbour, and according to the number of years of the crops he
shall sell to you. According to the multitude of the years you shall increase its price,
and according to the fewness of the years you shall diminish its price, for the
number of the crops does he sell to you.”
Those who bought or sold property were to take this situation into account. They
must not wrong one another. The purchase/sale price must always take into account
the time left to the year of Yubile. It must be based on the amount and number of
crops which were likely to be produced from the land between the purchase/sale
date and the year of Yubile.
WHEDON, “ RULES FOR THE SALE OF LAND, Leviticus 25:14-17.
14. If thou sell aught — This relates to real estate.
Ye shall not oppress — R.V., not wrong one another. The capitalist shall not make
his brother’s necessity his opportunity to drive a sharp bargain and buy his field
“for a song,” but he shall observe the following sliding scale in reference to the
approach of the next jubilee.
15 You are to buy from your own people on the
basis of the number of years since the Jubilee.
And they are to sell to you on the basis of the
number of years left for harvesting crops.
BARNES, "The number of years of the fruits - i. e. according to the number of
harvests. The average value of a yearly crop might of course be estimated, and the
sabbatical years were to be deducted from the series.
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82. CLARKE, "According to the number of years - The purchases that were to be
made of lands were to be regulated by the number of years unelapsed of the current
jubilee. This was something like buying the unexpired term of a lease among us; the
purchase is always regulated by the number of years between the time of purchase and
the expiration of the term.
GILL, "According to the number of years after the jubilee thou shalt buy of
thy neighbour,.... That is, reckoning how many years had past since the last jubilee,
and how many there were to come to the next, and so give as many years' purchase as
were yet to come:
and according to the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee;
only care was to be taken, that as many years as were sabbatical ones, which were not
years of fruit, should be deducted out of the account by the seller; since these were years
the buyer could have no profit by the estate, and therefore it was not reasonable that
such years should be reckoned into the purchase; and hence the Jewish writers gather,
that when a man had sold his field, he could not redeem it in less than two years,
because a number of years cannot be less than two, and that if even the buyer agreed to
it, it might not be done (b).
K&D, "Lev_25:15-16
The purchase and sale were to be regulated by the number of years that had elapsed
since the year of jubilee, so that they were only to sell the produce of the yearly revenues
up to the next jubilee year, and made the price higher or lower according to the larger or
smaller number of the years.
ELLICOTT, “ (15) According to the number of years . . . thou shalt buy.—The
promised land, according to the Law, was to be divided by lot in equal parts among
the Israelites. The plot which should thus come into the possession of each family is
to be absolutely inalienable, and for ever continue to be the property of the
descendants of the original possessor. Hence it is here enacted that where a
proprietor being pressed by poverty is compelled to sell a field, it could not be
bought of him for a longer period than up to the time of the next jubile, when it
reverted to the original possessor, or to his family. In purchasing a plot of and the
purchaser is to reckon how many years had elapsed since the last jubile, since this
would show him the exact period during which he would be entitled to hold it. It
thus corresponds to what with us is buying the unexpired term of a lease.
Of thy neighbour.—From this it was deduced that the Israelite who was reduced to
poverty could only sell his land to a fellow-Israelite, but not to a Gentile.
The number of years of the fruit he shall sell.—Whilst the purchaser is to take into
consideration the number of years which the lease has still to run, the vendor has to
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83. consider how many sabbatical years there will be from the time of the sale till next
jubile, since the sale was not so much of the land as of the produce of so many years.
Hence the fallow sabbatical years are not to be included. As the plural “number of
years “is here used, the authorities during the second Temple concluded that the
vendor could not sell it for less than two productive years, exclusive of a sabbatical
year, a year of barrenness, and of the first harvest if the purchase was effected
shortly before the seventh month, with the ripe produce in the field.
TRAPP. “Leviticus 25:15 According to the number of years after the jubile thou
shalt buy of thy neighbour, [and] according unto the number of years of the fruits
he shall sell unto thee:
Ver. 15. Years of the fruits.] The land was not properly sold, but the fruits and
revenues thereof.
WHEDON, “ 15. The number of years of the fruits — The price of the usufruct of
the land, not of the fee simple, was calculated on the years of tillage, exclusive of the
years of rest, which would deprive the purchaser of a number of crops before the
jubilee. Josephus describes the terms on which the buyer resigned the field in the
year of jubilee to the original proprietor. The former produced a statement of the
value of the crops and of his expenses. If the expenses exceeded in value the income,
the balance was paid by the proprietor before the field was restored. But if the
balance was on the other side, the proprietor simply took back the field, and the
purchaser retained the profit. This arrangement would remove the objection to
permanent improvements on the part of the purchaser, while it kept estates from
deterioration.
16 When the years are many, you are to increase
the price, and when the years are few, you are to
decrease the price, because what is really being
sold to you is the number of crops.
GILL, "According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price
thereof,.... More was to be asked and required, and should be given for an estate, when,
for instance, there were thirty years to the year of jubilee, than when there were but
twenty:
83

84. and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it; if it
wanted but five, or six, or ten years unto it, then, in proportion, less was to be insisted
upon and given:
for according to the number of the years of the fruits doth he sell unto thee;
which also must be considered, how many years of tillage of land, and cultivation of
vineyards, &c. there were in the account, and how many sabbatical years to be deducted;
for only according to the number of fruit years was the estate to be valued and sold.
ELLICOTT, “ (16) According to the multitude of years . . . and according to.—
Better, in proportion to the multitude of years . . . and in proportion to, as the words
in the original here are not the same which are used in Leviticus 25:15 and at the
end of this verse, which are translated “according” in the Authorised Version.
Having laid down in the preceding verse the principles of equitable dealings both
for the purchaser and vendor, the Lawgiver, in his anxiety lest the distressed seller
should be taken advantage of, reverts again to the purchaser, who is enjoined
strictly to regulate the purchase price in proportion to the number of years the lease
of the field has still to run.
For according to the number of the years of the fruits doth he sell.—Better, for a
number of crops he selleth, that is, the vendor does not sell the land but a certain
number of harvests till the next jubile.
17 Do not take advantage of each other, but fear
your God. I am the Lord your God.
GILL, "Ye shall not therefore oppress one another,.... By over or underrating
estates:
but thou shalt fear thy God; and the fear of God being before their eyes, and on their
hearts, would preserve both buyer and seller from doing an ill thing, when it was in the
power of either, through the necessity of the one, or the ignorance of the other, see Neh_
5:15,
for I am the Lord your God; omniscient, and knows all that is done in the most
private and artful manner; and omnipotent and able to punish both, which of them
either should oppress or defraud, see 1Th_4:6.
84

85. JAMISON, "Ye shall not oppress one another, but thou shalt fear thy
God — This, which is the same as Lev_25:14, related to the sale or purchase of
possessions and the duty of paying an honest and equitable regard, on both sides, to the
limited period during which the bargain could stand. The object of the legislator was, as
far as possible, to maintain the original order of families, and an equality of condition
among the people.
K&D, "Lev_25:17-19
Overreaching and oppression God would avenge; they were therefore to fear before
Him. On the other hand, if they kept His commandments and judgments, He would take
care that they should dwell in the land in safety (secure, free from anxiety), and be
satisfied with the abundance of its produce. In this way Lev_25:18-22 fit on exceedingly
well to what precedes.
(Note: To prove that this verse is an interpolation made by the Jehovist into the
Elohistic writings, Knobel is obliged to resort to two groundless assumptions: viz.,
(1) to regard Lev_25:23 and Lev_25:24, which belong to what follows (Lev_25:25.)
and lay down the general rule respecting the possession and redemption of land, as
belonging to what precedes and connected with Lev_25:14-17; and (2) to explain
Lev_25:18-22 in the most arbitrary manner, as a supplementary clause relating to
the sabbatical year, whereas the promise that the sixth year should yield produce
enough for three years (Lev_25:21, Lev_25:22) shows as clearly as possible that they
treat of the year of jubilee together with the seventh sabbatical year which preceded
it, and in Lev_25:20 the seventh year is mentioned simply as the beginning of the
two years' Sabbath which the land was to keep without either sowing or reaping.)
ELLICOTT, “ (17) Ye shall not therefore oppress one another.—Better, And ye
shall not overreach any man his neighbour. (See Leviticus 25:14.)
But thou shalt fear thy God—who pleads the cause of the oppressed, and avenges
every injustice. (See Leviticus 19:14.
TRAPP, “Leviticus 25:17 Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt
fear thy God: for I [am] the LORD your God.
Ver. 17. But thou shalt fear thy God.] And so depart from this evil also. [Genesis
42:18] Joseph said to his brethren, who feared he would roll himself upon them,
"This do and live, for I fear God," q.d., I dare do you no hurt, though ye be fallen
into my danger. So his grandfather Isaac, seeing that he had done unwilling justice,
durst not reverse the blessing, though he had some mind to it, for God had
overawed him. [Genesis 27:33] And "ought ye not to have walked in the fear of the
Lord?" said good Nehemiah to those merciless griping usurers. [Nehemiah 5:10]
PETT, “Leviticus 25:17
“And you shall not wrong one another; but you shall fear your God: for I am
Yahweh your God.”
85

86. To wrong one another would be against the whole principle of what God was laying
down. Its purpose was for the good of all and to prevent excessive greed. In all
dealings in these matters they were therefore to fear God, remembering that He Is
Yahweh, and therefore act in accordance with all the principles that He had laid
down, remembering that they were accountable to Him.. WHEDON, “ 17. Thou
shalt fear thy God — The Hebrew religion was eminently ethical as well as
devotional; it was designed for the market and the forum, to preside over trade and
social intercourse, to restrain avarice and protect poverty. This element of Mosaism
is incorporated by Jesus Christ into his Gospel in the golden rule.
For I am the Lord — This is the perpetual watchword of the old covenant, and the
ground of its obligation.
18 “‘Follow my decrees and be careful to obey my
laws, and you will live safely in the land.
BARNES, "In safety - i. e., secure from famine, Lev_26:5; Deu_12:10.
GILL, "Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do
them,.... These and all others he enjoined; by which tenure, even obedience to all his
commands, moral, ritual, and judicial, they were to hold the land of Canaan, and their
possessions in it, which is intended in the next clause:
and ye shall dwell in the land in safety; without any fear of enemies, or of the
neighbouring nations about them seizing upon them, and distressing them; and Jarchi
observes, that it was for transgressing the sabbatical year that Israel was carried captive,
which he thinks is intimated in 2Ch_36:21; and that the seventy years' captivity in
Babylon were for the seventy sabbatical years that had been neglected.
HENRY 18-22, “Assurance given them that they should be no losers, but great
gainers, by observing these years of rest. It is promised, 1. That they should be safe: You
shall dwell in the land in safety, Lev_25:18. and again, Lev_25:19. The word signifies
both outward safety and inward security and confidence of spirit, that they should be
quiet both from evil and from the fear of evil. 2. That they should be rich: You shall eat
your fill. Note, If we be careful to do our duty, we may cheerfully trust God with our
comfort. 3. That they should not want food convenient that year in which they did
neither sow nor reap: I will command my blessing in the sixth year, and it shall bring
forth fruit for three years, Lev_25:21. This was, (1.) A standing miracle, that, whereas at
other times one year did but serve to bring in another, the productions of the sixth year
86

87. should serve to bring in the ninth. Note, The blessing of God upon our provision will
make a little go a great way, and satisfy even the poor with bread, Psa_132:15. (2.) A
lasting memorial of the manna which was given double on the sixth day for two days.
(3.) It was intended for an encouragement to all God's people, in all ages, to trust him in
the way of duty, and to cast their care upon him. There is nothing lost by faith and self-
denial in our obedience.
COFFMAN, “"Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep mine ordinances and do
them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety. And the land shall yield its fruit, and
ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety. And if ye shall say, What shall we
eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase; then I
will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit
for the three years. 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."
Despite some ambiguity here, it is clear enough that with fruits for three years
specifically promised to be "commanded" by God for Israel, there would be
sufficient for back-to-back sabbath years. There appears to be a perpetual extension
of the principle inherent in the giving of the manna, wherein a double portion was
given on the sixth day to provide for the sabbath (the seventh day) when none could
be gathered.
"It shall bring forth produce for three years ..." (Leviticus 25:21). "What human
being himself could have promised such a thing? Only God could make such a
statement, and this makes it clear that none other but God Himself could have given
Israel the Law on Mount Sinai."[13] Such a deduction is profoundly true, and it is
likewise true in the instance of our Lord Jesus Christ's having promised his faithful
followers, "There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or mother,
or father, or children, or lands, for my sake and for the gospel's sake, but he shall
receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and
mothers and children, and lands, with persecutions, and in the world to come
eternal life! (Mark 10:29-30). Only God Incarnate could have said such a thing!
"Ye shall do my statutes ..." The great factor in this whole institution was that God
was the perpetual and sole Owner of the land (all of it), and that, just as the
Canaanites had forfeited their right to it by their persistent wickedness, Israel too
was never anything but "a tenant at will" (the will of God), so long as, but not any
longer than, they were obedient to God's will. The tragic fact is evident that Israel
never understood this at all, nor do those today who still imagine themselves to be
the "Sons of Abraham" and insist upon their divine right to Palestine! An even
greater tragedy is seen in the tacit acceptance of this falsehood by certain modern
nations, including our own, who are leagued in treaties with Israel guaranteeing to
that sinful nation an ownership to which they cannot possibly be legally entitled.
Our own feeling is that unfolding history will yet rebuke and destroy that error.
COKE, “Leviticus 25:18. Ye shall dwell in the land in safety— Hebrew, boldly,
87

88. without fear. For the original word ‫בטח‬ betach, says Dr. Beaumont, signifies both
the confidence or boldness which men, who trust in God, and walk in his ways, have
within themselves; and that safety and secure estate wherein God settleth them from
danger of evil.
ELLICOTT, “ (18) Wherefore ye shall do my statutes.—Better, And ye shall do . . .
that is, the above named statutes and ordinances respecting the sabbatical year and
the jubile, which required great sacrifices.
Ye shall dwell in the land in safety.—As God is Israel’s strong tower and wall of
defence, it is by keeping His commandments that the Israelites will enjoy the
security which other nations endeavour to obtain by great labour and mighty
armies.
And the land . . . her fruit.—He, moreover, who has given Israel these statutes, also
controls the operations of nature. Hence, though the observance of His laws would
necessitate the abstention from cultivating the soil, the Lord will cause the land to
yield an abundant harvest which will richly supply all their wants, and they will
safely and quietly dwell therein without being compelled to make raids upon their
neighbours for food, or surrender themselves to their enemies for want of provision
(1 Maccabees 6:49; 1 Maccabees 6:53; Josephus, Antt. xiv. 16, § 2; xv. :1, § 2).
TRAPP, “Leviticus 25:18 Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my
judgments, and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety.
Ver. 18. Ye shall do my statutes.] Ye shall do them, and do them: that is, ye shall do
them diligently, {as Psalms 119:4} and then ye shall dwell in the land in safety; yea,
ye shall dwell there in safety: that is, ye shall assuredly; take my word for it.
PETT, “Leviticus 25:18-19
“Wherefore you shall do my statutes, and keep my ordinances and do them, and you
shall dwell in the land in safety. And the land shall yield its fruit, and you shall eat
your fill, and dwell in it in safety.”
For this was His promise. They were to do His statutes and keep His ordinances as
laid down through Moses, and He in His turn would ensure that the land yielded its
fruit, and that they could eat their fill. And it is doubly stressed that if they did these
things they would dwell in safety.
What does the year of Yubile mean to us? It is a concept. It reminds us that God’s
purposes go forward to a specific goal, a time when all will be restored and all God’s
people will receive the blessings that God has for them, when all will be put right.
Whatever the future holds we need not fear, for one day will come the glorious year
of Yubile, the year of restoration, the year of liberty. Daniel describes it in Daniel
9:24. It is a reminder of our glorious heavenly future, a future of permanence of
88

89. blessing that nothing can take away.
WHEDON, “Verses 18-22
ADDITIONAL LEGISLATION RESPECTING THE SABBATICAL YEAR,
Leviticus 25:18-22.
These verses should be read in connexion with vers. 1-7, since they chiefly relate to
the same topic. They seem to be misplaced in their present position, amid precepts
relating to the jubilee, though they are not in reality. The purport of Leviticus
25:18-19 is, that safety and temporal prosperity in the land of promise hinge on
obedience to the declared will of Jehovah.
19 Then the land will yield its fruit, and you will
eat your fill and live there in safety.
BARNES, "In safety - i. e., secure from famine, Lev_26:5; Deu_12:10.
GILL, "And the land shall yield her fruit,.... That is, continually, and even in the
seventh year, the sabbath of rest; for the land, though not manured, ploughed, and
sowed, nor the vines, olives, and fig trees pruned, yet shall yield fruit as in other years,
the Israelites observing the statutes and judgments of God:
and ye shall eat your fill; feel no want of provisions, but have fulness of everything as
at other times, and never make a scanty meal, having sufficiency and plenty of all things:
and dwell therein in safety; not fearing enemies, nor being disturbed by them, nor
carried captive.
20 You may ask, “What will we eat in the seventh
year if we do not plant or harvest our crops?”
CLARKE, "What shall we eat the seventh year? - A very natural question,
89

90. which could only be laid at rest by the sovereign promise in the next verse:
I will Command my Blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit
for Three Years. See on Lev_25:2 (note).
GILL, "And ye shall say, what shall ye eat the seventh year?.... Such as are of
little faith, disbelieve the promise, and distrust the providence of God, and take thought
for tomorrow, and indulge an anxiety of mind how they shall be provided with food in
the sabbatical year ordered to be observed, in which there were to be no tillage of land,
nor pruning of trees:
behold, we shall not sow; that being forbidden:
nor gather in our increase; neither the barley, nor the wheat, nor the grapes, nor
olives, nor figs, into their houses and barns, to lay up for stores, as in other years; though
they might go out and gather in for present use in common with others: now if any
should put the above question, as it was very likely some would, in such a view of things,
the answer to it follows.
CALVIN, "20.And if ye shall say. Men will never be obedient to God’s precepts,
unless their distrust of Him is corrected, and will be always ingenious in laying hold
of pretexts for disobedience. The difficulty, however, in this matter was a specious
excuse for the Jews; for famine might have destroyed them in these two years, since
in the seventh year they neither sowed nor reaped; and for reaping they were
obliged to wait till the end of the eighth year. Now, whence were they to get seed
enough to sow after the land had rested for a whole year? It is not without reason,
then, that God delivers them from this doubt, promising them that He will give such
abundance in the sixth year as shall suffice for the two following ones. The phrase
must be observed, that God would “command His blessing” in an especial manner,
and beyond the usual course, so that the land should be twice or thrice more fertile.
Hence is suggested to us no ordinary ground of confidence in asking for our daily
bread. But this was a special promise, that food should not fail the Jews on account
of the Sabbatical year; a manifestation of which God had already given in the
desert, when supplied a double portion of manna to those who gathered it on the
day before the Sabbath. Now-a-days this inconvenience is avoided by the industry of
farmers, who so divide their acres that the land should never lie fallow altogether,
but that one part should supply the deficiency of another. This distribution did not
obtain with the Jews. Therefore God relieved them from the fear of famine down to
the harvest of the eighth year; although He seems at the same time to accustom them
to frugality, lest they should waste in intemperance and luxury what He afforded in
sufficient abundance to last for two years. To this precept He alludes, when He
declares by the Prophets that the land “enjoyed her Sabbaths,” when it had vomited
forth its inhabitants, (2 Chronicles 36:21;) for since they had polluted it by violating
the Sabbath, so that it groaned as if under a heavy burden, He says that it shall rest
for a long continuous period, so as to compensate for the labor of many years.
90

91. COKE, “Leviticus 25:20, &c. And if ye shall say, &c.— This increase which the
Lord promises to give in the sixth year, was a continual proof to the Jews of his
regard to them, of his immediate government, and consequently of his particular
providence over them; another striking advantage of the present institution! The
supply of this sixth year was to be sufficient for three years, i.e. for the whole
seventh, the eighth when they sowed afresh, and for part of the ninth till they
reaped the fruits of the eighth year. This wise law respecting the sabbatical year,
and the year of jubilee, affords us a full proof of the divinity of the Mosaic
institution; for, had not the Jews been immediately under the divine protection and
providence, it would have been impossible for them to have observed this law.
Note; 1. They who follow God's will may safely trust him for a provision. 2. It would
be a shame to a Christian if he had less faith than a Jew, and if we should be more
afraid of wanting bread than they were. 3. With the blessing of God a little will go
far; so that, like the widow's cruse, we shall still have enough and to spare.
ELLICOTT, “ (20) What shall we eat the seventh year ?—The Lawgiver here
anticipates an objection on the part of those who are called upon to abstain from
cultivating the land in the sabbatical year, and who are overanxious about the
provisions of their families.
Behold, we shall not sow.—That is, are forbidden to sow. (See Leviticus 25:4.)
Nor gather in our increase.—That is, we are even prohibited to gather the
spontaneous growths and store them up, and are commanded to leave “the increase”
in the field. (See Leviticus 25:7.)
TRAPP, “Leviticus 25:20 And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year?
behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase:
Ver. 20. And if ye shall say.] A clear answer to a carnal objection. Usually God
conceals the objection in Scripture, and meets it with an answer, which is an act of
grace.
PETT, “Verse 20-21
The Problem Of Having A Seventh Year Without Sowing and Planting (Leviticus
25:20-21).
Leviticus 25:20-21
“And if you shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? Behold, we shall not sow,
nor gather in our increase, then I will command my blessing on you in the sixth
year, and it shall bring forth fruit for the three years.”
The first question we must raise here is as to the reference of ‘the seventh year’.
91

92. Does it signify each sabbatical year after the six years of activity, ‘the seventh year’
as described in Leviticus 25:4, or does it refer to the forty ninth year before the year
of Yubile (but which is never elsewhere thought of in terms of the seventh year)?
The view followed here is that it has in mind the sabbatical years following each six
year period, that is the ‘seventh year’ of Leviticus 25:4, the only seventh year
referred to in the passage. Thus in the whole series of forty nine years the eighth and
ninth years follow the first seventh year, and that is the first year in which the cause
for concern described here would apply. The question is thus relating to all that has
been spoken about since Leviticus 25:2.
So the question was, would the observance of the sabbatical year mean that in the
seventh year, and in each succeeding seventh year, they would have to go short? No,
God assured them, as he had multiplied the Manna on the sixth day so would He
multiply His provision so that it covered the years when there was no organised
production. As He had already given them evidence with the Manna that He was
able to do a similar thing, they had no reason to be afraid.
The need for three years was because while activity on the land would take place in
the last months of the sixth year for growth during the sabbatical year, there would
be no organised reaping to follow in the first part of the seventh year, and no sowing
was to take place within the last part of the sabbatical year, the seventh year,
because it was forbidden. Thus the first sowing would be in the eighth year (the last
part of the first year in the new series) which would produce growth in the ninth
year. This confirms that at this time the year began in the spring (Exodus 12:2).
21 I will send you such a blessing in the sixth year
that the land will yield enough for three years.
GILL, "Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year,.... Upon
their fields, vineyards, and oliveyards, and make them exceeding fruitful, more than in
other years; all fruitfulness at any time depends upon the blessing of God, and follows
upon it, but is more visible and observable when there is an exceeding great plenty:
and it shall bring forth fruit for three years; and thus God blessed the sixth year
with such a plentiful increase as was sufficient for time to come, until a new crop was
gathered in; as he had blessed the sixth day with a double portion of manna, for the
supply of the seventh.
JAMISON 21-22, “I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year,
92

93. and it shall bring forth fruit for three years, etc. — 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; Isa_37:30). None but a legislator who was
conscious of acting under divine authority would have staked his character on so
singular an enactment as that of the sabbatic year; and none but a people who had
witnessed the fulfillment of the divine promise would have been induced to suspend
their agricultural preparations on a recurrence of a periodical Jubilee.
ELLICOTT, “ (21) Then I will command my blessing. That is, He will send out His
Divine command to the soil in the sixth year that it should be a blessing to them, and
it shall be done. (See Deuteronomy 28:8; Psalms 42:8; Psalms 44:4; Psalms 68:29.)
It shall bring forth fruit for three years.—Better, it shall bring forth produce. This
special blessing will be manifested in the abundant crop of the harvest preceding the
sabbatical year. Just as at the institution of the weekly Sabbath, when God enjoined
abstention from labour, He sent down a double portion of manna every sixth day to
make up for the day of rest (Exodus 16:22-27), so He will exercise a special
providence every sixth year by blessing the soil with a treble crop to compensate for
giving the land a septennial sabbath. As the sabbatical year began the civil year,
viz., 1 Tishri, which was in the autumn or in September, the three years here spoken
of are to be distributed as follows: (1) the remainder of the sixth year after the
harvest; (2) the whole of the seventh year; and (3) the period of the eighth year till
the harvest is gathered in from the seeds sown in the eighth year. It will thus be seen
that the question anticipated in Leviticus 25:29, viz., “What shall we eat the seventh
year?” properly applies to the eighth year, since the requirements for the seventh
year are supplied by the regular harvest of the sixth year, and it is the eighth year
for which the harvest of the seventh is wanted. To meet this difficulty, one of the
most distinguished Jewish expositors of the Middle Ages translates Leviticus 25:20 :
“And if ye shall say in the seventh year ‘What shall we eat’” i.e., in the eighth year.
It may, however, be that the question expresses the anxiety which the people might
feel in eating their ordinary share in the seventh year, lest there should be nothing
left for the eighth year, since in all other years the harvest is ripening for the next
year whilst the fruits of the past year are being consumed.
TRAPP, “Leviticus 25:21 Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth
year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years.
Ver. 21. Command my blessing.] Now if God send his mandamus, who shall
gainstand it?
WHEDON, “21. Fruit for three years — The fact that three years are here provided
for instead of two, which the sabbath year required, is evidence that the jubilee
succeeds the seventh sabbath year and is not identical with it, as some suppose. No
93

94. merely human legislator would have ventured to enact a law forbidding seed sowing
from the sixth to the eighth year, and harvesting from the sixth to the ninth year,
omitting two successive harvests and thereby sinking two sevenths of the entire
national wealth. Nor would any people have received such a law except on an
unwavering faith in its divine origin. We regard obedience to this law the highest
proof of Moses’s divine legation. The evident provision here made for the year of
jubilee accounts for the apparent but not real displacement of this paragraph. We
have only two passages of Scripture where this promise is alluded to, namely, 2
Kings 19:29, Isaiah 37:30.
22 While you plant during the eighth year, you
will eat from the old crop and will continue to eat
from it until the harvest of the ninth year comes
in.
GILL, "And ye shall sow the eighth year,.... Sow the land in the eighth year, and
likewise dress their vines, olives, &c.
and eat yet of the old fruit; even in the eighth year, of the old fruit of the sixth year,
as the Targum of Jonathan adds:
until the ninth year; that is, as Jarchi explains it, until the feast of tabernacles of the
ninth, which was the time that the increase of the eighth came into the house; for all
summer it was in the field, and in Tisri or September was the time of gathering it into
the house; and sometimes it was necessary to provide for four years on the sixth, which
was before the sabbatical year, the seventh, for they ceased from tilling the ground two
years running, the seventh and the jubilee year; but this Scripture is said concerning all
the rest of the sabbatical years: these encouraging promises, one would have thought,
would have been placed more naturally after the account of the sabbatical year that
followed, Lev_25:7; but the reason of their being inserted here seems to be, because in
the year of jubilee they were neither to sow nor reap, nor gather in the grapes of the
undressed vine, as in the sabbatical year, Lev_25:11; wherefore those things are said for
encouragement at the one time as at the other; since it might easily be concluded, that he
that could provide for them every sixth year for three years to come, could once in fifty
years provide for four:
until her fruits come in, ye shall eat of the old store; some of which came in in
March, as barley, others in May, as the wheat, and others in August and September, as
the grapes, olives, &c. which was the time of ingathering several fruits of the earth, and
of finishing the whole.
94

95. K&D, "Lev_25:20-22
Jehovah would preserve them from want, without their sowing or reaping. He would
bestow His blessing upon them in the sixth year, so that it should bear the produce of
three (‫ת‬ ָ‫שׂ‬ָ‫ע‬ for ‫ה‬ ָ‫ת‬ ְ‫שׂ‬ָ‫ע‬ as in Gen_33:11); and when they sowed in the eighth year, they
should eat the produce of the old year up to the ninth year, that is to say, till the harvest
of that year. It is quite evident from Lev_25:21 and Lev_25:22, according to which the
sixth year was to produce enough for three years, and the sowing for the ninth was to
take place in the eighth, that not only the year of jubilee, but the sabbatical year also,
commenced in the autumn, when they first began to sow for the coming year; so that the
sowing was suspended from the autumn of the sixth year till the autumn of the seventh,
and even till the autumn of the eighth, whenever the jubilee year came round, in which
case both sowing and reaping were omitted for two years in succession, and
consequently the produce of the sixth year, which was harvested in the seventh month of
that year, must have sufficed for three years, not merely till the sowing in the autumn of
the eight or fiftieth year, but till the harvest of the ninth or fifty-first year, as the Talmud
and Rabbins of every age have understood the law.
ELLICOTT, “ (22) And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit.—
Better, And when ye shall sow in the eighth year, ye shall yet eat of the old produce,
that is, when at the termination of the sabbatical year the Israelites resume the
cultivation of the soil in the eighth year, the abundant crop of the sixth year—the
year preceding the sabbatical year—will not only suffice for this year, but will reach
till that part of the ninth year when the crops sown in the eighth are ripe and
gathered in. Accordingly, the sixth year’s harvest will suffice till the Feast of
Tabernacles, or till Tishri 1 of the ninth year.
Until her fruits come in.—Better, until its produce come in, that is, the produce of
the eighth year which was gathered in the ninth. Leviticus 25:20, therefore, which
states the anticipated question, and Leviticus 25:21-22, which contain the reply,
ought properly to follow immediately after Leviticus 25:7, since they meet the
difficulty arising from the rest of the land during the sabbatical year. The redactor
of Leviticus may, however, have inserted Leviticus 25:20-22 here because the
difficulty raised in them, and the reply given to the anticipated question, apply
equally to the jubile year. The special Divine interposition which is here promised to
meet the requirements of one year’s cessation from cultivating the land will, as a
matter of course, be all the more readily vouchsafed when the Israelites will have to
exercise greater obedience and faith in the jubile, and abstain two successive years
from tilling the ground.
TRAPP, “Leviticus 25:22 And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat [yet] of old fruit
until the ninth year; until her fruits come in ye shall eat [of] the old [store].
Ver. 22. Ye shall eat of the old store.] Leave that care to me, who will cause you to
have "all sufficiency in all things, that ye may abound to every good work." [2
Corinthians 9:8; 2 Corinthians 9:10]
95

96. PETT, “Verse 22
“And you shall sow the eighth year, and eat of the fruits, the old store; until the
ninth year, until its fruits come in, you shall eat the old store.”
Thus in the seventh and the eighth years they would eat ‘the old store’, that which
had been laid up in the sixth year.
Others see ‘the seventh year’ in Leviticus 25:20 as referring to the forty ninth year.
But it should be noted that the ‘fiftieth year’, the year of Yubile, does not begin at
the beginning of the year, the first day of the first month (Abib), but begins on the
tenth day of the seventh month, the Day of Atonement, and thus half way through
the year, presumably of the forty ninth year commencing on the first of Abib. It is
thus only loosely called the ‘fiftieth year’, for it is a year beginning at a different
date.
This is quite in accord with usage in those times when calendars were not strictly
worked out. But to speak then of an eighth and ninth year in terms of it would be
confusing to say the least. The first year of the new Yubile period probably began in
the fiftieth year as well, so that the ‘fiftieth year’ spanned the last part of the forty
ninth year and the first part of the following first year which began the new forty
nine year period. This would mean that sabbatical years, as we would expect by
comparison with the Sabbath, would continue to be on the seventh year as
numbered from the previous seventh year without the arrival of the ‘fiftieth year’
changing the sequence. The ‘fiftieth year’ was thus not an agricultural year, in
accord with the other years, but a year of accounting on a different basis, in which
grand release took place.
23 “‘The land must not be sold permanently,
because the land is mine and you reside in my
land as foreigners and strangers.
BARNES, "These verses express the principle on which the law of Jubilee, as it
regards the land, was based. The land belonged to Yahweh, and it was He who allotted it
among the families of Israel for their use. No estate could therefore be alienated in
perpetuity, by any human authority, from the family to whose lot it might fall.
96

97. CLARKE, "The land shall not be sold for ever - the land is mine - As God in
a miraculous manner gave them possession of this land, they were therefore to consider
themselves merely as tenants to him; and on this ground he, as the great landholder or
lord of the soil, prescribes to them all the conditions on which they shall hold it. This one
circumstance was peculiarly favorable to their advancement in religion, in righteousness,
and true holiness; for feeling that they had nothing which they could call their own upon
earth, they must frequently, by this, be put in mind of the necessity of having a
permanent dwelling in the heavenly inheritance, and of that preparation without which
it could not be possessed.
GILL, "The land shall not be sold for ever,.... That is, the land of Israel; the
meaning is, any part of it, for that the whole might be sold or disposed of at once is not
to be supposed, but anyone part of it, which was the property of a single man, or
belonged to a family; though it might be sold in case of necessity, yet not for ever, so as
never to return to the owner, or his heirs; for if it was sold for ever it returned in the year
of the jubilee: the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan render the word "absolutely",
simply, properly; a proper absolute sale was not to be made, but a conditional one, or for
so many years, or with a view to its reversion in the year of jubilee, and so the agreement
to be made according to the number of years, as before directed: the word, as Aben Ezra
observes, signifies "cutting off", and the sense is, that no land should be sold entirely, so
as that the proprietor or his heirs should be wholly cut off from it, or that the entail of it
upon the family should be cut off:
for the land is mine; as indeed the whole earth is, but the land of Canaan was
peculiarly his, which he had chosen above all other lands for the inheritance of his
people; out of which he drove the old inhabitants of it for their sins, and put in his own
people to possess it under him; where he himself had his dwelling place, and where he
was served and worshipped, and where the Messiah was to be born, and was born, and
therefore called Immanuel's land; and which was a figure of the better country, or the
heavenly glory and happiness, which is of God's preparing and giving, and will never be
alienated from those whose right it is:
for ye are strangers and sojourners with me; as the Gentiles that lived among
them were strangers and sojourners with them, so they were with the Lord; he was the
original proprietor, they were but tenants at will; though it was both an honour and
happiness to be with him, under any character, to board, and lodge, and dwell with him;
and they might well be content to be reckoned not proprietors but strangers and
sojourners, and especially such as had faith and hope in a better inheritance, of which
this was only a figure; however, this being their present case, it was a reason good, why
they could not for ever dispose of their lands and possessions, any more than a sojourner
or inmate can of a house of which he has only a part.
HENRY 23-34, “Here is, I. A law concerning the real estates of the Israelites in the
land of Canaan, and the transferring of them. 1. No land should be sold for ever from the
family to whose lot it fell in the division of the land. And the reason given is, The land is
mine, and you are strangers and sojourners with me, Lev_25:23. (1.) God having a
97

98. particular propriety in this land, he would by this restraint keep them sensible of it. The
possessions of good people, who, having given up themselves to God, have therewith
given up all they have to him, are in a particular manner at his disposal, and his disposal
of them must be submitted to. (2.) They being strangers and sojourners with him in
that land, and having his tabernacle among them, to alienate their part of that land
would be in effect to cut themselves off from their fellowship and communion with God,
of which that was a token and symbol, for which reason Naboth would rather incur the
wrath of a king than part with the inheritance of his fathers, 1Ki_21:3. 2. If a man was
constrained through poverty to sell his land for the subsistence of his family, yet, if
afterwards he was able, he might redeem it before the year of jubilee (Lev_25:24, Lev_
25:26, Lev_25:27), and the price must be settled according to the number of years since
the sale and before the jubilee. 3. If the person himself was not able to redeem it, his next
kinsman might (Lev_25:25): The redeemer thereof, he that is near unto him, shall come
and shall redeem, so it might be read. The kinsman is called Goel, the redeemer (Num_
5:8; Rth_3:9), to whom belonged the right of redeeming the land. And this typified
Christ, who assumed our nature, that he might be our kinsman, bone of our bone and
flesh of our flesh, and, being the only kinsman we have that is able to do it, to him
belonged the right of redemption. As for all our other kinsmen, their shoe must be
plucked off (Rth_4:6, Rth_4:7); they cannot redeem. But Christ can and hath redeemed
the inheritance which we by sin had forfeited and alienated, and made a new settlement
of it upon all that by faith become allied to him. We know that this Redeemer liveth,
Job_19:25. And some make this duty of the kinsman to signify the brotherly love that
should be among Christians, inclining them to recover those that are fallen, and to
restore them with the spirit of meekness. 4. If the land was not redeemed before the year
of jubilee, then it should return of course to him that had sold or mortgaged it: In the
jubilee it shall go out, Lev_25:28. This was a figure of the free grace of God towards us in
Christ, by which, and not by any price or merit of our own, we are restored to the favour
of God, and become entitled to paradise, from which our first parents, and we in them,
were expelled for disobedience. 5. A difference was made between houses in walled
cities, and lands in the country, or houses in country villages. Houses in walled cities
were more the fruits of their own industry than land in the country, which was the
immediate gift of God's bounty; and therefore, if a man sold a house in a city, he might
redeem it any time within a year after the sale, but otherwise it was confirmed to the
purchaser for ever, and should not return, no, not at the year of the jubilee, Lev_25:29,
Lev_25:30. This provision was made to encourage strangers and proselytes to come and
settle among them. Though they could not purchase land in Canaan to them and their
heirs, yet they might purchase houses in walled cities, which would be most convenient
for those who were supposed to live by trade. But country houses could be disposed of
no otherwise than as lands might. 6. A clause is added in favour of the Levites, by way of
exception from these rules. (1.) Dwelling houses in the cities of the Levites might be
redeemed at any time, and, if not redeemed, should revert in the year of jubilee (Lev_
25:32, Lev_25:33), because the Levites had no other possessions than cities and their
suburbs, and God would show that the Levites were his peculiar care; and it was for the
interest of the public that they should not be impoverished, or wormed out of their
inheritances. (2.) The fields adjoining to their cities (Num_35:4, Num_35:5) might not
be sold at any time, for they belonged, not to particular Levites, but to the city of the
Levites, as a corporation, who could not alienate without a wrong to their tribe;
therefore, if any of those fields were sold, the bargain was void, Lev_25:34. Even the
Egyptians took care to preserve the land of the priests, Gen_47:22. And there is no less
98

99. reason for the taking of the maintenance of the gospel ministry under the special
protection of Christian governments.
JAMISON 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, Lev_27:20).
K&D, "Lev_25:23-27
What was already implied in the laws relating to the purchase and sale of the year's
produce (Lev_25:15, Lev_25:16), namely, that the land could not be alienated, is here
clearly expressed; and at the same time the rule is laid down, showing how a man, who
had been compelled by poverty to sell his patrimony, was to recover possession of it by
redemption. In the first place, Lev_25:23 contains the general rule, “the land shall not be
sold ‫ת‬ ֻ‫ית‬ ִ‫מ‬ ְ‫צ‬ ִ‫”ל‬ (lit., to annihilation), i.e., so as to vanish away from, or be for ever lost to,
the seller. For “the land belongs to Jehovah:” the Israelites, to whom He would give it
(Lev_25:2), were not actual owners or full possessors, so that they could do what they
pleased with it, but “strangers and sojourners with Jehovah” in His land. Consequently
(Lev_25:24) throughout the whole of the land of their possession they were to grant
‫ה‬ָ‫לּ‬ ֻ‫א‬ְ‫גּ‬ release, redemption to the land. There were three ways in which this could be
done. The first case (Lev_25:25) was this: if a brother became poor and sold his
property, his nearest redeemer was to come and release what his brother had sold, i.e.,
buy it back from the purchaser and restore it to its former possessor. The nearest
redeemer was the relative upon whom this obligation rested according to the series
mentioned in Lev_25:48, Lev_25:49. - The second case (Lev_25:26, Lev_25:27) was
this: if any one had no redeemer, either because there were no relatives upon whom the
obligation rested, or because they were all too poor, and he had earned and acquired
sufficient to redeem it, he was to calculate the years of purchase, and return the surplus
to the man who had bought it, i.e., as much as he had paid for the years that still
remained up to the next year of jubilee, that so he might come into possession of it
again. As the purchaser had only paid the amount of the annual harvests till the next
year of jubilee, all that he could demand back was as much as he had paid for the years
that still remained.
CALVIN, "23.The land shall not be sold for ever. Since the reason for this law was
peculiar to the children of Abraham, its provisions can hardly be applied to other
nations; for so equal a partition of the land was made under Joshua, that the
inheritance was distributed amongst the several tribes and families; nay, in order
that each man’s possession should be more sacred, the land had been divided by lot,
as if God by His own hand located them in their separate stations. In fact, that
allotment was, as it were, an inviolable decree of God Himself, whereby the memory
99

100. of the covenant should be maintained, by which the inheritance of the land had been
promised to Abraham and his posterity; and thus the land of Canaan was an
earnest, or symbol, or mirror, of the adoption on which their salvation was founded.
Wherefore it is not to be wondered at that God was unwilling that this inestimable
benefit should ever be lost; and, lest this should be the case, like a provident father
of a family, He laid a restraint on His children, to prevent them from being too
prodigal; for, when a man has any suspicions of his heir, he forbids him to alienate
the patrimony he leaves him. Such, therefore, was the condition of the ancient
people; yet it cannot be indiscriminately transferred to other nations who have had
no common inheritance given them. Some vestige of it appears in the right of
redemption; (156) but, because that depends on the consent of the parties, and is
also a special mode of contract, it has nothing to do with the law of Moses, which
entirely restored both men and lands, (in the year of jubilee, (157)) That God should
call the land of Canaan His, is, as it were, to assert His direct Lordship (158)
(dominium,) as they call it, over it; as He immediately afterwards more clearly
expresses His meaning, where He says that the children of Israel sojourn in it as His
guests. (159) For although their condition was the best in which just and perpetual
owners can be placed, still, as respected God, they were but His tenants (coloni,)
only living there at His will. In fine, God claims the freehold (fundum) for Himself,
lest the recollection of tits having granted it to them should ever escape
COFFMAN, “"And the land shall not be sold in perpetuity; for the land is mine: for
ye are strangers and sojourners with me. And in all the land of your possession ye
shall grant a redemption for the land. If thy brother be waxed poor, and sell some of
his possession, then shall his kinsman that is next to him come, and shall redeem
that which his brother hath sold. And if a man have no one to redeem it, and he be
waxed rich and find sufficient to redeem it; then let him reckon the years of the sale
thereof, and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it; and he shall
return unto his possession. But if he be not able to get it back for himself, then that
which he hath sold shall remain in the hand of him that bought it until the year of
jubilee: and in the jubilee it shall go out, and he shall return unto his possession."
"The land is mine ..." All of the talk in the newspapers of our day about "Israel's
land," and the "integrity of Israel's authority" are contrary to this. Following the
rejection on the part of official Israel of their divine Messiah, the Son of God
himself, God threw them out of "their land," to which they could not return for
nearly two millenniums, and present world powers that are taking upon themselves
the authority to "Correct God's action" in this matter may yet find that neither
their authority nor their power is sufficient to the task. Yet it is an enigma that
Christ himself left a glimmer of possibility that the heel of the Gentile would be
lifted from Palestine (Jerusalem) at a point in history when the "times of the
Gentiles are fulfilled" (Luke 21:24). Mighty things are now under way in world
history.
The right of redemption, whether by kinsmen, or by one himself, was here made to
be unalienable. That failing, the year of the Jubilee still restored every man to his
100

101. possession. The spiritual overtones of this provision are of the most magnificent
dimensions. It is Christ, our near kinsman, who redeems us from sin and restores us
to our lost possession of innocence and communion with God. As a footnote in the
Polyglot Bible expressed it, "Through sin we had sold ourselves as bondmen to
Satan and to our lusts, but our near kinsman, who is Christ, redeemed us. Only He
could have done so."[14]
"Ye are strangers and sojourners with me ..." (Leviticus 25:23). This is the true
status of all men, whether or not they may be aware of it. One of Isaac Watts'
hymns has these lines:
Those dear delights we here enjoy
And fondly call our own
Are but short favors borrowed now
To be repaid anon.
"Sojourners ..." This word was rendered "pilgrims" in the N.T. (Hebrews 11:13; 1
Peter 2:11), a word which captures the precise meaning. It means literally, "one who
crosses the field," and it came into usage during the Crusades, when all across
Europe, it was nothing unusual for settled citizens to see a lonely traveler crossing a
clearing or a field on the way to the Holy Land. It came to have a very rich
connotation as referring to one who had no certain dwelling place, who had
forsaken all in pursuit of some worthy ideal. All life is ephemeral, transitory, short
and uncertain. "We are here today and gone tomorrow." All of those possessions
which would so readily possess ourselves - all of them shall be the possession of
others tomorrow. The land still belongs to God.
COKE, “Leviticus 25:23. The land shall not be sold for ever— That is, absolutely
and irredeemably: the reason of which is subjoined, because God considered himself
as the peculiar lord and proprietor of this land, and the people as his immediate
tenants and usufructuaries: which points out to us the striking peculiarity of the
Jewish state and polity; a theocracy, under which they lived not only as subjects, but
as tenants to God, their king and their lord.
ELLICOTT, “Verse 23
(23) The land shall not be sold for ever.—That is, no plot of the land of Israel must
be absolutely alienated from the original proprietor, who has been driven by
poverty to sell his patrimony. We have here a resumption of the laws relating to the
sale and purchase of land, which have already been briefly stated in Leviticus
25:14-17. Having been interrupted by the insertion of the Divine promise with
regard to the sabbatical year (Leviticus 25:20-22), the legislation now proceeds with
more directions about the limited sale of land.
101

102. For the land is mine.—The reason for this prohibition absolutely to cut off the
patrimony from the family, is that God claims to be the supreme owner of the land
(Exodus 15:17; Isaiah 14:2; Isaiah 14:25; Jeremiah 2:5; Psalms 10:16), and as the
Lord of the soil He prescribes conditions on which he allotted it to the different
tribes of Israel.
Ye are strangers and sojourners with me.—God has not only helped the Israelites to
conquer the land of Canaan, but has selected it as His own dwelling-place, and
erected His sanctuary in the midst of it (Exodus 15:13; Numbers 35:34). He
therefore is enthroned in it as Lord of the soil, and the Israelites are simply His
tenants at will (Leviticus 14:34; Leviticus 20:24; Leviticus 23:10; Numbers 13:2;
Numbers 15:2), and as such will have to quit it if they disobey His commandments
(Leviticus 18:28; Leviticus 20:22; Leviticus 26:33; Deuteronomy 28:63). For this
reason they are accounted as strangers and sojourners, and hence have no right
absolutely to sell that which is not theirs.
PETT, “Verses 23-28
The Land Belongs To Yahweh And Cannot Be Passed On Permanently. It Can
Either Be Redeemed Early Or Will Be Passed Back At The Year of Yubile
(Leviticus 25:23-28).
Leviticus 25:23
“And the land shall not be sold in perpetuity; for the land is mine. For you are
strangers and sojourners with me.
The principle is now made clear. The reason that all this was to happen was because
the land was Yahweh’s. From this point of view they lived in it, not as owners, but
as though they were resident aliens and visitors. That is why it could not be sold in
perpetuity. All the land was His. They therefore had no right to sell it, only its use
for a number of years.
WHEDON. “ THE JUBILEE YEAR CONTINUED — THE REDEMPTION OF
LAND, Leviticus 25:23-28.
23. The land shall not be sold for ever — The usufruct only could be sold. In their
deeds of conveyance the phrase “to him and to his heirs forever” had no place. After
an equal allotment of the land at the start this is a merciful safeguard against
oppressive monopolies, and a provision to secure to the family a perpetual
inheritance. To effect the restoration of all lands twice each century to the family to
which it was originally allotted by Joshua required the utmost care in the
preservation of the genealogical records of every tribe and family. By this means
evidence was afforded of the exact lineage of the Messiah in fulfilment of the
prophecies, evidence which has been unavailable to every Jew since the destruction
102

103. of these records in the destruction of Jerusalem.
For the land is mine — Jehovah held the fee simple of Canaan. Hence he is justified
in the ejection of non-paying tenants, first the Canaanites, then the Israelites. For
further justification of the extermination of the Canaanites, see Joshua 6:21, note.
For ye are strangers — This implies that foreigners, resident in the land, could not
acquire even a temporary title to the soil. See Leviticus 23:22, note.
24 Throughout the land that you hold as a
possession, you must provide for the redemption
of the land.
BARNES, "Lev_25:24
Grant a redemption for the land - i. e. grant power to recover the land to the
original holder who had parted with it.
GILL, "And in all the land of your possession,.... Which they should possess in
the land of Canaan, whatever part of it any of them should enjoy:
ye shall grant a redemption for the land; that is, whenever any estate in it was sold
through necessity, the buyer was obliged to grant a liberty to the seller to redeem it,
when it was in his power to do it, or any or his relations, especially after two years; so
Jarchi observes, he that sells his possession may redeem it after two years, either he
himself or he that is near akin to him, nor can the buyer hinder it; See Gill on Lev_25:15.
CALVIN, "24.And in all the land of your possession. Before the jubilee came, He
permits not only the relations to redeem land sold by a poor man, but the seller also,
if no other redeemer interposed. The same power was also given to relations
amongst other nations, though with a different object, viz., the preservation of the
family name; still, the seller was never allowed to redeem, unless a special clause to
that effect was contained in the contract. But God desired that the lands should be
retained by their legal possessor, in order that the people might deviate as little as
possible from the division made by Joshua. Meanwhile, He had in view the private
advantage of individuals; but in the perpetual succession to the land He considered
Himself rather than men, in order that the recollection of His kindness should never
103

104. be lost. Finally, He orders all lands to return in the year of jubilee to their original
owners; and all sales to be cancelled, as if, in the fiftieth year, he renewed the lot for
the division of the land.
COKE, “Leviticus 25:24. And in all the land—ye shall grant a redemption— See
chap. Leviticus 27:20. Provision is made in this and the following verses for the
redemption of such land as a man had been obliged to sell through poverty. If any of
his relations would redeem it, or if himself should become able afterwards to redeem
it, he was to be allowed to do so before the year of jubilee; due consideration being
had to the circumstances of the case.
ELLICOTT, “(24) Ye shall grant a redemption for the land.—Being simply tenants
at will, and having obtained possession of it on such terms, the land is not even to
remain with the purchaser till the year of jubile, but the buyer is to grant every
opportunity to the seller to redeem it before that time.
PETT, “Leviticus 25:24
“And in all the land of your possession you shall grant a redemption for the land.”
Furthermore this meant that they must be willing to guarantee redemption rights to
those who through misfortune had been forced to sell the use of their property. This
was to apply wherever His people lived in the land.
WHEDON, “24. Ye shall grant a redemption — The original proprietor, or his next
of kin (goel, one who redeems,) could at any time recover the possession of an
alienated field by paying for its redemption according to an equitable rule, or
sliding scale, graduated by the number of years before the jubilee.
25 “‘If one of your fellow Israelites becomes poor
and sells some of their property, their nearest
relative is to come and redeem what they have
sold.
BARNES, "If thy brother be waxen poor - The Israelites never parted with their
land except under the pressure of poverty. Compare the answer of Naboth, 1Ki_21:3.
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105. CLARKE, "Any of his kin come to redeem it - The land that was sold might be
redeemed, in the interim between jubilee and jubilee, by the former owner or by one of
his kinsmen or relatives. This kinsman is called in the text ‫גאל‬ goel or redeemer; and
was not this a lively emblem of the redemption of man by Christ Jesus? That he might
have a right to redeem man, he took upon him human nature, and thus became a
kinsman of the great family of the human race, and thereby possessed the right of
redeeming that fallen nature of which he took part, and of buying back to man that
inheritance which had been forfeited by transgression.
GILL, "If thy brother be waxen poor,.... Is brought very low, greatly reduced, and
is in mean circumstances; hence Jarchi says, we learn, that no man may sell his field,
unless his distress presses him and forces him to it; for, as Maimonides (c) observes, a
man might not sell his estate to put money into his purse, or to trade with, or to
purchase goods, servants, and cattle, only food:
and hath sold away some of his possession; not all of it, as Jarchi remarks; for the
way of the earth or custom of the world teaches, that a man should reserve a field (or a
part) for himself:
and if any of his kin come to redeem it; come to the buyer and propose to redeem
it, by giving what it was sold for, or in proportion to the time he had enjoyed it:
then shall he redeem that which his brother sold; nor was it in the power of the
purchaser to hinder him, or at his option whether he would suffer him to redeem it or
not: such an one was an emblem of our "goel", our near kinsman and Redeemer the Lord
Jesus Christ, who came in our nature into this world to redeem us, and put us into the
possession of the heavenly inheritance; nor was it in the power of any to hinder his
performance of it, for he is the mighty God, the Lord of Hosts is his name.
COKE, “Leviticus 25:25. If any of his kin come to redeem it— The word ‫גאל‬ goel, a
redeemer, signifies also a near kinsman; to whom the right of redeeming lands,
houses, or persons, and also the avenging of blood, belongs: which kinsman, in this
work of redeeming, was often a figure of Christ, who being near to us, and allied in
the flesh, in that he took part of the same flesh and blood with us, (Hebrews 2:14.) is
called our ‫גאל‬ goel; our Redeemer, or Deliverer; (Isaiah 59:20. Romans 11:26.) who
hath redeemed us, and our heavenly inheritance to us, in our low, distressed, and
poor estate. Hosea 13:14. 1 Thessalonians 1:10. 2 Corinthians 8:9. Romans 8:10. Dr.
Beaumont.
ELLICOTT, “ (25) If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold . . . —As poverty is
the only reason which the Law here supposes might lead one to part with his field,
the authorities during the second Temple concluded, and hence enacted, that it is
not allowable for any one to sell his patrimony on speculation. This will account for
the horror which Naboth expressed to Ahab of selling his patrimony: “The Lord
105

106. forbid it me that I should give the inheritance of my fathers to thee” (1 Kings 21:3).
And if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem.—Better, then his
nearest kinsman shall come and redeem. If he has thus been compelled by pressure
of poverty to sell part of his land, then it is the duty of the nearest relation, or, as the
original literally denotes, “the redeemer that is nearest to him,” to redeem the
property which his impoverished relative has been obliged to sell. The expression
“redeemer” is applied in Hebrew to one who, by virtue of being the nearest of kin,
had not only to redeem the patrimony of the family, but to marry the childless
widow of his brother (Ruth 3:13), and avenge the blood of his relative (Numbers
35:19-28; Deuteronomy 19:6-12).
TRAPP, “Leviticus 25:25 If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away [some]
of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that
which his brother sold.
Ver. 25. And if any of his kin.] Christ is our near kinsman, and so by propinquity,
as man, had the right of redemption. [Ruth 2:20; Ruth 3:9; Ruth 3:11; Ruth 3:13]
PETT, “Leviticus 25:25
“If your brother has become poor, and sell some of his possession, then shall his
kinsman who is next to him come, and shall redeem that which his brother has
sold.”
Indeed when a man became poor and had to sell his land in order to survive, it was
incumbent on his nearest male relative to buy the land back as soon as possible, and
the purchaser could not refuse to sell. We call this man ‘the Kinsman Redeemer’.
We see this principle in action in the book of Ruth where Boaz acts as Kinsman
Redeemer on behalf of Naomi. There Naomi had not yet sold her land, but was
having to do so, and Boaz bought it as Kinsman Redeemer. But by putting himself
in the position of ‘nearest relative’ he also put himself in a position of having to raise
up children in the name of Ruth’s dead husband (Ruth 4:5; Ruth 4:10). While this
was not strictly required by the levirate Law which referred to ‘a brother’
(Deuteronomy 25:5-6), it had clearly become the interpretation of that Law,
‘brother’ being given its wider meaning. Thus those who would inherit the land as a
‘brother’ must inherit the wife and raise up seed to the dead man. However, as he
was not literally a brother, there was nothing unseemly in his marrying her as well,
and it would seem that he was required to do so. The woman and land went
together. To take on the land meant to take on the responsibility of the dead man’s
family.
The book also illustrates how men were already finding ways round the legislation,
i.e. the nearer kinsman who refused by pretending that he could not afford it (Ruth
4:6) when he had already said he would buy it (Ruth 4:4) simply because he did not
106

107. want to have to raise up seed to Chilion. (Whether he could have taken this course if
Boaz had not been willing to take on the responsibility we do not know. It appears
to have been a mutually satisfactory arrangement allowed by custom - Ruth 4:7 with
Deuteronomy 25:9. The spitting was excluded because it was by satisfactory
arrangement). HEDON,
WHEDON, “25. Any of his kin — Kranold observes that there is no record of the
goel ever exercising his right till after the death of him who sold the field. But this
does not disprove his right to redeem it during the life of the impoverished seller.
“The person sustaining this office was a lively figure of Christ, who assumed our
nature that he might be our kinsman-redeemer, bone of our bone and flesh of our
flesh, and in reference to whom it is said, ‘The Redeemer shall come out of Zion.’ He
has by his sufferings and death brought back to man that inheritance which had
been forfeited by sin.” — Bush. How this deepens the significance of those words of
Isaiah, the evangelical prophet, quoted by our Saviour in the synagogue in
Nazareth, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to
preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach
deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them
that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. This day is this
Scripture fulfilled in your ears.”
26 If, however, there is no one to redeem it for
them but later on they prosper and acquire
sufficient means to redeem it themselves,
GILL, "And if the man have none to redeem it,.... That is, none of kin that was
able or willing to redeem it; otherwise no doubt there were persons in the land able to do
it at any time, but none he was in connection with, or from whom he could expect such a
favour:
and himself be able to redeem it; or if his hand has got, and he has found a
sufficiency for his redemption, as the Targum of Jonathan; not that he has found
anything that was lost, as Chaskuni glosses it, but by one providence or another, by the
blessing of God on his trade and business, is become rich, and it is in the power of his
hand to redeem the possession he had sold, he might do it; but, as the same writer
observes, he might not borrow and redeem, but must do it with what he had got of his
own since the time of sale, and which is also the sense of others (d).
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108. ELLICOTT, “(26) And if the man have none to redeem it.—In case, however, he has
either no nearest of kin, or if his nearest of kin is himself too poor to perform this
duty, which is incumbent upon him, “and himself be able to redeem it,” that is, after
he was compelled, by stress of poverty, to sell the property he has become
prosperous, so as to be able to redeem it himself; though not distinctly expressed, it
is implied that under these altered circumstances he is obliged to redeem his
patrimony himself. According to the canonical law, however, he must not borrow
money to redeem it.
PETT, “Leviticus 25:26-27
“And if a man has no one to redeem it, and he has grown rich and finds sufficient to
redeem it, then let him reckon the years of its sale, and restore the overplus to the
man to whom he sold it; and he shall return to his possession.”
Should a man have no near kinsman wealthy enough to act for him, if he himself
later became wealthy later he would still retain the right to buy back his land, giving
compensation depending on the number of years still to go to the year of Yubile. So
the right of a family to its own original land was very strong, and if one section of a
family died out the right passed to the nearest relatives (Jeremiah 32:7-8). But the
land must remain in the family. Even if sold it returned in the year of Yubile.
27 they are to determine the value for the years
since they sold it and refund the balance to the
one to whom they sold it; they can then go back to
their own property.
GILL, "Then let him count the years of the sale thereof,.... How many years had
passed since it was sold, how many it had been in the hands of the purchaser, and how
many were yet to come to the year of the jubilee, by which means the price of
redemption might easily be settled; thus, for instance, if the years were alike and there
was just half the time gone, then half of the price it was sold at was repaid to the
purchaser; and if not alike, then in proportion to what had passed and were to come:
and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it; for the years that
were yet to come; if, as Jarchi says, he has eaten of or enjoyed the fruit of the field three
or four years, deduct the price of them from the account, and take the rest; this is the
108

109. meaning, "and restore the overplus", out of the price of the sale, according to what is
eaten, and give it to the buyer: Maimonides (e) explains it thus; that if there were ten
years to the year of the jubilee, and the field was sold for an hundred pieces, if he that
bought it has eaten of it three years, then the seller that redeems it must give him
seventy pieces, and he must restore his field; if he has eaten of it six years, he is to give
forty pieces, and the other restores him the field: in the Misnah it is put thus; if he sell it
(his field) to the first for an hundred pence, and the first sells it to a second for two
hundred, he must not reckon but with the first, as it is said, "unto the man to whom he
sold it"; if he sold it to the first for two hundred, and the first sells it to a second for an
hundred, he shall not count but with the last, as it is said, "to a man", i.e. to the man
which is in the midst of it, or is possessed of it; nor may he sell it for a distant time, that
he may redeem it near, nor when in a bad condition, that he may redeem it when in a
good one; nor may he borrow to redeem it, nor redeem it by halves (f):
that he may return to his possession; and enjoy it again.
ELLICOTT, “ (27) Count the years of the sale thereof.—To regulate the price of the
redemption money the crops were valued which the purchaser had enjoyed since he
had acquired the property. This was deducted from what he originally paid for the
plot of land, and the difference was returned to him by the vendor, to whom the
patrimony reverted. Thus, for instance, if there were thirty years from the time the
purchase was effected to the year of jubile, and the vendor or his next of kin
redeemed the inheritance either ten or fifteen years after the transaction, he had to
return to the purchaser either one-third or half of the purchase money, when the
soil was restored to the seller or his next of kin. In the interest of the purchaser,
however, it was enacted during the second Temple that the redemption should not
take place before he had the benefit of the field for two productive years (see
Leviticus 25:15), and that he could claim compensation for outlay on improvements.
Restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it.—That is, an equitable
estimate is to be made of what the land is likely to yield from the time of its
redemption by the vendor to the jubile, which is to be allowed to the purchaser.
WHEDON, “ 27. Count the years — The fruit-bearing years. Thus a possession sold
in the twentieth year before the jubilee would have seventeen fruit-bearing years. If
redeemed in the tenth year there are eight such years, which the redeemer must pay
for in equity as the overplus.
28 But if they do not acquire the means to repay,
what was sold will remain in the possession of the
buyer until the Year of Jubilee. It will be returned
109

110. in the Jubilee, and they can then go back to their
property.
GILL, "But if he be not able to restore it to him,.... The overplus, or give him
what is in proportion to the time he has had it, and yet to come:
then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of him that bought it until
the year of the jubilee; continue in his possession, and he shall enjoy all the benefit of
it till that year comes:
and in the jubilee it shall go out: out of his hands or possession; or "he shall go out"
(g), the purchaser shall go out of what he has bought, and shall have no more possession
of it, but it shall come into the hands of the seller, and that without money, as the
Targum of Jonathan adds:
and he shall return unto his possession; the seller, and enter upon it and enjoy it
as his own property, as before he sold it.
K&D, "Lev_25:28
The third case was this: if a man had not earned as much as was required to make
compensation for the recovery of the land, what he had sold was to remain in the
possession of the buyer till the year of jubilee, and then it was to “go out,” i.e., to become
free again, so that the impoverished seller could enter into possession without
compensation. The buyer lost nothing by this, for he had fully recovered all that he paid
for the annual harvests up to the year of jubilee, from the amount which those harvests
yielded. Through these legal regulations every purchase of land became simply a lease
for a term of years.
ELLICOTT, “ (28) Not able to restore it to him.—That is, if the vendor is unable to
return to the purchaser the probable value of the crops between the contemplated
redemption and the next jubile year.
Then that which is sold.—In that case the land thus sold is to continue with the
purchaser till jubile, when it is to revert to the vendor without any repayment
whatever. The design of this law was to secure to each family a permanent interest
in the soil, and to prevent the accumulation of land on the part of the greedy few
who are ever anxious to join field unto field, thus precluding the existence of
landless beggars and too extensive landed proprietors. To the same effect were the
laws of inheritance (Numbers 27:6-11; Numbers 36:5-13). Similar laws obtained
among other nations of antiquity. Laws were enacted that the lots which were
distributed among the inhabitants were neither to be sold nor bought. Solon made it
a law that no one should acquire as much land as he wished; whilst Plato held that
no individual person is to possess more than four times the quantity of land than the
110

111. lowest owner, who had only a single lot.
TRAPP, “Leviticus 25:28 But if he be not able to restore [it] to him, then that which
is sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it until the year of jubile:
and in the jubile it shall go out, and he shall return unto his possession.
Ver. 28. And he shall return unto his possession.] So do all God’s Israel to their
heavenly inheritance. [Colossians 1:12-14 Ephesians 1:10-11; Ephesians 1:18 1 Peter
1:4]
PETT, “Leviticus 25:28
“But if he is not able to get it back for himself, then that which he has sold shall
remain in the hand of him that has bought it until the year of yubile: and in the
yubile it shall go out, and he shall return to his possession.”
Should he find himself in a position that he has no Kinsman Redeemer, and of not
himself gaining sufficient wealth, then he would have to wait until the year of
Yubile, but at the year of Yubile the land passed back to him anyway, and he could
take possession of it, the buyer meanwhile having retained the use of it up to this
date. Thus all were dealt with fairly.
The principle from all this for us is the concern that we should have that we share
our good things with others. Our aim should not be to grab as much as we can for
ourselves but to ensure that all share the good things of life, and that we do not
claim for ourselves more than a reasonable proportion.
29 “‘Anyone who sells a house in a walled city
retains the right of redemption a full year after its
sale. During that time the seller may redeem it.
CLARKE, "Sell a dwelling house in a walled city - A very proper difference is
put between houses in a city and houses in the country. If a man sold his house in the
city, he might redeem it any time in the course of a year; but if it were not redeemed
within that time, it could no more be redeemed, nor did it go out even in the jubilee. It
was not so with a house in the country; such a house might be redeemed during any part
of the interim; and if not redeemed, must go out at the jubilee. The reason in both cases
111

112. is sufficiently evident; the house in the city might be built for purposes of trade or traffic
merely, the house in the country was built on or attached to the inheritance which God
had divided to the respective families, and it was therefore absolutely necessary that the
same law should apply to the house as to the inheritance. But the same necessity did not
hold good with respect to the house in the city: and as we may presume the house in the
city was merely for the purpose of trade, when a man bought such a house, and got his
business established there, it would have been very inconvenient for him to have
removed; but as it was possible that the former owner might have sold the house rashly,
or through the pressure of some very urgent necessity, a year was allowed him, that
during that time he might have leisure to reconsider his rash act, or so to get through his
pressing necessity as to be able to get back his dwelling. This time was sufficiently long
in either of the above cases; and as such occurrences might have been the cause of his
selling his house, it was necessary that he might have the opportunity of redeeming his
pledge. Again, as the purchaser, having bought the house merely for the purpose of
trade, manufacture, etc., must have been at great pains and expense to fit the place for
his work, and establish his business, in which himself, his children, and his children’s
children, were to labor and get their bread; hence it was necessary that he should have
some certainty of permanent possession, without which, we may naturally conjecture, no
such purchases ever would be made. This seems to be the simple reason of the law in
both cases.
GILL, "And if a man sell a dwelling house in a walled city,.... Which was so
from the days of Joshua the son of Nun, as Jarchi:
then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold: any time within the
year he pleased, either he or any near of kin to him; and if they would, on the day it was
sold, or any time after within the compass of the year, even on the day in which the year
ended; in this such an house differed from fields, which could not be redeemed under
two years; see Gill on Lev_25:15,
within a full year may he redeem it; from the time it was sold, paying what it was
sold for: this is to be understood, Maimonides (h) says, of a solar year, which consists of
three hundred sixty five days, and within this space of time such an house might be
redeemed.
JAMISON 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.
K&D, "Lev_25:29-30
Alienation and redemption of houses. - Lev_25:29, Lev_25:30. On the sale of a
dwelling-house in a wall-town (a town surrounded by a wall) there was to be redemption
112

113. till the completion of the year of its purchase. ‫ים‬ ִ‫ָמ‬‫י‬, “days (i.e., a definite period) shall its
redemption be;” that is to say, the right of redemption or repurchase should be retained.
If it was not redeemed within the year, it remained to the buyer for ever for his
descendants, and did not go out free in the year of jubilee. ‫ם‬ ָ‫ק‬ to arise for a possession,
i.e., to become a fixed standing possession, as in Gen_23:17. ‫ֹא‬‫ל‬ ‫ר‬ֶ‫ֲשׁ‬‫א‬ for ‫ל‬ ‫ר‬ֶ‫ֲשׁ‬‫א‬ as in
Lev_11:21 (see at Exo_21:8). This law is founded upon the assumption, that the houses
in unwalled towns are not so closely connected with the ownership of the land, as that
the alienation of the houses would alter the portion originally assigned to each family for
a possession. Having been built by men, they belonged to their owners in full possession,
whether they had received them just as they were at the conquest of the land, or had
erected them for themselves. This last point of view, however, was altogether a
subordinate one; for in the case of “the houses of the villages” (i.e., farm-buildings and
villages, see Jos_13:23, etc.), which had no walls round them, it was not taken into
consideration at all.
CALVIN, "29.And if a man sell a dwelling-house. He here distinguishes houses from
lands, providing that the power of redemption should not extend beyond a year; and
also, that the purchase should hold good even in the jubilee. A second distinction,
however, is also added between different kinds of houses, viz., that houses in towns
might be altogether alienated, whilst the condition of those in the country should be
the same as that of the lands themselves, as being annexed so as to form part of
them. As regarded houses fix towns, because they were sometimes burdensome to
their owners, it was an advantage that they might pass into the hands of the rich
who were competent to bear the expenses of building. Besides, a house does not
supply daily food like a field, and it is more tolerable to be without a house than a
field, in which you may work, and from the cultivation of which you may support
yourself and family. But it was necessary to except houses in the country, because
they were appendages to the land; for what use would there be in harvesting the
fruits, if you had no place to store them in? Nay, what would it profit to possess a
farm which you could not cultivate? for how could oxen plough without any stalls in
its vicinity? Since, then, lands without farm-buildings or cottages are almost useless,
and they cannot be conveniently separated, justly did God appoint that, in the year
of Jubilee, every rural possession should revert to its former owner.
COFFMAN, “Verse 29
"And if a man sell a dwelling-house in a walled city, then he may redeem it in a
whole year after it is sold; for a full year shall he have the right of redemption. And
if it be not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the
walled city shall be made sure in perpetuity to him that bought it, throughout his
generations: it shall not go out in the jubilee. But the houses of the villages which
have no wall round about them shall be reckoned with the fields of the country: they
may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubilee. Nevertheless, the cities of the
Levites, the houses of the cities of their possession, may the Levites redeem at any
time. And if one of the Levites redeem, then the house that was sold, and the city of
his possession, shall go out in the jubilee; for the houses of the cities of the Levites
113

114. are their possession among the children of Israel. But the field of the suburbs of
their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession."
Two exceptions are explained here. A different rule applied to dwellings in walled
cities; and special rules applied to houses of the Levites. There is possibly an
ambiguity in Leviticus 25:33. The marginal reading inserts the negative, making the
verse refer to a Levite's house not redeemed. If this is not what is written, then the
passage might refer to the case of a Levite who for himself redeemed a property
from another Levite, but, in any case, it reverted to the original possessor in the
Jubilee.
COKE, “Verses 29-31
Leviticus 25:29-31. If a man sell a dwelling-house, &c.— Great difference is here
made between houses in walled cities, and in the country: the former, if sold, were
either to be redeemed within the compass of a year, or else to return no more to the
first owner, not even at the jubilee; whereas houses in the country, which had lands
of inheritance annexed to them, or were themselves estates of inheritance from the
first division of the country, were to be counted as the fields of the country, that is,
they were to fall under the same law with the lands whereof they were an
appendage, and so might be redeemed at any time. See Leviticus 25:10; Leviticus
25:23. Several reasons are assigned for this distinction between houses in cities and
those in villages: the principal one seems to be, that families were not distinguished
by houses in cities as they were by those in the country, which were annexed to their
lands, and therefore to be considered as a part of the inheritance. Le Clerc adds,
that the houses in the country were necessary for the convenience of cultivating the
lands; whereas men bred to husbandry might dispense with the want of town-
houses. Men in cities too, we may observe further, being usually in trade, and their
livelihood often depending upon their situation, the law of redemption, if it had
taken place in cities, might have subjected them to many difficulties and
inconveniencies.
ELLICOTT, “ (29) A dwelling house in a walled city.—It is, however, quite
different in the case of houses in walled cities. These are not the creation of God (see
Leviticus 25:23), allotted by His command to the different tribes of Israel; they are
the work of man, who build them up and raze them to the ground at their own will,
and according to their fancy. Hence the law of jubile does not apply to these
temporary human buildings. Though an Israelite could sell his house without being
driven by stress of circumstances to do it, still, as he may feel attached to his home,
the Divine law affords him some protection for a limited period, during which he or
his family may redeem the building. During the second Temple “a dwelling house in
a walled city” was defined to be a house standing within an area of land which was
first walled round for the purpose of building upon it human habitations, and in
which the houses were afterwards erected. But if the houses were built first, and the
city wall afterwards, they do not come within the law here laid down.
114

115. Within a full year may he redeem it.—If within a year of the sale he wishes to
redeem, the Law gives him the power, or in case he dies empowers his son, to
repurchase the property at the same price which he received for it. Besides limiting
the period to a year, the Law does not prescribe that the next of kin is to redeem,
nor give him the power to do it. During the second Temple it was also enacted that
the vendor could not redeem it with borrowed money.
EBC, “THE JUBILEE AND DWELLING HOUSES
Leviticus 25:29-34
"And if a man sell a dwelling house in a wailed city, then he may redeem it within a
whole year after it is sold; for a full year shall he have the right of redemption. And
if it be not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the
walled city shall be made sure in perpetuity to him that bought it, throughout his
generations: it shall not go out in the jubilee. But the houses of the villages which
have no wall round about them shall be reckoned with the fields of the country: they
may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubilee. Nevertheless the cities of the
Levites the houses of the cities of their possession, may the Levites redeem at any
time. And if one of the Levites redeem [not], then the house that was sold, and the
city of his possession, shall go out in the jubilee: for the houses of the cities of the
Levites are their possession among the children of Israel. But the field of the
suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession."
In Leviticus 25:29-34 is considered the application of the jubilee ordinance to the
sale of dwelling houses: first (Leviticus 25:29-31), to such sale in case of the people
generally; secondly (Leviticus 25:32-34), to sales of houses by the Levites. Under the
former head we have first the law as regards sales of dwelling houses in "walled
cities"; to which it is ordered that the law of reversion in the jubilee shall not apply,
and for which the right of redemption was only to hold valid for one year. The
obvious reason for exempting houses in cities from the law of reversion is that the
law has to do only with land such as may be used in a pastoral or agricultural way
for man’s support. And this explains why, on the other hand, it is next ordered
(Leviticus 25:31) that in the case of houses in unwalled villages the law of
redemption and reversion in the jubilee shall apply as well as to the land. For the
inhabitants of the villages were the herdsmen and cultivators of the soil; and the
house was regarded rightly as a necessary attachment to the land, without which its
use would not be possible. But inasmuch as God had assigned no landholding to the
Levites in the original distribution of the land, -and apart from their houses they
had no possession (Leviticus 25:33), -in order to secure them in the privilege of a
permanent holding, such as others enjoyed in their lands, it was ordered that in
their case their houses, as being their only possession in real estate, should be
treated as were the landholdings of members of the other tribes.
The relation, of the jubilee law to personal rights in the land having been thus
determined and expounded, in the next place (Leviticus 25:35-55) is considered the
115

116. application of the law to slavery. Quite naturally, this section begins (Leviticus
25:35-37) with a general injunction to assist and deal mercifully with any brother
who has become poor. "If thy brother be waxen poor, and his hand fail with thee;
then thou shalt uphold him: as a stranger and a sojourner shall he live with thee.
Take thou no usury of him or increase; but fear thy God: that thy brother may live
with thee. Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor give him thy victuals
for increase."
The evident object of this law is to prevent, as far as possible, that extreme of
poverty which might compel a man to sell himself in order to live. Debt is a burden
in any case, to a poor man especially; but debt is the heavier burden when to the
original debt is added the constant payment of interest. Hence, not merely "usury"
in the modern sense of excessive interest, but it is forbidden to claim or take any
interest whatever from any Hebrew debtor. On the same principle, it is forbidden to
take increase for food which may be lent to a poor brother; as when one lets a man
have twenty bushels of wheat on condition that in due time he shall return for it
twenty-two. This command is enforced (Leviticus 25:38) by reminding them from
whom they have received what they have, and on what easy terms, as a gift; from
their covenant God, who is Himself their security that by so doing they shall not
lose: "I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to
give you the land of Canaan, to be your God." They need not therefore have
recourse to the exaction of interest and increase from their peer brethren in order to
make a living, but are to be merciful, even as Jehovah their God is merciful.
PETT, “Verses 29-31
Dwelling Houses In Walled Cities Are Exempt From Yubile (Leviticus 25:29-31).
Leviticus 25:29
“And if a man sells a dwelling-house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a
whole year after it is sold; for a full year shall he have the right of redemption.”
But if a man sold a house in a walled city the situation was different. He was given
one year in which to redeem it. This was because this was a property built or bought
by choice in a city which was for defensive purposes. It was not connected with his
inheritance given to him by Yahweh.
Yahweh did not see walled cities as necessary in His inheritance. When the ideal
time came Israel would be known as ‘a land of unwalled villages’ and would be
secure from even the most devastating of enemies (Ezekiel 38:11) because they
would be trusting in Yahweh. And houses in unwalled towns would probably have
land connected with them.
We must not compare this situation with our own property ideas. The walled cities
were mainly formed so that people could build their houses there where they could
116

117. enter to be ‘safe’ from marauders. House and inherited land were totally separate.
Apart from the largest cities most ‘cities’ were in fact not planned, but ‘grew up’,
with houses huddled together at random, with a narrow ‘street’ round the inside of
the wall (a wall on which houses had also been built) and an open space by the gate
of the city. Once all spaces were filled no more building could take place, but one
house could be built on to another and those already there could be sold on, subject
to any regulations. They were clearly not seen as part of God’s overall long term
plan.
WHEDON, “Verse 29
THE REDEMPTION OF HOUSES, Leviticus 25:29-34.
29. A dwellinghouse in a walled city — The redemption of this is limited to a year,
after which it belongs to the purchaser forever, undisturbed by the jubilee. Such
property used for mercantile purposes is of special value to the merchant who has
built up a lucrative trade therein. Again, city property is liable to greater
fluctuations in value in fifty years than country estates, and it is just that the present
holder should have the benefit of the increased valuation. The fact that city property
was permanently alienable would tend to keep the poor from flocking to the great
cities, twice each century, to starve in poverty and to fester in vice. “This provision
was made to encourage strangers and proselytes to come and settle among them.
Though they could not purchase land in Canaan, yet they might purchase houses in
walled cities, which would be most convenient for them who were supposed to live
by trade.” — Bush. It is the opinion of some that this law applied only to such cities
as were walled in the days of Joshua, and conquered by him. This would exclude
Jerusalem.
30 If it is not redeemed before a full year has
passed, the house in the walled city shall belong
permanently to the buyer and the buyer’s
descendants. It is not to be returned in the
Jubilee.
BARNES, "Not go out - Because most of the houses in cities were occupied by
117

118. artificers and traders whose wealth did not consist in lands.
GILL, "And if it be not redeemed within the space of a full year,.... Either by
the seller or any man of kin to him:
then the house that is in the walled city shall be established for ever to him
that bought it, throughout his generation; after twelve months were elapsed it was
not redeemable by any, but to be held by the purchaser and his heirs for ever:
it shall not go out in the jubilee; from the purchaser or his heirs, to the seller or his
heirs; for houses were not like lands, the gift of God, and held under him, but were built
by men, and were their absolute property, and therefore they could dispose of them, and
they that bought them could hold them after the above mentioned time; nor was there
any danger of confounding tribes and families by retaining them: this law was made to
encourage persons to settle in walled towns, to make and keep them populous, and to
make owners of them careful not to sell them: the Jewish canon is this; when the day of
the twelfth month is come, and it (the house) is not redeemed, it is absolutely his,
whether he bought it or whether it was given him, as it is said, Lev_25:30; and if in the
beginning of the day of the twelfth month he (the purchaser) hides himself, that it may
be confirmed to him or be his absolutely; Hillel, the elder, ordered that he (the seller)
should put his money in the chamber (belonging to the sanhedrim) and break open the
door, and go in; and when he would, he (the purchaser) might come, and take his money
(i); but otherwise, if he suffers this time to pass it is irredeemable, nor will the year of
jubilee help him: the Jews except the city of Jerusalem from this law, because, they say,
that does not belong to any tribe (k).
COKE, “Verse 30
Leviticus 25:30. The house that is in the walled city— In the Hebrew it is, in a city
that hath not a wall: but because this seems contrary to the former, it is written and
noted in the margin of our English Bibles to be read, hath a wall. See chap.
Leviticus 11:22 for a like double reading. And it seems that the meaning is, that if it
were in a city which some time had a wall, but for the present had none, or a very
ruinous one, (as was the case of Jerusalem, 2 Kings 25:10.) then the order here given
should stand for the sale of the house. Beaumont.
ELLICOTT, “ (30) if it be not redeemed within the space of a full year.—That is,
either by the vendor or his son. According to the interpretation which obtained
during the second Temple, the phrase “full year” is here used for the benefit of the
seller, inasmuch as it gives him the advantage of an intercalary year, when he has an
additional month, up to the last day of which he could still effect the redemption.
Moreover, as the purchaser sometimes concealed himself towards the end of the
year, in order to prevent the seller from redeeming his house, it was enacted that the
original proprietor should hand over the redemption money to the public
authorities when the purchaser could not be found, break open the doors, and take
possession of the house; and if the purchaser died during the year, the vendor could
118

119. redeem it from his heir.
It shall not go out in the jubile.—If the vendor, however, failed to redeem the house
within the prescribed period, it was not to be subject to the laws of jubile like the
land, but is to remain for ever the property of the purchaser.
TRAPP, “Leviticus 25:30 And if it be not redeemed within the space of a full year,
then the house that [is] in the walled city shall be established for ever to him that
bought it throughout his generations: it shall not go out in the jubile.
Ver. 30. And if it be not redeemed.] This would make the owners the better
husbands, and keep the houses in better repair.
PETT, “Leviticus 25:30
“And if it is not redeemed within the space of a completed year, then the house that
is in the walled city shall be made sure in perpetuity to him who bought it,
throughout his generations: it shall not go out in the yubile.”
If the house sold through necessity in the city was not redeemed within a full year
(presumably twelve moon periods, unless ‘completed year’ was intended to mean
365 days, a concept probably known at that time) then it belonged to the purchaser
in perpetuity.
31 But houses in villages without walls around
them are to be considered as belonging to the
open country. They can be redeemed, and they
are to be returned in the Jubilee.
GILL, "But the houses of the villages, which have no walls round about
them,.... As there were many in the days of Joshua, the Scripture speaks of: the Jews
suppose that such are meant, even though they were afterwards walled:
shall be counted as the fields of the country; and subject to the same law as they:
they may be redeemed; at any time before the year of jubilee, and if not, then
119

120. they shall go out in the jubilee; to the original owners of them, freely, as Jarchi says,
without paying anything for them.
K&D, "Lev_25:31
Such houses as these were to be reckoned as part of the land, and to be treated as
landed property, with regard to redemption and restoration at the year of jubilee.
ELLICOTT, “(31) But the houses of the villages which have no wall.—Houses in
villages, however, form an exception. They are part of the landed property, and hence,
like the cultivated land on which they are erected, are subject to the law of jubile.
PETT, “Leviticus 25:31
“But the houses of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be reckoned
with the fields of the country. They may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the
yubile.”
But houses in unwalled towns were seen as part of the agricultural and pasture land
around the towns and could be redeemed along with the land, and returned to the original
owner in the year of Yubile.
When Jesus taught us to pray He included the thought that we could ask for basic
provision, our daily bread. Then the concentration turned on to spiritual need. The fact
that houses in walled cities were not included in Yubile demonstrated the same principle.
God provided for His people’s basic needs, not for their luxuries. That was up to them.
32 “‘The Levites always have the right to redeem
their houses in the Levitical towns, which they
possess.
BARNES 32-33, “Rather, And concerning the cities of the Levites, the houses in the
cities of their possession, etc. If one of the Levites redeems a house in the city, etc. The
meaning appears to be, if a Levite redeemed a house which had been sold to a person of
a different tribe by another Levite, it was to revert in the Jubilee to the latter Levite as its
original possessor. The purchaser of a Levite’s house was in fact only in the condition of
a tenant at will, while the fields attached to the Levitical cities could never be alienated,
even for a time.
120

121. For the application of the law of Jubilee to lands dedicated to the service of the
sanctuary, see Lev_27:16-25.
CLARKE, "The cities of the Levites - The law in this and the following verses was
also a very wise one. A Levite could not ultimately sell his house: if sold he could redeem
it at any time in the interim between the two jubilees; but if not redeemed, it must go out
at the following jubilee. And why? “Because Moses framed his laws so much in favor of
the priesthood, that they had peculiar privileges?” etc. Just the reverse: they were so far
from being peculiarly favored that they had no inheritance in Israel, only their cities, to
dwell in: and because their houses in these cities were the whole that they could call their
own, therefore these houses could not be ultimately alienated. All that they had to live on
besides was from that most precarious source of support, the freewill-offerings of the
people, which depended on the prevalence of pure religion in the land.
GILL, "Notwithstanding, the cities of the Levites,.... The six cities of refuge, and
forty two others; these and the houses in them are excepted from the above law, and only
they; not such as they might purchase elsewhere; wherefore it follows:
and the houses of the cities of their possession; which were in cities possessed by
them, and which was their possession, and given them as such:
may the Levites redeem at any time; they were not restrained to a year, as houses
in walled towns, but they might redeem them as they pleased or could; and if they did
not redeem them within the year, they might redeem them afterwards, even years after,
and any time before the year of jubilee; so it is said in the Misnah (l) the priests and the
Levites sell always, and they redeem always, as it is said, Lev_25:32; on which one of the
commentators says (m) "they sell always", not as the Israelites, who cannot sell less than
two years before the jubilee; but the Levites can sell near the jubilee: "and they redeem
always"; if they sell houses in walled cities, they are not confirmed at the end of the year,
as the houses of Israelites; and if they sell fields, it is not necessary they should remain in
the hands of the buyer two years, but they may redeem them immediately if they will:
this redemption was peculiar to the Levites; for if an Israelite has an inheritance from
his father's mother, a Levite, he might not redeem according to the manner Levites did,
but according to Israelites; and so a Levite that inherited from his father's mother, an
Israelite, was obliged to redeem as an Israelite and not as a Levite (n); for this perpetual
redemption respected only houses that were in the cities of the Levites.
JAMISON 32-34, “Notwithstanding the cities of the Levites, etc. — The
Levites, having no possessions but their towns and their houses, the law conferred on
them the same privileges that were granted to the lands of the other Israelites. A certain
portion of the lands surrounding the Levitical cities was appropriated to them for the
pasturage of their cattle and flocks (Num_35:4, Num_35:5). This was a permanent
endowment for the support of the ministry and could not be alienated for any time. The
Levites, however, were at liberty to make exchanges among themselves; and a priest
might sell his house, garden, and right of pasture to another priest, but not to an
Israelite of another tribe (Jer_41:7-9).
121

122. K&D, "Lev_25:32
On the other hand, so far as the Levitical towns, viz., the houses of the Levites in the
towns belonging to them, were concerned, there was to be eternal redemption for the
Levites; that is to say, when they were parted with, the right of repurchase was never
lost. ‫ם‬ ָ‫ל‬ ‫ע‬ (eternal) is to be understood as a contrast to the year allowed in the case of
other houses (Lev_25:29, Lev_25:30).
CALVIN, "32.Notwithstanding the cities of the Levites. Another exception, that the
Levites should recover the houses they had sold, either by the right of redemption,
or gratuitously in the year of jubilee. And this is not only appointed out of favor to
them, but because it concerned the whole people, that they should be posted like
sentries in the place which God had assigned to them. As to the suburbs, or the
lands destined for the support of their cattle, God forbids their alienation, because
thus they would have forsaken their proper station and removed elsewhere; whereas
it was of importance to the whole people that such a dispersion should not occur.
COKE, “Leviticus 25:32. Notwithstanding, the cities of the Levites, &c.— The
Levites' city-houses are exempted from the general law respecting houses in cities;
the reason for which is given in the 33rd verse, For the houses of the cities, &c. The
body of the Levites being a standing and perpetual body, they could not absolutely
alienate their houses or lands. See Numbers 18:21; Numbers 35:2. Deuteronomy
18:2.
Note; We are taught here, in the near kinsman and redeemer, to behold Jesus, flesh
of our flesh, and bone of our bone, who, when we had sold all, and were become
incapable of recovering our inheritance, paid down the purchase, and restored the
lost title.
ELLICOTT, “ (32) Notwithstanding the cities of the Levites, and the houses.—
Better, And as to the cities of the Levites, the houses, that is, the houses which
belong to the Levites, in the forty-eight cities given to them (see Numbers 35:1-8;
Joshua 21:1-3), are to be exempt from this general law of house property.
May the Levites redeem at any time.—Having the same value to the Levites as
landed property has to the other tribes, these houses are to be subject to the jubile
laws for fields, and hence may be redeemed at any time.
TRAPP, “Leviticus 25:32 Notwithstanding the cities of the Levites, [and] the houses
of the cities of their possession, may the Levites redeem at any time.
Ver. 32. May the Levites redeem at any time.] They were ever counted privileged
persons: and it was but reason. See Leviticus 25:33-34.
122

123. PETT, “Verses 32-34
Houses In The Cities Of The Levites Are Redeemable At Any Time (Leviticus
25:32-34).
This special provision for Levites was because they did not have fields of their own.
Their houses were their possession. God was their inheritance.
Leviticus 25:32
“Nevertheless the cities of the Levites, the houses of the cities of their possession, the
Levites may redeem at any time.”
In the cities of the Levites (including the priests) the houses were given to them by
God as a possession. They had no fields which were their personal possession. Thus
their houses were treated as their inheritance in the land and were permanently
redeemable or returned to the original owner in the year of Yubile. These cities
included the six cities of refuge, and the forty two others to be allocated to the
Levites (Numbers 35:1-8; see Joshua 20-21). The six represented twice three (three
on each side of Jordan) which indicated completeness. The remainder were six times
seven, completeness with divine perfection. WHEDON, “32. The Levites may
redeem — Here is the first hint of the mode of maintaining the Levites in cities. This
exception to the statute concerning walled cities is grounded on the fact that the
Levites, if their houses could be irredeemably sold, might become utterly homeless,
since they had no landed inheritance, but only city houses. Jehovah is not honored
by a mendicant ministry.
33 So the property of the Levites is redeemable—
that is, a house sold in any town they hold—and is
to be returned in the Jubilee, because the houses
in the towns of the Levites are their property
among the Israelites.
GILL, "And if a man purchase of the Levites,.... An house or city, as Jarchi, and
which the following clause confirms, that is, if a common Israelite made such a
purchase, then it was redeemable, but if a Levite purchased of a Levite, then, as the same
123

124. writer observes, it was absolutely irredeemable:
then the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, shall go out in
the year of jubilee; to the original owner of it, as fields and houses in villages sold by
the Israelites
for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the
children of Israel; and their only possession, and therefore if those, when sold, were
irredeemable, they would entirely be without any; and hence care is taken they should
not; so Jarchi observes, that the Levites had no possession of fields and vineyards, only
cities to dwell in, and their suburbs; wherefore cities were to them instead of fields, and
their redemption was as that of fields, that so their inheritance might not be broken off
from them.
K&D, "Lev_25:33
“And whoever (if any one) redeems, i.e., buys, of the Levites, the house that is sold and
(indeed in) the town of his possession is to go out free in the year of jubilee; for the
houses of the Levitical towns are their (the Levites') possession among the children of
Israel.” The meaning is this: If any one bought a Levite's house in one of the Levitical
towns, the house he had bought was to revert to the Levite without compensation in the
year of jubilee. The difficulty connected with the first clause is removed, if we
understand the word ‫ל‬ ַ‫ָא‬‫גּ‬ (to redeem, i.e., to buy back), as the Rabbins do, in the sense of
‫ָה‬‫נ‬ ָ‫ק‬ to buy, acquire. The use of ‫ל‬ ַ‫ָא‬‫גּ‬ for ‫ָה‬‫נ‬ ָ‫ק‬ may be explained from the fact, that when
the land was divided, the Levites did not receive either an inheritance in the land, or
even the towns appointed for them to dwell in as their own property. The Levitical towns
were allotted to the different tribes in which they were situated, with the simple
obligation to set apart a certain number of dwelling-houses for the Levites, together with
pasture-ground for their cattle in the precincts of the towns (cf. Num_35:1. and my
Commentary on Joshua, p. 453 translation). If a non-Levite, therefore, bought a Levite's
house, it was in reality a repurchase of property belonging to his tribe, or the redemption
of what the tribe had relinquished to the Levites as their dwelling and for their
necessities.
(Note: This is the way in which it is correctly explained by Hiskuni: Utitur
scriptura verbo redimendi non emendi, quia quidquid Levitae vendunt ex
Israelitarum haereditate est, non ex ipsorum haerediatate. Nam ecce non habent
partes in terra, unde omnis qui accipit aut emit ab illis est acsi redimeret, quoniam
ecce initio ipsius possessio fuit. On the other hand, the proposal made by Ewald,
Knobel, etc., after the example of the Vulgate, to supply ‫ֹא‬‫ל‬ before ‫ל‬ ַ‫ָא‬‫גּ‬ is not only an
unnecessary conjecture, but is utterly unsuitable, inasmuch as the words “if one of the
Levites does not redeem it” would restrict the right to the Levites without any
perceptible reason; just as if a blood-relation on the female side, belonging to any other
tribe, might not have done this.)
The words ‫אח‬ ‫יר‬ ִ‫ע‬ ְ‫ו‬ are an explanatory apposition - “and that in the town of his
possession,” - and do not mean “whatever he had sold of his house-property or anything
else in his town,” for the Levites had no other property in the town besides the houses,
but “the house which he had sold, namely, in the town of his possession.” This implies
that the right of reversion was only to apply to the houses ceded to the Levites in their
124

125. own towns, and not to houses which they had acquired in other towns either by purchase
or inheritance. The singular ‫יא‬ ִ‫ה‬ is used after a subject in the plural, because the copula
agrees with the object (see Ewald, §319c). As the Levites were to have no hereditary
property in the land except the houses in the towns appointed for them, it was necessary
that the possession of their houses should be secured to them for all time, if they were
not to fall behind the other tribes.
ELLICOTT, “ (33) And if a man purchase of the Levites.—Better, And if one of the
Levites redeem it, that is, even if a Levite redeemed the house which his brother
Levite was obliged to sell through poverty, the general law of house property is not
to obtain even among the Levites themselves. They are to treat each other according
to the law of landed property.
Then the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, shall go out.—Better,
then the house that was sold in the city of his possession shall go out, that is, in the
year of jubile the house is to revert to the vendor just as if it were landed property.
Thus, for instance, the house of the Levite A, which he, out of poverty, was obliged
to sell to the non-Levite B, and which was redeemed from him by a Levite C, reverts
in the jubile year from the Levite C to the original Levitical proprietor A. It is,
however, more than probable that the negative particle has dropped out of the text,
and that the passage as it originally stood was, “And if one of the Levites doth not
redeem it.” That is, if he does not act the part of the nearest of kin, then the house
reverts in the year of jubile to the original Levitical owner, just as landed property.
The Vulg. has still the negative particle.
For the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession.—As these houses were
all which the Levites possessed, they were as important to them as the land was to
the other tribes, hence they were to be treated legally in the same way as the soil.
PETT, “Leviticus 25:33
“And if one of the Levites redeem, then the house that was sold, and the city of his
possession, shall go out in the yubile; for the houses of the cities of the Levites are
their possession among the children of Israel.”
The general intent of this verse is clear although the detail is a little problematic.
The important point is that each property in a Levite city returned in the year of
Yubile (‘goes out’) to its original Levite owner, and the whole city therefore
returned to its combined Levite owners, because being Levites this was their
permanent possession in the land.
AV translates ‘if a man purchase of the Levites’, (i.e. a non-Levite buying Levite
property) but this is probably not right as the same verb is unquestionably used in
context above to mean ‘redeem’, and the root is g’l (redeem, redeemer). Thus we
must translate ‘redeem’ and understand accordingly. It may refer to a Levite
125

126. redeeming the property on behalf of another Levite or the Levites in general
redeeming property in their city which a poor Levite had had to sell. If so it could
not be kept beyond the year of Yubile. It returned to its original Levite owner. As
indeed the whole city returned to its Levite owners.
WHEDON. “33. And if a man purchase of the Levites — The Hebrew is “redeem”
instead of “purchase.” Ewald, with others, inserts a negative from the Vulgate,
which makes better sense — “si redemptae non fuerint, in jubilaeo revertentur ad
dominos.” If the houses shall not have been redeemed, they shall revert to their
owners in the jubilee.
34 But the pastureland belonging to their towns
must not be sold; it is their permanent possession.
GILL, "But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold,.... The
suburbs to the cities of the Levites reached two thousand cubits on every side of their
cities, Num_35:5; in which they had fields to keep their cattle in, and these belonged to
them in common; every Levite had not a particular field to himself as his own property,
and which is the reason why it might not be sold, nor might they agree together to sell it,
for then they would have nothing to keep their cattle in: the Jewish writers generally
understand this of changing their fields, suburbs, and cities: hence they say, in the
Misnah, they do not make a field a suburb, nor a suburb a field, nor a suburb a city, nor a
city a suburb; upon which Maimonides (o) says, all agree that the Levites may not
change a city, or suburb, or field which are theirs, because of what is said, Lev_25:34;
and the wise men, of blessed memory, say, the meaning of it is, it shall not be changed,
for they do not change anything from what it was before:
for it is their perpetual possession: and therefore never to be alienated from them,
or be sold to another, or changed and put to another use; such care was taken of the
ministers of the sanctuary, and of their maintenance and support, under the former
dispensation; and suggests that they should continue in their stations without any
alteration, as ministers of the Gospel should, who ought to give up themselves to the
ministry of the word, and prayer, and not entangle themselves with the affairs of life.
K&D, "Lev_25:34
The field of the pasture-ground of the Levitical towns was not to be sold. Beside the
houses, the Levites were also to receive ‫שׁ‬ ָ‫ר‬ְ‫ג‬ ִ‫מ‬ pasturage for their flocks (from ‫שׁ‬ ַ‫ָר‬‫גּ‬ to
126

127. drive, to drive out the cattle) round about these cities (Num_35:2-3). These meadows
were not to be saleable, and not even to be let till the year of jubilee; because, if they were
sold, the Levites would have nothing left upon which to feed their cattle.
ELLICOTT, “Verse 34
(34) But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold.—The Levitical cities
had both suburbs or commons for their cattle, &c, and fields which they cultivated
(Numbers 35:4-5). These outlying fields, which were beyond the suburbs, they are
here forbidden to sell. According to the authorities during the second Temple the
expression “to sell” here used is to be taken in a wider sense as including diverting
any part of it from its original purpose. Hence they say it forbids the Levites not
only to sell the field, but to convert it into a suburb, and vice versâ. What is field
must always remain field, what is suburb must remain suburb, and what is city
must continue to be city.
For it is their perpetual possession.—The estates belong to the whole tribe to all
futurity, and the present occupiers have to transmit them intact to their successors.
Hence no present owner, or all of them combined, have a right to dispose of any
portion of the estates, or materially to alter it. They must hand these estates down to
their successors as they receive them from their predecessors.
TRAPP, “Leviticus 25:34 But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold;
for it [is] their perpetual possession.
Ver. 34. May not be sold.] This law lasted but during the paedagogy: for Joses, a
Levite, sold his land, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet. [Acts
4:36-37]
PETT, “Leviticus 25:34
“But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual
possession.”
However, Levite fields surrounding the city could not be sold. They belonged to the
Levites as a whole. They were their permanent possession.
Those who through dedication to God lose what is looked on as normal to men can
be sure that God will watch over their needs and especially provide for them. In the
words of Jesus, ‘Every one who has left houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or
mother, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and
shall inherit eternal life’ (Matthew 19:29).
127

128. 35 “‘If any of your fellow Israelites become poor
and are unable to support themselves among you,
help them as you would a foreigner and stranger,
so they can continue to live among you.
BARNES, "Rather, And if thy brother (an Israelite) becomes poor and falls into decay
with thee, thou shalt assist him and let him live with thee like a resident foreigner. He
was not to be regarded as an outcast, but was to be treated with the same respect and
consideration as a resident foreigner who, like him, could possess no land, but could
accumulate property and live in comfort as a free man. See Lev_16:29 note.
GILL, "And if thy brother be waxen poor,.... An Israelite, as Aben Ezra, be reduced
to a low estate, through afflictions in body, or in family, or through losses in trade, or
want of business, or through one providence or another:
and fallen in decay with thee; in his worldly substance: or "his hand wavers", or
"fails" (p); so that he cannot support himself and his family, has not a sufficiency, or it is
not in the power of his hands to do it; and it is not owing to sloth and negligence, but to
unavoidable want and necessity:
then thou shalt relieve him; not merely by sympathizing with him, but by
communicating to him, and distributing to his necessities; holding him up that he may
not utterly fall, and strengthening his hands, that he may have a supply for his present
wants:
yea, though he be a stranger or a sojourner; whether a proselyte of
righteousness, who is circumcised, and in all things conforms to the true religion; or a
proselyte of the gate, who takes it upon him not to worship idols, and eat things that die
of themselves, as Jarchi notes:
that he may live with thee; continue in the land of Canaan, and not be obliged to quit
it, and be laid under temptations of apostatizing from the true religion professed by him,
and so far as he is come into it, which would bring a worse death than corporeal upon
him; or that he may have a livelihood in some tolerable manner at least, and even live
comfortably and cheerfully.
HENRY 35-38, “ A law for the relief of the poor, and the tender usage of poor
debtors, and these are of more general and perpetual obligation than the former.
1. The poor must be relieved, Lev_25:35. Here is, (1.) Our brother's poverty and
distress supposed: If thy brother be waxen poor; not only thy brother by nation as a
128

129. Jew, but thy brother by nature as a man, for it follows, though he be a stranger or a
sojourner. All men are to be looked upon and treated as brethren, for we have all one
Father, Mal_2:10. Though he is poor, yet still he is thy brother, and is to be loved and
owned as a brother. Poverty does not destroy the relation. Though a son of Abraham, yet
he may wax poor and fall into decay. Note, Poverty and decay are great grievances, and
very common: The poor you have always with you. (2.) Our duty enjoined: Thou shalt
relieve him. By sympathy, pitying the poor; by service, doing for them; and by supply,
giving to them according to their necessity and thy ability.
2. Poor debtors must not be oppressed: If thy brother be waxen poor, and have
occasion to borrow money of thee for the necessary support of his family, take thou no
usury of him, either for money or victuals, Lev_25:36, Lev_25:37. And thus far this law
binds still, but could never be thought binding 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. The law here is plainly intended for the relief of the poor, to
whom it is sometimes as great a charity to lend freely as to give. Observe the arguments
here used against extortion. (1.) God patronizes the poor: “Fear thy God, who will
reckon with thee for all injuries done to the poor: thou fearest not them, but fear him.”
(2.) Relieve the poor, that they may live with thee, and some way or other they may be
serviceable to thee. The rich can as ill spare the hands of the poor as the poor can the
purses of the rich. (3.) The same argument is used to enforce this precept that prefaces
all the ten commandments: I am the Lord your God which brought you out of Egypt,
Lev_25:38. Note, It becomes those that have received mercy to show mercy. If God has
been gracious to us, we ought not to be rigorous with our brethren.
JAMISON 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 (Psa_15:5; Eze_18:8, Eze_18:17), but the
prohibition cannot be considered as applicable to the modern practice of men in
business, borrowing and lending at legal rates of interest.
K&D, "Leviticus 25:35-55
The second effect of the jubilee year, viz., the return of an Israelite, who had become a
slave, to liberty and to his family, is also introduced with an exhortation to support an
impoverished brother (Lev_25:35-38), and preserve to him his personal freedom.
Lev_25:35
“If thy brother (countryman, or member of the same tribe) becomes poor, and his
hand trembles by thee, thou shalt lay hold of him;” i.e., if he is no longer able to sustain
himself alone, thou shalt take him by the arm to help him out of his misfortune. “Let him
live with thee as a stranger and sojourner.” ‫י‬ ַ‫ָח‬‫ו‬ introduces the apodosis (see Ges. §126,
note 1).
COFFMAN, “Verse 35
129

130. "And if thy brother be waxed poor, and his hand fail with thee; then thou shalt
uphold him: as a stranger and a sojourner shall he live with thee. Take thou no
interest of him or increase, but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee.
Thou shalt not give him thy money upon interest, nor give him thy victuals for
increase. I am Jehovah your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to
give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God."
This deals with special duties to a brother. In Leviticus 25:35, Orlinsky rendered
"means" instead of hand.[15] The word "brother" here carries the connotation of a
"brother Israelite," and is not restricted to brothers born of the same parentage.
The spirit of Christianity is one with that in view here. A brother in need, compelled
through want to borrow, should NOT be charged interest.
COKE, “Leviticus 25:35. And if thy brother be waxen poor— The two great
benefits of the year of jubilee were, a restoration to possessions and to freedom,
Leviticus 25:10. Such particulars as respect possessions being settled, the case of
freedom, or the release of servants and slaves, comes next to be considered: wherein
the benevolence of the divine Lawgiver is very observable, inculcating upon the
people the utmost compassion and charity towards their brethren in decay, to
proselytes and strangers, as well as to native Jews: for so the sacred writer himself
here explains the word brother.
ELLICOTT, “Verse 35
(35) And if thy brother be waxen poor.—This part of the jubile laws which relates to
the manumission of the Israelites who through poverty are compelled to sell
themselves as bondsmen (Leviticus 25:39-55) is introduced by a pathetic appeal to
the benevolence of the people to bestow brotherly help to the poor (Leviticus
25:35-38).
And fallen in decay with thee.—Literally, and his hand wavered with thee, that is,
when it is weak and can no longer render support, or gain a livelihood. As the laws
of jubile guard the future interests of the Israelite who is driven by stress of poverty
to sell his patrimony, the Lawgiver now points out the duties of each member of the
community to the impoverished brother who has to wait till the year of jubile for the
restoration of his property, but who in the meantime is unable to support himself.
Then thou shalt relieve him.—Literally, thou shalt lay hold of him. When his hand
is thus trembling, it is the duty of every Israelite to support his weak hand, and
enable it to gain a livelihood.
Though he be a stranger, or a sojourner.—Better, as a stranger and a sojourner,
that is, he is not to be treated like an outcast because he has been compelled by
poverty to sell his patrimony, but is to receive the same consideration which
strangers and sojourners receive, who, like the unfortunate Israelite, have no landed
130

131. property. (See Leviticus 19:33-34.)
TRAPP, “Leviticus 25:35 And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay
with thee; then thou shalt relieve him: [yea, though he be] a stranger, or a
sojourner; that he may live with thee.
Ver. 35. That he may live with thee,] i.e., Live in good fashion; for a necessitous life
is a lifeless life. Thus shall ye say to him that liveth. [1 Samuel 25:6] So John 4:50,
"Thy son liveth."
PETT, “Verses 35-43
What The People of Israel’s Attitude Must Be Towards Their Brothers (Leviticus
25:35-43).
“Brothers” here means fellow-Israelites who got into financial difficulties, who were
to be treated with especial loving concern.
They Must Assist The Recovery Of Their Brother Who Falls On Hard Times
Without Seeking To Gain From Him (Leviticus 25:35-38).
Leviticus 25:35
“And if your brother has grown poor, and his hand fail with you, then you shall
uphold him. As a stranger and a sojourner shall he live with you.”
If a fellow-Israelite grew poor and failed financially among them for one reason or
another, he was to be ‘upheld’. He must be shown the same loving concern as a
resident alien or foreigner (compare Leviticus 19:34), whom the laws of hospitality
required should be welcomed (although not always carried out the principle was
firm). He must not be downgraded and made to feel a failure. He must be given
opportunities to work and to earn a living.
WHEDON, “Verse 35
MERCY TO THE POOR ENJOINED, Leviticus 25:35-43.
35. Thy brother — Of the seed of Abraham.
Thou shalt relieve him — The singular number here seems to signify an individual
obligation to relieve the poor, though systematic relief by the commonwealth is by
no means excluded.
That he may live — Bare existence is not here intended, but a happy life. This
explains the significance of the terms “life” and “eternal life.” The more abundant
life which Jesus Christ came to inspire in the believer, (John 10:10, note,) is fulness
131

132. of joy. The annihilationists, whose fundamental error is that immortality is a gift of
grace and not inherent in human nature, take their first false step in their definition
of life as mere animate being, and not a blissful existence.
36 Do not take interest or any profit from them,
but fear your God, so that they may continue to
live among you.
CLARKE, "Take thou no usury of him - Usury, at present, signifies unlawful
interest for money. Properly, it means the reward or compensation given for the use of a
thing, but is principally spoken of money. For the definition of the original term, See the
note on Exo_22:25.
GILL, "Take thou no usury of him, or increase,.... Not only give him somewhat
for his present relief, but lend him money to put him in a way of business, to get his
living for the future, without requiring any interest for it; See Gill on Exo_22:25,
but fear thy God; who has given this command, and expects to be obeyed; and who is
good, and does good, and should be feared for his goodness' sake; and is omniscient, and
knows what is secretly exacted, and will not suffer any exorbitance of this kind to pass
unpunished:
that thy brother may live with thee; which it would be still more difficult for him to
do, should usury and increase be taken of him.
K&D, "Lev_25:36-41
If he borrowed money, they were not to demand interest; or if food, they were not to
demand any addition, any larger quantity, when it was returned (cf. Exo_22:24; Deu_
23:20-21), from fear of God, who had redeemed Israel out of bondage, to give them the
land of Canaan. In Lev_25:37 ‫י‬ ֵ‫ח‬ ְ‫ו‬ is an abbreviation of ‫י‬ ַ‫ָח‬‫ו‬, which only occurs here. -
From Lev_25:39 onwards there follow the laws relating to the bondage of the Israelite,
who had been obliged to sell himself from poverty. Lev_25:36-46 relate to his service in
bondage to an (other) Israelite. The man to whom he had sold himself as servant was not
to have slave-labour performed by him (Exo_1:14), but to keep him as a day-labourer
and sojourner, and let him serve with him till the year of jubilee. He was then to go out
free with his children, and return to his family and the possession of his fathers (his
132

133. patrimony). This regulation is a supplement to the laws relating to the rights of Israel
(Exo_21:2-6), though without a contradiction arising, as Knobel maintains, between the
different rules laid down. In Ex 21 nothing at all is determined respecting the treatment
of an Israelitish servant; it is simply stated that in the seventh year of his service he was
to recover his liberty. This limit is not mentioned here, because the chapter before us
simply treats of the influence of the year of jubilee upon the bondage of the Israelites. On
this point it is decided, that the year of jubilee was to bring freedom even to the Israelite
who had been brought into slavery by his poverty, - of course only to the man who was
still in slavery when it commenced and had not served seven full years, provided, that is
to say, that he had not renounced his claim to be set free at the end of his seven years'
service, according to Exo_21:5-6. We have no right to expect this exception to be
expressly mentioned here, because it did not interfere with the idea of the year of jubilee.
For whoever voluntarily renounced the claim to be set free, whether because the year of
jubilee was still so far off that he did not expect to live to see it, or because he had found
a better lot with his master than he could secure for himself in a state of freedom, had
thereby made a voluntary renunciation of the liberty which the year of jubilee might
have brought to him (see Oehler's art. in Herzog's Cycl., where the different views on
this subject are given).
COKE, “Leviticus 25:36. Take thou no usury of him, &c.— This is explained by the
next verse. See Exodus 22:25. That thy brother may live with thee, signifies that he
may prosper and thrive, &c. for, to live, in the Scripture, frequently signifies to be
comfortable; Deuteronomy 8:1. A stronger motive to induce the people to be free
and disinterested in their benevolence could not well be urged, than the free and
disinterested benevolence of God to them, Leviticus 25:38.
REFLECTIONS.—God will have particular regard paid to his poor people, and no
difference must be made between the home-born and the stranger. Wherever
poverty is, it is a demand for our assistance. They must pity, and, out of their
abundance, supply their wants; and as a small sum lent to the industrious poor is
often the greatest charity which can be done them, as enabling them to work for
themselves, they may not take any usury for it. These are laws still in force; for
though interest from those who use our money to traffic and make gain with is
lawful, yet many times the same charity which bids us freely give to one obliges us
freely to lend another. The rich must not live for themselves merely, or engross all;
God expects that, as he has given the poor life, we should make their subsistence
comfortable.
ELLICOTT, “(36) Take thou no usury of him, or increase.—The first thing to be
done to the impoverished Israelite is to supply him with the means to recover
himself without any interest. The authorities during the second Temple defined the
words which are translated “usury” (nesheck) and “increase” (tarbith, or marbith)
as follows: If a person lends to another a shekel worth four denarii, and gets in
return five denarii, or if he lends him two sacks of wheat, and receives back three,
this is usury. If one buys wheat for delivery at the market price of 25 denarii a
measure, and when it rises to 30 denarii he says to the vendor, “Deliver me the
wheat, for I want to sell it and buy wine,” and the vendor replies,” I will take the
133

134. wheat at 30 denarii and give thee wine for it,” though he has no wine, this is
increase. The “increase” lies in the fact that the vendor has no wine at the time, and
that he may possibly lose again by the rise in wine. Accordingly the former is a
charge upon money, whilst the latter is on products.
TRAPP, “Leviticus 25:36 Take thou no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy God;
that thy brother may live with thee.
Ver. 36. Take thou no usury.] God dispenseth with no usury, but condemns both
Neshec the biting, and Tarbith the toothless. In Rome at this day, all usurers are
excommunicated monthly. The Jews indeed are permitted to strain up their usury to
18 per cent upon the Christian, for among themselves they nowhere use it, which
causeth many of the unconscionable Christians to use these Jews underhandly in
improving their unlawful rents to the utmost proportion.
PETT, “Leviticus 25:36-37
“Take no interest of him or increase, but fear your God; that your brother may live
with you. You shall not give him your money on interest, nor give him your victuals
for increase.”
If money was lent to him, as it should be if he needed it (Deuteronomy 15:8), then
interest must not be charged. The loan must not be reduced in any way. And in fact
at the end of the seven years relief period described in Deuteronomy 15:1-2, the loan
was to be written off (Deuteronomy 15:2). If victuals were given to him no profit
must be made out of them. No additional charge must be made. They must fear their
God, the great Deliverer Who stooped to deliver them all from hardship in Egypt
when they were all failing financially, and give the fellow-Israelite every opportunity
for a recovery.
The fact that the seventh year of release resulted in loans being written off was not,
however, to prevent lending. They were to lend out of compassion. Compare here
Deuteronomy 7-11, ‘If there be with you a poor man, one of your brethren, within
any of your gates in your land which Yahweh your God gives you, you shall not
harden your heart, nor shut your hand from your poor brother; but you shall surely
open your hand to him, and shall surely lend him sufficient for his need of what he
wants. Beware that there be not a base thought in your heart, saying, ‘The seventh
year, the year of release, is at hand,’ and your eye be evil against your poor brother,
and you give him nothing; and he cry to Yahweh against you, and it be sin to you.
You shall surely give to him, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to
him, because for this thing Yahweh your God will bless you in all your work, and in
all that you put your hand to. For the poor will never cease out of the land.
Therefore I command you, saying, You shall surely open your hand to your brother,
to your needy, and to your poor, in your land.’
Jesus put it this way, ‘Give to him who asks of you, and from him who would
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135. borrow from you, do not turn away’ (Matthew 5:42), and again ‘let your light so
shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father Who is
in Heaven’ (Matthew 5:16). The point is not that we should be soft touches but that
we should be concerned enough to help those in real need. Giving a drunkard or a
drug addict a handout is not a kindness, taking them for a meal is.
WHEDON, “Verse 36
36. Take no usury — This word in the original signifies interest on money loaned,
but in modern English it has come to designate excessive interest, either formally
illegal or at least oppressive. When our Authorized Version was made, the term
usury was the exact equivalent of the Hebrew neshek, interest.
Thy brother — The prohibition of interest extended only to a brother Hebrew. At
first only the poor Hebrew was exempted from interest, (Exodus 22:25,) but Jahn
thinks that it was found difficult to define the term poor person; hence the
prohibition was extended to all Hebrews, so that henceforth interest could be taken
only of foreigners.
Deuteronomy 23:20. We cannot agree with Davidson, that this would limit their
commerce with other nations, and thus conserve their religious faith. This
prohibition was flagrantly transgressed by Hebrew capitalists after the return from
the captivity, when one per cent. per month was exacted from their brethren. See
Nehemiah 5:11, in which “the hundredth” is one per cent. a month, a ruinous rate.
37 You must not lend them money at interest or
sell them food at a profit.
BARNES, "Lend him thy victuals for increase - i. e. supply him with food for
thy own profit.
GILL, "Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury,.... Lend him money,
expecting and insisting upon a large interest for it; this is to be understood of persons in
poor and necessitous circumstances, of which the text only speaks; otherwise, if persons
borrow money to gain by it, to carry on a greater trade, or to make purchase with it, it is
but reasonable that the lender should have a share of profit arising from thence:
nor lend him thy victuals for increase; by which it should seem that those two
words, used in Lev_25:36, though in the main they signify the same thing, yet may be
distinguished, the one as concerning money, the other food; and which latter is not to be
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136. given by way of loan to a person in want of it, but freely; as for instance, if a man gives a
poor man a bushel of wheat, on condition he gives him two for it hereafter, this is
lending or giving his victuals for increase.
38 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out
of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be
your God.
BARNES, "Here, and in Lev_25:42, Lev_25:55, is expressed the principle which was
to limit and modify the servitude of Hebrew servants.
GILL, "I am the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of
Egypt,.... Where they had been strangers and sojourners, and therefore should be kind
to such in necessitous circumstances, and relieve them, and especially their brethren;
and where God had given them favour in the eyes of the Egyptians, and they had lent
them jewels of gold and silver, and raiment, and therefore they should lend freely to
persons in distress; and who had brought them out from thence, that they might take
upon them his commandments, though they might be grievous, as Jarchi observes; and
this, it may be remarked, is the preface to the ten commandments:
to give you the land of Canaan; freely, a land flowing with milk and honey; and
therefore, since he had dealt so bountifully with them, and had given them plenty of
good things, they need not grudge giving to their poor brethren, and others in
necessitous circumstances:
and to be your God; their covenant God, to bless and prosper them, protect and
defend them.
TRAPP, “Leviticus 25:38 I [am] the LORD your God, which brought you forth out
of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, [and] to be your God.
Ver. 38. I am the Lord your God.] Freely you have received, freely lend. You have
had me your benefactor, you shall have me your debtor.
PETT, “Leviticus 25:38
“I am Yahweh your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give
you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.”
136

137. And this the reason why they should behave in this way was because they recognised
that what they were doing they did under the eye of Yahweh their God, Who
brought them out of the land of Egypt with the purpose of giving them the land of
Canaan. He would not be charging them interest or gaining any profit out of them.
He was revealing His love and compassion towards them. Thus they must do the
same for their fellow-Israelites in accordance with His covenant. For He is their
covenant God.
39 “‘If any of your fellow Israelites become poor
and sell themselves to you, do not make them
work as slaves.
BARNES, "The law here appears harmoniously to supplement the earlier one in
Exo_21:1-6. It was another check applied periodically to the tyranny of the rich.
Compare Jer_34:8-17.
GILL, "And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor,.... The above
laws and instructions seem designed to prevent such extreme poverty as obliged to what
follows, namely, a brother being sold either to an Israelite or to a stranger, by relieving
his wants or lending him money; but when these were insufficient to support him, and
keep him from sinking into the lowest state of distress and misery, then he was obliged
to be sold, as follows:
and be sold unto thee; either by himself, being ready to starve and perish, or by the
sanhedrim, having stolen something, as Aben Ezra observes; in such a case the civil
magistrate had a power of selling a man, Exo_22:3,
thou shall not compel him to serve as a bondservant; such as were Heathens,
and bought of them, or taken in war and made slaves of; but an Israelite sold was not to
serve as they, either with respect to matter or manner, or time of service; such as were
bondmen were put to the hardest service, the greatest drudgery, as well as what was
mean and reproachful, and were used in the most rigorous and despotic manner, and
were obliged to serve for ever, and were never released; but a brother, an Israelite, sold
to another through extreme poverty, was not to be put to any low, mean, base, and
disgraceful service, by which it would be known that he was a servant, as Jarchi notes;
such as to carry his master's vessels or instruments after him to the bath, or to unloose
his shoes; but, as the same writer observes, he was to be employed in the business of the
farm, or in some handicraft work, and was to be kindly and gently used, rather as a
brother than a servant, and to be freed in the year of jubilee.
137

138. HENRY 39-43, “We have here the laws concerning servitude, designed to preserve
the honour of the Jewish nation as a free people, and rescued by a divine power out of
the house of bondage, into the glorious liberty of God's sons, his first-born. Now the law
is,
I. That a native Israelite should never be made a bondman for perpetuity. If he was
sold for debt, or for a crime, by the house of judgment, he was to serve but six years, and
to go out the seventh; this was appointed, Exo_21:2. But if he sold himself through
extreme poverty, having nothing at all left him to preserve his life, and if it was to one of
his own nation that he sold himself, in such a case it is here provided, 1. That he should
not serve as a bond-servant (Lev_25:39), nor be sold with the sale of a bondman (Lev_
25:42); that is, “it must not be looked upon that his master that bought him had as
absolute a property in him as in a captive taken in war, that might be used, sold, and
bequeathed, at pleasure, as much as a man's cattle; no, he shall serve thee as a hired
servant, whom the master has the use of only, but not a despotic power over.” And the
reason is, They are my servants, Lev_25:42. God does not make his servants slaves, and
therefore their brethren must not. God had redeemed them out of Egypt, and therefore
they must never be exposed to sale as bondmen. The apostle applies this spiritually
(1Co_7:23), You are bought with a price, be not the servants of men, that is, “of the lusts
of men, no, nor of your own lusts;” for, having become the servants of God, we must not
let sin reign in our mortal bodies, Rom_6:12, Rom_6:22. 2. That while he did serve he
should not be ruled with rigour, as the Israelites were in Egypt, Lev_25:43. Both his
work and his usage must be such as were fitting for a son of Abraham. Masters are still
required to give to their servants that which is just and equal, Col_4:1. They may be
used, but must not be abused. Those masters that are always hectoring and domineering
over their servants, taunting them and trampling upon them, that are unreasonable in
exacting work and giving rebukes, and that rule them with a high hand, forget that their
Master is in heaven; and what will they do when he rises up? as holy Job reasons with
himself, Job_31:13, Job_31:14. 3. That at the year of jubilee he should go out free, he
and his children, and should return to his own family, Lev_25:41. This typified our
redemption from the service of sin and Satan by the grace of God in Christ, whose truth
makes us free, Joh_7:32. The Jewish writers say that, for ten days before the jubilee-
trumpet sounded, the servants that were to be discharged by it did express their great
joy by feasting, and wearing garlands on their heads: it is therefore called the joyful
sound, Psa_89:15. And we are thus to rejoice in the liberty we have by Christ.
JAMISON 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
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139. the Israelites.
CALVIN, "39.And if thy brother. He now proceeds further, i e. , that one who has
bought his brother should treat him with humanity, and not otherwise than a hired
servant. We have seen, indeed, just above, that the labor of a slave is estimated at
twice as much, because the humanity of his master will never go so far as to indulge
or spare his slave as if he were a hireling. It is not, therefore, without reason that
God puts a restraint upon that rule, which experience shows to have been often
tyrannical. Still He prescribes no more than heathen philosophers did, (150) viz.,
that masters should treat their slaves like hired servants. And this principle of
justice ought to prevail towards all without exception; but since it was difficult to
prescribe the same rule respecting strangers as respecting their brethren, a special
law is enacted, that at least they should observe moderation towards their brethren,
with whom they had a common inheritance and condition. First:. therefore, it is
provided as to Hebrew slaves that they should not be treated harshly and
contemptuously like captives ( mancipia;) and then that their slavery should come to
an end in the year of jubilee. But here the question arises, since their liberty was
before accorded to them in the, seventh year, why it is now postponed to the fiftieth?
Some get over the difficulty by supposing that (151) if the jubilee occurred during
the six years, they must then be set free, although they had not completed the whole
term; but this is too forced a conjecture. The view that most approves itself to me is,
that the word ‫,יבל‬ yobel, is extended to mean every seventh year, or, at any rate, that
moderation towards those slaves is specially prescribed who were most exposed to
violence and other injurious treatment. For they would not have dared to oppress at
pleasure their slaves, who were soon afterwards to be free; but those who, by having
their ears bored, had subjected themselves to the longer period of slavery, would
have been more outrageously harassed, unless God had interposed. And this opinion
I freely adopt, that although their slavery lasted to the jubilee, yet flint their masters
were to treat them with moderation and humanity. This too is confirmed by what
immediately follows, where it is enjoined that the children should be set free with
their fathers, which did not take place in the seventh year.
COFFMAN, “"And if thy brother be waxed poor with thee, and sell himself unto
thee; thou shalt not make him to serve as a bondservant. As a hired servant, and as
a sojourner, he shall be with thee; he shall serve with thee unto the year of jubilee:
then shall he go out from thee, he and his children with him, and shall return unto
his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return. For they are
my servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold
as bondmen. Thou shalt not rule over him with rigor, but shalt fear thy God. And as
for thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, whom thou shalt have; of the nations that are
round about you, of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids. Moreover of the
children of the strangers that sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their
families that are with you, which they have begotten in your land: and they shall be
your possession. And ye shall make them an inheritance for your children after you,
to hold for a possession; of them shall ye take your bondmen forever: but over your
139

140. brethren the children of Israel ye shall not rule, one over another, with rigor."
The great import of these verses is that "no Jew could be a bondslave." As
McClaren stated it:
"No Jew was to be a slave. To that broad principle, there were exceptions, as
when one voluntarily gave himself up to his creditors, but even he could not be
treated as a slave, but as a hired servant, and at Jubilee he went free."[16]
"The Jubilee law was a guarantee that no Jew would ever again be reduced to the
type of slavery that oppressed Israel in Egypt."[17] Non-Jewish persons could be
reduced to slavery, and the Jubilee did not apply to them. There is a distinction that
should be noted in "the nations that are round about you" (Leviticus 25:44), and
"strangers ... that sojourn among you ... that are with you" (Leviticus 25:45). The
reason for this lay in the fact that Israel was commanded to destroy the nations that
dwelt in Canaan, thus these would only have existed beyond the borders of Israel,
that is, if Israel had obeyed God's command in this matter.
ELLICOTT, “ (39) And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor.—
Better, And if thy brother be waxen poor by thee, that is, after supporting his
tottering hand, as prescribed in Leviticus 25:35-38, and making all the charitable
efforts to help him, they fail, and he still finds himself in extreme poverty, and
unable to obtain a livelihood.
And be sold unto thee.—The voluntary disposal of his own liberty for a money
consideration the Israelite could only effect by stress of poverty.
Thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant.—Under these circumstances
he is not to be treated like heathen slaves who are either purchased or captured, and
made to do the menial service which these Gentile slaves have to perform. The
authorities during the second Temple adduce the following as degrading work
which the Israelite bondman is not to be put to: He must not attend his master at his
bath, nor tie up or undo the latchets of his sandals, &c., &c.
EBC, “THE JUBILEE AND SLAVERY
Leviticus 25:39-55
"And if thy brother be waxen poor with thee, and sell himself unto thee; thou shalt
not make him to serve as a bondservant: as a hired servant, and as a sojourner, he
shall be with thee; he shall serve with thee unto the year of jubilee: then shall he go
out from thee, he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family,
and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return. For they are My servants,
which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondmen.
Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour; but shalt fear thy God. And as for thy
bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have; of the nations that are
140

141. roundabout you, of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids. Moreover of the
children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of
their families that are with you, which they have begotten in your land: and they
shall be your possession. And ye shall make them an inheritance for your children
after you to hold for a possession; of them shall ye take your bondmen forever: but
over your brethren the children of Israel ye shall not rule, one over another, with
rigour. And if a stranger or sojourner with thee be waxen rich, and thy brother be
waxen poor beside him, and sell himself unto the stranger or sojourner with thee, or
to the stock of the stranger’s family: after that he is sold he may be redeemed; one of
his brethren may redeem him: or his uncle, or his uncle’s son, may redeem him, or
any that is nigh of kin unto him of his family may redeem him; or if he be waxen
rich, he may redeem himself. And he shall reckon with him that bought him from
the year that he sold himself to him unto the year of jubilee: and the price of his sale
shall be according unto the number of years; according to the time of a hired
servant shall he be with him. If there be yet many years, according unto them he
shall give back the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for.
And if there remain but few years unto the year of jubilee, then he shall reckon with
him according unto his years shall he give back the price of his redemption. As a
servant hired year by year shall he be with him: he shall not rule with rigour over
him in thy sight. And if he be not redeemed by these means then he shall go out in
the year of jubilee, he, and his children with him. For unto Me the children of Israel
are servants; they are My servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I
am the Lord your God."
Even with the burdensomeness of debt lightened as above, it was yet possible that a
man might be reduced to poverty so extreme that he should feel compelled to sell
himself as a slave. Hence arises the question of slavery, and its relation to the law of
the jubilee. Under this head two cases were possible: the first, where a man had sold
himself to a fellow Hebrew (Leviticus 25:39-46): the second, where a man had sold
himself to a foreigner resident in the land (Leviticus 25:47-55).
With the Hebrews and all the neighbouring peoples, slavery was, and had been from
of old, a settled institution. Regarded simply as an abstract question of morals, it
might seem as if the Lord might once for all have abolished it by an absolute
prohibition; after the manner in which many modern reformers would deal with
such evils as the liquor traffic, etc. But the Lord was wiser than many such. As has
been remarked already, in connection with the question of concubinage, that law is
not in every case the best which may be the best intrinsically and ideally. That law is
the best which can be best enforced in the actual moral status of the people, and
consequent condition of public opinion. So the Lord did not at once prohibit
slavery; but He ordained laws which would restrict it, and modify and ameliorate
the condition of the slave wherever slavery was permitted to exist; laws, moreover,
which have had such an educational power as to have banished slavery from the
Hebrew people.
In the first place, slavery, in the unqualified sense of the word, is allowed only in the
141

142. case of non-Israelites. That it was permitted to hold these as bondmen is explicitly
declared (Leviticus 25:44-46). It is, however, important, in order to form a correct
idea of Hebrew slavery, to observe that, according Exodus 21:16, man stealing was
made a capital offence; and the law also carefully guarded from violence and
tyranny on the part of the master the non-Israelite slave lawfully gotten, even
decreeing his emancipation from his master in extreme cases of this kind. {Exodus
21:20-21; Exodus 21:26-27}
With regard to the Hebrew bondman, the law recognises no property of the master
in his person; that a servant of Jehovah should be a slave of another servant of
Jehovah is denied; because they are His servants, no other can own them (Leviticus
25:42, Leviticus 25:55). Thus, while the case is supposed (Leviticus 25:39) that a
man through stress of poverty may sell himself to a fellow Hebrew as a bondservant,
the sale is held as affecting only the master’s right to his service, but not to his
person. "Thou shalt not make him to serve as a bondservant: as a hired servant, and
as a sojourner, he shall be with thee."
Further, it is elsewhere provided {Exodus 21:2} that in no case shall such sale hold
valid for a longer time than six years; in the seventh year the man was to have the
privilege of going out free for nothing. And in. this chapter is added a further
alleviation of the bondage (Leviticus 25:40-41):
"He shall serve with thee unto the year of jubilee: then shall he go out from thee, he
and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the
possession of his fathers shall he return. For they are My servants, which I brought
forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondmen."
That is, if it so happened that before the six years of his prescribed service had been
completed the jubilee year came in, he was to be exempted from the obligation to
service for the remainder of that period.
The remaining verses of this part of the law (Leviticus 25:44-46) provide that the
Israelite may take to himself bondmen of "the children of the strangers" that
sojourn among them; and that to such the law of the periodic release shall not be
held to apply. Such are "bondmen forever." "Ye shall make them an inheritance for
your children after you, to hold for a possession; of them shall ye take your
bondmen forever."
It is to be borne in mind that even in such cases the law which commanded the kind
treatment of all the strangers in the land {Leviticus 19:33-34} would apply; so that
even where permanent slavery was allowed it was placed under humanising
restriction.
In Leviticus 25:47-55 is taken up, finally, the case where a poor Israelite should have
sold himself as a slave to a foreigner resident in the land. In all such cases it is
ordered that the owner of the man must recognise the right of redemption. That is,
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143. it was the privilege of the man himself, or of any of his near kindred, to buy him out
of bondage. Compensation to the owner is, however, enjoined in such cases
according to the number of the years remaining to the next jubilee, at which time he
would be obliged to release him (Leviticus 25:54), whether redeemed or not. Thus
we read (Leviticus 25:50-52):
"He shall reckon with him that bought him from the year that he sold himself to
him unto the year of jubilee: and the price of his sale shall be according unto the
number of years; according to the time of a hired servant shall he be with him. If
there be yet many years, according unto them he shall give back the price of his
redemption out of the money that he was bought for. And if there remain but few
years unto the year of jubilee, then he shall reckon with him; according unto his
years shall he give back the price of his redemption. As a servant hired year by year
shall he be with him."
Furthermore, it is commanded (Leviticus 25:53) that the owner of the Israelite, for
so long time as he may remain in bondage, shall "not rule over him with rigour";
and by the addition of the words "in thy sight" it is intimated that God would hold
the collective nation responsible for seeing that no oppression was exercised by any
alien over any of their enslaved brethren. To which it should also be added, finally,
that the regulations for the release of the slave carefully provided for the
maintenance of the family relation. Families were not to be parted in the
emancipation of the jubilee: the man who went out free was to take his children with
him (Leviticus 25:41, Leviticus 25:54). In the case, however, where the wife had
been given him by his master, she and her children remained in bondage after his
emancipation in the seventh year; but of course only until she had reached her
seventh year of service. But if the slave already had his wife when he became a slave,
then she and their children went out with him in the seventh year. {Exodus 21:3-4}
The contrast in the spirit of these laws with that of the institution of slavery as it
formerly existed in the Southern States of America, and elsewhere-in Christendom,
is obvious.
These, then, were the regulations connected with the application of the ordinance of
the jubilee year to rights of property, whether in real estate or in slaves. In respect
to the cessation from the cultivation of the soil which was enjoined for the year, the
law was essentially the same as that for the sabbatic year, except that, apparently,
the right of property in the spontaneous produce of the land, which was in abeyance
in the former case, was in so far recognised in the latter that each man was allowed
to "eat the increase of the jubilee year out of the field" (Leviticus 25:12).
PRACTICAL OBJECTS OF THE SABBATIC YEAR AND JUBILEE LAW
Such was this extraordinary legislation, the like of which will be sought in vain in
any other people. It is indeed true that, in some instances, ancient lawgivers decreed
that land should not be permanently alienated, or that individuals should, not hold
more than a certain amount of land. Thus, for example, the Lacedemonians were
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144. forbidden to sell their lands, and the Dalmatians were wont to redistribute their
lands every eight years. But laws such as these only present accidental coincidences
with single features of the jubilee year; an agreement to be accounted for by the fact
that the aim of such lawgivers was, in so far, the same as that of the Hebrew code,
that they sought thus to guard against excessive accumulations of property in the
hands of individuals, and those consequent great inequalities in the distribution of
wealth which, in all lands and ages, and never more clearly than in our own, have
been seen to be fraught with the gravest dangers to the highest interests of society.
Beyond this single point we shall search in vain the history, of any other people for
an analogy to these laws concerning the sabbatic and the jubilee year.
What was the immediate object of this remarkable legislation? It is not irrelevant to
observe that in so far as regards the prescription of a periodic rest to the land,
agricultural science recognises that this is an advantage, especially in places where it
may be difficult to obtain fertilisers for the soil in adequate amount. But it cannot be
supposed that this was the chief object of these ordinances, not even in so far as they
had respect to the land. We shall not err in regarding them as intended, like all in
the Levitical system, to make Israel to be in reality, what they were called to be, a
people holy, i.e., fully consecrated to the Lord. The bearing of these laws on this end
is not hard to perceive.
In the first place, the law of the sabbatic year and the jubilee was a most impressive
lesson as to the relation of God to what men call their property; and, in particular,
as to His relation to man’s property in land. By these ordinances every Israelite was
to be reminded in a most impressive way that the land which he tilled, or on which
he fed his flocks and herds, belonged, not to himself, but to God. Just as God taught
him that his time belonged to Him, by putting in a claim for the absolute
consecration to Himself of every seventh day, so here He reminded Israel that the
land belonged to Him, by asserting a similar claim on the land every seventh year,
and twice in a century for two years in succession.
No one will pretend that the law of the sabbatic year or the jubilee is binding on
communities now. But it is a question for our times as to whether the basal principle
regarding the relation of God to land, and by necessary consequence the right of
man regarding land, which is fundamental to these laws, is not in its very nature of
perpetual force. Surely, there is nothing in Scripture to suggest that God’s
ownership of the land was limited to the land of Palestine, or to that land only
during Israel’s occupancy of it. Instead of this, Jehovah everywhere represents
Himself as having given the land to Israel, and therefore by necessary implication as
having a like right over it while as yet the Canaanites were dwelling in it. Again, the
purpose of God’s dealing with Egypt is said to be that Pharaoh might know this
same truth: that the earth (or land) was the Lord’s; {Exodus 9:29} and in Psalms
24:1 it is stated, as a broad truth, without qualification or restriction, that the earth
is the Lord’s, as well as that which fills it. It is true that there is no suggestion in any
of these passages that the relation of God to the earth or to the land is different from
His relation to other property; but it is intended to emphasise the fact that in the use
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145. of land, as of all else, we are to regard ourselves as God’s stewards, and hold and
use it as in trust from Him.
The vital relation of this great truth to the burning questions of our day regarding
the rights of men in land is self-evident. It does not indeed determine how the land
question should be dealt with in any particular country, but it does settle it that if in
these matters we will act in the fear of God, we must keep this principle steadily
before us, that, primarily, the land belongs to the Lord, and is to be used
accordingly. How, as a matter of fact, God did order that the land should be used, in
the only instance when He has condescended Himself to order the political
government of a nation, we have already seen, and shall presently consider more
fully.
It is obvious that the natural and therefore intended effect of these regulations, if
obeyed, would have been to impose a constant and powerful check upon man’s
natural covetousness and greed of gain. Every seventh year the Hebrew was to
pause in his toil for wealth, and for one whole year he was to waive even his
ordinary right to the spontaneous produce of his fields; which year of abstinence
from sowing and reaping once in fifty years was doubled. Add to this the strict
prohibition of lending money upon interest to a fellow Israelite, and we can see how
far reaching and effective, if obeyed, were such regulations likely to be in
restraining that insatiate greed for riches which ever grows the more by that which
feeds it.
Yet again; the law of the sabbatic year and the jubilee was adapted to serve also as a
singularly powerful discipline in that faith toward God which is the soul of all true
religion. In this practical way every Hebrew was to be taught that "man doth not
live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."
The lesson is ever hard to learn, though none the less necessary. This thought is
alluded to in Leviticus 25:20, where it is supposed that a man might raise the very
natural objection to these laws, "What shall we eat the seventh year?" To which the
answer is given, with reference even to the extreme case of the jubilee year: "I will
command My blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for
the three years; until the ninth year ye shall eat the old store."
But probably the most prominent and important object of the regulations in this
chapter was to secure, as far as possible, the equal distribution of wealth, by
preventing excessive accumulations either of land or of capital in the hands of a few,
while the mass should be sunk in poverty. It is certain that these laws, if carried out,
would have had a marvellous effect in this respect. As for capital, we all know what
an important factor in the production of wealth is accumulation by interest on
loans, especially when the interest is constantly compounded. There can be no doubt
of its immense power as an instrument for at once enriching the lender and in
proportion impoverishing the borrower. But among the Israelites, to receive interest
or its equivalent was prohibited. One other chief cause of the excessive wealth of
individuals among us, as in all ages, is the acquirement in perpetuity by individuals
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146. of a disproportionate amount of the public land. The condition of things in the
United Kingdom is familiar to all, with its inevitable effect on the condition of large
masses of people; and in parts of the United States there are indications of a like
tendency working toward the similar disadvantage of many small landholders and
cultivators. But in Israel, if these laws should be carried into effect, such a state of
things, so often witnessed among other nations, was made forever impossible.
Individual ownership in the land itself was forbidden; no man was allowed more
than a leasehold right; nor could he, even by adding largely to his lease holds,
increase his wealth indefinitely, so as to transmit a fortune to his children, to be still
further augmented by a similar process in the next and succeeding generations; for
every fifty years the jubilee came around, and whatever leaseholds he might have
acquired from less fortunate brethren, reverted unconditionally to the original
owner or his legal heirs.
However impracticable such arrangements may seem to us under the conditions of
modern life, yet it must be confessed that in the case of a nation just starting on its
career in a new country, as was Israel at that time, nothing could well be thought of
more likely to be effective toward securing, along with careful regard to the rights of
property, an equal distribution of wealth among the people, than the legislation
which is placed before us in this chapter.
It deserves to be specially noticed by how exact equity the laws are distinguished.
While, on the one hand, excessive accumulations, either of capital or of land, were
thus made impossible, there is here nothing of the destructive communism
advocated by many in our day. These laws put no premium on laziness; for if a man,
through indolence or vice, was compelled to sell out his right in his land, he had no
security of obtaining it again until the jubilee; that is to say, upon an average,
during his working lifetime. On the other hand, encouragement was given to
industry, as a man who was thrifty might, by purchase of leaseholds, materially
increase his wealth and comfort in life. And the effect on inheritance is evident.
There could, on the one hand, be no inheritance of such colossal and overgrown
fortunes as are possible in our modern states, -no blessing, certainly, in many cases,
to the heirs; and neither, on the other hand, could there be any inheritance of
hopeless and degrading poverty. A man might have had an indolent or a vicious
father, who had thus forfeited his landholding; but while the father would doubtless
suffer deserved poverty during his active life, the young man, when the jubilee
returned, and the lost paternal inheritance reverted to him, would have the
opportunity to see whether he might not, with his father’s experience before him as
a warning, do better, and retrieve the fortunes of the family. In any case, he would
not start upon the work of life weighted, as are multitudes among us, with a
crushing and almost irremovable burden of poverty.
It is certain, no doubt, that these laws are not morally binding now: and no less
certain, probably, that failing, as they did, to secure observance in Israel, such laws,
even if enacted, could not in our day be practically carried out any more than then.
Nevertheless, so much we may safely say, that the intention and aim of these laws as
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147. regards the equal distribution of wealth in the community ought to be the aim of all
wise legislation now. It is certain that all good government ought to seek in all
righteous and equitable ways to prevent the formation in the community of classes,
either of the excessively rich or of the excessively poor. Absolute equality in this
respect is doubtless unattainable, and in a world intended for purposes of moral
training and discipline were even undesirable; but extreme wealth or extreme
poverty are certainly evils to the prevention of which our legislators may well give
their minds. Only it needs also to be kept in mind that these Hebrew laws no less
distinctly teach us that this end is to be sought only in such a way as shall neither, on
the one hand, put a premium on laziness and vice, nor, on the other, deny to the
virtuous and industrious the advantage which industry and virtue deserve, of
additional wealth, comfort, and exemption from toilsome drudgery.
In close connection with all this it will be observed that all this legislation, while
guarding the rights of the rich, is evidently inspired by that same merciful regard
for the poor which marks the Levitical law throughout. For in all these regulations
it is assumed that there would still be poor in the land; but the law secured to the
poor great mitigations of poverty. Every seventh year the produce of the land was to
be free alike to all; if one were poor his brother was to uphold him; when lending
him, he was not to add to the debt the burden of interest or increase. And then there
was to the poor man the ever-present assurance, which alone would take off half the
bitterness of poverty, that through the coming of the jubilee the children at least
would have a new chance, and start life on an equality, in respect of inheritance in
land, with the sons of the richest. And when we remember the close connection
between extreme poverty and every variety of crime, it is plain that the whole
legislation is as admirably adapted to the prevention of crime as of abject and
hopeless poverty. Well might Asaph use the words which he employs, with evident
allusion to the trumpet sound which ushered in the jubilee: "Happy the people that
know the joyful sound!" i.e., that have the blessed experience of the jubilee, that
supreme earthly sabbatism of the people of God.
Most significant and full of instruction, no less to us than to Israel, was the
ordinance that both the sabbatic and the jubilee years should date from the day of
Atonement. It was when, having completed the solemn ritual of that day, the high
priest put on again his beautiful garments and came forth, having made atonement
for all the transgressions of Israel, that the trumpet of the jubilee was to be sounded.
Thus was Israel reminded in the most impressive manner possible that all these
social, civil, and communal blessings were possible only on condition of
reconciliation with God through atoning blood; atonement in the highest and fullest
sense, which should reach even to the Holy of Holies, and place the blood on the
very mercy seat of Jehovah. This is true still, though the nations have yet to learn it.
The salvation of nations, no less than that of individuals, is conditioned by national
fellowship with God, secured through the great Atonement of the Lord. Not until
the nations learn this lesson may we expect to see the crying evils of the earth
removed, or the questions of property, of land holding, of capital and labour, justly
and happily solved.
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148. TYPICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SABBATIC AND JUBILEE YEARS
But we must not forget that the sabbatic year and the year of jubilee, following the
seventh seven of years, are the two last members of a sabbatic system of septenary
periods, namely, the sabbath of the seventh day, the feast of Pentecost, following the
expiry of the seventh week from Passover, and then the still more sacred seventh
month, with its two great feasts, and the day of atonement intervening. But, as we
have seen, we have good scriptural authority for regarding all these as typical. Each
in succession brings out another stage or aspect of the great Messianic redemption,
in a progressive revelation historically unfolding. In all of these alike we have been
able to trace thoughts connected with the sabbatic idea, as pointing forward to the
final rest, redemption, and consummated restoration. the sabbatism that remaineth
to the people of God. To these preceding sabbatic periods these last two are closely
related. Both alike began on the great day of atonement, in which all Israel was to
afflict their souls in penitence for sin; and on that day they both began when the
high priest came out from within the veil, where, from the time of his offering the
sin offering, he had been hidden from the sight of Israel for a season; and both alike
were ushered in with a trumpet blast.
We shall hardly go amiss if we see in both of these-first in the sabbatic year, and still
more clearly in the year of jubilee-a prophetic foreshadowing in type of that final
repentance of the children of Israel in the latter days, and their consequent
reestablishment in their land, which the prophets so fully and explicitly predict. In
that day they are to return, as the prophets bear witness, every man to the land
which the Lord gave for an inheritance to their fathers. Indeed, one might say with
truth that even the lesser restoration from Babylon was prefigured in this
ordinance; but, without doubt, its chief and supreme reference must be to that
greater restoration still in the future, of which we read, for example, in Isaiah 11:11,
when "the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of
His people, which shall remain, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from the islands
of the sea."
But the typical reference of these sacred years of sabbatism reaches yet beyond what
pertains to Israel alone. For not only, according to the prophets and apostles, is
there to be a restoration of Israel, but also, as the Apostle Peter declared to the Jews,
{Acts 3:19-21} closely connected with and consequent on this, a "restoration of all
things." And it is in this great, final, and exceedingly glorious restoration of the time
of the end that we recognise the ultimate antitype of these sabbatic seasons. When
read in the light of later predictions they appear to point forward with singular
distinctness to what, according to the Holy Word, shall be-when Jesus Christ, the
heavenly High Priest, shall come forth from within the veil; when the last trumpet
shall sound, and He who was "once offered to bear the sins of many" shall appear a
second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for Him, unto salvation. {Hebrews
9:28}
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149. Even in the beginning of the Pentateuch {Genesis 3:17-19} it is explicitly taught that
because of Adam’s sin, the curse of God, in some mysterious way, fell even upon the
material earthly creation. We read that the Lord said unto Adam: "Cursed is the
ground for thy sake; in toil shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also
and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the
sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground." It is
because of sin, then, that man is doomed to labour, toilsome and imperfectly
requited by an unwilling soil. It lies immediately before us that both the sabbatic
year and the year of jubilee, by the ordinance regarding the rest for the land, and
the special promise of sufficiency without exhausting labour, involved for Israel a
temporary suspension of the full operation of this curse. The ordinance therefore
points unmistakably in a prophetic way to what the New Testament explicitly
predicts-the coming of a day when, with man redeemed, material nature also shall
share the great deliverance. In a word, in the sabbatic year, and in a yet higher form
in the year of jubilee, we have in symbol the wonderful truth which in the most
didactic language is formally declared by the Apostle Paul in these words: {Romans
8:19-22}
"The earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the revealing of the sons of
God. For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of
him who subjected. it, in hope that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the
bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we
know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now."
The jubilee year contained in type all this, and more. Where the sabbatic year had
typically pointed only to a coming rest of the earth from the primeval curse, the
jubilee, falling, not on a seventh, but on an eighth year, following immediately on
the sabbatic seventh, pointed also to the permanence of this blessed condition. It is
the festival, by eminence, of the new creation, of paradise completely and forever
restored.
Moreover, as falling in the fiftieth year, and therefore on an eighth year of the
sabbatic calendar, the jubilee was to the week of years as the Lord’s day to the week
of days. Like that, it is the festival of resurrection. This is as clearly foreshadowed in
the type as the other. For in the year of jubilee not only was the land to rest, but
every bond slave was to be released, and to return to his inheritance and to his
family. In the light of what has preceded, and of other revelations of Scripture, we
can hardly miss of perceiving the typical meaning of this. For what is the great event
which the Apostle Paul, in the passage just cited, associates in time with the
deliverance of the earthly creation, but "the redemption of the body," as the final
issue of the atoning work of Christ? For as yet even believers are in bondage to
death and the grave; but the day which is coming, the day of earth’s redemption,
shall bring to all that are Christ’s, all that are Israelites indeed, deliverance "from
the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God."
And as the slave who was freed in the year of jubilee therewith also returned to his
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150. forfeited inheritance, so also shall it be in that day. For precisely this is given us by
the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, {1 Peter 1:4-5} as another aspect of the day
when the heavenly Aaron shall come forth from the Holiest. For we are begotten
unto an inheritance, reserved in heaven for us, "who by the power of God are
guarded through faith unto a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." Cast
out through death from the inheritance of the earth, which in the beginning was
given by God to our first father, and to his seed in him, but which was lost to him
and to his children through his sin, the great jubilee of the future shall bring us
again, every man who is in Christ by faith, into the lost inheritance, redeemed and
glorified citizens of a redeemed and glorified earth. Hence it is that in Revelation
22:1-21 we are shown in vision, first, the new earth, delivered from the curse, and
then the New Jerusalem, the Church of the risen and glorified saints of God,
descending from God out of heaven, to assume possession of the purchased
inheritance.
And the law adds also: "Ye shall return every man unto his family"; which gives the
last feature here prefigured of that supreme sabbatism which remaineth for the
people of God. {Hebrews 4:9} It shall bring the reunion of those who had been
parted and scattered. The day of resurrection is accordingly spoken of {2
Thessalonians 2:1} as a day of "gathering together" of all who, though one in
Christ, have been rudely parted by death. And yet more, it will be "the day of our
gathering together unto Him," even the blessed Lord Jesus Christ, the "Goel, " the
Kinsman-Redeemer of the ruined bondsmen and their lost inheritance: "Whom not
having seen, we love," but then expect to see even as He is, and beholding Him, be
like Him, and be with Him forever and forever. Who should not long for the day?-
the day when for the first time, this last type of Leviticus shall pass into complete
fulfilment in the antitype: the day of "the restoration of all things"; the day of the
deliverance of the material creation from her present bondage to corruption; the
day also of the release of every true Israelite from the bondage of death, and the
eternal establishment of all such with the Elder Brother, the First-begotten, in the
enjoyment of the inheritance of the saints in light.
"Love, rest, and home! Sweet hope! Lord! tarry not, but COME!"
PETT, “They Must Not Treat Fellow-Israelites As Bondservants (Leviticus
25:39-43).
Leviticus 25:39
“And if your brother be grown poor with you, and sell himself to you, you shall not
make him to serve as a bondservant.”
In days when there was no state aid a man could through bad luck or illness or
violence easily find that he had to sell his land, and after a time be left with little
money to keep his family alive. He could reach such a stage that his only option was
to sell himself as a bondservant so as to provide for his wife and children. If that
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151. happened to a fellow-Israelite he was not to be treated as a bondservant. He should
simply be taken into service. Note that only he could be taken into service, not his
family.
WHEDON, “ 39. Be sold — This is more correctly rendered reflexively, SELL
HIMSELF. Ewald maintains that the reflexive and not the passive was the primary
force of the niphal form of the Hebrew. See Gesen. Thes., p. 787. There is granted
here no authority for the creditor to seize the debtor and sell him into slavery. He
may enter into voluntary servitude under the pressure of poverty, but not of debt.
The instances in 2 Kings 4:1 and Nehemiah 5:5 were outrages of the Mosaic law,
and the case in Matthew 18:25 is a parable founded on Roman usages. Isaiah 50:1,
applies to one already a slave. The only cases of the legal involuntary sale of a
Hebrew are for theft, (Exodus 22:1; Exodus 22:3,) and of a daughter for the
matrimonial estate. Exodus 21:7-11. According to Jewish writers, it was not lawful
for a Hebrew to sell himself except in extreme poverty.
Says Maimonides: “A man might not sell himself to lay up the money which was
given for him; nor to buy goods, nor to pay his debts, but merely that he might get
bread to eat. Neither was it lawful for him to sell himself as long as he had so much
as a garment left.”
Bondservant — The Hebrew is, thou shalt not impose upon him the service of a
servant. This language has no word to signify distinctively what we mean by slave,
bondman, or bondservant. Many glaring misstatements have proceeded from the
false assumption that all the servitude in the Old Testament was slavery, and that
the word ‫,עבד‬ servant, wherever it occurs, means slave. It is to be regretted that our
English translators did not use the term apprenticed servant of all work as
distinctive from the servant, like a mechanic hired to do specific work by the day or
year. The Israelites were oppressed servants in Egypt, but never bondmen or slaves,
the property of the Egyptians. The Septuagint frequently and more accurately uses
παις where the English Version uses bondman. The poor Hebrew who contracted to
serve until the jubilee must be exempted from the rough work of the apprenticed
non-Hebrew servant of all work. In Exodus 21:2; Deuteronomy 15:12, the Hebrew
servant is to go out free after serving six years, while in Leviticus he is to serve till
the year of jubilee. These apparent discrepancies harmonize in this way, “His
servitude would cease at the end of the six years or at the end of the jubilee period,
whichever was nearest. For example, a man sold under ordinary circumstances
must serve six full years; but a man sold in the forty-sixth, would go out in the
fiftieth year of the jubilee period, thus serving less than six years’ time.” — Haley.
This is the rabbinic view. We cannot agree with Ewald and others that we have here
legal provisions of different dates; that after emancipation in the seventh year had
fallen out of use through the avarice of the masters, the later legislation in the
interest of the oppressor extended the service to the fiftieth year; “which would
indeed,” says Oehler, “have been a very sorry surrogate, since numberless servants
did not survive to the year of jubilee.” The first legislation in Exodus harmonizes
with the last in Deuteronomy, both limiting the service to six years. Saalschutz, who
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152. thinks “this is getting over the difficulty in a superficial way,” harmonizes the
discrepancy in these two classes of laws by “the pretty clear intimations contained in
them that they treat of entirely different classes of persons.” 1.) Hebrew servants
born in a state of servitude. 2.) Impoverished Israelites, free landholders, who are
never called servants, but brethren. See Leviticus 25:39; Leviticus 25:47. These,
having sold their lands till the jubilee, are allowed, as a favour to them, to borrow
money on the pledge of a long term of service, extending to the jubilee. But in the
case of the purchase of a servant already in bondage, on the contrary, his master set
his price in view of the requirement to release him at the end of six years. See Bib.
Sac., Jan., 1862.
40 They are to be treated as hired workers or
temporary residents among you; they are to work
for you until the Year of Jubilee.
GILL, "But as an hired servant,.... Who is hired by the day, or month, or year; and,
when his time is up, receives his wages and goes where he pleases, and while a servant is
not under such despotic power and government as a slave is:
and as a sojourner; an inmate, one that dwells in part of a man's house, or boards and
lodges with him, and whom he treats in a kind and familiar manner, rather like one of
his own family than otherwise:
he shall be with thee; as under the above characters, and used as such: this the Jews
refer to food and drink, and other things, as they do, Deu_15:16; and say (q) that a
master might not eat fine bread, and his servant bread of bran; nor drink old wine, and
his servant new; nor sleep on soft pillows and bedding, and his servant on straw: hence,
they say (r), he that gets himself an Hebrew servant is as if he got himself a master:
and shall serve thee unto the year of the jubilee; and no longer; for if the year of
jubilee came before the six years were expired for which he sold himself, the jubilee set
him free, as Jarchi observes; nay, if be sold himself for ten or twenty years, and that but
one year before the jubilee, it set him free, as Maimonides says (s).
COKE, “Leviticus 25:40. He shall—serve thee until the year of jubilee— In Exodus
21:2 it is said, that an Hebrew servant being bought should serve only six years, and
go out in the seventh. The difference between these passages is supposed to consist in
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153. this: that the case in Exodus refers to such slaves as were sold by others; while the
present refers to such as sold themselves, and who consequently might dispose of
themselves for a longer period than it would have been equitable and humane to
have assigned to those who were sold without their own consent.
ELLICOTT, “ (40) But as an hired servant.—The master is in all respects to treat
him as one who disposes of his service for wages for a certain time, and will then be
his own master again.
Shall serve thee unto the year of jubile.—Nor could he be kept beyond the year of
jubile. This terminated the sale of his services just as it cancelled all the sales of
landed property.
PETT, “Leviticus 25:40
“As a hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with you. He shall serve with
you to the year of yubile,”
For he should be treated in the same way as a hired-servant or a resident alien, as a
free man while enjoying the security enjoyed by a bondservant, until at the year of
Yubile he would receive back his land.
41 Then they and their children are to be released,
and they will go back to their own clans and to the
property of their ancestors.
GILL, "And then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with
him,.... His sons and daughters, and his wife also, who is included in himself: if a man
had a wife and children when he sold himself, or married afterwards, with his master's
consent, he was obliged to maintain them (t); though they were not sold to him, nor
properly his servants, and so had a right to go out with him:
and shall return unto his own family; his father's family, and that of his near
relations, having been out of it during his time of servitude, and which the year of jubilee
restored him to, Lev_25:10,
and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return; the estate his father left
him by inheritance, and which he was obliged to sell in the time of his poverty, or which
fell to him since by the death of his father; to this also he was restored in the year of
jubilee, as is expressed in the text referred to.
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154. TRAPP, “Leviticus 25:41 And [then] shall he depart from thee, [both] he and his
children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of
his fathers shall he return.
Ver. 41. And then shall he depart from thee.] Yea, and though he had been bored
through the ear, in token of perpetual servitude. [Exodus 21:2; Exodus 21:6]
PETT, “Leviticus 25:41
“Then shall he go out from you, he and his children with him, and shall return to his
own family, and to the possession of his fathers shall he return.”
Once the year of Yubile came he would be free to go back to his land, once more
totally free, together with his wife and children, (the wife as ever always assumed as
part of himself). They were not to be put in bondservice.
The same principle applies between Christians. We should treat fellow-Christians
well, whether we employ them, or are responsible for them, remembering that they
are our brothers and God’s men. But they too should not take advantage of the
situation. Responsibility lies on both sides.
WHEDON, “41. Unto the possession of his fathers — These words afford a key to
the difficulty which we have just discussed. The release here spoken of is that which
restores the servant to his landed inheritance. This in no way is in conflict with the
release of servants occurring every seventh year after their respective terms of six
years, a release unattended by the restoration of their ancestral lands.
42 Because the Israelites are my servants, whom I
brought out of Egypt, they must not be sold as
slaves.
CLARKE, "For they are my servants - As God redeemed every Israelite out of
Egyptian bondage, they were therefore to consider themselves as his property, and that
consequently they should not alienate themselves from him. It was in being his servants,
and devoted to his work, that both their religious and political service consisted. And
although their political liberty might be lost, they knew that their spiritual liberty never
could be forfeited except by an utter alienation from God. God therefore claims the same
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155. right to their persons which he does to their lands; See the note on Lev_25:23.
GILL, "For they are my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of
Egypt,.... The Lord redeemed them out of Egypt, made a purchase of them, and had a
prior right unto them, and being his servants first, they cannot be the servants of others;
his right unto them as such antecedes and prevents any other claim upon them:
they shall not be sold as bondmen; or, "with", or, "according to the sale of a
bondman" (u); in the manner they are sold, or according to the laws of selling of
servants; not in such a public manner as they are sold in markets, nor for such purposes
to be used as slaves in a rigorous manner, nor so as to be retained for ever in servitude;
not to be sold by proclamation, as Jarchi observes, saying, here is a servant to be sold;
nor shall they set him upon the stone of sale; for it seems in public places in markets,
where slaves were sold, there was a stone on which they were placed, which showed that
they were to be sold; but now an Israelite was not to be sold in such a manner, so
Maimonides (w) says, but privately, in an honourable way.
K&D, "Lev_25:42-43
Because the Israelites were servants of Jehovah, who had redeemed them out of
Pharaoh's bondage and adopted them as His people (Exo_19:5; Exo_18:10, etc.), they
were not to be sold “a selling of slaves,” i.e., not to be sold into actual slavery, and no one
of them was to rule over another with severity (Lev_25:43, cf. Exo_1:13-14). “Through
this principle slavery was completely abolished, so far as the people of the theocracy
were concerned”' (Oehler).
CALVIN, "42.For they are my servants. God here declares that His own right is
invaded when those, whom He claims as His property, are taken into subjection by
another; for He says that He acquired the people as His own when He redeemed
them from Egypt. Whence He infers that His right is violated if any should usurp
perpetual dominion over a Hebrew. If any object that this is of equal force, when
they only serve for a time, I reply, that though God might have justly asserted His
sole ownership, yet He was satisfied with this symbol of it; and therefore that He
suffered by indulgence that they should be enslaved for a fixed period, provided
some trace of His deliverance of them should remain. In a word, He simply chose to
apply this preventative lest slavery should altogether extinguish the recollection of
His grace, although He allowed it to be thus smothered as it were. Lest, therefore,
cruel masters should trust that their tyranny would be exercised with impunity,
Moses reminds them that they had to do with God, who will at length appear as its
avenger. Although the political laws of Moses are not now in operation, still the
analogy is to be preserved, lest the condition of those who have been redeemed by
Christ’s blood should be worse amongst us, than that of old of tits ancient people.
To whom Paul’s exhortation refers:
“Ye masters, forbear threatening your slaves, knowing that both your and their
Master is in heaven.” (152) (Ephesians 6:9.)
155

156. COKE, “Verse 42-43
Leviticus 25:42-43, &c. For they are my servants, &c.— A great distinction is made
between native Israelites and strangers in the case of servitude; and the reason
urged is, that the meanest Israelite, as well as the richest, was redeemed from
Egyptian bondage, and had this honour, to be the peculiar servant and worshipper
of the true God: the dignity therefore of his character, and his relation to God the
common master, entitled him to good usage from his brethren, and was to secure
him from oppressive slavery and rigour, like that which the Egyptians exercised
over the Israelites. Exodus 1:13-14. In consequence of this their external privilege,
the Jews always valued themselves as a free people, according to a distinction which
their rabbis make between internal and external liberty; averring that the latter
may be lost, but the former never can: but, alas! how little did those rabbis know of
the fall of man! And is not every one a slave internally, who is in subjection to
irregular passions and appetites? But it must be granted, that human laws or
external coercion cannot restrain the movements of the mind. May we not just hint,
that if the appropriation of the Israelites to one common master and deliverer was a
sufficient reason why they should never make slaves of each other, certainly that
relation, in which all men now stand to the great Lord and Redeemer of the world,
is a sufficient reason universally to abolish the unchristian practice of slavery at
present?
ELLICOTT, “ (42) For they are my servants.—This is a clue to the whole system of
Hebrew servitude. These poverty-stricken men, who are driven to sell themselves to
their fellow-Israelites, God claims as His servants. God is their Lord as well as their
master’s Lord. He delivered them both alike from bondage to serve Him. There is,
therefore, no difference between bond and free.
They shall not be sold as bondmen—That is, as personal property or chattels. The
authorities during the second Temple, however, interpreted this clause to mean that
an Israelite is not to be sold by proclamation or in public places, but privately, and
in an honourable manner, with all possible consideration for his feelings.
PETT, “Leviticus 25:42
“For they are my servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they
shall not be sold as bondmen.”
And the reason that fellow-Israelites should not be treated as bondservants was that
they were of those whom Yahweh had delivered from bondage. He had brought
them from the land of Egypt. He had declared them free, therefore they could never
again be put in bondage while the covenant remained firm.
WHEDON, “ 42. For they are my servants — Their first allegiance is to me. I have
the prior claim to their service, which is inconsistent with chattelism.
156

157. They shall not be sold as bondmen — Literally, “they shall not sell themselves the
selling of a servant,” that is, as a servant is sold.
43 Do not rule over them ruthlessly, but fear your
God.
BARNES, "Fear thy God - Yahweh was the Lord and Master of His people. To treat
a Hebrew as a slave was therefore to interfere with the rights of Yahweh. Compare Rom_
14:4.
CLARKE, "Thou shalt not rule over him with rigor - What is rigorous service?
“Service which is not determined, and service whereof there is no need.” This is the
definition given by the Jews; but much more is implied in this command than is
expressed here. Labour beyond the person’s strength, or labor too long continued, or in
unhealthy or uncomfortable places and circumstances, or without sufficient food, etc., is
labor exacted with rigour, and consequently inhuman; and this law is made, not for the
Mosaic dispensation and the Jewish people, but for every dispensation and for every
people under heaven.
GILL, "Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour,.... As the Egyptians ruled over
the Israelites, and made them to serve, Exo_1:13; where the same word is used as here,
and seems designed to put them in mind of it, that so they might abstain from such
usage of their brethren, which they had met with from their most cruel enemies; it
signifies tyranny and oppression, treating them with great severity, laying hard and
heavy tasks and burdens upon them they could not bear; enjoining them things they
could not perform, and ordering them to do what were unnecessary, and without any
limitation with respect to time:
but shalt fear thy God; that has been good to thee, and has brought thee out of hard
and rigorous bondage in Egypt; and which should be remembered with thankfulness,
and they should fear to offend so good a God by using a brother cruelly.
TRAPP, “Leviticus 25:43 Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour; but shalt fear
thy God.
157

158. Ver. 43. Rule over him with rigour.] As the Egyptians did over the Israelites.
[Exodus 1:13] Thy servant is made of the same earth with thee, and hath right to the
same heaven with thee. See Galatians 3:28. The servant paid the half shekel as well
as the master. Stand not therefore on terms of inequality, but know that yourselves
also have a Master in heaven. Do therefore to them "that which is right and equal."
[Colossians 4:1]
PETT, “Leviticus 25:43
“You shall not rule over him with rigor, but shall fear your God.”
Thus their Israelite masters were not to treat them roughly or severely as they had
all been treated in Egypt, but as fellow members of the covenant, because as masters
they feared God.HEDON, “Verse 43
43. Not rule… with rigour — Literally, thou shalt not tread on him. The rabbins
specified a variety of duties as coming under these general precepts; as
compensation for personal injury, exemption from such menial duties as unbinding
the master’s sandals or carrying him on a litter, while he was shielded from serious
abusive words. The master was also obliged to maintain the servant’s wife and
children, though, if they were free, he could exact no work from them. At the end of
his term of service the master was forbidden “to let him go away empty.”
Deuteronomy 15:13-14.
Fear thy God — Genuine piety always bears good will towards man as its first fruit.
Acts 16:33; Ephesians 6:9.
44 “‘Your male and female slaves are to come
from the nations around you; from them you may
buy slaves.
BARNES 44-46, “
Property in foreign slaves is here distinctly permitted. It was a patriarchal custom
Gen_17:12. Such slaves might be captives taken in war (Num_31:6 following; Deu_
158

159. 20:14), or those consigned to slavery for their crimes, or those purchased of foreign
slave-dealers. The price of a slave is supposed to have varied from thirty to fifty shekels.
See Lev_27:3-4, note; Exo_21:32, note; Zec_11:12-13, note; Mat_26:15, note. It was the
object of Moses, not at once to do away with slavery, but to discourage and to mitigate it.
The Law would not suffer it to be forgotten that the slave was a man, and protected him
in every way that was possible at the time against the injustice or cruelty of his master.
See the notes at Exo. 21.
GILL, "Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have,....
Such it seems were allowed them, if they had need of them; but if they had them, they
were to be not of the nation of Israel, but of other nations; this is an anticipation of an
objection, as Jarchi observes; if so, who shall I have to minister to me? The answer
follows, they
shall be of the heathen that are round about thee, of them shall ye buy
bondmen and bondmaids; that is, of the Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites, and
Syrians, as Aben Ezra, that were their neighbours, that lived round about them, of any
but the seven nations, which they were ordered utterly to destroy; wherefore Jarchi
observes it is said, "that are round about thee"; not in the midst of the border of your
land, for them they were not to save alive, Deu_20:16.
HENRY 44-52, “ That they might purchase bondmen of the heathen nations that
were round about them, or of those strangers that sojourned among them (except of
those seven nations that were to be destroyed); and might claim a dominion over them,
and entail them upon their families as an inheritance, for the year of jubilee should give
no discharge to them, Lev_25:44, Lev_25:46. Thus in our English plantations the
negroes only are used as slaves; how much to the credit of Christianity I shall not say.
Now, 1. This authority which they had over the bondmen whom they purchased from the
neighbouring nations was in pursuance of the blessing of Jacob, Gen_27:29, Let people
serve thee. 2. It prefigured the bringing in of the Gentiles to the service of Christ and his
church. Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thy inheritance, Psa_2:8. And it
is promised (Isa_61:5), Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the
alien shall be your vine-dressers; see Rev_2:26, Rev_2:27. The upright shall have the
dominion in the morning, Psa_49:14. 3. It intimates that none shall have the benefit of
the gospel jubilee but those only that are Israelites indeed, and the children of Abraham
by faith: as for those that continue heathenish, they continue bondmen. See this turned
upon the unbelieving Jews themselves, Gal_4:25, where Jerusalem, when she had
rejected Christ, is said to be in bondage with her children. Let me only add here that,
though they are not forbidden to rule their bondmen with rigour, yet the Jewish doctors
say, “It is the property of mercy, and way of wisdom, that a man should be
compassionate, and not make his yoke heavy upon any servant that he has.”
K&D, "Lev_25:44-46
As the Israelites could only hold in slavery servants and maid-servants whom they had
bought of foreign nations, or foreigners who had settled in the land, these they might
leave as an inheritance to their children, and “through them they might work,” i.e., have
slave-labour performed, but not through their brethren the children of Israel (Lev_
25:46, cf. Lev_25:43).
159

160. CALVIN, "44.Both thy bond-men, and thy bond-maids. What God here permits as
regards strangers was everywhere customary among the Gentiles, viz., that their
power over their slaves should exist not only until their death, but should continue
in perpetual succession to their children; for this is the force of the expression, “ye
shall possess them for your children,” that the right of ownership should pass to
their heir’s also; nor is there a distinction made only as to perpetuity, (153) but also
as to the mode of their treatment. For we must observe the antithesis, “ye shall make
use of their service, but over his brother no man shall rule with rigor;” (154) whence
it appears that a restraint was imposed upon them lest they should imperiously rule
the children of Abraham, and not leave them half their liberty in comparison with
the Gentiles. Not that a tyrannical or cruel exercise of power oyer strangers was
allowed, but that God would have the race of Abraham, whose liberator lie was,
exempted by certain privileges from the common lot.
ELLICOTT, “ (44) Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have,
shall be of the heathen.—Rather, As for thy bondmen and bondmaids which thou
must have of the heathen, &c. As the Law forbids the Israelites to have their
brethren as bondmen, or employ them in menial work which belongs to the slaves,
the Lawgiver anticipates a difficulty which the Hebrews might raise against these
enactments. If they are not to be engaged in this work, who then is to do it? Hence
the reply in the verse before us.
Of the heathen that are round about you.—These are to be purchased to do the
necessary work. The Israelites, however, were restricted to the Ammonites, the
Moabites, the Edomites, and the Syrians, who were their neighbours, but were not
permitted to buy any slaves from the seven nations who were in the midst of them,
and whom they were ordered to destroy (Deuteronomy 20:16-18).
PETT, “Verses 44-46
Regulations Regarding Foreign Bondservants (Leviticus 25:44-46).
Foreign bondservants were necessarily in a different position for they had no hope
of a future restoration of land. It may be asked why foreign bondservants were
allowed at all. The answer is because of demand by the foreign bondservants. They
came to Israel poor, hungry and with nothing, seeking and begging for a permanent
position. They bound themselves to work for the keep of themselves and their
families. They did not want to be hired servants who could be taken on and fired.
They wanted permanent security, and they received that in bondservice. Had there
been no provision for this they would simply have gone away empty and hungry,
and starved. The Law was practical. It was for running a country as it was, not a
Utopian ideal which could never work in practise because of the condition of men’s
hearts.
Israel was not a bad place to do bondservice compared with some other places. They
160

161. had kinds of protection under the Law which few other countries gave them. And it
would not have been a kindness to ban such bondservice. For any theoretical
alternative would simply have been redundant, and they would have had to go
elsewhere where conditions were worse. The Israelites were not angels. Their
behaviour in the wilderness revealed that. As we know they were not very faithful in
keeping the covenant as it was. Thus they had to be catered for as they were. And
poor aliens needed the security of bondservice. For them it was not an option, it was
a necessity. It was in fact a way of life often taken by choice. They would not want it
banned.
Leviticus 25:44
“And as for your bondmen, and your bondmaids, whom you shall have, of the
nations that are round about you, of them shall you buy bondmen and bondmaids.”
So permission was given for Israelites to buy bondservants of the nations who were
to be round about them. But they were to love them as they loved themselves
(Leviticus 19:34). They were to protect their interests (Leviticus 19:20-22; Exodus
20:10; Exodus 21:20; Exodus 21:26; Exodus 21:32). If they were Habiru
(wandering, unattached peoples) they would have the normal Habiru seven year
contracts with generous provision for when they left (Exodus 21:2-6; Deuteronomy
15:12-18 - note the implication that many would want to stay longer) as also at Nuzi.
But the standard of their lives would in the end not depend on the law but on the
kindness or otherwise of their masters. And many of them had no other option
before them. A general manumission would have done them no good. They would
simply have had to seek bondservice elsewhere, usually under worse conditions.
WHEDON, “ NON-HEBREW SERVANTS, Leviticus 25:44-46.
44. Of the heathen… shall ye buy bondmen — Literally, man-servants and maid-
servants. The “shall” is not mandatory but permissive. “Such purchase and
adoption into Hebrew families was an appointed redemption from a worse state.
There could not, consequently, be any sentiment of injustice, under this revealed
will of God, in regard to the purchase from heathen masters of servants possessed
by them as slaves, and treated as such, since they were brought from an
irresponsible, unlimited slavery into a system of guardianship, protection, religious
instruction, and family and national privileges. The children of such would be
circumcised, adopted, and become sons of the house. In no other way than by
purchase could the Hebrews redeem them, even if they had started on the
emancipation of the nations. If they had been forbidden to buy, and had been
restricted to hired servants of their own race alone, they could not have gotten
possession of heathen slaves, even to redeem them, except as runaways; and thus
multitudes would have been kept in heathen bondage, who, the moment they passed
into Hebrew bondage, passed into a state of comparative freedom.” — Dr. Cheever.
The Hebrew construction of these words is not “ye shall purchase of the nations,”
but of the servants that have come to you from among those nations. A slave-market
161

162. was never known in Palestine, nor a slave-trader.
Heathen… round about — These words exclude the Canaanite tribes in the land,
who had been doomed to complete extermination. Deuteronomy 20:16-19. But since
this sentence was not executed, the remnants were subjected to compulsory service.
Judges 1:28; Judges 1:30, note.
45 You may also buy some of the temporary
residents living among you and members of their
clans born in your country, and they will become
your property.
GILL, "Moreover, of the children of the strangers, that do sojourn among
you,.... The uncircumcised sojourners as they are called in the Targums of Onkelos and
Jonathan, proselytes of the gate, such of the nations round about who came and
sojourned among them, being subject to the precepts given to the sons of Noah
respecting idolatry, &c. but were not circumcised, and did not embrace the Jewish
religion:
of them shall ye buy; for bondmen and bondmaids:
and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land; but, as
the Targum of Jonathan adds, are not of the Canaanites; though the Jewish writers (x)
say, that one of the nations that lies with a Canaanitish woman, and begets a son of her,
he may be bought for a servant; and so if a Canaanitish man lies with one of the nations,
and begets a son of her, he may also be bought for a servant:
and they shall be your possession; as servants, as bondmen and bondmaids, and be
so for ever to them and their heirs, as follows.
ELLICOTT, “ (45) Moreover of the children of the strangers.—Besides the
surrounding nations, the Hebrews are also permitted to obtain their slaves from
those strangers who have taken up their abode in the Holy Land. By these strangers
the ancient authorities understand those who have been permitted to settle down
among the Jews on condition that they submit to the seven commandments given to
Noah, but have not embraced Judaism. Hence the Chaldee Version translates this
phrase, “the children of uncircumcised strangers.”
And they shall be your possession.—These, but not the Hebrews, the masters may
162

163. hold as their absolute property.
PETT, “Leviticus 25:45
“Moreover of the children of the strangers that sojourn among you, of them shall
you buy, and of their families that are with you, which they have begotten in your
land. And they shall be your possession.”
Again they could ‘buy’ bondservants of resident foreigners living among them, that
is enter into a contract with them of permanent service in return for permanent
shelter and keep for them and their families. And they would belong to them to be
treated with all the care shown for valuable assets. We should remember that life
was in fact hard for all. Survival was a struggle for all. WHEDON, “Verse 45
45. Children of the strangers… shall ye buy — It is very natural that the institution
which originated in war, should be perpetuated in peace, and that the offspring of
the first captives should follow the status of their parents, and that the system
should embrace the children of foreigners who should offer them for sale. This often
prevented the crime of infanticide, widely prevalent among the heathen. Thus was
formed in the Hebrew state a sort of helot-class, mentioned especially under David
(2 Chronicles 2:17, compare with 2 Samuel 20:24, note, and Solomon, 1 Kings 9:20;
2 Chronicles 8:7.) This class, which was employed on the public works, is estimated
at one hundred and fifty-three thousand six hundred persons. As the Old Testament
never mentions the importation of slaves as chattels, nor alludes to slave-markets, it
is to be supposed that no slaves proper were bought in foreign lands. The Hebrews
came in contact with the Phoenician slave-trade only as sufferers. Joel 3:4-6; Amos
1:9. Among the Jews the number of servants was comparatively much smaller than
the number of slaves among other nations of antiquity. In Athens the proportion of
slaves to citizens at one time was as high as four to one; but among the Israelites
immediately after the Babylonian captivity the servants were to the masters as one
to six. Ezra 2:64-65; Nehemiah 7:66-67. We have reason to believe that the number
subsequently decreased, the influential sect of the Pharisees in particular being
opposed to the system.
46 You can bequeath them to your children as
inherited property and can make them slaves for
life, but you must not rule over your fellow
Israelites ruthlessly.
163

164. GILL, "And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after
you,.... Which they might leave them at their death to inherit, as they did their estates
and lands; for such servants are, with the Jews (y), said to be like immovable goods, as
fields, vineyards:
to inherit them for a possession; as their property, as anything else that was
bequeathed to hem, as negroes now are in our plantations abroad:
thy shall be your bondmen for ever; and not be released at the year jubilee, nor
before nor after; unless they obtained their liberty, either by purchase, which they might
make themselves, or by the means of others, or else by a writing under their master's
hand dismissing them from his service (z); or in case they were maimed by him, then he
was obliged to let them go free, Exo_21:26,
but over your brethren, the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over
another with rigour; which repeated for the confirmation of it, and for the fuller
explanation and description of the person not to be ruled over with rigour; and that it
might be the more taken notice of, and to make them the more careful in the observance
of it and though this peculiarly respects masters' treatment of their servants, yet Jarchi
thinks it comprehends a prince over his people, and a king over his ministers, whom he
may not rule with rigour.
ELLICOTT, “ (46) And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children.—
That is, they may appropriate them to themselves, as their personal property, which
is transmissible as inheritance to posterity with the family land.
They shall be your bondmen for ever.—These are not subject to the laws of jubile.
They remain in perpetual serfdom unless they or their friends redeem them, or their
master has maimed any one of them. In case of injury the master is obliged to
manumit him (Exodus 21:26-27). The authorities during the second Temple enacted
that the master’s right, even with regard to this kind of bondmen, is restricted to
their labour, but that he has no right to barter with them, to misuse them, or to put
them to shame.
Over your brethren . . . ye shall not rule . . . with rigour.—In contrast to these
heathen bondmen the Jewish bondmen are here designated “brethren.” They are
co-religionists, who have been reduced to temporary servitude, but who are,
nevertheless, fellow-heirs with them in the land of their possession. Hence the
greatest consideration was to be shown to them in these adverse circumstances. The
authorities during the second Temple have therefore enacted that there must be no
difference between the daily food, raiment, and dwelling of the master and his
Hebrew slave, and that the master and the servant are alike in these respects.
TRAPP, “Leviticus 25:46 And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children
after you, to inherit [them for] a possession; they shall be your bondmen for ever:
164

165. but over your brethren the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with
rigour.
Ver. 46. But over your brethren the children of Israel.] Tacitus observed of the Jews
in his time, that to their own countrymen they were very kind: but toward all
others, cursed and cruel.
PETT, “Leviticus 25:46
“And you shall make them an inheritance for your children after you, to hold for a
possession; of them shall you take your bondmen for ever, but over your brethren
the children of Israel you shall not rule, one over another, with rigor.”
These bondmen and bondwomen became a permanent part of the ‘household’ and
would therefore continue on from father to son. They were there in perpetuity. They
had nowhere else to go. But this was never to be true of ‘Israelites’ within the
covenant. They were to be treated in a much more ‘brotherly fashion’, remembering
that at the year of Yubile they would return to their own land.
In the nature of what human beings are necessary distance had to be kept between a
master and his bondservants so that they would retain respect of him and not take
advantage of what they saw as ‘softness’. There are always some who will do so. The
path of a godly master is not always an easy one. But he must still have respect for
those beneath him.
(We must not read back into their way of life our ideas of slavery. We should
remember, for example, that in Egypt all men were slaves. Even the Grand Vizier.
They were slaves to Pharaoh. Only the priests were ‘free’, but they were bound by
their own rigid hierarchy. Everything Egyptians possessed they had from Pharaoh,
and owed to him, and he had the power of life and death over them. There was a
sense in which Israel were like that with Yahweh. They were slaves to Yahweh. So
they did not see the concept of ‘slavery’ as the cruel thing that we see it as. It was a
way of life for all, a matter of degrees. They would have understood no other. In the
end all men were slaves, slaves to their gods, slaves to the king, slaves to their tribe,
slaves to their family. There were levels of slavery but all were slaves. What
mattered was how it was handled. ‘Freedom’ was limited to the very few and was a
concept that would take thousands of years to grow into. They could not in fact have
coped with ‘freedom’. We can only enjoy freedom because of the framework that
has taken hundreds of years to put in place. The concepts in this chapter were a
genuine beginning to freedom).
WHEDON, “Verse 46
46. Take… as an inheritance — Rather, leave as an inheritance.
Bondmen forever — Albert Barnes thus explains this: “The permanent provision
165

166. for servants was not that they were to enslave or employ their brethren, the
Hebrews, but that they were to employ foreigners.” In other words, olam, forever,
refers not to the persons bought and their children, but to the ordinance. But in case
it did refer to persons there must be the following limitations: 1.) The law required
the emancipation of a servant organically injured by the violence of the master.
Exodus 21:26; Exodus 27:2.) Though the ear-bored servant was to be in bondage
forever, the rabbins understand that he went out free at the jubilee. Hence we see no
objection to this limitation of olam in the case of all servants, Gentile as well as
Hebrew, to the year of jubilee. It is certainly limited to the term of life, which is
often less than the jubilee period. See Leviticus 25:10, note.
47 “‘If a foreigner residing among you becomes
rich and any of your fellow Israelites become poor
and sell themselves to the foreigner or to a
member of the foreigner’s clan,
GILL, "And if a sojourner or stranger wax rich by thee,.... An uncircumcised
one, as the Targums, a proselyte of the gate, who by living among and trading with the
Israelites, might grow rich and wealthy in money, at least so as to be able to purchase an
Hebrew servant, though not his lands, which he might not buy:
and thy brother that dwelleth by him wax poor; comes into low circumstances,
and is reduced to great poverty, even extreme poverty; for only in such a case might he
sell himself to an Israelite, and much less to a stranger, if this was not the case. Jarchi
suggests, as in the phrase, "by thee", points at the cause or occasion of the sojourner or
stranger becoming rich, his nearness unto, or cleaving to all Israelite; and so here the
phrase, "by him", directs to the cause or occasion of the Israelite's becoming poor, his
being near and cleaving to the sojourner or stranger: but they seem rather to be used, to
show the reason of the poor Israelite falling into the hands of a rich sojourner; they
being near neighbours to one another, and having a familiarity, the following bargain is
struck between them:
and sell himself unto the stranger or sojourner thee; the uncircumcised
sojourner, as the Targum of Jonathan:
or to the stock of a stranger's family; or "root" (a), one that sprung from a family,
originally proselytes; which some understand of one, who though he be descended from
166

167. such a family, was now rooted among the people of God, and incorporated into the
commonwealth of Israel; and yet such an one could not detain an Hebrew servant longer
than the year of jubilee: but the Jewish writers generally interpret it of an idolater (b).
K&D, "Lev_25:47-50
The servitude of an Israelite to a settler who had come to the possession of property,
or a non-Israelite dwelling in the land, was to be redeemable at any time. If an Israelite
had sold himself because of poverty to a foreign settler (‫ב‬ָ‫שׁ‬ ‫תּ‬ ‫ֵר‬‫גּ‬, to distinguish the non-
Israelitish sojourner from the Israelitish, Lev_25:35), or to a stock of a foreigner, then
one of his brethren, or his uncle, or his uncle's son or some one of his kindred, was to
redeem him; or if he came into the possession of property, he was to redeem himself.
When this was done, the time was to be calculated from the year of purchase to the year
of jubilee, and “the money of his purchase was to be according to the number of the
years,” i.e., the price at which he had sold himself was to be distributed over the number
of years that he would have to serve to the year of jubilee; and “according to the days of a
day-labourer shall he be with him,” i.e., the time that he had worked was to be estimated
as that of a day-labourer, and be put to the credit of the man to be redeemed.
CALVIN, "47.And if a sojourner or a stranger. A caution is here introduced as to
the Israelites who had enslaved themselves to strangers. But by strangers
understand only those who inhabited the land of Canaan; for, if any one ]lad been
carried away into other countries, God would have enacted this law as to their
redemption in vain. A power, therefore, of redeeming the slave is granted to his
relatives, or, if he had himself obtained sufficient to pay his price, the same
permission is accorded to himself. The mode and the form of this are then
expressed: that a calculation of the time which remained before the jubilee should
be made, and the period which had already elapsed should be subtracted from the
sum, viz., if he had been sold for fifty shekels he should only pay ten shekels in the
fortieth year, because only a fifth part of the time remained. But if none of his
family aided him, and the unhappy man’s hope of redemption was frustrated, He
commands that he should be set free in the jubilee year, in which a general
enfranchisement took place as regarded the children of Abraham. The object of the
law was, that none of those whom God had adopted, should be alienated from their
race, and thus should depart from the true worship of God Himself. The whole of
this is comprehended in the last verse, where God declares that the children of
Abraham were His property, inasmuch as He had led them forth from the land of
Egypt, and, on the other hand, that He is their peculiar God. For, whilst it was just
that they should enjoy His blessing, so also it behooved that they should be kept
sound in His pure and undivided worship; whereas, if they had been the slaves of
Gentiles, not only would the elect people have been diminished in numbers, but
circumcision would have been corrupted and a door opened to impious perversions.
Yet God so mitigates His law as to lay no unjust burden upon sojourners, since He
concedes more to them, with respect to Hebrew slaves, than to the natives of the
land; for if they had sold themselves to their brethren, they went forth free in the
seventh year, whilst their slavery under sojourners was extended to the fiftieth year.
This exception only was introduced that the stranger who had bought slaves should
167

168. enfranchise them on the payment of their value. Since God had previously promised
to His people a large and manifold abundance of all good things, the poverty here
adverted to could only occur from the curse of God; (155) we see, therefore, that of
His incomparable loving-kindness He stretches forth His hand to the transgressors
of His law; and, whilst He chastises them with poverty, still looks upon them,
unworthy as they are, and provides a remedy for the ills which their own guilt had
brought upon them.
COFFMAN, “"And if a stranger or sojourner with thee be waxed rich, and thy
brother be waxed poor beside him, and sell himself unto the stranger or sojourner
with thee, or to the stock of the stranger's family; after that he is sold he may be
redeemed: one of his brethren may redeem him; or his uncle, or his uncle's son, may
redeem him, or any that is nigh of kin unto him of his family may redeem him; or if
he be waxed rich, he may redeem himself. And he shall reckon with him that bought
him from the year that he sold himself to him unto the year of jubilee: and the price
of his sale shall be according unto the number of years; according to the time of a
hired servant shall he be with him. If there be yet many years, according unto them
he shall give back the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought
for. And if there remain but a few years unto the year of jubilee, then he shall
reckon with him; according unto his years shall he give back the price of his
redemption. As a servant hired year by year shall he be with him: he shall not rule
with rigor over him in thy sight. And if he be not redeemed by these means, then he
shall go out in the year of jubilee, he, and his children with him. For unto me the
children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of
the land of Egypt: I am Jehovah your God."
Wenham commented upon the theological reasons that lay behind the special rules
forbidding and for redeeming the slavery of Israelites as follows:
"God redeemed his people from Egyptian slavery, to become his servants. It is
unfitting, therefore, that an Israelite should be sold into slavery, especially to a
foreigner. The jubilee was a guarantee that no Israelites should continue in
slavery."[18]
Also, note the words "in thy sight" (Leviticus 25:53). This made every Israelite a de
facto monitor and policeman regarding any Israelite who was temporarily
indentured to a foreigner, with the implication that any abuse of the servant, or any
service "with rigor" that might be required, would result in the immediate
judgment of the offender.
The following basic principles are evident in the sacred instructions here concerning
the Jubilee:
OWNERSHIP OF LAND
It is contrary to the interests of society when the ownership of land is concentrated
168

169. exclusively in the hands of a wealthy few and the mass of the people reduced to
poverty through oppression. This is violated, not merely by those states where the
wealthy nobles are virtually the sole owners of the land, but also by the vicious and
unprincipled usurpation promulgated by the godless Communists who arbitrarily
confiscated all lands to the state. In all nations, where lands tend to become the
privilege of the few and not the inheritance of the many, this principle is violated.
THE WORSHIP OF GOD
Inherent in all of these laws concerning various sabbaths of days, of years, and of
the fiftieth year, is the principle that God expects the beneficiaries of His grace to
worship Him. True religion is basic to any just society. The neglect of the worship of
God by any people is the beginning of the destruction of that people. The gross
paganism, debauchery, violence, and oppression that characterized the pre-
Christian nations were stated by the apostle Paul to have had their beginning in the
people's failure to "give thanks to God" (Romans 1:21). All of the wretchedness that
followed had its source in their turning away from worship of God.
PERSONAL VIRTUE
"Love thy neighbor as yourself" (Leviticus 19:18) is the all-pervasive moral law that
underlies all of these instructions. Special love for a brother that required his next of
kin to redeem him, and the watchfulness of all to prevent any abuse of a brother
derived from this essential love. The Jubilee also emphasized the fleeting nature of
man's life on earth. "You are strangers and sojourners."
OVERTONES OF THE MESSIANIC AGE
A number of spiritual overtones of the richest color are herein. That the nearest of
kin alone could redeem one suggests the kinship of Christ for the beneficiaries of his
blood-bought redemption. The Jubilee itself is a vivid foreshadowing of the whole
Messianic Age, a fact stressed by Jesus Christ in the very beginning of his ministry
(Luke 4:18-19). In one's acceptance of the Christian faith and obedience of the
gospel, there are five "R's":
Remission of all sins.
Restoration to our Fellowship with God.
Reunion with the Society of the Redeemed.
Repossession of our Forfeited Inheritance.
Rejoicing in the Soul's True Jubilee.
169

170. COKE, “Verses 47-54
Leviticus 25:47-54. If a sojourner—wax rich, &c.— Equitable in all his laws, God
here provides that the sojourner in Israel should have the same legal advantages
with the native: to whom, if reduced, though he grants the peculiar privilege of
being redeemed before the jubilee, if he has it in his power, or, if he has not, of
receiving the benefit of the year of jubilee, yet he takes care that full compensation
shall be made to the sojourner, and that the price of redemption shall be exactly
paid to him.
REFLECTIONS.—1. Our servants, being of the same flesh and blood with
ourselves, have as much right to our kindness and good usage as we have to their
service and fidelity. He knows not the gentle sway of a Saviour's love in his heart,
who, becoming insolent, unreasonable, or fretful, is a lion in his house, and frantic
among his servants. 2. Though the sinner has sold himself, blessed be God, the right
of redemption remains good, and we have one of our brethren able and willing to
pay the price, and set the poor soul at liberty from the servitude of sin.
ELLICOTT, “ (47) And if a sojourner or stranger wax rich by thee.—Better, And if
the hand of a stranger, and that a sojourner, attain riches by thee, that is, a stranger
who has become a sojourner, or who has taken up his abode among the Israelites,
and become prosperous by trading. Such a one had only to submit to the seven
commandments given to Noah, and hence had not joined the Jewish religion. For
this reason the Chaldee Version translates it, “And if the hand of an uncircumcised
sojourner with thee wax strong.”
And thy brother that dwelleth by him wax poor.—Better, and thy brother by him
wax poor, that is, the Israelite who traded with him is unfortunate in business, and
is reduced to poverty.
And sell himself unto the stranger or sojourner by thee.—Better, and sells himself
unto the stranger-sojourner by thee. The two terms as before describe the same
person—the stranger who has become a sojourner. Hence the Chaldee Version
translates it, “and sells himself to the uncircumcised stranger who is with thee.”
Or to the stock of the stranger’s family.—That is, the offshoot or descendant of a
foreign family.
PETT, “Verses 47-55
An Israelite Member of the Covenant Must Always Be Able to Buy His Freedom At
Any Time (Leviticus 25:47-55).
Leviticus 25:47-49
“And if a stranger or sojourner with you be grown rich, and your brother be grown
170

171. poor beside him, and sell himself to the stranger or sojourner with you, or to the
stock of the stranger’s family; after he is sold he may be redeemed: one of his
brothers may redeem him; or his uncle, or his uncle’s son, may redeem him, or any
who is of near kin to him of his family may redeem him; or if he is grown rich, he
may redeem himself.”
There was here a recognition that foreigners and resident aliens and their families
in Israel might grow rich. They might even grow so rich that they took poor
Israelites as bondmen. But it was always open for the bonds of those bondmen to be
redeemed at any time. It could be by a relative, a near kinsman, or even by
themselves. Even a bondman could grow rich. But whatever happened he became
free in the year of Yubile.
WHEDON, “Verse 47
THE HEBREW SERVANT AND THE FOREIGN MASTER, Leviticus 25:47-55.
47. If a stranger wax rich — For his rights, see Leviticus 23:22, note. The ancient
Hebrew master did not have a monopoly of money-making. His servant, “the
stranger,” often amassed wealth. Foreigners and servants among them were in a
much more privileged condition than they are at present in the same country under
Mohammedan rule. A resident foreigner was allowed to purchase any pauper
Hebrew who, in his distress, offered himself for sale. But no Christian or Jew in any
land beneath the scepter of Islam is allowed to own a slave of any nationality, much
less a Mohammedan. The latter only can enjoy the luxury of slave-holding, with the
exception of some who are permitted to hold as slaves non-Mohammedan negroes.
Stock of the stranger’s family — His heirs. The person sold might become a fixture
of the household.
48 they retain the right of redemption after they
have sold themselves. One of their relatives may
redeem them:
GILL, "After that he is sold he may be redeemed again,.... Though an Heathen,
sold to an Israelite, was to be a bondman for ever, and could not be released by the year
of jubilee, yet an Israelite sold to an Heathen might be redeemed before, and if not, he
was freed then. The Jewish writers understand this of an obligation upon the man, or his
171

172. friends, or the congregation, to redeem him, and that immediately, as the Targum of
Jonathan, and Jarchi, because of the danger he was in by being in the family of an
idolater, lest he be polluted (c), that is, with idolatry; or be swallowed up among the
Heathens, as Maimonides (d); but it is plain from Lev_25:54, that there was no
obligation for an immediate redemption; nor was the person sold in such danger as
suggested, since the sojourner, to whom he is supposed to be sold, was no idolater,
whether a proselyte either of righteousness, or of the gate
one of his brethren may redeem him; which may be taken in a strict and proper
sense, for any of his brethren who were in circumstances sufficient to redeem him, or for
any near akin to him, as the following words seem to explain it. No mention is made of
his father: the reason of which Abarbinel (e) says, because it cannot be thought that a
father would suffer his son to be sold, if it was in his power to redeem him, since a father
is pitiful to his son.
ELLICOTT, “(48) He may be redeemed again.—The law which applies to a heathen
who sold himself to a Hebrew is reversed in this case. Whilst the heathen cannot be
redeemed, and is to remain a bondman for ever, the Israelite who sells himself to a
heathen may be redeemed. Indeed, according to the interpretation which obtained
during the second Temple, this passage enjoins it upon his relations and the
congregation to redeem him as soon as possible. Hence the ancient Chaldee Version
translates it, “his redemption must be effected forthwith.”
49 An uncle or a cousin or any blood relative in
their clan may redeem them. Or if they prosper,
they may redeem themselves.
GILL, "Either his uncle, or his uncle's son, may redeem him,.... it is father's
brother or his father's brother's son, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan:
or any that is nigh kin unto him of his family may redeem him; from whence it
appears, that it must be a near kinsman that has to be the redeemer, as in another case,
the redemption of inheritances; hence the same word "goel" signifies both a redeemer
and a near kinsman:
or if he be able he may redeem himself; who either has found something lost, or
inherits the substance of anyone deceased, of his family, as Aben Ezra observes; that is,
since he sold himself, which puts him into a capacity to redeem himself; the Targum of
Jonathan adds,"or the land of the congregation;''for such a redemption was sometimes
made at the expense of the public; see Neh_5:8. Baal Hatturim observes, that the words
"Ben Dodo", translated "his uncle's son", wanting the letter "tau" as usual, as the same
172

173. letters with Ben David, which is a known name of the Messiah with the Jews, and which
that author seems to have in view; and another Jewish writer (f) expressly says,"this
Redeemer is the Messiah, the son of David, of the tribe of Judah:''and indeed the whole
of this case is applicable to the spiritual and eternal redemption of the people of God by
Christ: they through the fall, and in a state of nature, are become poor and helpless, and
in a spiritual sense have neither bread to eat, nor clothes to wear, nor money to buy
either; and are in debt, owe ten thousand talents, and have nothing to pay, and so are
brought into bondage to sin, Satan, and the law; nor can they redeem themselves from
these by power or price; nor can a brother, or the nearest relation redeem them, or give
to God a ransom for them; none but Christ could do this for them, who through his
incarnation, whereby he became of the same nature, of the same flesh and blood with
them, and in all things like unto them, is their "goel", and so their Redeemer, and has
obtained eternal redemption for them, not with silver and gold, but by his own precious
blood.
ELLICOTT, “(49) Either his uncle, or his uncle’s son, may redeem him.—That is,
any of his relatives are to redeem him, which is not the case when an Israelite sells
himself to one of his own nation. Hence the Jewish canons enacted that “if a Hebrew
is sold to a stranger, and is unable to redeem himself, his kinsmen must redeem, nay,
the Sanhedrin are to compel his kinsmen to redeem him lest he should be lost among
the heathen. If his kindred do not redeem him, and if he cannot redeem himself,
every man of Israel is commanded to redeem him. But if he is sold to an Israelite his
kindred may not redeem him, nor may he borrow money to redeem himself, nor
redeem himself by instalments.” In accordance with this injunction we find the Jews
declare “we after our ability have redeemed our brethren the Jews which were sold
unto the heathen, and will ye even sell your brethren, or shall they be sold unto us?”
(Nehemiah 5:8).
WHEDON, “Verse 49
49. Nigh of kin — The Jews hold that the kindred of the enslaved Hebrew are
bound, if in their power, to redeem him, lest he should be paganized, and we find
that this was done on their return from the Babylonish captivity. Christians in the
early centuries regarded themselves bound to ransom fellow-Christians in slavery.
He may redeem himself — This indicates that the servitude was not of that rigorous
kind which absorbs all the energies, and precludes all accumulation of property for
the servant.
50 They and their buyer are to count the time
from the year they sold themselves up to the Year
of Jubilee. The price for their release is to be
173

174. based on the rate paid to a hired worker for that
number of years.
CLARKE, "The price of his sale shall be, etc. - This was a very equitable law,
both for the sojourner to whom the man was sold, and to the Israelite who had been thus
sold. The Israelite might redeem himself, or one of his kindred might redeem him; but
this must not be done to the prejudice of his master, the sojourner. They were therefore
to reckon the years he must have served from that time till the jubilee; and then, taking
the current wages of a servant per year at that time, multiply the remaining years by that
sum, and the aggregate was the sum to be given to his master for his redemption. The
Jews hold that the kindred of such a person were bound, if in their power, to redeem
him, lest he should be swallowed up among the heathen; and we find, from Neh_5:8,
that this was done by the Jews on their return from the Babylonish captivity: We, after
our ability, have redeemed our brethren the Jews, who were sold unto the heathen.
GILL, "And he shall reckon with him that bought him,.... That is, either the man
himself should reckon with him, or whoever undertook to redeem him:
from the year that he was sold to him unto the year of jubilee; and so count
how many years he had served, and how many were yet to come; and by this it appears,
that one thus sold was not released at the end of six years, or the sabbatical year did not
free him:
and the price of his sale shall be according to the number of years; whether
more or fewer, as after explained:
according to the time of an hired servant shall it be with him; the time of
service he had served his master shall be reckoned, as if he had been hired for so much a
year; and according to the number of years he had been with him, so much per annum
was to be deducted from the original purchase, and the rest to be made for his
redemption to him that bought him.
ELLICOTT, “Verses 50-52
(50-52) And he shall reckon with him.—That is, either the man himself when he is
able to redeem himself, or his kindred. The authorities during the second Temple
rightly point out that this passage enjoins the Hebrew to treat the heathen master
fairly by duly compensating and compounding for the number of years he has still
to serve till jubile, and to take no advantage of the idolater.
PETT, “Leviticus 25:50
174

175. “And he shall reckon with him who bought him from the year that he sold himself
to him to the year of jubilee, and the price of his sale shall be according unto the
number of years; according to the time of a hired servant shall he be with him.”
Thus the price to be paid for his freedom took into account the number of years to
yubile, just as the price he had received had taken it into account. For in the end he
was with him as a hired servant, not as a permanent bondman, and must be treated
as such.
WHEDON, “ 50. Unto the year of jubilee — We apply the same principles of
interpretation here as in the note to Leviticus 25:36; Leviticus 25:40. It is
unreasonable to suppose that the Hebrew master was required to lift the yoke from
his brother at the end of six years or of the jubilee period, whichever was nearest,
and that the heathen master, under Hebrew jurisdiction, could hold the poor
Israelite in servitude forty-nine years.
The price of his sale — Lest the master might exact an exorbitant ransom the price
was fixed by an equitable law. The yearly current wages of a hired servant were to
be multiplied by the number of years of service due.
51 If many years remain, they must pay for their
redemption a larger share of the price paid for
them.
GILL, “ yet many years behind,.... To the year of jubilee, and more than he had
served:
according unto them he shall give again the price of his redemption, out of
the money that he was bought for; suppose, for instance, when a man sold himself,
there were twenty years to the year of jubilee, and he sold himself for twenty pieces of
money, gold or silver, be the value what it will; and when he comes to treat with his
master about his redemption, or a relation for him, and he has served just as many years
as there are to the year of jubilee, ten years, then his master must be paid for the price of
his redemption ten pieces of money; but if he has served but five years, and there are
fifteen to come, he must give him fifteen pieces; and so in proportion, be the years more
or fewer, as follows.
K&D, "Lev_25:51-52
175

176. According as there were few or many years to the year of jubilee would the
redemption-money be paid be little or much. ‫ים‬ִ‫נ‬ָ‫שּׁ‬ ַ‫בּ‬ ‫ת‬ ‫בּ‬ ַ‫ר‬ much in years: ‫ת‬ ‫בּ‬ ַ‫ר‬ neuter,
and ְ‫בּ‬ as in Gen_7:21; Gen_8:17 etc. ‫ן‬ ֶ‫יח‬ ִ‫פ‬ ְ‫ל‬ according to the measure of the same.
PETT, “Leviticus 25:51-52
“If there be yet many years, according to them he shall give back the price of his
redemption out of the money that he was bought for. And if there remain but few
years to the year of jubilee, then he shall reckon with him; according to his years
shall he give back the price of his redemption.”
Thus prices of sale and redemption of bonds could be high or low depending on the
number of years to yubile. If the bond was for many years’ service the price could be
high, if only for a few the price could be low.
52 If only a few years remain until the Year of
Jubilee, they are to compute that and pay for their
redemption accordingly.
GILL, "And if there remain but few years unto the year of jubilee,.... Fewer
than what he has served, then the less is given for his redemption: thus, for instance, in
the above supposed case, if he has served fifteen years, and there remain but five to the
year of jubilee:
then he shall count with him, and according unto his years shall he give him
again the price of his redemption; as in the fore mentioned case, he shall give him
five pieces of money; and thus the law of justice and equity was maintained between the
buyer and seller, the purchaser and the redeemer: in a like righteous manner the people
of God are redeemed by Christ.
53 They are to be treated as workers hired from
year to year; you must see to it that those to whom
they owe service do not rule over them ruthlessly.
176

177. GILL, "And as a yearly hired servant shall he be with him,.... Being redeemable
every year, and upon his redemption might quit his master's service, as an hireling may;
and the price of his redemption to be valued according to the years he served, and as if
he had been hired for so much a year; as well as he was to be treated in a kind and gentle
manner, not as a bondman, but as if he was an hired servant, as follows:
and the other shall not rule with rigour over him in thy sight; the person he is
sold unto, his master, a sojourner or stranger, he might not use an Hebrew he had
bought with any severity; for if an Hebrew master might not use an Hebrew servant with
rigour, it was not by any means to be admitted in the commonwealth of Israel for a
proselyte to use one in such a manner, and that openly, in the sight of an Israelite his
neighbour; he looking on and not remonstrating against it, or acquainting the civil
magistrate with it, who had it in his power to redress such a grievance, and ought to do
it.
HENRY 53-55, “That if an Israelite sold himself for a servant to a wealthy proselyte
that sojourned among them care should be taken that he should have the same
advantages as if he had sold himself to an Israelite, and in some respects greater. 1. That
he should not serve as a bondman, but as a hired servant, and not to be ruled with
rigour (Lev_25:53), in thy sight, which intimated that the Jewish magistrates should
particularly have an eye to him, and, if he were abused, should take cognizance of it, and
redress his grievances, though the injured servant did not himself complain. Also he was
to go free at the year of jubilee, Lev_25:54. Though the sons of strangers might serve
them for ever, yet the sons of Israel might not serve strangers for ever; yet the servant
here, having made himself a slave by his own act and deed, should not go out in the
seventh year of release, but in the jubilee only. 2. That he should have this further
advantage that he might be redeemed again before the year of jubilee, Lev_25:48, Lev_
25:49. He that had sold himself to an Israelite might, if ever he was able, redeem
himself, but his relations had no right to redeem him. “But if a man sold himself to a
stranger,” the Jews say, “his relations were urged to redeem him; if they did not, it was
fit that he should be redeemed at the public charge,” which we find done, Neh_5:8. The
price of his ransom was to be computed according to the prospect of the year of jubilee
(Lev_25:50-52), as in the redemption of land, Lev_25:15, Lev_25:16. The learned
bishop Patrick quotes one of the Jewish rabbin for an evangelical exposition of that
appointment (Lev_25:48), One of his brethren shall redeem him. “This Redeemer,” says
the rabbi, “is the Messiah, the Son of David.” They expected this Messiah to be their
Redeemer out of their captivity, and to restore them to their own land again; but we
welcome him as the Redeemer who shall come to Zion, and shall turn away ungodliness
from Jacob, for he shall save his people from their sins; and under this notion there
were those that looked for redemption in Jerusalem.
K&D, "Lev_25:53
During the time of service the buyer was to keep him as a day-labourer year by year,
i.e., as a labourer engaged for a term of years, and not rule over him with severe
177

178. oppression. “In thine eyes,” i.e., so that thou (the nation addressed) seest it.
ELLICOTT, “Verse 53
(53) And as a yearly hired servant shall he be.—Better, As a yearly servant, &c,
without the “and,” which is not in the original, and is not wanted. That is, as long as
he is in service his master must not treat him like a slave, but is to behave to him as
if he were simply one who hires out his services from year to year, and who, after a
short time, will be his own master again.
And the other shall not rule with rigour over him.—Better, he shall not rule, &c,
that is, the heathen master. The words “and the other” are not in the original, and
the sense of the passage is quite plain without them.
In thy sight.—The Israelite is here admonished not to be a tacit spectator of the
cruel treatment of his brother Israelite by a heathen master, and though he is not to
resent in the same way in which the Lawgiver himself resented it (Exodus 2:11-12),
still he is to remonstrate with the cruel Gentile, and invoke the protection of the
powers that be.
PETT, “Leviticus 25:53
“As a servant hired year by year shall he be with him: he shall not rule with rigor
over him in your sight.”
But in any case the Israelite must be treated like a servant hired year by year, not as
a bondman. He was not to be treated harshly.
WHEDON, “53. As a yearly hired servant — He shall be treated mercifully, and all
his rights shall be respected as if serving for wages. It was the duty of an Israelite
when he saw his brother Hebrew abused by a Jew or by a stranger to give
information to the magistrate, and it was incumbent on this officer to call the
oppressor to account.
54 “‘Even if someone is not redeemed in any of
these ways, they and their children are to be
released in the Year of Jubilee,
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179. BARNES, "Lev_25:54
In these years - More properly, by one of these means. The extreme period of
servitude in this case was six years, as when the master was a Hebrew Exo_21:2.
Looking at the law of the Jubilee from a simply practical point of view, its operation
must have tended to remedy those evils which are always growing up in the ordinary
conditions of human society. It prevented the permanent accumulation of land in the
hands of a few, and periodically raised those whom fault or misfortune had sunk into
poverty to a position of competency. It must also have tended to keep alive family
feeling, and helped to preserve the family genealogies.
But in its more special character, as a law given by Yahweh to His special people, it
was a standing lesson to those who would rightly regard it, on the terms upon which the
enjoyment of the land of promise had been conferred upon them. All the land belonged
to Yahweh as its supreme Lord, every Israelite as His vassal belonged to Him. The voice
of the Jubilee horns, twice in every century, proclaimed the equitable and beneficent
social order appointed for the people; they sounded that acceptable year of Yahweh
which was to bring comfort to all that mourned, in which the slavery of sin was to be
abolished, and the true liberty of God’s children was to be proclaimed Luk_2:25; Isa_
61:2; Luk_4:19; Act_3:21; Rom_8:19-23; 1Pe_1:3-4.
GILL, "And if he be not redeemed in these years,.... The Targum of Jonathan
supplies the text as we do, in any of the years from the time of his sale to the year of
jubilee; and so Aben Ezra interprets it, in the years that remain to the jubilee; but he
observes there are others that say, by the means of those above mentioned, that is, by his
nearest of kin, or by himself; for the word "years" is not in the text, which may be
supplied, either with "years" or "relations"; and so the Vulgate Latin, Septuagint, and
Oriental versions read, "by these" means, things or persons:
then he shall go out on the year of jubilee: out of the house and service of him that
bought him, he shall go out free and freely, without paying anything for his freedom,
having served his full time unto which he was bought:
both he and his children with him; and his wife too, if he had any, who, was
comprehended in himself, and whom, both wife and children, his master was obliged to
maintain during his servitude.
K&D, "Lev_25:54-55
If he were not redeemed by these (the relations mentioned in Lev_25:48, Lev_25:49),
he was to go out free in the year of jubilee along with his children, i.e., to be liberated
without compensation. For (Lev_25:55) he was not to remain in bondage, because the
Israelites were the servants of Jehovah (cf. Lev_25:42).
But although, through these arrangements, the year of jubilee helped every Israelite,
who had fallen into poverty and slavery, to the recovery of his property and personal
freedom, and thus the whole community was restored to its original condition as
appointed by God, through the return of all the landed property that had been alienated
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180. in the course of years to its original proprietor the restoration of the theocratical state to
its original condition was not the highest or ultimate object of the year of jubilee. The
observance of sabbatical rest throughout the whole land, and by the whole nation,
formed part of the liberty which it was to bring to the land and its inhabitants. In the
year of jubilee, as in the sabbatical year, the land of Jehovah was to enjoy holy rest, and
the nation of Jehovah to be set free from the bitter labour of cultivating the soil, and to
live and refresh itself in blessed rest with the blessing which had been given to it by the
Lord its God. In this way the year of jubilee became to the poor, oppressed, and
suffering, in fact to the whole nation, a year of festivity and grace, which not only
brought redemption to the captives and deliverance to the poor out of their distresses,
but release to the whole congregation of the Lord from the bitter labour of this world; a
time of refreshing, in which all oppression was to cease, and every member of the
covenant nation find his redeemer in the Lord, who brought every one back to his own
property and home. Because Jehovah had brought the children of Israel out of Egypt to
give them the land of Canaan, where they were to live as His servants and serve Him, in
the year of jubilee the nation and land of Jehovah were to celebrate a year of holy rest
and refreshing before the Lord, and in this celebration to receive foretaste of the times of
refreshing from the presence of the Lord, which were to be brought to all men by One
anointed with the Spirit of the Lord, who would come to preach the Gospel to the poor,
to bind up the broken-hearted, to bring liberty to the captives and the opening of the
prisons to them that were bound, to proclaim to all that mourn a year of grace from the
Lord (Isa_61:1-3; Luk_4:17-21); and who will come again from heaven in the times of
the restitution of all things to complete the ἀποκατάστασις τῆς βασιλείας τοῦ Θεοῦ, to
glorify the whole creation into a kingdom of God, to restore everything that has been
destroyed by sin from the beginning of the world, to abolish all the slavery of sin,
establish the true liberty of the children of God, emancipate every creature from the
bondage of vanity, under which it sighs on account of the sin of man, and introduce all
His chosen into the kingdom of peace and everlasting blessedness, which was prepared
for their inheritance before the foundation of the world (Act_3:19-20; Rom_8:19.; Mat_
25:34; Col_1:12; 1Pe_1:4).
ELLICOTT, “ (54) If he be not redeemed in these years.—Better, If he be not
redeemed by these, that is, by the relations or the means indicated in Leviticus
25:48-49, he is to go out free in the year of jubile. (See Leviticus 25:41.) The heathen
is to submit to the laws of jubile as much as the Hebrew.
PETT, “Leviticus 25:54
“And if he be not redeemed by these means, then he shall go out in the year of
yubile, he, and his children with him.”
And whatever happened he and his family went free in the year of Yubile.
WHEDON, “Verse 54
54. And his children — No child in the land of Judea, whether Hebrew or heathen,
was born to involuntary servitude because the father, or mother, or both, were
servants; but every child of the house was born a member of the family, dependent
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181. on the master (not owner) for education and subsistence.
55 for the Israelites belong to me as servants.
They are my servants, whom I brought out of
Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
CLARKE, "For unto me the children of Israel are servants - The reason of
this law we have already seen, (See on Lev_25:42 (note)), but we must look farther to see
the great end of it. The Israelites were a typical people; they represented those under the
Gospel dispensation who are children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. But these last have
a peculiarity of blessing: they are not merely servants, but they are Sons; though they
also serve God, yet it is in the newness of the spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
And to this difference of state the apostle seems evidently to allude, Gal_4:6, etc.: And
because ye are Sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying
Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a Servant, but a Son; and if a Son, then an
Heir of God through Christ; genuine believers in Christ not being heirs of an earthly
inheritance, nor merely of a heavenly one, for they are heirs of God. God himself
therefore is their portion, without whom even heaven itself would not be a state of
consummate blessedness to an immortal spirit. 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,
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182. 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?
GILL, "For unto me the children of Israel are servants,.... And therefore not to
be perpetual servants to men, as those who are bought and redeemed by the blood of
Christ should not be, 1Co_ 7:23; The Targum of Jonathan is, servants to my law; see
Rom_7:25; those that are redeemed by Christ are also servants to his Gospel, and obey
from their heart the form and doctrine delivered to them;
they are my servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: where
they were in cruel bondage, and made to serve with rigour, but now, being delivered
from thence, were laid under obligation to serve the Lord; nor was it his will that others
should rule over them with rigour, whether of their own nation or strangers, or that they
should be bondmen and bondmaids, or perpetual servants to any:
I am the Lord your God; their covenant God, who had been kind to them,
particularly in the instance mentioned, and would take care that they should not be ill
used by others, and therefore ought to serve him readily and cheerfully.
PETT, “Leviticus 25:55
“For to me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought
forth out of the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God.”
And the basis behind all this was that the people of His covenant, ‘the children of
Israel’, were His servants. He was their Master. Thus all other relationships were
subject to that. And He, as Yahweh their God, had delivered them from the land of
Egypt. He was the One Who was there with them and held the future in His hands.
We are reminded in all this that we too have been bought with a price (1
Corinthians 6:19) by One Who is our brother and Redeemer. He has paid a great
price, for ‘you were not redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold --
but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without
spot’ (1 Peter 1:18-19). He gave Himself a redemption price on behalf of many
(Mark 10:45). And through Him we are in bondage no longer.
WHEDON, “ 55. They are my servants — The term servant here implies property.
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183. Hence the Hebrews could never rightfully sell themselves to others as merchandise.
No Hebrew had a right to enslave himself. He could only sell his labour till the
jubilee. This limit was fixed as a safeguard against involuntary and unlimited
slavery. “This is a remarkable expression as connected with the fact of which God is
always reminding the children of Israel, namely, that he brought them out of the
house of bondage and out of the land of Egypt. He appears to acquire his hold upon
their confidence by continually reminding them that at one period of their history
they were bondmen. Now he insists that the men whom he has brought into liberty
have been brought only into another kind of service. This is the necessity of finite
life. Every liberty is in some sense a bondage.” — Joseph Parker.
183