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._ 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 (Joshua 5:12), and that the Sabbatical year was to be observed after six years of agriculture, maintain that the observance did not commence until the fourteenth year. THE LAND KEEP A SABBATH UNTO THE LORD. It commenced immediately after the feast of ingathering. This was a very special arrangement. The command to give rest to the land every seventh year, when the extent of country was so disproportionate

1-7 All labour was to cease in the seventh year, as much as daily labour on the seventh day. These statues tell us to beware of covetousness, for a man's life consists not in the abundance of his possessions. We are to exercise willing dependence on God's providence for our support; to consider ourselves the Lord's tenants or stewards, and to use our possessions accordingly. This year of rest typified the spiritual rest which all believers enter into through Christ. Through Him we are eased of the burden of wordly care and labour, both being sanctified and sweetened to us; and we are enabled and encouraged to live by faith....

Verse Leviticus 25:2. _THE LAND KEEP A SABBATH_] See this ordinance explained, Exodus 23:11, Exodus 23:11. 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 Leviticus 25:21-3), 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 spe...

EXPOSITION The subject of the sacred seasons is taken up again in this chapter, after the parenthetical insertion of Leviticus 24:1. There remain the septennial festive season and that of the half-century—the sabbatical year and the jubilee. The sabbatical year was instituted not for any supposed physical benefit accruing from it to the land, but, first, as serving for a link between the sabbath and the jubilee by means of the sacred number seven—the sabbatical year being the seventh year, and the jubilee being the year following the seven-times-seventh year; and secondly, and chiefly, as enforcing the lesson of the weekly sabbath in a manner that could not be overlooked, and symbolically, teaching the universal application of the sabbatical law, even where physical needs were not concerned, and in that way suggesting the expectation of a rest to be hereafter attain

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: THEN SHALL THE LAND KEEP A SABBATH UNTO THE LORD; a rest from tillage, as it is afterwards explained; and this being according to the will of God, when observed would be to his honour and glory, and show that he was the proprietor of the land; and that the Israelites held it under him by this tenure, t...

Leviticus 25:1. _And the LORD 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 the LORD._ The Jews had much rest provided for them. If they had had faith enough to obey God's commands, they might have been the most favored of people; but they were not a spiritual people, and the Lord often had to lament their disobedience as in the words recorded by Isaiah, «O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea.» Leviticus 25:3. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; but in the seventh year shall

4. THE SABBATIC YEAR AND THE YEAR OF JUBILEE CHAPTER 25 _ 1. The Sabbatic year (Leviticus 25:1)_ 2. The jubilee (Leviticus 25:8) 3. The jubilee and the land (Leviticus 25:13) 4. The jubilee and the dwelling houses (Leviticus 25:29) 5. The jubilee, the poor and the bondmen (Leviticus 25:35) This is the great restoration chapter in Leviticus. All is connected preeminently with Israel's land. The application, which has been made, that this chapter foreshadows a universal res

LEVITICUS 25. THE YEAR OF SABBATH AND OF JUBILE. Leviticus 25:1. The Year of Sabbath (H). This is an ancient Hebrew institution (p. 102), _cf._ Exodus 23:10 *, where the law of a fallow every seventh year is set side by side with that of the rest every seventh day. In Ex., however, apart from this reference, there is no suggestion that the sabbath year is to be the same for the whole country, nor is this actually stated here. Only that which grows up without human labour is to be eaten. Undressed (Leviticus 25:5) is literally Nazirite-like (the hair being allowed to grow); _cf. Leviticus 19:23_. In the seventh y

CHILDREN. Hebrew sons. WHEN, &C. See note on Leviticus 14:34. KEEP. SABBATH. Hebrew sabbath. sabbatizing. Figure of speech _Polyptoton._ App-6. For emphasis. keep. sacred sabbath....

The rest year was a transference to the _land_of the sabbatical idea emphasized each week for _living creatures_, the year being now taken as the unit instead of the day. See App. I, pp. 172 f. for the difference in standpoint between this and the parallel ordinances elsewhere in the Hexateucb, as indicating modifications of the same law in successive periods. The seventh year is to bear the same relation to the six preceding years as the sabbath to the six preceding days of the week. The parallel between the land and the bondman was close. The divinely appointed seventh day of rest is to be kept holy by abstaining from work, so the land shall keep every seventh year holy to the Lord by resting from all work. It cannot be wholly inactive, but nothing is to be done which will cause the land to put forth its full strength. By a curtailment of the full powers bestowed upon man and land by...