Leviticus 25:55

39-55 A native Israelite, if sold for debt, or for a crime, was to serve but six years, and to go out the seventh. If he sold himself, through poverty, both his work and his usage must be such as were fitting for a son of Abraham. Masters are required to give to their servants that which is just and equal, Colossians 4:1. At the year of jubilee the servant should go out free, he and his children, and should return to his own family. This typified redemption from the service of sin and Satan, by the grace of God in Christ, whose truth makes us free, John 8:32. We cannot ransom our fellow-sinners, but we may point out Christ to them; while by his grace our lives may adorn his gospel, express our love, show our gratitude, and glorify his holy name....

Verse Leviticus 25:55. _FOR UNTO ME THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL ARE SERVANTS_] The _reason_ of this law we have already seen, (Leviticus 25:42,) 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, Galatians 4:6, c.: _And because ye are_ SONS, God h...

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

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, 1 Corinthians 7:23; The Targum of Jonathan is, servants to my law; see Romans 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 ser

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

REDEMPTION OF HEBREWS FROM ALIENS. The right of redemption is to hold in the case of a Hebrew who has sold himself to a resident alien. His services are regarded as leased till the fiftieth year, and the price to be paid for his freedom by a relative will vary with the number of years to run. He is to be treated like a wage earner. Just as Yahweh alone is the owner of the land, so Israelites can be slaves of Him alone....

_The case of Israelites who are slaves of resident foreigners_(H but with a large admixture of P) Such a person might be redeemed, or, if he acquired the means, might redeem himself, the price of redemption to be calculated according to the number of years intervening before the Jubile, as in the case of the redemption of land (Leviticus 25:27). In any case the bondage was limited by the law of the Jubile....

TREATMENT OF THE POOR 25:35-55 TEXT 25:35-55 35 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. 36 Take thou no interest of him or increase, but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee. 37 Thou shalt not give him thy money upon interest, nor give him thy victuals for increase. 38 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. 39 And if thy brother be waxed poor with thee, and sell himself unto thee; thou shalt not make him to serve as a bondservant. 40 As a hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee; he shall serve with thee unto the year of jubilee: 41 then shall he go out from thee, he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession o...

THE SABBATICAL YEAR. THE YEAR OF JUBILEE The matters treated in this chapter are closely related to those in Leviticus 23, and their separation is another indication that we are dealing with a book made up of different elements. Observe again the change of number in Leviticus 25:14; Leviticus 25:17 and the interruption caused by Leviticus 25:18. Cp. what is said above in intro. to Leviticus 21. 1-7. The law of the Sabbatical Year: see also Exo

LEVITICUS *WORSHIP THE *LORD IN THE BEAUTY OF *HOLINESS LEVITICUS _GORDON CHURCHYARD_ This commentary HAS BEEN through Advanced Checking. Words in boxes are from the Bible, except for the words in brackets (…). CHAPTER 25 SPECIAL YEARS IN THE *JEWISH CALENDAR V1 The *LORD said (this) to Moses at the mountain (called) Sinai. V2 ‘Speak to the *Israelites and say (this) to them. “Do this in the land (country) that I will give to you. (Allow) the land to have a *Sabbath for the *LORD. V3 You will sow (seeds) in your fields for 6 years. You will look after yo