"1 And the LORD spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying, 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. 3 Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; 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. 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. 6 And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee, 7 And for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat." — Leviticus 25:1-7 NRSV.
The distinction between the sabbatical days and years seems to be that the latter were in no way connected with religious observances, but were secular in their character. For this reason they were not described in chap. xxiii among the great religious festivals, since they aim at moral rather than spiritual ends. Extraordinary facilities for acquiring a knowledge of the law were afforded, inasmuch as the whole law was to be read every sabbatical year to the people assembled at the feast of tabernacles. The spirit of this law is the same as that of the weekly sabbath. Both have a good effect in limiting the rights and checking the accumulation of property; the one puts God’s claims on time, and the other on property. In the estimation of political economists the entire wealth of the world is equal to seven harvests. This law subtracts a sum equal to the entire wealth of the nation once in every forty-nine years. Ewald observes that verses 17-22 should be read immediately after verse 7, since they are germane to the sabbatical year and not to the jubilee. In this assertion Ewald is slightly in error. See verse 21, note. Thus the chapter comprises two themes — the sabbatical year, 1-7 and 17-22, and the jubilee, 8-16 and 23-55. The bearing of the jubilee on lands dedicated to Jehovah is stated as a supplement in chap. 27:16-25. The laws of this chapter were delivered proleptically, as were all pertaining to agriculture.
THE SABBATICAL YEAR, 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.
3. Vineyard — Garden-land or fruit-land. כַּרְמֶ֑, literally a noble plantation, includes both oliveyards and vineyards. Deuteronomy 24:20, 21, and Judges 15:5, notes.
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. Vine undressed — Hebrew, consecrated or Nazarite (זִירֶ֖), 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 verses 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. 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 תוֹשָׁ֣בְ is one who lives permanently in the country, but without the rights of a citizen; different from a גֵּר, who may live there for a time.
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