Leviticus 25 - Introduction

Leviticus 25:1-55. The Sabbatical year. The Year of Jubile, etc. (H and P)

This ch. contains (a) legislation with respect to (1) the sabbatical year, and (2) the year of Jubile; and (b) sundry applications of the law of Jubile to land and individuals, devised in order to relieve the impoverished Israelite. It would have been placed appropriately after ch. 23. The holy seasons here described form a suitable appendix to the list of days to be observed in each year that are contained in the earlier ch.

After seven periods of seven years have passed, each closing with its sabbatical year, the following, viz. the fiftieth, is to be hallowed. Every man shall return to his own possession and to his own family. The land shall not be sold in perpetuity. Only the value of its yield till the next Jubile can at any time be sold. Houses in walled cities are exempt from this law. The connexion between the people and the land is permanent.

This ch. is not one in which it is easy clearly to indicate the parts to be assigned to H and P respectively. The literary analysis, in the absence of historical details relating to the year of Jubile, must remain in a great measure uncertain.

In fact, from the nature of the matters which are here dealt with we conclude that in all probability the present form of the ch. is the result of much editing. That use has been made of the Priestly Code is clear from the occurrence of many words which are favourites with P, e.g. (Leviticus 25:9) -atonement" (kippûrîm), (Leviticus 25:10 and passim) -possession" ("ăhuzzah), (Leviticus 25:6 and passim) -stranger" (tôshâb), and such expressions as (Leviticus 25:30) -throughout his generations," (Leviticus 25:41; Leviticus 25:54) -he and his children with him," (Leviticus 25:46) -your children after you." Moreover, the legal relations connected with buying, selling, redemption, etc. are akin to that code. On the other hand, that an enactment relating to the sabbatical year dates from much earlier times than P is shewn by its occurrence in the legislation of Exodus 23:10 f. (E).

That some such compulsory relinquishing and resumption of land in private ownership at fixed periods were not unknown, at any rate among other nations, is clear from the analogous customs described by Sir H. Maine, Village Communities in the East and West, pp. 77 99, 107 113, etc., and by J. Fenton, Early Hebrew Life, pp. 24 26, 29 32, and specially 64 70. The underlying principle seems to have been that lands belonging to a village are to be recognised as belonging to the inhabitants collectively, and are only to be held by any individual temporarily and then to be restored to the use of the community in general. It may well, however, be doubted whether the Hebrew law of Jubile was ever in actual force. The picture of oppression so graphically drawn by the prophets (Isaiah 3:15; Amos 2:7 f., Leviticus 5:11) makes it difficult to suppose that while they severely condemn the rich men who -grind the faces of the poor," they would not refer to this law, if it existed.

The contents of the ch. may be thus subdivided:

(1) Leviticus 25:2, the sabbatical year; (2) Leviticus 25:8; Leviticus 25:23, the year of Jubile (Leviticus 25:18 are an insertion, see note there); (3) Leviticus 25:24, redemption of land and of Levites" houses; (4) Leviticus 25:35, prohibition of usury in the case of a poor Israelite; (5) Leviticus 25:39, prohibition of permanent servitude of one Israelite to another; (6) Leviticus 25:47, Israelites who are slaves of resident foreigners to be redeemed.