Leviticus 25:8-12

LEVITICUS—NOTE ON Leviticus 25:8 Jubilee was a year of release and liberty (v. Leviticus 25:10), when people were to return to their ancestral property. Israelites who had sold themselves as servants were to be released and sent home. This provided a periodic restoration of the means to earn a living for each family in an agrarian society. The jubilee did not equalize all possessions in Israel, however, since possessions such as cattle and money were not reallocated. The land was to lie fallow for two years in a row: the forty-ninth year (sabbatical year) and the fiftieth year (jubilee). This law prohibited the creation of large estates, which would have reduced many Israelites to being tenants on their ancestral land (see Isaiah 5:8).