_A.M. 2514. B.C. 1490._ God in this chapter appoints, (1,) _ That every seventh year should be a year of rest, Leviticus 25:1._ (2,) That every fiftieth year should be a year of jubilee, Leviticus 25:8. A peculiar blessing annexed, Leviticus 25:18. The land sold may be redeemed: if not, it shall r... [ Continue Reading ]
_In mount Sinai_ That is, in the wilderness of Sinai, or near mount Sinai, as the Hebrew particle _beth_ frequently signifies. For they did not remove from this wilderness till the 20th day of the seventh month after their coming out of Egypt.... [ Continue Reading ]
_When ye come into the land_ So as to be settled in it: for the injunction neither could nor was intended to be observed during the time of the wars, nor till Joshua's distribution of the land among them. _The land shall keep a sabbath_ That is, enjoy rest from ploughing and tilling; _unto the Lord_... [ Continue Reading ]
_A sabbath of rest to the land_ They were neither to do any work about it, nor expect any harvest from it. All yearly labours were to be intermitted in the seventh year, as much as daily labours on the seventh day. _Of its own accord_ From the grains that fell out of the ears the last reaping time.... [ Continue Reading ]
_The sabbath of the land_ That is, the accidental crop that grew in the sabbatical year. _Shall be meat for you_ For all promiscuously, to take food from thence as you need. It is true the land would produce little corn without being tilled and sown, but the vines and other fruit-trees which abounde... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee_ Besides the _rest_ of the seventh year, God now appoints, as another perpetual ordinance, that every fiftieth year should be celebrated as an extraordinary year of rest, freedom, and rejoicing, of which public notice was to be given through the w... [ Continue Reading ]
_Cause the trumpet of jubilee to sound_ The name _jubilee_ is taken either from the Hebrew word יובל _jobel_, which signifies first a _ram_, and then _a ram's horn_ by the sound whereof it was proclaimed; or from Jubal, the inventor of musical instruments, (Genesis 4:21,) because it was celebrated w... [ Continue Reading ]
_The fiftieth year_ The year of jubilee was not the forty and ninth year, as some learned men have erroneously thought, but precisely the fiftieth. The old weekly sabbath is called _the seventh day_, because it truly was so, being next after the six days of the week, and distinct from them all: and... [ Continue Reading ]
_It shall be holy_ So it was, because it was sequestered, in great part, from worldly employments, and dedicated to God, and to the exercise of holy joy and thankfulness; and because it was a type of that holy and happy jubilee which they were to expect and enjoy under the Messiah. _The increase the... [ Continue Reading ]
_Ye shall not oppress_ Neither the seller, by requiring more, nor the buyer, by taking the advantage from his brother's necessities to give him less than the worth of it.... [ Continue Reading ]
_According to the number of years thou shalt buy_ The purchase of all lands, houses, or estates, was to be at a price proportionable to the greater or less number of years that remained from the time of the purchase to the next jubilee. _Years of fruits_ Years in which, having sowed, they reaped the... [ Continue Reading ]
_The number of the years of fruits_ The meaning is, he selleth not the land, but only the fruits thereof, and that but for a certain time. _Ye shall not oppress one another_ By seeking to turn each other out of the perpetual possession of his lands, as Ahab did Naboth; _but thou shalt fear thy God_... [ Continue Reading ]
_For three years_ Not completely, but in great part; namely, for that part of the sixth year which was between the beginning of the harvest and the beginning of the seventh year, for the whole seventh year, and for that part of the eighth year which was before the harvest, which reached almost until... [ Continue Reading ]
_For ever_ So as to be for ever alienated from the family of him that sells it. Or, absolutely and properly, so as to become the property of the buyer. Or, to the extermination or utter cutting off, namely, of the seller, from all hopes and possibility of redemption. _The land is mine_ Procured for... [ Continue Reading ]
_A redemption_ A right of redemption, in the time and manner following. _If any of his kin come_ Or, _If the redeemer come_, _being near akin to him_, who, in this, was an eminent type of Christ, who was made near akin to us by taking our flesh, that he might perform the work of redemption for us.... [ Continue Reading ]
_The years of the sale_ That is, from the time of the sale to the jubilee. See above, Leviticus 25:15. _The overplus_ That is, a convenient price for the years from the time of this redemption to the jubilee. _Go out_ That is, out of the buyer's hand, without any redemption-money.... [ Continue Reading ]
_A dwelling-house in a walled city_ Here the law makes a great difference between houses in walled cities and houses in the country. The former, if sold, were either to be redeemed within a year, or else not at all, but were to be the property of the purchaser for ever; whereas, _houses in the villa... [ Continue Reading ]
_The field of the suburbs_ (namely, of the cities of the Levites) _may not be sold_ Not at all; partly, because it was of absolute necessity for them for the keeping of their cattle, and partly because these were no enclosures, but common fields, in which all the Levites that lived in such a city ha... [ Continue Reading ]
_Take no usury of him_ That is, of thy brother, whether he be Israelite or proselyte. _Or increase_ All kinds of usury are in this case forbidden, whether of money, or of victuals, or of any thing that is commonly lent by one man to another upon usury, or upon condition of receiving the thing lent w... [ Continue Reading ]
To _serve as a bond-servant_ Neither for the time, for ever, nor for the manner, with the hardest and vilest kinds of service, rigorously and severely exacted.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then shall he depart_ Thou shalt not suffer him or his to abide longer in thy service, as thou mightest do in the year of release, Exodus 21:2; Exodus 21:6. _They are my servants_ They, no less than you, are members of my church and people; such as I have chosen out of all the world to serve me her... [ Continue Reading ]
_The stock of the strangers_ Hebrew _, root_, that is, one of the root or stock. So the word _root_ is elsewhere used for the branch or progeny growing from it. He seems to denote one of a foreign race and country, transplanted into the land of Israel, and there having taken root among the people of... [ Continue Reading ]
_According to the time of a hired servant_ Allowance shall be made for the time wherein he hath served, proportionable to that which was given to a hired servant for so long service, because his condition is in this like theirs; it is not properly his person, but his work and labour that were sold.... [ Continue Reading ]
_In thy sight_ Thou shalt not suffer this to be done, but whether thou art a magistrate or a private person, thou shalt take care according to thy capacity to get it remedied.... [ Continue Reading ]