Leviticus 25:5

This v. is interesting as containing the only example of the word 'its' in AV Elsewhere the word 'his' is used as the possessive of the neuter pronoun. In the AV of 1611 it is printed 'it'; 'that which groweth of it owne accorde.'

Year of rest unto the land] As customs similar to this are found in other countries, it is probable that it is a survival of a communistic age. At the same time, it was a benefit to the land. Thus we have another example here of the Lawgiver adopting a primitive custom and investing it with the sanctity of religion. Cp. what is said in intro. to Leviticus 11-15, and see also Intro, to Exodus.

8-55. The Year of Jubilee. Thisrestsonthe same principle as the Sabbatical Year: see above. In the fiftieth year, i.e. after a period of 7 × 7 years, the land is to lie fallow, and Hebrew slaves with their families are to be emancipated without price, as in the Sabbatical Year (Leviticus 25:39). A new and distinctive feature, however, makes its appearance. In the Year of Jubilee all property reverts naturally to the original owner, who through poverty may have been obliged to sell it at some time during the previous period (Leviticus 25:13). The freehold of agricultural land could never, therefore, be sold in perpetuity (Leviticus 25:23), and in cases of sale the purchase price was regulated according to the number of years still to run till the Year of Jubilee (Leviticus 25:14). The only exception was house property in a walled city (Leviticus 25:29.). The case of the Levitical cities is specially dealt with (Leviticus 25:32).

The Year of Jubilee was thus, as it were, the 'new birth' of the whole nation, when property was redistributed, and the inequalities arising in the previous period were removed. It was a remarkable social law, putting a check upon ambition and covetousness, preventing the acquisition of huge estates, and adjusting the distribution of wealth in the various classes of the community. The incidents of Ruth (Leviticus 4) and of Naboth (1 Kings 21) show that the law against the alienation of land was in force in early times: cp. Jeremiah 32:6. That it was not unnecessary in later times appears from such passages as Isaiah 5:8; Micah 2:2.