성경 주석서

Leviticus 25:1. 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.

Leviticus 25:2. 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 — In obedience and unto the honour of God. This was instituted, 1st, For the assertion of God’s sovereign right to the land, in which the Israelites were but tenants at God’s will. 2d, For the trial of their obedience. 3d, For the demonstration of his providence, as well in general toward men, as especially toward his own people. 4th, To wean them from the inordinate love and pursuit of worldly advantages, and to inure them to depend upon God alone, and upon God’s blessing for their subsistence. 5th, To put them in mind of that blessed and eternal rest provided for all good men.

Leviticus 25:4-5. 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. Thou shalt not reap — That is, as thy own peculiarly, but only so as others may reap it with thee, for present food. Undressed — Not cut off by thee, but suffered to grow for the use of the poor. Proselytes and servants, rich and poor, had all an equal privilege: one man’s beast was to graze as freely as another’s; all were to live at rest and enjoy the comforts of this law, the merciful appointment of Heaven. It is a year of rest unto the land — This seems to have been one purpose of the institution, that the land might lie fallow, in order to recruit its strength.

Leviticus 25:6. 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 abounded in the country, even without pruning, would yield a considerable increase, so that the poorer sort might thus enjoy many comforts, together with rest, of which they were destitute on other years.

Leviticus 25:8. 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 whole country, by sound of trumpet. On this year every ancient owner of lands and estates, that had been alienated by sale, was to be restored to his possession; and every Israelitish slave set at perfect liberty, to return to the family to which he belonged. So that how often soever an estate had been sold or alienated between one jubilee and another, or how many hands soever it had passed through, yet, in fifty years, or at the next jubilee, it must return to the heirs of the persons who were first possessed of it. All this was intended to shadow forth that true liberty from men’s spiritual debts and slaveries which was to be purchased by Christ, and to be published to the world by the sound of the gospel.

Leviticus 25:9. 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 with music and all expressions of joy. The seventh month — Which was the first month of the year for civil affairs; the jubilee therefore began in that month; and, as it seems, upon this very tenth day, when the trumpet sounded, as other feasts generally began when the trumpet sounded. In the day of atonement — A very fit time, that when they fasted and prayed for God’s mercy to them in the pardon of their sins, then they might exercise their charity to men in forgiving their debts; and to teach us, that the foundation of all solid comfort must be laid in repentance and atonement for our sins through Christ.

Leviticus 25:10. 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 the year of release is called the seventh year, (Leviticus 25:4,) as immediately following the six years, (Leviticus 25:3,) and distinct from them all. And in like manner the jubilee is called the fiftieth year, because it comes next after seven times seven or forty-nine years, (Leviticus 25:8,) and is distinct from them all. Unto all the inhabitants — Understand such as were Israelites; principally to all servants, even to such as would not and did not go out at the seventh year, and to the poor, who now were acquitted from all their debts, and restored to their possessions, which had been sold or otherwise alienated from them. This law was not at all unjust, because all buyers and sellers had an eye to this condition in their bargains; but it was expedient in many regards, as, 1st, To put them in mind that God alone was the Lord and proprietor both of them and of their lands, and that they were only his tenants; a point which they were apt to forget. 2d, That hereby inheritances, families, and tribes, might be kept entire and clear until the coming of the Messiah, who was to be known as by other things, so by the tribe and family out of which he was to come. And this accordingly was done by the singular providence of God until the Lord Jesus did come. Since which time those characters are miserably confounded: which is no small argument that the Messiah is come. 3d, To set bounds both to the insatiable avarice of some, and the foolish prodigality of others, that the former might not wholly and finally swallow up the inheritances of their brethren, and the latter might not be able to undo themselves and their posterity for ever, which was a singular privilege of this law and people.

His family — From whom he was gone, being sold to some other family either by himself or by his father.

Leviticus 25:12. 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 thereof — Such things as it produced of itself. Out of the field — Whence they, in common with others, might take it as they needed it; but must not put it into barns. See Leviticus 25:5, and Exodus 23:11.