A period of twelve months, with additional periods inserted to bring the lunar year into line with the solar year. Certain calendar years have special significance. The term also denotes an indeterminate time when God will intervene to restore his people and punish his enemies. Passages gathered in the Dictionary of Bible Themes © 1999 Martin H. Manser, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
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Solomon had twelve governors over all Israel to provide food for the king and his household. Each one would arrange provisions for one month of the year,
This is the list of the Israelites—the heads of families, the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, and their officers who served the king in every matter concerning the divisions on rotating military duty each month throughout the year. There were 24,000 men in each division: Jashobeam son of Zabdiel was in charge of the first division, which was assigned the first month. There were 24,000 men in his division. He was a descendant of Perez and chief of all the army commanders for the first month. Dodai the Ahohite was in charge of the division for the second month, and Mikloth was the leader. There were 24,000 men in his division. The third army commander, as chief for the third month, was Benaiah son of Jehoiada the priest. There were 24,000 men in his division. This Benaiah was mighty among the Thirty and was over the Thirty, and his son Ammizabad was in charge of his division. The fourth, for the fourth month, was Joab's brother Asahel, and his son Zebadiah was commander after him. There were 24,000 men in his division. The fifth, for the fifth month, was the commander Shamhuth the Izrahite. There were 24,000 men in his division.
In the twelve months before her turn to go to King Xerxes, the harem regulation required each young woman to receive beauty treatments with oil of myrrh for six months, and then with perfumes and cosmetics for another six months.
down the middle of the main street of the city. On either side of the river stood a tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit and yielding a fresh crop for each month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
"This month is the beginning of months for you; it shall be the first month of your year.
The Passover to the LORD begins at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month.
Then Josiah celebrated the Passover to the LORD in Jerusalem, and the Passover lamb was slaughtered on the fourteenth day of the first month.
You are also to keep the Feast of Harvest with the firstfruits of the produce from what you sow in the field. And keep the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather your produce from the field.
And you are to celebrate the Feast of Weeks with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year.
The LORD also said to Moses, "Speak to the Israelites and say, 'On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of rest, a sacred assembly announced by trumpet blasts.
"On the first day of the seventh month, you are to hold a sacred assembly, and you must not do any regular work. This will be a day for you to sound the trumpets.
You attend to the earth and water it; with abundance You enrich it. The streams of God are full of water, for You prepare our grain by providing for the earth. You soak its furrows and level its ridges; You soften it with showers and bless its growth. You crown the year with Your bounty, and Your paths overflow with plenty. The pastures of the wilderness overflow; the hills are robed with joy. The pastures are clothed with flocks, and the valleys are decked with grain. They shout in triumph; indeed, they sing.
But the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks in the rain from heaven. It is a land for which the LORD your God cares; the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it, from the beginning to the end of the year. So if you carefully obey the commandments I am giving you today, to love the LORD your God and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, then I will provide rain for your land in season, the autumn and spring rains, that you may gather your grain, new wine, and oil. And I will provide grass in the fields for your livestock, and you will eat and be satisfied.
The LORD will open the heavens, His abundant storehouse, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations, but borrow from none.
For in Your sight a thousand years are but a day that passes, or a watch of the night.
Beloved, do not let this one thing escape your notice: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.
Then the LORD said to Moses on Mount Sinai, "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land itself must observe a Sabbath to the LORD. For six years you may sow your field and prune your vineyard and gather its crops. But in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of complete rest for the land—a Sabbath to the LORD. You are not to sow your field or prune your vineyard. You are not to reap the aftergrowth of your harvest or gather the grapes of your untended vines. The land must have a year of complete rest. Whatever the land yields during the Sabbath year shall be food for you—for yourself, your manservant and maidservant, the hired hand or foreigner who stays with you, and for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. All its growth may serve as food.
For six years you are to sow your land and gather its produce, but in the seventh year you must let it rest and lie fallow, so that the poor among your people may eat from the field and the wild animals may consume what they leave. Do the same with your vineyard and olive grove.
Now you may wonder, 'What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not sow or gather our produce?' But I will send My blessing upon you in the sixth year, so that the land will yield a crop sufficient for three years. While you are sowing in the eighth year, you will be eating from the previous harvest, until the ninth year's harvest comes in.
Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought in your heart: "The seventh year, the year of release, is near," so that you look upon your poor brother begrudgingly and give him nothing. He will cry out to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin.
When the people of the land bring merchandise or any kind of grain to sell on the Sabbath day, we will not buy from them on a Sabbath or holy day. Every seventh year we will let the fields lie fallow, and will cancel every debt.
Then Moses commanded them, "At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of remission of debt, during the Feast of Tabernacles, when all Israel comes before the LORD your God at the place He will choose, you are to read this law in the hearing of all Israel. Assemble the people—men, women, children, and the foreigners within your gates—so that they may listen and learn to fear the LORD your God and to follow carefully all the words of this law. Then their children who do not know the law will listen and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as you live in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess."
And you shall count off seven Sabbaths of years—seven times seven years—so that the seven Sabbaths of years amount to forty-nine years. Then you are to sound the horn far and wide on the tenth day of the seventh month, the Day of Atonement. You shall sound it throughout your land. So you are to consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty in the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be your Jubilee, when each of you is to return to his property and to his clan.
The fiftieth year will be a Jubilee for you; you are not to sow the land or reap its aftergrowth or harvest the untended vines. For it is a Jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You may eat only the crops taken directly from the field.
But if he cannot obtain enough to repay him, what he sold will remain in possession of the buyer until the Year of Jubilee. In the Jubilee, however, it is to be released, so that he may return to his property.
Let him stay with you as a hired worker or temporary resident; he is to work for you until the Year of Jubilee.
Even if he is not redeemed in any of these ways, he and his children shall be released in the Year of Jubilee.
If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free without paying anything.
If a fellow Hebrew, a man or a woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you must set him free.
Every seventh year, each of you must free his Hebrew brother who has sold himself to you. He may serve you six years, but then you must let him go free. But your fathers did not listen or incline their ear.
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is on Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and the day of our God's vengeance, to comfort all who mourn, to console the mourners in Zion— to give them a crown of beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and a garment of praise for a spirit of despair. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.
"The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." Then He rolled up the scroll, returned it to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on Him, and He began by saying, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."
This is what the LORD says: "In the time of favor I will answer You, and in the day of salvation I will help You; I will keep You and appoint You to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land, to apportion its desolate inheritances, to say to the prisoners, 'Come out,' and to those in darkness, 'Show yourselves.' They will feed along the pathways, and find pasture on every barren hill.
For He says: "In the time of favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you." Behold, now is the time of favor; now is the day of salvation!
There will be no remnant, for I will bring disaster on the people of Anathoth in the year of their punishment."
"Therefore their path will become slick; they will be driven away into the darkness and fall into it. For I will bring disaster upon them in the year of their punishment," declares the LORD.
"Whoever flees the panic will fall into the pit, and whoever climbs from the pit will be caught in the snare. For I will bring upon Moab the year of their punishment," declares the LORD.