The Year of Jubilee stood in the closest relation to the Sabbatical year, and may be regarded as an intensified form of the other. It was appointed that when seven weeks of years had run their course, this great Sabbath-year, the Year of Jubilee, should come; when not only, as in the ordinary Sabbatical year, the land should be allowed to rest, the fruit-trees to grow unpruned, and debts to be cancelled, but also every personal bond should be broken, every alienated possession restored to its proper owner, and a general restitution should take place. P. F.

Lev. 25 : 9. The tenth day of the seventh month, in the Day of Atonement. It is not clear at what hour of the day of annual expiation the silver trumpets sounded to announce the commencement of the Jubilee. It is probable that it was in the evening after the high-priest had entered the most holy place, the scape-goat had been sent into the wilderness, and the people in full concert had been praising the Lord for his goodness and mercy. It is held by all the Jewish writers that trumpets were sounded extensively all over the land, in the mountains, in the streets, and at nearly every door. It was intended as a universal waking up of all the population to the occurrence of this joyous festival. Bush.

10. Here we have, as always, the predominant notes of holiness and joy. “Ye shall hallow the fiftieth year;” “it shall be a jubilee unto you.” The former is the key-note of the entire Mosaic system; the latter is the predominant strain (for, as we have seen, there is very little of the minor key in it) throughout; and the notes of the Jubilee were the climax of the “joyful noise” which this favored land was called to make unto the Lord (Ps. 100 : 1). The special occasions of jubilation in the Jubilee Year are also given in this verse: first, the proclamation of “liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof,” and next an invitation to “return every man unto his possession,” and “every man unto his family.” J. M. G.

One of the most important provisions, as it regarded the interests of the community and the stability of the State, was the statute regulating the tenure of landed property, which constituted the very foundation of the commonwealth next to the Theocracy itself, and most materially affected all their more special relations as an agricultural community. The land which God bestowed upon his people, and which they held directly from himself, was by express directions to be divided into tribal allotments, which were to be subdivided into as many parts as there were families in the respective tribes. D. M.

The provision of the Hebrew constitution in reference to the ownership of the soil, is that the national domain should be so divided, that the whole six hundred thousand free citizens should have a full property in an equal part of it (Nu 33 : 54). And to render this equality solid and lasting, the tenure was made inalienable, and the estates, thus originally settled upon each family, were to descend by an indefeasible entail, in perpetual succession. No matter how often the property had changed hands, at the return of the Jubilee Year, it was restored, free of encumbrance, to the original owners or their heirs. E. C. W.

13. Ye shall return every man unto his possession.** By appointing that on the Year of Jubilee the owner of estates which had been sold should return to his possession, and that every Israelitish slave should be at perfect liberty to return to his family, God wisely provided for the suppression of luxury, cruelty, and ambition; for the preservation of a perfect distinction of tribes, families, and genealogies; and chiefly for ascertaining the descent of the future Messiah, whose more eminent deliverance wrought for all mankind was shadowed out by the privileges bestowed upon the Israelites in the Year of Jubilee. Pyle.—The uses of this provision were, first, to prevent the confusion of the tribes by the alienation of their lands; secondly, to prevent the rich from swallowing the inheritance of their poor brethren; thirdly, to make them still look upon themselves as sojourners, and their land to be God’s. S. Clarke.—By this law of jubilee, which prescribed that every one who could justify his pedigree should be reinstated in the possessions of his ancestors every fifty years, God obliged the people of Israel to keep up a distinct knowledge of the first division of land made under Joshua, much more effectually than if he had made a law for that very purpose; also to preserve regular genealogies of their tribes and families. Allix.

As a political regulation, it would operate to prevent the accumulation of wealth in the hands of the few, and tend to preserve that comparative social equality which distinguished the community of Israel in the beginning. It would, indeed, tend periodically to rectify all those disorders and abuses which are apt to grow up in the State, and become aggravated by the lapse of time, and would give those who had been unfortunate or inconsiderate, an opportunity of beginning afresh in the ancient patrimony. And all this would be accomplished without the slightest infringement of vested or acquired rights, inasmuch as the Law was made before the land was divided, before a single transaction had been entered into in reference to any part of it; so that whatever was done, was done with the full knowledge of the bearing which the Jubilee law would have upon the transaction, when the appointed time came round. J. M. G.

As the Sabbath-year affords a release at the same time from toil and from the demand of the creditor, so the Year of Jubilee affords the unmeasured blessings of freedom from bondage, and restoration to all the rights of property. But the whole economy of Israel was a type of higher things, of things in the Church on earth in its wider range, and of things in the general assembly and Church of the first-born who are written in heaven. So it is with the Jubilee. It affords to the prophetic seer a fine figure of the advent of Messiah and of the effect of his mission. M.—The typical use of the Jubilee is pointed out by the Prophet Isaiah, at ch. 61:1, 2, in which passage “the acceptable year of the Lord,” when “liberty was proclaimed to the captives,” and “the opening of the prison to them that are bound,” evidently refers to the Jubilee; but in the prophetic sense means the Gospel state and dispensation which proclaims spiritual liberty from the bondage of sin and Satan, and the liberty of returning to our own possession, even the heavenly inheritance, to which, having incurred a forfeiture by sin, we had lost all right and claim. Jennings.—A presage and earnest of its complete fulfilment was given in the work of Christ, when at the outset he declared that he was anointed to “proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” But it is from his finished work of reconciliation on the cross, from the great Day of Atonement, that the commencement of the proclamation properly dates, respecting the world’s coming Jubilee. P. F.—Christ himself blew the first notes of the jubilee trumpet, when he proclaimed the kingdom of heaven to be at hand. Apostles and evangelists prolonged the sound through many lands and wondering cities of the East; and now to us is this salvation come. In the name of Christ is preached, as through jubilee trumpets, forgiveness of sins, rest for the weary, liberty to the captives, the acceptable year of the Lord. D. F.

Two Exceptions to the Law.

Houses in walled cities could be redeemed for a year after the sale. If they were not redeemed within that time, they were “established forever to him that bought them throughout all generations,” and they did not go out in the Jubilee. The reason of the exception is obvious. Houses in walled cities had no particular connection with the land. They would be inhabited not by agricultural laborers, but by different classes of artisans, perhaps often by foreigners. Milligan.—Of course, such a provision would give greater value to property in the country and in villages and induce every Israelite to reside upon and improve his land, and would make agriculture the most honorable of all employments. S. R.

32. Cities of the Levites.** The Levites had no other possessions than the forty-eight cities which were assigned them; and it was for the interest of the public that they should not be impoverished or deprived of their possessions. Therefore as their houses in these cities were the whole of what they could call their own, they could not be utterly alienated. Bush.

A practical system, so eminently pious and pure, so strict and so wise, so humane, so superior to anything found anywhere else in the world at that era, cannot be accounted for if we reject the supposition of its Divine original. For when properly understood this system will be seen to furnish the most perfect safeguards to the freedom of the State—the surest protection to the just and natural rights of the citizen, and the best incentives to industry, virtue, and peace to be found among all the social and political systems of ancient or modern times. . . . As each tribe was settled as it were in the same county, and estates could not pass by inheritance or marriage out of one tribe into another, the closest connection of affinity must exist in every neighborhood; the happiness of rural life was thereby increased, and every family was interested in maintaining the good character of the neighborhood; and the poor, not left to the care of entire strangers, would receive more ready assistance, as their appeal would be to those who must have a natural sympathy with them. Manifestly, under such an arrangement, there was no need of standing armies; for such was the arrangement of families and clans in each tribe, with their civil organization under captains of thousands, captains of hundreds, and captains of tens, which could become at once a military organization that at the very briefest notice a hundred thousand or two hundred thousand men could be brought into the field. It was an army composed of independent freeholders. And when the soldier left for the battle-field he left his family among friends and kindred to be cared for, not to the cold charities of strangers. S. R.

These ordinances, the primitive simplicity of which awakens some touch of enthusiasm, failed to produce all the holy and happy results which they were calculated to effect. The Sabbath-day, the cycle of annual festivals, the Sabbath-year, and the Jubilee fell into oblivion and neglect. Nevertheless, by these significant institutions and the written revelation in which they were embodied and illustrated, a seed of Divine truth was planted in the heart and memory of man which at this day maintains the spiritual life of all Christendom, fills and extends the boundaries of civilization, and makes its benign influence felt to the utmost limits of the human race. It has not therefore been sown in vain; and it is destined eventually to accomplish the whole purpose for which it was sent. M.

Exacting interest for what was loaned to

Israelitish brethren is forbidden in each of the three forms of the legislation of the Pentateuch. Each furnishes something peculiar to itself. In Exodus the poor Israelite is spoken of as one of God’s people, and this thought supplies the place of the motives urged in the other laws. In Leviticus, not only is interest for money loaned prohibited, but for food. In Deuteronomy this is extended to anything loaned. Leviticus enjoins that its provisions shall be applied to strangers (proselytes) and sojourners who are casually dwelling among the Israelites. Deuteronomy adds, in harmony with its special outlook, that from foreigners interest for anything loaned may be legally received; that is, from Phoenician, Canaanitish, and other professional traders with whom they may have dealings. These laws are completely self-adjusting. They nicely fit and complement one another, and the three taken together form one harmonious whole. The question of conflict or of development in the line of Exodus, Deuteronomy, Leviticus, with a space of centuries between the separate codes, cannot for a moment be entertained. E. C. B.

Ex. 22:25. Lev. 25:36, 37. The reason of the prohibition appears to have respect to the oppression of the poor; and it has a perpetual meaning for all times and countries. That the lender should receive compensation for the risk he runs, and the advantage he confers on the borrower, is not only fair, but likewise mutually advantageous. A literal prohibition of usury would make loans very rare, and thus act injuriously on the borrower, to whom the possibility of a loan on interest is of the greatest service. But in its spirit the Christian will still faithfully observe this law. He ought to regard himself simply as the steward of goods which do not belong to him, but are only entrusted to his keeping. Usury is generally forbidden, but the taking of it from strangers is at the same time permitted. The relation of all Israelites to God as their common Lord was plainly the ground of this prohibition. From “his people” should no usury be taken; and so far the prohibition is a result of the general brotherly love, by means of which the use of all earthly goods ought to be common to all men. The limitation of this right to Israelites, and the permission to take usury from strangers, was a necessary act of defence, in respect to those people who themselves had no prohibition about usury. Gerl.

The ground for this discrimination against the stranger may be a purpose to discourage his residence in the land; or it may be related to the general fact that foreigners were the men of traffic. Tradesmen, doing business on borrowed capital, might afford to pay interest; and on every principle of right and justice ought to do so. But God did not encourage the Israelites in traffic with other nations. It would have been too perilous to their morals and to their religion. The reader will scarcely need the suggestion that the Hebrew law against interest applies in our Christian age only to the case of loans made to the poor to meet their necessities. The spirit of the Law unquestionably does apply in such cases, and does not apply to any other. H. C.

Money gain is not the business of life. There are occupations nobler than money-getting. Contentment is better than gold. The culture of the mind is better. The discipline of the moral powers is better. Brotherly kindness is better. The diffusion of knowledge is better. Earthly prosperity is to be hailed especially as a condition for doing good. To have and yet to refuse to help is a sin. That man’s gold is a curse. D. D.

Respecting Pledges Given for Loans.

De. 24:10, 11. Thou shalt not go into his house. If one had to take a pledge from another, he was not to go into the house of the latter and take what he thought fit; he must stand without, and summon the debtor to produce his pledge. W. L. A.

How are the feelings as well as the wants of the poor consulted in this precept! as if the legislator had said, Intrude not into the abode of thy poor brother. He is not willing to expose to the stranger’s eye the circumstances of want and nakedness which attend his destitute state; or perhaps there is some little monument of his better days which he reserves to console his misery, and which he would not wish to be seen by the person from whom he implores aid lest he should demand that in pledge. No, says the Law, the hovel of the poor must be sacred as an holy asylum; neither the eye of scorn, the foot of pride, nor the hand of power must dare to intrude; even the agent of mercy must not enter it abruptly and unbidden. Graves.—The fine sense of justice, the delicacy of feeling, in these precepts is certainly remarkable. We owe it to God and we owe it to the humanity which is in our poorer brethren as well as in us, that we treat them and their belongings with precisely the same amount of respect that we would show to persons in a better social position. Orr.