Leviticus 25

Leviticus 25:1-7

The law of this chapter concerns the lands and estates of the Israelites in Canaan. 1. Every seventh year must be a sabbatical year, ver. 1—7. Thus God tried their faith in his providence, ver. 18—22. 2. Every fiftieth year must be a year of jubile, that is, (1.) A year of relief of debts and mortgages, and return to the possession of their alienated lands, ver. 8—17. Particular directions are given, 1. Concerning the sale and redemption of lands, ver. 23—28. 2. Of houses in cities and villages, with a promise for Levite cities, ver. 29—34. (2.) A year of relief of servants and land-floors. (1.) Here is inferred, a law for the land allege of poor debtors, ver. 35—38. (1.) Then comes the law for the discharge of all Israelites that were held for servants in the year of jubile. (1.) If they were held to Israelites, ver. 39—40. And, (2.) If held to prophets, ver. 47—55.

1. AND the LORD spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying, 2. Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land

which I give you, then shall the land keep sabbath unto the LORD. 3. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof. 4. But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. 5. That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest, thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine underfoot; for it is a year of rest unto the land. 6. And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee. 7. And for thy cattle, and for the beaft that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat.

As every seventh day was a day of rest, every seventh year was sabbatical. It began in September, and that year there was no feed-tone nor harvest, to pruning vineyards or o’ores, or any vineyard; but what was spontaneously produced, was common for all. God thus, as the proprietor, taught them to remember, that they held all at his grant, and obliged them to live upon his providence. They were thus more at leisure to attend upon God, and taught, by having the land in common, to remember their brethren, as being of one family, and to communicate with them their good things. N. 2. (1.) The salvation of the gospel is a common Christian, and all the great and precious promises of pardon, righteousness, adoption, strength, confidation, &c. which grow in the field of grace, as they spring up without our labour, are to be gathered freely: whoever will, let him come. (2.) When we have for the few years of life, to hold to hold the shabbats, and to our hearts, we shall at last set down, and rest from our labours, in the enjoyment of an eternal sabbath in glory.

8. ¶ And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years, and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. 9. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month: in the day of annemarie shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. 10. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you, and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. 11. A jubile shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine underfoot. 12. For it is the jubile, it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field. 13. In the year of this jubile, ye shall return every man unto his possessions. 14. And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbour, or buyest ought of thy neighbour’s hand, ye shall not oppress one another. 15. According to the number of years after the jubile thou shalt buy of thy neighbour, and according unto the number of years of the fruits he shall kill unto thee: 16. According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the twelfth of years thou shalt diminish the price of it: for according to the number of the years of the fruits doth he sell unto thee. 17. Ye shall not therefore oppress one another: but thou shalt fear thy God: For I am the LORD your God. 18. ¶ Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety. 19. And the land shall yield her fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety. 20. And ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase! 21. Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years. 22. And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit, until the ninth year; until her fruits come in, ye shall eat of the old flare.

Leviticus 25:8-22

As every seventh was a sabbatical year, every fiftieth was a jubile, when the land must rest, and so word of agriculture be performed. Proclamation of it was made throughout the land, on the evening of the day of annemarie; and thereupon an immediate restoration of liberty and property commenced. Thus when the trump of gospel grace proclaims pardon to the guilty, then peace of conscience, and deliverance from the bondage of sin, begins; and when the trump of judgment shall

Before Christ awake the dead, a yet more glorious jubile will commence; when every true Israelite shall receive his inheritance, unalienable and eternal in the heavens.

1. Every man’s estate returned to his heirs, without fee or reward, in the state it had been mortgaged; by which provision every tribe was kept distinct, and every family careful of their genealogy. None were suffered to increase their estates, so as to bind it over his brethren; nor any family, through the extravagance of a member of it, reduced to poverty for ever. Note, Though Adam, like an extravagant father, sold his patrimony, Christ hath restored the lost inheritance to all his Israel.

2. Every slave was at liberty; no contract extended longer than this period. Though we have sold ourselves to work wretched, and justly deserve perpetual fountains, yet, blotted the God, we are, through the blood of redemption, delivered from the bondage of corruption, and restored to the household of God.

3. Every bargain was to be made with a view to this year. According to the nearness or distance of it, the value of a purchase was to be proportionable. Their contracts must be made in the fear of God, and then they will necessarily be equitable. Note, The person who is not possessed with the fear of God, and how of his brother, cannot be an honest man.

4. Left they should fear a famine, by the want of harvest for two successive years, God promises to preserve them, and give them such extraordinary increase on the sixth year, that they should have enough till the corn was reaped in the ninth. Note, (1.) They who follow God’s will, may safely trust him for a provision. (2.) It would be a shame to a Christian, if he has less faith than a Jew, and if we should be more afraid of wanting bread than they were. (3.) With the blessing of God, a little will go for; so that, like the widow’s cruize, we shall still have enough and to spare.

Heb. For cutting off 1 PC. cm., 2g. 1 Pet. in 12. 6 Ruth & co. & re. &

See Ruth in, 4, 9, 12. See para. 2. Heb. His hand hath attained, and found full, many.

Heb. Re- aseous, hologr. note, 2. 2. See Ruth in, 4, 9, 12. See para. 2. Heb. His hand hath attained, and found full, many.

23. ¶ The land shall not be sold; for ever: for the land is mine, for ye are! strangers and sojourners with me. 24. And in all the land of your possession, ye shall grant a redemption for the land. 25. ¶ If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold. 26. And if the man have none to redeem it, and h himself be able to redeem it: 27. Then let him count the years of the late thereof, and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it; that he may return unto his possession. 28. But if he be not able to restore it to him, then that which is sold, shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it, until the year of jubile: and in the jubile it shall go out, and he shall return unto his possession. 29. And if a man left a dwelling-house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold: within a full year may he redeem it. 30. And if it be not redeemed within the space of a full year: then the house that at in the walled city, shall be established for ever to him that bought it, throughout his generations: it shall not go out in the jubile. 31. But the houses of the villages which have no walls round about them, shall be counted as the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubile. 32. Notwithstanding, the cities of the Levites, and the houses of the cities of their possession, may the Levites redeem at any time. 33. And if a man purchase of the Levites, then the house that was sold, and the city of his possession shall go out in the year of jubile: for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel. 34. But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold, for it is their perpetual possession.

24. 23-34. The lands were God’s, and they only occupants for him; therefore they must never be sold for perpetuity. The longest alienation was till the year of jubile, and they were redeemable at any time before. If the owner himself could not redeem his estate, his nearest kinsman might, and thus keep it in the family. If not redeemed, it reverted of course at the jubile. Some exceptions are made, respecting houses in walled towns, (for those in the country went as the lands); if a man bought a house, during a year it might be redeemed; but afterwards it was his own for ever; which would encourage artificers and merchants to live among them, since they might have a dwelling of their own, though not a landed estate. The houses in the cities of the Levites only were at all times redeemable, and reverted at the jubile, as lands; and the fields in their suburbs never could be alienated at all; they belonging to the city as a community, being appointed for the maintenance of succeeding generations of the priesthood. We are sought here, 1. In the near kinsman and redeemer to behold Jesus, hath of our

flesh, and none of our bone, who, when we had sold all, and were become incapable of recovering our inheritance, hath paid down the purchase, and restored the lost title. 2. If God has such care for his church lands, they need fear a reckoning, who continue the sacrilegious alienation of the rymers devoted to the service of his sanctuary, and have, in many parishes among us, scarce left the mindless a house to cover them, or a salary to provide them bread.

35. ¶ And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee, then thou shalt relieve him: yea though be be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee. 36. Take thou no utury of him, or increase: but fear thy God, that thy brother may live with thee. 37. Thou shalt not give him thy money upon utury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase. 38. I am the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God.

36. 35-38. God will have particular regard paid to his poor people; and no difference must be made between home-born or stranger. Wherever poverty is, it is a demand for our assistance. They must pay, and, not of their abundance, supply their wants; and as a small sum lent the industrious poor, is often the greatest charity which can be done them, as enabling them to work for themselves, they may not take any utury for it. These are laws still in force; for though interest from those who use our money to traffic and make gain with, in lawful, yet many times the same charity that bids us freely give to one, obliges us freely to lend another. The rich must not live for themselves merely, or engross all; God expects, that as he hath given the poor life, we should make their subsistence comfortable.

37. ¶ And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bond servant: 40. But as an hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of jubile. 41. And then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall be return. 42. For they are my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondmen. 43. Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour, but shalt fear thy God. 44. Both thy bondmen and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them: shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids. 45. Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begin in your land: and they shall be your possession. 46. And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession, if they shall be your bondmen for ever: but over your brethren, the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigour. 47. ¶ And if a sojourner or stranger was rich by thee, and thy brother that dwelleth by him was poor, and fell himself unto the stranger or sojourner by thee, or to the flock of the stranger’s family. 48. After that he is sold, he may be redeemed again; one of his brethren may redeem him. 49. Either his uncle, or his uncle’s son may redeem him, or any that is nigh of kin unto him of his family, may redeem him; or if he be able, he may redeem himself. 50. And he shall reckon with him that bought him, from the year that he was sold to him, unto the year of jubile: and the price of his sale shall be according to the number of years, according to the time of an hired servant shall it be with him. 51. If there be yet many years behind, according unto them he shall give again the price of his redemption, out of the money that he was bought for. 52. ¶ And if there remain but few years unto the year of jubile, then he shall count with him, and according unto his years shall he give him again the price of his redemption. 53. And as a yearly hired servant shall he be with him, and the other shall not rule with rigour over him in thy sight. 54. And if he be not redeemed in these years, then he shall go out in the year of jubile, both he and his children with him. 55. For unto me the children of Israel are servants, they

they

The word they are my servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

Leviticus 25:39-40

As God had done so much for Israel, in bringing them from Egypt, he will no more suffer them to live in perpetual servitude. The soul whom God hath rescued once from spiritual Egypt, though foolishly and wickedly he may part with his glorious liberty for a time, God will not suffer him to live for ever a bond-servant to sin, but will have him from final apology.

1. A native Israelite, who through extreme poverty told himself to one of his brethren, was to be regarded as a hired servant, to be looked upon above a bond-man, as being by and by to go free; and, as a brother, to be treated with good-love. Our servants being of the same flesh and blood, have as much a right to our kindness and good usage, as we have to their service and fidelity. He hath never known the gentle sway of a Saviour’s love in his heart, who becoming indolent, unrealistic, or frantic, in a lion in his bonds, and frantic among his servants. If the Israelite were sold for debt, or a crime, he was free the seventh year: if it was his own act, it extended to the year of jubile. Of other nations, except the devoted ones, they might have perpetual bond-servants, and the public year did not affect. It is only those who are of the election of grace, as Abraham’s believing seed, that have a right to spiritual liberty; the rest of the, as they were born, the servants of corruption. Though the sinner hath sold himself, he’d be God, the right of redemption remains good, and we have one of our brethren able and willing to pay the price, and let the poor soul at liberty from the servitude of sin.

2. If an Israelite sold himself to a wealthy stranger, besides the other privileges of going out in common with others at the year of jubile, particular care is taken that his brethren have an eye to him, that he be not used with rigour; and also any of his relations had a right to redeem him, according to the number of years which remained before the jubile.