d. The 7th year in Leviticus becomes for the first time a true sabbatical year, a season to be simultaneously observed as a fallow year in which no field work was to be done under a directly re- ligious sanction. Moreover, the difficulties of such observance being apjiarent, doubters are encouraged (yy 30-22) by an assur.ance of Providential aid in the shape of an unusually abundant yield in the Cvh year. The produce is to be enough for 3 years, ' untU the 9th year, until her fruits come in.' The reason is that, after the fallow of the 7th year, the ground is so hard that a second or third plougliing is necessary in the 8th year before sow- ing can take place, and consequently only the Bummer-sown crops of the 8th year come to any- thing, and they are not available for use till the beginning of tlie 9th year, the reckoning of the years being, of course, in this context from autumn to autumn.
SABBATICAL YEAR
SABBATIC^\X YEAS
325
It i« not therefore necessary to reject ' until the 9th year," M Dillm. proposes, on the eround that the "i years' would naturally be tne 6th, 7tb, and 8th years, and that the allusion to the 9th year has been introduceu because an editor referred the passage to the exceptional case of the 49th ami 5i)th years when two fallow years followed one another, tho 7th sal)batical year and the jubile year. Vet it is natural to conclude from the languat'e of Lv 'ib, as K;ilisch does, that the intention of the oniinance was that, after 7 sabbatical periods had uassed, the 50th or jubile vear should be intercalated as an additional tallow year, iranietllately after the 7th sabbatical year, and that a new sabbatical period should begin with the 5l8t year. This was also the %'iew of the Jewish interpreters. But see, further, below II. (iv.).
e. The purchase and redemption of land is not alluded to in the earlier codes (but cf. Kzk 46'"' for allusion to some such custom), but is here treated with some fulness (vv."-"" '-•"• **""). The i>rovisions may be entuiierated as follows : — ( 1 ) The freehold of agricultural land could not be sold outri<'ht, for at the 50th or jubile year every piece sold returned to the owner or his representatives. The utmost that an owner desirous of selling could do was to grant a lease of the property, the term of the lease to expire at the next jubile, however near that might be. The purchaser only obtained the usu- fruct for the time being, and the price was to be regulated by the number of the crops due before the jubile. (2) In every case of a man being forced to sell part of his patrimony, it was the duty of his kinsman (v.") either, according to the ordinary interpretation, to redeem the land, i.e. from the purclia.ser (who is not named), or, accord- ing to the attractive theory put forth by liuhl (AJTh i. 738), to exercise a rijjht of pre-emption. (3) If there wius no kinsman to ellect the gc'uUah, still, if the original owner at any time became rich enough, he could buy it back at the selling price, less the proportion belonging to the years since the sale (v.^*-). (4) House property in a walled city might be sold outright witliout returninj; to the vendor at the jubile (v.^') ; but he was given the right of redemption during the one year after the sale (Maimonides and others mention a tradi- tion that the term 'walled cities' is restricted to those that were such in Joshua's time). (5) House property in a village was subject to the provisions, see (l)--(3) above, attaching to agricultural land. (6) Tlie Levitical possessions were subject to special provisions; (a) house property in their cities was to be saleable, as far as the leasehold value went, redeemable at any time, and restored at the jubile ; and (h) the farm land round their cities was to be altogether unsaleable and inalienable. (7) The ca.se of a field devoted to J" is treated in Lv 27"'*'. The field was to be valued at once, and might be redeemed at that j^irice, with a tifth addetl, up to the jubile, after which it |)assed to the priest. If the held had been already sold, then no redemption was possible, and the gift became ell'ective and final at the jubile. If the field was not part of the donor's own patrimony, but a purchased ( = leased) portion of another man's possession, then the gift could only involve the usufruct till the jubile, when the property returned to the original owner.
Summary. — Three stages may thus be distin- guished. ( I ) In Exodus a 7th year fallow for the land »nd a 7 years' term for Hebrew .slaves is reiiuired, witlioutanysinmltaneous reckoning of either period throughout the country. (2) In Deuteronomy a ■imultaneous remission of debts replaces the fallow year, the term of service for slaves remaining the same. (3) In Leviticus a simultaneous 7th year fallow is ordered ; remission of debts is drojilied in favour of a general prohibition of usury; emanci- pation at the 50lh year is all that remains of the 7 years' term of service ; and a whole series of pro- visions is added on land and h<m.><e property.