Section 379

of rest, like the day of rest. It has not been tnffldeDt- \y noticed that as the day haa a side of physical neces- sity with reference to man, so the year has a side of physical necessity with Te£n!<ence to the earth. Every seventh year appears to be a very saitable time for the recnrrenoe of a fiillow year, on agricnltnral principles. Besides the rest firom the labors of the field and vine- yard, there was in this year to be remission, temporary or absolute, of debts and obligations among the peo- ple. The sabbatical year seema to have commenced at the civil beginning of the year, with the seventh • month. AlthoQgh doubtless held to commence with the first of the month, its beginning appears to have been kept at the Feast of Tabernacles (Deut. xxxi, 10), while that of the jubilee year 'was kept on the Day of Atonement. This institution seems to have been greatly neglected, as Indeed was prophesied by Moees, who speaks of the desolation of the land as an enjoying the sabbaths which had not been kept (Lev. xxvi, 84, 86, 48). The seventy years' captivity is also spoken of in 2 Chron. (xxvi, 21) as an enjoying sabbath ; but this may be on account of the number being sabbati- cal, as ten times seven, which, indeed, seems to be in- dicated in the passage. After the lapse of seven sab- batical periods, or forty-nine years, a year of jubilee was to be kept, immediately following the last sabbat- ical yeac. This was called ^^i^n nsud, **the year of the trumpet,'* or b^i'^ alone, the latter word meaning either the sound of the trumpet or the instrument it- self, because the commencement of the year was an- nounced on the Day of Atonement by sound of trum- pet. It was similar to the sabbatical year in its char- acter, although doubtless yet more important. In the jubilee year debts were to be remitted, and lands were to be restored to their former owners. It is obvious from the words of the law (Lev. xxv, 8-11) that this year followed every seventh sabbatical year, so that the opinion that it was always identical with a sabbat- ical year is untenable. There is a ftuther question as to the length of each jubilee period, if we may use the term, some holding that it had a duration of fifty, but others of forty-nine years. The latter opinion does not depend upon the supposition that the seventh sab- batical year was the jubilee, since the jubilee might be the first year of the next seven years after. That such was the case is rendered most probable by the analogy of the weekly Sabbath, and the custom of the Jews in the first and second centuries B.C. ; although it must be noted that, according to Ifaimonides, the jubilee period was of fifty years, the fifty-first year commencing a new period, and that the same writer mentions that the Jews had a tradition that after the destruction of the first Temple only sabbatical years, and no jubilee years, were observed (Ideler, ffasuUmchj i, 508, 504). The testimony of Josephus does not seem to us at all conclusive) although Ideler (L c) holds it to be so ; for his language (ra^Ta irftrHjKovTa fuv itt- Ttv Int rd vavra, Afd, iii, 12, 8) cannot be held to prove absolutely that the jubilee year was not the first year of a sabbatical period, instead of standing between two such periods. — It is important to ascertain when the first sabbatical year ought to have been kept; whether the sabbatical and jubilee periods seem to have been continuous ; what positive record there is of any sabbatical or jubilee years having been kept ; and what indications there are of a reckoning by such years of either kind. 1. It can scarcely be contested that the first sabbatical year to be kept after the Is- raelites had entered Canaan would be about the four- teenth (Jennings, JewiA Antiquities^ bk. iii, cap. 9). It is possible that it might have been somewhat earlier or later ; but the narrative will not admit of much lat- itude. 2. It is clear that any sabbatical and jubilee years kept fTom the time of Joshua until the destruc- tion of the first Temple would have been reckoned from the first one, bnt it may be questioned if any