3. Mamtnmsion of those Israelites tvho had become Slaves. — This enactment is comprised in Lev. xxv, 39- 54. All Israelites who through poverty had sold them- selves as slaves to their fellow-Israelites or to the for- eigners resident among them, and who, up to the time of the jubilee, had neitlicr completed their six years of servitude, nor redeemed themselves, nor been redeemed by their relatives, were to be set free in the jubilee, to return with their children to tlieir family and to the patrimony of their fathers. Great difficulty has been cx]ierienccd in reconciling the injunction here, that in the jui)ilcc all slaves are to regain their freedom, with Exod. xxv, 6, where it is enacted that those bondmen who refuse their liberty at tlie expiration of the ap- pointed six years' servitude, and submit to the boring of their ears, are to be slaves forever (uh'jh nn^l). Josephus {Ant. iv, 8, 28), the Mishna {Kidushin, i, 3) and Talmud {ibid. 14, 15), Rashi, Aben-Ezra, ]\[aimonides {IlUchoth Abadiin, iii, G), and most Jewish inter]ireters, who are followed by Ainsworth, Bp. Patrick, and other Christian commentators, take t.hvb to denote till the jit- hiho, maintaining that the slaves who submitted to have their ears bored arc included in tliis general manumis-
sion, and thus try to escape the difficulty. But against this is to be urged, that, 1. The phrase tjbsls 123 is used in Lev. xxv, 40 for pe?-petual servitude, which is unaffected by the year of jubilee. 2. The declaration of the slave that he will not have his freedom, in Exod, xxi, o, unquestionably shows that perpetual slavery is meant. 3. Servitude till the year of jubilee is not at aU spoken of in Lev. xxv, 40-42 as something contempti- ble, and therefore coidd not be the punishment designed for him who refused his freedom, especially if the year of jubilee happened to occur two or three years after re- fusing his freedom ; and that it is bondage beyond that time which is characterized as real slavery ; and, 4. The jubilee, without any indication whatever from the law- giver, is here, according to this explanation, made to give the slave the right to take with him the maid and the children who are the property of the master— the very right which had previously been denied to him, Ewald, "therefore (Alterthiimer, p. 421), and others, con- clude that the two enactments belong to different peri- ods, the manumission of slaves in the year of jubilee having been instituted when the law enjoining the lib- eration of slaves at the expiration of six years had be- come obsolete ; while Ivnobel (on Exod. xxi, C) regards this jubilee law and the enactments in Exod. xxi, 5, 6 as representing one of the many contradictions which exist between the Jehovistic and Elohistic portions of tlie Pentateuch. All the difficulties, however, disappear when the jubilee manumission enactment is regarded as designed to supplement the law in Exod. xxi, 2-6, In the latter case the regular period of servitude is fixed, at the expiration of which the bondman is ordinarily to become free, whilst Lev. xxv, 39-54 institutes an ad- ditional and extraordinary period, when those slaves who had not as yet completed their appointed six years of servitude at the time of jubilee, or had not forfeited their right of free citizenship by spontaneously submit- ting to the j-oke of bondage, and becoming slaves for- ever (cb> 133-'), are once in every fifty years to ob- tain their freedom. The one enactment refers to the freedom of each individual at different days, weeks, months, and years, inasmuch as hardlj^ anj' twenty of them entered on their servitude at exactly the same time, whilst the other legislates i'or a general manumis- sion, which is to take place at exactly the same time. The enactment in Lev, xxv, 39-54, therefore, takes for granted the law in Exod. xxi, 2-6, and begins where the latter ends, and does not mention it because it sim- ply treats on the influence of jubilee upon slavery.
4. That there must also have been a perfect remission of debts in the year of jubilee is self-evident, for it is im- plied in the fact that aU persons who were in bondage for debt, as well as all the landed property of debtors, were freely returned. Whether debts generally, for which there were no such pledges, were remitted, is a matter of dispute. Josephus positively declares that they were {Ant. xiii, 2,3), whilst Maimonides {Jobel, x, IG) as positively denies it.
III. Tijyie irhen the Jubilee was celebrated. — Accord- ing to Lev. xxv, 8-11, it is evident that forty-nine years are to be counted, and that at the end thereof thefftieth year is to be celebrated as the jubilee. Hence the ju- bilee is to follow immediately upon the sabbatical year, so that there are to be two successive fallow years. This is also corroborated by verse 21, where it is prom- ised that the produce of the sixth year shall suffice for three years, i. e, forty-nine, fifty, and fifty-one, or the two former years, which are the sabbatical year and the jubilee, and the immediately following year, in whicli the ordinary produce of the preceding year would be wanting. Moreover, from the remark in verse 22, it would appear that the sabbatical year, like the jubilee, began in the autumn, or the month of Tisri, which com- menced the civil year, when it was customary to begin sowing for the ensuing year. At all events, ver, 9 dis- tinctly says that the jubilee is to be proclaimed by the