The Pulpit Commentary — Leviticus — Section 428

together, that they have a1B11med that the If he became the slave of a non-Israelite, ha sabbatical year itaelf, that is, the forty- must be set free, not as before on the seventh ninth year, was the year of the jubilee. year of his slavery, but still at the jubilee. But this was olearly not the case. Twice in He had also preserved for him the right of the century the land wu to lie fallow for being redeemed by any kinsman, the price two years running-from September to the paid for him being the wages which wonld second September following-special p~ be paid up to the next jubilee. In either parations having, of conrse, been m&de by case, he was to be treated without rigour, laying up a store of grsin from the and it was the duty of the Israelite magis- abundant harvest promised in the previons trate to see that no undue harshness wu year (ver. 21), and foreign crops being, no used by the foreign master. The principle donbt, imported to take the place of the is, ns before, that as the land iii God's land, nsneJ home crops. In matter of fact, how- not man's, so the Ieraelitoa were the slaves ever, these two blank years seldom, if ever, of God, not of man, and that if the position occnrred together; for as the sabbatical year in which God placed them was allowe<l to was not observed before the Captivity, wLile be interfered with for a time, it was to be there a.re indications of the existence of the recovered every seventh, or at furthest every jubilee (1 Kings ui. 3; Isa. lxi. 1-3), so fiftieth, year. The posseBBion of slaves wo.s probably the jubilee ceased to be observed not forbi<lden-the world was not yet ready after the Captivity, when the sabbatical year for such a prohibition. The Hebrews might was carefully kept. Supposing that they purchase and own slaves of alien blood, but did come togi,ther, the second year in which between Hebrew and Hebrew the institution Jabour was prohibited wonld end ju~t in of master and slave was practically abolished, time for the seed to be sown for the next and superse<led (in most respects) by the snmmer's harvest. relationship of m;1.Ster and servant. The jubilee affected both land and men. Ver. 1.-A.nd the Lord apake unto 1110101 Land conld only be sold for fifty years, its in mount Sinai. The purpose of the word9. value immediately after a jubilee had passed in Mount Sinai, is not to distinguish the place in which the sabbatical law and the being tLat of fifty harvests, or rather, de- law of the jubilee were given from that in dnoting the sabbatical yelllll and the fiftieth which the preceding laws were delivered. year, of forty-two harvests. U it were sold, The words mean ouly, •• in the Siuai dis- it might be bought back by the original trict;" and they are employed because owner or 1my of his relations, counting the the.so Jaws form the conclusion of the aeriea number of harvests remaining before the next of lo.we given while tho people were en- oamped under Mount Sinui. The lo.w on jubilee, and buying out the previous plll'- vows is, it is true, added to them, but it ia chaser with the sum of money thus estimated; Ly wo.y of appendix. No more effective plan oould be well de- Vera. 2-7.-The eabbath of the seventh vised for preserving the various properties yeo.r could only be observed when 711 in the families to which they were at fint oome into the land whioh I give you. The assigned. he.bit of making no distinotion in the seventh year during the whole of the life in The other point chiefly affected by the the wil<lerne&1 ma.y ho.ve led to the neglect lnw of the jubilee was slavery. In co.se a of the Jaw after the settlement iu Canaan. brother Israelite became poor, ii wu the Another excuse for the neglect may have duty of his richer brethren to help him, and been a difficulty which wonld have pre- to lend him money without interest, to set sented itself of fixing the date from which to him up in the world again. But if this <lid count up to the seventh year, as different po.rte of the land were oonquered o.t differ• not succeed, the poor man might soil him. ent times. According to the law, from New self as a slave, either to an L,raelite or to Year's Day of the seventh year (the 1st of a foreigner living in the land. In the '.l'isri, which occurred about the middle of former case it had been already enacted September) to the following New Year's that hia slavery wu not to last beyond six Day, there wns to be neither sowing nor pruning, r,•aping or gathering. The ex- years (Exod. ui. 2). To this ennctment it pression, Neither ehalt thou gather the was now added that he must be alao eet grapn of thy vine undressed, would be more free whenever the year of jubilee occurred. J,teruJly rendered, the grape, of lh)I lVazaribtt  THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS. [en. x.xv. 1-65.