The Year of Jubilee is a significant concept found in the Old Testament, specifically within the Mosaic Law, and is detailed in Leviticus 25. It represents a time of liberation and restoration, occurring every fiftieth year. The Jubilee year is a profound expression of God's justice, mercy, and provision for His people, emphasizing themes of freedom, rest, and redemption.

Biblical Foundation

The instructions for the Year of Jubilee are primarily found in Leviticus 25:8-55. The Jubilee was to be proclaimed on the Day of Atonement, the tenth day of the seventh month, by the sounding of a trumpet throughout the land. Leviticus 25:10 states, "And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you, when each of you is to return to his property and each of you to his clan."

Key Features

1. Restoration of Property: One of the central aspects of the Jubilee was the restoration of land to its original owners. This ensured that no family in Israel would permanently lose their inheritance. Leviticus 25:23 emphasizes, "The land must not be sold permanently, because it is Mine, and you are but foreigners and sojourners with Me."

2. Release of Slaves: The Jubilee also mandated the release of Hebrew slaves. Those who had sold themselves into servitude due to debt were to be freed, allowing them to return to their families and ancestral lands. This is outlined in Leviticus 25:39-41 , "If your brother among you becomes destitute and sells himself to you, you must not force him into slave labor. Let him stay with you as a hired worker or temporary resident; he is to work for you until the Year of Jubilee. Then he and his children are to be released, and he may return to his clan and to the property of his fathers."

3. Rest for the Land: The Jubilee year also served as a sabbatical for the land, similar to the Sabbath year observed every seventh year. During this time, the land was to lie fallow, and the people were to rely on God's provision. Leviticus 25:11-12 instructs, "You are not to sow the land or reap its aftergrowth or harvest the untended vines. For it is a Jubilee, and it shall be holy to you. You may eat only the crops taken directly from the field."

Theological Significance

The Year of Jubilee underscores the principle that God is the ultimate owner of the land and the true liberator of His people. It serves as a reminder of God's sovereignty and His desire for social justice and economic equality among His people. The Jubilee year reflects God's compassion and His call for His people to live in a way that honors Him and cares for one another.

Messianic Foreshadowing

Many Christian theologians see the Year of Jubilee as a foreshadowing of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. In Luke 4:18-19 , Jesus reads from the scroll of Isaiah, declaring, "The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor." This proclamation is often interpreted as Jesus announcing the ultimate Jubilee, where spiritual liberation and restoration are fulfilled through His life, death, and resurrection.

Practical Implications

While the literal observance of the Year of Jubilee is not practiced in contemporary times, its principles continue to inspire discussions on economic justice, debt forgiveness, and social responsibility within the Christian community. The Jubilee serves as a powerful reminder of God's call to live in a way that reflects His justice, mercy, and love.Deuteronomy 15:1-23
At the end of every seven years you shall make a release.
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Deuteronomy 15:1-18
At the end of every seven years you shall make a release.
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Leviticus 25:10
And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee to you; and you shall return every man to his possession, and you shall return every man to his family.
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Leviticus 25:1-55
And the LORD spoke to Moses in mount Sinai, saying,
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the Year Of Jubilee

1. the name. --The name jubilee is derived from the Hebrew jobel , the joyful shout or clangor of trumpets, by which the year of jubilee was announced.
2. The time of its celebration. --It was celebrated every fiftieth year, marking the half century; so that it followed the seventh sabbatic year, and for two years in succession the land lay fallow. It was announced by the blowing of trumpets on the day of atonement (about the 1st of October), the tenth day of the first month of the Israelites' civil year (the seventh of their ecclesiastical year).
3. The laws connected with the jubilee. --These embrace three points: (1) Rest for the soil. (Leviticus 25:11,12) The land was to lie fallow, and there was to be no tillage as on the ordinary sabbatic year. The land was not to be sown, nor the vineyards and oliveyards dressed; and neither the spontaneous fruits of the soil nor the produce of the vine and olive was to be gathered, but all was to be left for the poor, the slave, the stranger and the cattle. (Exodus 23:10,11) The law was accompanied by a promise of treble fertility int he sixth year, the fruit of which was to be eaten till the harvest sown in the eighth year was reaped in the ninth. (Leviticus 25:20-22) But the people were not debarred from other sources of subsistence, nor was the year to be spent in idleness. They could fish and hunt, take care of their bees and flocks, repair their buildings and furniture, and manufacture their clothing. (2) Reversion of landed property. "The Israelites had a portion of land divided to each family by lot. This portion of the promised land they held of God, and were not to dispose of it as their property in fee-simple. Hence no Israelite could part with his landed estate but for a term of years only. When the jubilee arrived, it again reverted to the original owners." --Bush. This applied to fields and houses in the country and to houses of the Levites in walled cities; but other houses in such cities, if not redeemed within a year from their sale, remained the perpetual property of the buyer. (3) The manumission of those Israelites who had become slaves. "Apparently this periodic emancipation applied to every class of Hebrew servants --to him who had sold himself because he had become too poor to provide for his family, to him who had been taken and sold for debt, and to him who had been sold into servitude for crime. Noticeably, this law provides for the family rights of the servant." --Cowles' Hebrew History
4. The reasons for the institution of the jubilee. --It was to be a remedy for those evils which accompany human society and human government; and had these laws been observed, they would have made the Jewish nation the most prosperous and perfect that ever existed. (1) The jubilee tended to abolish poverty. It prevented large and permanent accumulations of wealth. It gave unfortunate families an opportunity to begin over again with a fair start in life. It particularly favored the poor, without injustice to the rich. (2) It tended to abolish slavery, and in fact did abolish it; and it greatly mitigated it while it existed. "The effect of this law was at once to lift from the heart the terrible incubus of a life-long bondage --that sense of a hopeless doom which knows no relief till death." --Cowles. (3) "As an agricultural people, they would have much leisure; they would observe the sabbatic spirit of the year by using its leisure for the instruction of their families in the law, and for acts of devotion; and in accordance with this there was a solemn reading of the law to the people assembled at the feast of tabernacles." --Smith's larger Dictionary. (4) "This law of entail, by which the right heir could never be excluded, was a provision of great wisdom for preserving families and tribes perfectly distinct, and their genealogies faithfully recorded, in order that all might have evidence to establish their right to the ancestral property. Hence the tribe and family of Christ were readily discovered at his birth."
5. Mode of celebration. --"The Bible says nothing of the mode of celebration, except that it was to be proclaimed by trumpets, and that it was to be a sabbatic year. Tradition tells us that every Israelite blew nine blasts, so as to make the trumpet literally 'sound throughout the land,? and that from the feast of trumpets or new year till the day of atonement (ten days after), the slaves were neither manumitted to return to their homes, nor made use of by their master, but ate, drank and rejoiced; and when the day of atonement came, the judges blew the trumpets, the slaves were manumitted to go to their homes, and the fields were set free." --McClintock and Strong.
6. How long observed. --Though very little is said about its observance in the Bible history of the Jews, yet it is referred to, and was no doubt observed with more or less faithfulness, till the Babylonish captivity. --ED.)

The Year of Jubilee.
... ORIGINAL HYMNS HYMN CCLXIII. The Year of Jubilee. 6.6.6.6.8.8 James Montgomery.
The Year of Jubilee. Fair shines the morning star; ...
/.../montgomery/sacred poems and hymns/hymn cclxiii the year of.htm

The Jubilee Proclaimed.
... 1 Blow ye the trumpet, blow, The gladly solemn sound; Let all the nations know,
To earth's remotest bound, The year of jubilee is come; Return, ye ransomed ...
/.../adams/hymns for christian devotion/261 the jubilee proclaimed.htm

Lenox. HM
... The gladly solemn sound, Let all the nations know, To earth's remotest bound,
The year of jubilee is come, Return, ye ransomed sinners, home. ...
//christianbookshelf.org/lorenz/the otterbein hymnal/195 lenox h m.htm

The Kinsman-Redeemer
... practice. The singular institution of the year of Jubilee operated, among
other effects, to check the acquisition of large estates. It ...
/.../maclaren/expositions of holy scripture h/the kinsman-redeemer.htm

On the Jubilee of the Church Missionary Society.
... Love reconcile all enemies,. Or wrath subdue beneath His feet. A year of Jubilee
we hail! Since we in faith this work began. It must go on: it cannot fail. ...
/.../montgomery/sacred poems and hymns/hymn cclxx on the jubilee.htm

For the Jubilee of the Religious Tract Society, 1848
... For the Jubilee of the Religious Tract Society, 1848. Proclaim the year of Jubilee;
New songs of glory sing; From shore to shore, from sea to sea,. ...
/.../montgomery/sacred poems and hymns/hymn cclxxv for the jubilee.htm

For the Sunday-School Jubilee, the Birthday of Robert Raikes, the ...
... The Sabbath School-house stands. Heralds of peace proclaim. The year of jubilee;
Now in the Babe of Bethlehem's Name,. Bid every child go free. ...
/.../montgomery/sacred poems and hymns/hymn cccxl for the sunday-school.htm

The Sacred Officers and Sacred Occasions.
... (Ex.23:10-11; Lev.25:2-7; Deut.15:1-11). 5. The Year of Jubilee. Every
fiftieth year was known as Jubilee, Lev.25:8-55. It began ...
/.../the way of salvation in the lutheran church/chapter iii the sacred officers.htm

Tunkers.
... They suppose the Jewish Sabbath, sabbatical year, and year of jubilee, are typical
of certain periods after the general judgment, in which the souls of those ...
//christianbookshelf.org/hayward/the book of religions/tunkers.htm

Standing with the People
... release for the imprisoned, sight for the blind, freedom for the oppressed, and
a "year of Jehovah." If this was an allusion to the year of Jubilee (Lev.25 ...
/.../rauschenbusch/the social principles of jesus/chapter iii standing with the.htm

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