Charles Ellicott Commentary Leviticus 25

And the Lord spoke to Moses. —This chapter should properly have followed Leviticus 23:0, since the institutions of the sabbatical year and the jubilee which it discusses are closely connected with the regulations about the festivals laid down in that chapter. The isolation of these ordinances from the rest of the festivals cannot be satisfactorily explained on any other principle than that which the authorities during the second Temple laid down, namely, that many of the sections are transposed, and that “there is no strict sequence in the Law.”

In Mount Sinai. —That is, in the mountainous regions of Sinai. The expression “mountain” is often used to denote a mountainous tract of country (Numbers 12:9; Deuteronomy 1:2; Joshua 14:12, and other similar passages). Accordingly, this divine communication was made to Moses when the Israelites were encamped in the neighborhood of Sinai, where they remained in the wilderness for twelve months after their exodus from Egypt (Numbers 10:11–12).

When ye come into the land. —Better, When ye be come into the land, as the Authorized Version renders the same phrase in Leviticus 14:34. (See Note on Leviticus 19:23.) This is the fourth instance in Leviticus of a law being given prospectively which had no immediate bearing on the condition of Israel. (Leviticus 19:23; Leviticus 23:10.) According to the authorities during the Second Temple, this law came into operation in the twenty-first year after the Israelites entered Canaan.

As the conquest of the promised land occupied them seven years (Joshua 14:10), and as the division of it between the different tribes took seven years more (Joshua 18:1 and following), the real cultivation of the land only began at the end of the second seven years. Hence the first seventh year in which laws of the sabbatical year came into operation was the twenty-first year after their entrance into Canaan.

Then shall the land keep a sabbath. —For which the marginal rendering is “rest,” that is, a sabbath. For the significance of this phrase, see Note on Leviticus 23:32. The septennial sabbath is to be to the land what the weekly sabbath is to the whole earth. Just as the seventh day is dedicated to God in recognition of His being the Creator of the world, so the seventh year is to be consecrated to Him in acknowledgment that He is the owner of the land. Hence, like the weekly sabbath (Exodus 20:10; Leviticus 23:3; Deuteronomy 5:14), the seventh year sabbath belongs unto the Lord. (See Leviticus 25:4.)

Six years thou shalt sow. —See Exodus 23:10.

The fruit thereof. —That is, of the land which is mentioned in the preceding verse, and which includes fields, vineyards, olive-gardens, etc. (See Exodus 23:11.)

The seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest.—Literally, the seventh year shall be a rest of solemn resting, or a sabbath of sabbaths. For the significance of this phrase, see the Note on Leviticus 16:31. Like the weekly sabbath, the seventh year is to be the Lord’s sabbath. The soil is therefore to have a perfect rest.

Thou shalt neither sow thy field.—What constitutes cultivation, and how much labor was regarded as transgressing this law, can be seen from the following canons that prevailed during the second Temple. No one was allowed to plant trees in the sabbatical year, nor to cut off dried-up branches, to break off withered leaves, to smoke under the plants in order to kill the insects, nor to smear the unripe fruit with any kind of soil to protect them, etc. Anyone who committed one of these things received the prescribed number of stripes. As much land, however, might be cultivated as was required for the payment of taxes, as well as for growing the barley required for the omer or wave sheaf at the Passover, and wheat for the two wave-loaves at Pentecost.

That which groweth of its own accord. —Not only is every owner of land to desist from cultivating it, but the spontaneous growth of the fields—from seeds that accidentally fell during the harvest, as well as from old roots—is not to be gathered, and no harvest is to be made of it.

Neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed. —Literally, your Nazarite vine, the vine that bears the character of a Nazarite, or of being separated or consecrated to God. As the seventh year is the Sabbath of the Lord, being consecrated to Him, the vine of this year is consecrated to Him. Therefore, the Greek version (Septuagint) translates it “the grapes of thy consecration,” and so too, the marginal rendering “of thy separations.” The passage is also interpreted as “thou shalt not gather the grapes from which thou hast separated and debarred other people, and which thou hast not declared common property.”