Charles Ellicott Commentary Leviticus 25:2

"Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto Jehovah." — Leviticus 25:2 (ASV)

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.)