Charles Ellicott Commentary Leviticus 25:7

"And for thy cattle, and for the beasts that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be for food." — Leviticus 25:7 (ASV)

And for your cattle. —In accordance with the benign legislation that was in effect during the Second Temple, the administrators of the law inferred from this verse, and therefore enacted, that the fruit of the seventh year could only be eaten by people at home, as long as that kind of produce is found in the field. "As long as the animals eat the same kind in the field, you may eat what there is of it in the house; but if the animal has consumed it all in the field, you are bound to remove this kind from the house into the field." (For the enactment that requires the remission of debts in the sabbatical year, see Deuteronomy 15:1-3.)

During the Second Temple, the sabbatical year began on the first day of the month of Tishri, which was the beginning of the civil year. The tillage, however, and the cultivation of certain fields and gardens, were discontinued in the sixth year. The cultivation of corn-fields ceased from the Feast of Passover, and orchards from Pentecost of the sixth year.

The reading of portions of the Law, which is commanded in Deuteronomy 31:10-13, was assigned during the Second Temple to the king. At the end of the seventh fallow year, which coincided with the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles of the eighth year, a wooden platform was erected in the outer court of the Temple, on which the king was seated. The chief of the synagogue took the Book of the Law and gave it to the head of the synagogue, who in turn gave it to the head of the priests.

He gave it to the high priest, and the high priest handed it to the king, who stood up to receive it. He then sat down again and read the following seven sections:

1. Deuteronomy 1:1 to Deuteronomy 6:3
2. Deuteronomy 6:4–8
3. Deuteronomy 11:13–22
4. Deuteronomy 14:22 to Deuteronomy 15:23
5. Deuteronomy 16:12–19
6. Deuteronomy 17:14–20
7. Deuteronomy 27:1 to Deuteronomy 28:68

The king concluded with the same benedictions, which the high priest pronounced , except that he substituted the blessing for the festival for the absolution of sins.