John Gill Commentary Leviticus 25

And the Lord spoke unto Moses in Mount Sinai
Not when Moses was with the Lord on that mount forty days, but after he came down from thence, even after the tabernacle was set up, while the children of Israel were encamped about that mountain, and before they took their journey from thence; for they continued some time in the wilderness of Sinai, and here it was the Lord spoke to Moses; for the words may be rendered "by" or "near Mount Sinai" ^F7 ; and so Josephus

saying ;
as follows.

FOOTNOTES:

• F7: (rhb) "apud seu juxta montem", Piscator; so Ainsworth, Patrick
• F8: says, the following laws were delivered to Moses, when Israel was encamped under Mount Sinai:

Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them
What follows, being what the whole body of the people would be under obligation to observe, and therefore must be delivered to them all, at least to the heads and elders of the people, and by them to the rest:

when you come into the land which I give you ;
the land of Canaan, and until they came thither, the following law concerning the sabbatical year could not take place; and as Maimonides ^F9 says, it was only used in the land of Israel, and no where else, according to this text, and that both before and after the temple was built:

then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the Lord ;
a rest from tillage, as it is afterwards explained; and this being according to the will of God, when observed would be to his honour and glory, and show that he was the proprietor of the land; and that the Israelites held it under him by this tenure, that every seventh year they should let it rest, which would be for the benefit of the land, and preserve it from being impoverished by continual usage and hereby they might learn to depend on the providence of God, and to observe that all increase is from him; and to consider the straits and difficulties the poor live in continually, as they in this seventh year; and by this means they would be at leisure to have an opportunity of reading the law, as they did at this time, (Deuteronomy 31:10–13) ; and of meditating upon it, and of giving themselves up to religious exercises, as well as by it they might be led to the typical use of to look for and expect that sabbatism or rest, which remains for the people of God.

And now this law did not take place as soon as they came into the land, for it was to be sown six years, and then was the year of rest; and indeed not till after Joshua had subdued the whole land, which was seven years a doing; nor till they were quite settled, and it was divided among them, and every man had his field and vineyard apart, which this law supposes; wherefore the Jewish writers ^F11 say, they were not bound to tithes until the fourteenth year, and from thence they began to reckon the sabbatical year; and the twenty first year they made a sabbatical year, and the sixty fourth a jubilee, which they make to be the first that were kept:

and they reckoned this year to commence, not on the first of Nisan or March, which was the beginning of the year for ecclesiastical things, but on the first of Tisri or September, when the harvest and all the fruits of the earth were gathered in; and when on other years they used to proceed to sowing the next month, but were forbid on this; and so it is said in the Misnah ^F12 , the first of Tisri is the beginning of the year for the sabbatical and jubilee years.

FOOTNOTES:

• F9: Hilchot Shemitah Vejobel, c. 4. sect. 25.
• F11: Torat Cohenim apud Yalkut, par. 1. fol. 191. 1. Maimon. ut supra, (Hilchot Tamidin) c. 10. sect. 2.
• F12: Roshhashanah, c. 1. sect. 1.

Six years you shall sow your field
Under which is comprehended everything relating to agriculture, both before and after sowing, as dunging the land, ploughing and harrowing it, treading the corn, reaping and gathering it in; see (Exodus 23:10);

and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in the fruit
of it;
which is not to be restrained to vineyards only, but to be extended to oliveyards, orchards and gardens, and to the planting and cultivating of them, and gathering in the fruits of them.

But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the
land
From all tillage of it, from planting and cultivating any sort of trees in it; and even from digging pits, ditches; and caves, as say the Jewish writers^F13: and this was typical of that rest which believers enter into under the Gospel dispensation, and of the rest in the new Jerusalem state, and especially in the ultimate glory; not only from the labours of the body, but of the mind, through sin, Satan, doubts and fears, and through conflicts with various enemies, and when even all spiritual labours and services will be at an end but that of praise:

a sabbath for the Lord;
for his honour and glory, to ascertain his property in the land, to show the power of his providence, and display his goodness in his care of all creatures, without any means used by them:

you shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard;
under which are comprehended all acts of agriculture, which respect the cultivation of vines, olives, figs, and, according to the Misnah^F14, there were some instruments which it was not lawful to sell to an artificer in the seventh year, such as a plough, with all belonging to it, a yoke, a fan, a spade, but he may sell him a scythe, or a sickle, or a cart, and all its instruments; and which the commentators^F15 interpret of one that is suspected of working in that year; the house of Shammai say, an heifer that ploughed might not be sold that year.

FOOTNOTES:

• F13: Torat Cohenim apud Yalkut, ut supra. (par. 1. fol. 191. 1.)
• F14: Sheviith, c. 5. sect. 6.
• F15: Maimon. & Bartenora in ib.

That which grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall
not reap
That which sprung up of itself from grains of corn, shed in the harvest of the preceding year, without any ploughing or sowing; he might reap it, but not as at other times, the whole of it, and gather it as his own property, but only somewhat of it in common with others for his present use:

neither gather the grapes of your vine undressed ;
which was on this year forbid to be dressed; the grapes of which he might gather in common with others, but not as in other years, all of them, and as peculiarly his own: the words may be rendered, "the grapes of your separations"^F16; either such as in other years he used to separate for himself, and forbid others gathering them, but now made them common; or which he did not labour in the cultivation of, but abstained from it:

[for] it is a year of rest to the land ;
which is repeated, that it may be observed.

FOOTNOTES:

• F16: (Kryzn ybne) "uvas tuarum separationum", Pagninus, Montanus; so Drusius & Ainsworth.