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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Leviticus 25:1 - 25:7
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The Seventh Year
v. 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses in Mount Sinai, while the children of Israel were still encamped in its vicinity, saying,
v. 2. Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come in to the land which I give you, the certainty of this event being set forth time and again, then shall the land keep a Sabbath unto the Lord, the soil should be given periods of rest, in which the land should lie fallow.
v. 3. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof;
v. 4. but in the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of rest unto the land, a Sabbath for the Lord; thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. The earth was to be saved from the hand of man, lest its strength be exhausted for earthly purposes, and man was to be saved from the uninterrupted drudgery which tended to chain his thoughts to the soil and to the bitter labor in the sweat of his brow which was connected therewith.
v. 5. That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest, the volunteer grain from the kernels that had dropped out at the last harvest, thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed, the grapes which grew in the vineyard without the attention of the husbandman; for it is a year of rest unto the land.
v. 6. And the Sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee and for thy servant and for thy maid, both male and female slaves being named, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee. So all the volunteer grain and the volunteer fruit was not to be harvested, but was to be eaten out of the field, as the need for food arose, this rule applying not only to men, but also to animals, both domestic and wild;
v. 7. and for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land shall all the increase thereof be meat, be used as food. The Sabbatical Pear was a civil year, which began after the harvest, in the late fall, for in the next fall, at the beginning of the eighth year, the cultivation of the land was resumed. God wanted to signify to the people of His covenant that He was well able to keep them, even without the labor of their hands, if they would strive to keep His covenant and he satisfied with His mercy.