Leviticus 25:11

Lev 25:11 A jubile shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather [the grapes] in it of thy vine undressed.

Ver. 11. A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be.] Or, That jubilee shall be unto you the year of fifty years. This first Mosaical jubilee was in 1396 BC.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

25:11-12 All the regulations of the Sabbath year also applied to the Year of Jubilee.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 11. A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be] The literal meaning of the word jubilee, יובל yobel in Hebrew, and יוביל yobil in the Samaritan, has not been well ascertained. Josephus and the rabbins have caused many to err; the former says the word signifies liberty; Ελευθεριαν δε σημαινει τουνομα, Antiq., l. 3, cap. 12, edit. Haverc., vol. 1., p. 184; but the word liberty signifies rather the intention of the institution, than the meaning of the Hebrew term. The rabbins say it signifies a ram's horn, because the trumpets which were used in proclaiming this solemnity were made out of ram's horns. This meaning is adopted in a few places in our translation, but none of the ancient versions acknowledge this sense of the term, the Chaldee excepted. Some derive it from yabal, to bring, carry away, because the Israelites at this time carried away the right of repossessing their inheritances which had been forfeited or alienated. The most natural derivation is from הוביל hobil, to cause to bring back, or recall, because estates, c., which had been alienated, were then brought back to their primitive owners. This was a wise and excellent institution, but appears to have been little regarded by the Jews after the Babylonish captivity. Indeed, it is not mentioned under the second temple, and the observance must have ceased among the Jews when they were brought under a foreign yoke.

The jubilee seems to have been typical,

1. Of the great time of release, the Gospel dispensation, when all who believe in Christ Jesus are redeemed from the bondage of sin - repossess the favour and image of God, the only inheritance of the human soul, having all debts cancelled, and the right of inheritance restored. To this the prophet Isaiah seems to allude, Isa 26:13, and particularly Isa 61:1-3.

2. Of the general resurrection. "It is," says Mr. Parkhurst, "a lively prefiguration of the grand consummation of time, which will be introduced in like manner by the trump of God, 1Co 15:52, when the children and heirs of God shall be delivered from all their forfeitures, and restored to the eternal inheritance allotted to them by their Father and thenceforth rest from their labours, and be supported in life and happiness by what the field of God shall supply."

It is worthy of remark that the jubilee was not proclaimed till the tenth day of the seventh month, on the very day when the great annual atonement was made for the sins of the people; and does not this prove that the great liberty or redemption from thraldom, published under the Gospel, could not take place till the great Atonement, the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, had been offered up? See Le 25:9.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(11) A jubile shall that fiftieth year be unto you.—According to the unanimous testimony of the authorities during the second Temple, including Philo (ii. 287-290) and Josephus (Antt. iii. 12, § 3), the jubile was observed every fiftieth year, as is plainly enjoined both in the verse before us and in Lev_25:10. As the forty-ninth year is the sabbatical year and the fiftieth year the jubile, there were two successive fallow years.

Ye shall not sow.—As the fiftieth year is jubile, and partakes of the nature of the sabbatical year, sowing and reaping are forbidden.

Neither reap that which groweth of itself in it.—That is, the spontaneous growth of this year is not to be made into a regular harvest and stored up. (See Lev_25:5.)

Vine undressed.—See Lev_25:5.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you,.... Which, clearly shows, that not the forty ninth year was the year of jubilee, as many learned men have asserted, chiefly induced by this reason, because two years would come together in which were no sowing reaping; but that God, that could cause the earth to forth fruit for three years, Lev 25:21; could make it bring forth enough for four years; and in order to make their sentiment agree with this passage, they are obliged to make the foregoing jubilee one of the fifty, and begin their account from thence; but this could not be done in the first account of the jubilee; of the name; see Gill on Lev 25:9,

ye shall not sow; in the year of jubilee, which shows also that this could not be the forty ninth year, which of course being a sabbatical year, there would be no sowing, reaping, &c. and so this law or instruction would be quite needless:

neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed; as in the sabbatical year; see Gill on Lev 25:5; the same with respect to these things being to be observed in the year of jubilee, as in that; and so Jarchi observes that the same that is said of the sabbatical year is said of the jubilee, two holy years being found next to one another, the forty ninth year the sabbatical year, and the fiftieth year the jubilee.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Though it come immediately after a seventh year, wherein also this was forbidden to you.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

11. Ye shall not sow, neither reap — This prohibition makes the fiftieth year sabbatic, like the forty-ninth: the land being untilled two successive years. The sustenance of the people in this case is provided for by the threefold productiveness of the last secular year. See Lev_25:21.

Nor gather the grapes — It is probable that this applied only to the fields, and not to the gardens attached to the houses.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 11, 12. So far as the tillage of the land went, the jubilee year was to have the same effect as a sabbatical year.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

a Jubilee for you

"a year of restoration" or "a year for you to return the land." It can be stated clearly who they were returning the land to. AT: "a year for you to return the land to me" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

You must eat the produce that grows by itself out of the fields

Yahweh did not allow the land owner to organize his workers and harvest the land as he did the other six years. However, he did allow individuals to go through the fields and eat what they find.

translationWords

harvest

grape

vine

holy

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

יובל הוא שנת החמשים שנה IT IS A JUBILEE; THE FIFTIETH YEAR [SHALL BE UNTO YOU A PERIOD etc.] — Why is this statement made at all? Is it not identical with that made in v. 10? But because it is stated (v. 10) “and ye shall sanctify [the fiftieth year]” which implies that the year has to be sanctified at the beginning although the law of setting the slaves free applies only as from Yom Kippur, and consequently one might think that the holy character of the year is to be extended till the tenth of Tishri of the next year. Scripture therefore states here “a Jubilee is the fiftieth year” — but not any part of the fifty-first — just as is explained in Rosh Hashanah 8b and in Torat Cohanim (Sifra, Behar, Chapter 3 1).

את נזריה [YE SHALL NOT GATHER THE GRAPES] THAT ARE נזירים — i. e. the grapes which have been kept by you (cf. Rashi on v. 6: לכם לאכלה‎ שבת הארץ), but you may gather from those that had been declared free to all (cf. Rashi on v. 5: ‎‎לא תבצר). Just as this is stated with reference to the Sabbatical year so, too, is it stated with regard to the Jubilee (Sifra, Behar, Chapter 3 2). Thus there are two holy years one after the other: the forty-ninth year שמיטה, and the fiftieth,יובל‎‎.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.