The Jubilee Year [Leviticus 25]

In this chapter, the old laws connected with the economic and social life of Israel have been collected and reinterpreted. We have seen above that the Sabbath rest goes back to the earliest days of Israel. That was already a major advance in the liberation of God's people.

However, it did not meet the built-in uncertainties of daily life where people fall into poverty and where debts and loans bring new relationships that complicate social structures. The institution of the Sabbatical Year [Deut 15:1-18] with its remission of debts and the manumission of slaves was meant in large part to deal with those situations. This institution, however, was also found to be lacking.

Hence the institution of the Jubilee Year. There is disagreement among scholars about the meaning of the word 'jubilee'. Since the year is inaugurated on the Day of Atonement with the sound of a trumpet [shopar], some scholars think that the institution was in existence in the past when the Hebrew word yobel was used for a trumpet. Others think that a word similar to yobel with a possible meaning of 'remission' lies behind the word jubilee.

The purpose of this Jubilee Year was to get to the root of the problem of poverty and to restore once and for all the rights of ownership to the land. The rightful owners were those to whom Yahweh had allotted the land in the first place. Only Yahweh is the true owner of all the land. [25:23]

The Jubilee Year is a very special instance of the Sabbatical Year. It is to be celebrated on every 7th sabbatical year [v.8] and ends a cycle of 49 years. In v.lO it is called "the 50th year", possibly because the number 'fifty' was a familiar number in the agricultural year. To have two fallow years in a row, both the 49th and the 50th, would have been an impossible burden for a farming community.

THE FALLOW YEAR: 25:1-7. The introductory verses tell us that God spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, with a message for the people of Israel. It was a message about the land which God was about to give them, "The land shall keep a sabbath to the Lord" [v.2b]. Just as the people of Israel kept a day of rest in every seven, so the land was to keep a year of rest in every seven. There is a stress on the land "resting". The land belongs to Yahweh [v.23] and that ownership is to be acknowledged. The people can work on it for six years, but on the seventh it is sacred - not to be touched with farming tools.

What the land produces by itself will supply them with food. The message seems to be: "Trust Yahweh". This message is reinforced by vv.l7-23.

THE JUBILEE YEAR: 25:8-12. The jubilee year was a specially sacred period. It was calculated exactly, in the 49th year [7x7]; it was to begin on the 10th day of the 7th month, the day of atonement, and liturgically introduced with the sound of the trumpet "throughout all your land". "You shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants; it shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his family" [v.lO]. There is a general liberation from some kind of burden, which allows a man to get back his stake in the land and at the same time to join his clan; it is a restoration to his previous and, we might add, his ideal way of life. From the sketch of the history of Israel we can see that the burden under which the poor laboured was debt. In Deuteronomy we saw that the words 'poor' and 'debt' were closely connected.

What is the meaning of 'jubilee' in verse 10? From the context it appears as a solemn home-coming after the general release from debt or slavery. Perhaps the release of the Israelites from their exile in Babylon sparked the imagination of the author [Jer 31:9; Is 55:12].

CHANGING ISRAELITE ATTITUDES 25:13-16. In this section the author, still speaking of the jubilee year, wants to lay bare the attitudes that led to the loss of property and a stake in the land in the first place. Some take advantage of their strong position and drive a hard bargain. The poor have to agree or starve; they have to hand over their right to use their own property to another. The jubilee legislation wants to change that attitude. What is actually being sold or bought is a number of harvests, where the number depends on the number of years since the last jubilee year. The jubilee meant that there could be no outright buying or selling of property.

THE LAND IS YAHWEH'S : 25:13-16. Here it is repeated that the Israelites are not to wrong one another, and that is followed by an exhortation to fear Yahweh by keeping the commandments. Then they will live in security in the land and the land will supply them with what they need. The tone of exhortation in this passage suggests thafthe author is not interested in a mere legal prescription but has in his mind a rosy picture of the state of things when everybody is following the spirit of Yahweh's law.

During the fallow year, they are not to worry about eating their fill, for Yahweh will bless them during the sixth year by increasing the yield. They will have enough food during the fallow year and until the next harvest. Here we may note in passing that in the author's mind there is a close connection between the sabbatical year and the jubilee year.

IF YOUR BROTHER BECOMES POOR: 25:24-55. The rest of the chapter deals with a number of cases beginning with the phrase, "If your brother becomes poor" [vv.25, 35, 39 and 41],

1. 25:25-34. What happens if a landowner can no longer support himself and his family and is obliged to sell the land allotted to him by Yahweh? The next-of-kin has a right to step in and acquire the land. Originally the purpose of this law was to ensure that the land was not alienated from the extended family or clan. However, according to the jubilee legislation, the property had to revert to the original owner in the 49th year.

2. 25:35-38. If an Israelite has lost his stake in the land what are the duties of a brother Israelite? His 'brother' has a duty to take him in and give him hospitality as he would to a stranger or alien. "You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit" [v.37]. No doubt the poor brother is expected to work for the man who has taken him in. In v.38 there is the reminder that Yahweh brought them out of Egypt and gave them this land.

3. 25:39-46. In W.35-38 the ideal put before the Israelites could be summed up with a quotation from Matthew's Gospel: "Be you perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" [Mt 5:48]. This is Matthew's reformulation of Lev 19:2: "Speak to the whole community of Israel and say, 'Be holy, for I, Yahweh your God, am holy'. St Luke has, "Be merciful, just as your Father is mercifal"" [Lk 6:36].

The Israelites obviously fell short of this ideal. In this section the poor man has to sell himself to his brother Israelite in order to survive. He is not to be treated in the same way one treats a slave taken from the surrounding nations, i.e. with harshness. His status is that of the hired hand or the alien living with the people of Israel. In the jubilee year he and his children are to return to his own family and to the possession of his fathers.

This piece of legislation seems to ignore the slave laws of Exod 21:1-11 and Deut 15:12-18 in which a 'Hebrew' slave had to be liberated after six years of service. But the jubilee legislation allows that a man might be a slave for 40 or more years. Is this a backward step or a concession to reality? Or is it something else?

The reasons given for this piece of legislation are very informative. "For they are my servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves. You shall not rule over him with harshness, but shall fear your God" [vv.41-42]. An Israelite cannot be the 'possession' of a fallow Israelite -- he belongs to Yahweh.

4. 25:47-55. This piece of legislation concerns the Israelite who sells himself not to a brother Israelite but to a non-Israelite. His situation is similar to that of the man in vv,39-46. However, in this case special mention is made of the right of redemption; any blood relation can redeem him, or he may redeem himself.

LEV 27:16-25. This passage is the only other passage in Leviticus which speaks of the jubilee year. It concerns land dedicated to Yahweh.

An Impossible Dream?

The provisions of the Jubilee Law have puzzled many scholars. Could its provisions have been put into effect? It speaks of the 49th and the 50th years as being jubilee years for the whole land of Israel. Two fallow years over the whole land of Israel would seem to place an intolerable burden on the food supply.

The buying and selling of land [v.l4], the taking of interest on loans and enslavement for non-payment of debts appear to have been a regular practice after the Exile, as it was during the time of the monarchy. The general return of lands after a long period of alienation would be a difficult if not impossible task. Land reform is not achieved by the blowing of a trumpet; the walls of vested interest do not tumble so easily.

The liberation of those enslaved for debts would have to be postponed for an intolerably long period in some cases; the slave himself might be dead by that time. Furthermore the law conflicts with the liberation mentioned in Deuteronomy for the sabbatical year.

Putting the Jubilee Law into effect would mean not only a reordering of the socio-economic life of the whole society. It would also mean a change of attitudes. It would mean removing sin and rebellion against Yahweh or, to use Ezekiel's turn of phrase, replacing hearts of stone with hearts of flesh [Ezek.36:26-27]. That is more than the law can do.

The Real Purpose of the Jubilee Year

THE AUTHOR'S FAITH. The whole of chapter 25 deals with land and those who have lost a stake in the land. We have to keep in mind the faith-vision of the priestly writer. It is already indicated in the First two verses of chapter 25: "Yahweh spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai and said: 'Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ..."'. Those two verses are the author's way of summarising the doctrine of the Book of Exodus.

1. Yahweh was the God of the Israelites who chose them when they were the slaves of the Pharaoh of Egypt. He wanted them to recognise him as their God by being holy as he is holy.

2. Yahweh liberated them, he is their liberator and they are his 'slaves'.

3. Yahweh gave them a basic law to live by, namely the Ten Commandments, and a land to live in.

These three points are cardinal to the author's faith. They are his Covenant faith. Yahweh, the God who brought the Israelites out of Egypt and who made the covenant with them on Mount Sinai, is the same God who brought them back from Babylon and restored Jerusalem to them. Yahweh always remembers the covenant [Ps 105:8] and everything is in Yahweh's hands.

THE AUTHOR'S OWN EXPERIENCE

1. The author had been poring over all the laws up to that time and saw how they applied the basic covenant law in various historical circumstances. He reflected how he could pass on the gist of these laws and the spirit they embodied to his own and succeeding generations.

2. He was also a man of the Old Testament world which until a very late period did not see any life beyond the grave. Yahweh's promises would have to be fulfilled in this world, not necessarily in the lifetime of an individual, but certainly in the lifetime of Israel. Another characteristic of the Old Testament world was its stress on family solidarity. As Ezekiel chapter 18 and other texts show us, around the time of the Exile family solidarity began to accommodate individual responsibility. The author of Leviticus could then see the jubilee year as the fulfilment of the aspirations of all those alienated from their land and enslaved because of debt. It would be Yahweh's gift to them and their families.

3. The joy of the feast of Shelters which took place after the ingathering of the harvest, and which commenorated Israel's Exodus from Egypt would also have left an impression on him. The return from Babylon would have the same effect as is suggested in Isaiah 55:12, which is the conclusion to the Book of Consolation. In fact that proclamation of liberation and the home-coming celebration seems to have fired his imagination.

4. The author was probably in contact with ideas similar to those found in Isaiah 61:1-3, which is quoted by Lk 4:19. There, the prophet says that the Spirit of Yahweh has sent him to proclaim liberty to captives and a year of favour from Yahweh. If this text of Isaiah was written before Lev 25 and the author knew of it, he would have felt that he was giving effect to God's word.

SO LET IT BE ENACTED, SO LET IT BE DONE. The past, present and future, the whole of history, is in Yahweh's hands. Yahweh is a liberating God, a God of the individual, the family and the people of Israel, and a God of joy for the individual and the family. The ideal situation in the lifetime of Solomon is God's will for the people of Israel: "Judah and Israel lived in security, everyone under his vine and his fig tree, from Dan to Beersheba, throughout the lifetime of Solomon" [I Kings 5:5]. Nothing is impossible for God [Lk 1:37].

The society outlined by Deuteronomy and Leviticus 25 was not a dream but Yahweh's promise awaiting fulfilment. St Luke tells us that this promise is fulfilled in Jesus Christ [Lk 4:16-21].