Leviticus 25:10 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Leviticus 25:10
And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.
a year (as a revolution of time) · noun, common feminine singular construct
proclaim
וּקְרָאתֶ֥םu.ke.ra.Tem
H7121
to call out to (i.e. properly · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine plural
liberty
דְּר֛וֹרde.Ror
H1865
freedom · noun, common masculine singular absolute
land
בָּאָ֖רֶץba.'A.retz
H776
the earth (at large · preposition with the article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
inhabitants
יֹשְׁבֶ֑יהָyo.she.Vei.ha
H3427
properly · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
jubile
יוֹבֵ֥לyo.Vel
H3104
the blast of a horn (from its continuous sound) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
return
וְשַׁבְתֶּ֗םve.shav.Tem
H7725
to turn back (hence · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine plural
man
אִ֚ישׁ'ish
H376
a man as an individual or a male person · noun, common masculine singular absolute
possession
אֲחֻזָּת֔וֹ'a.chu.za.To
H272
something seized · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
return
תָּשֻֽׁבוּta.Shu.vu
H7725
to turn back (hence · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural
man
וְאִ֥ישׁve.'Ish
H376
a man as an individual or a male person · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute
family
מִשְׁפַּחְתּ֖וֹmish.pach.To
H4940
a family · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Jeremiah 34:8 This is the word that came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, after that the king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people which were at J…
Isaiah 63:4 For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.
Leviticus 25:13 In the year of this jubile ye shall return every man unto his possession.
Isaiah 61:1-3 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up th…
1 Peter 2:16 As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.
Galatians 5:13 For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
Exodus 20:2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Psalms 146:7 Which executeth judgment for the oppressed: which giveth food to the hungry. The LORD looseth the prisoners:
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Leviticus 25:8-22
Here is, I. The general institution of the jubilee, Lev 25:8. etc.
1. When it was to be observed: after seven sabbaths of years (Lev 25:8), whether the forty-ninth or fiftieth is a great question among learned men: that it should be the seventh sabbatical year, that is, the forty-ninth (which by a very common form of speech is called the fiftieth), seems to me most probable, and is, I think, made pretty clear and the objections removed by that learned chronologer Calvisius; but this is not a place for arguing the question. Seven sabbaths of weeks were reckoned from the passover to the feast of pentecost (or fiftieth day, for so pentecost signifies), and so seven sabbaths of years from one ju…
ye shall hallow the fiftieth year--Much difference of opinion exists as to whether the jubilee was observed on the forty-ninth, or, in round numbers, it is called the fiftieth. The prevailing opinion, both in ancient and modern times, has been in favor of the latter.
Adam Clarke on Leviticus 25:8
Thou shalt number seven Sabbaths of years - This seems to state that the jubilee was to be celebrated on the forty-ninth year; but in Lev 25:10 and Lev 25:11 it is said, Ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and, A jubilee shall this fiftieth year be. Probably in this verse Moses either includes the preceding jubilee, and thus with the forty-ninth makes up the number fifty; or he speaks of proclaiming the jubilee on the forty-ninth, and celebrating it on the fiftieth year current. Some think it was celebrated on the forty-ninth year, as is stated in Lev 25:8; and this prevented the Sabbatical year, or seventh year of rest, from being confounded with the jubilee, which it must otherwise have bee…
And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year,.... The year following the seven sabbaths of years, or forty nine years; and which they were to sanctify by separating it from all others, and devoting it to the uses it was to be put to, and the services done on it, and by abstaining from the tillage of the land, sowing or reaping, and from the cultivation of vines, olives, &c.
and proclaim liberty throughout all the land; to servants, both to those whose ears were bored, and were to serve for ever, even unto the year of jubilee, and then be released; and to those whose six years were not ended, from the time that they were bought; for the jubilee year put an end to their servitude, let the time they…
The Church Fathers
Who is there who has grasped the mind of Christ so well that he knows the meaning of the seventh year of freedom of Hebrew slaves and the remission of debts and the intermission of the cultivation of the holy land? Over and above the feast of every seventh year is the feast called the jubilee. No one can ever come near divining its precise meaning or the true import of the prescriptions enjoined by it, except him who knows the Father's will and his disposition for every age according to "his incomprehensible judgments and unsearchable ways."
Seven weeks of years in ancient times produced the celebrated jubilee, in which the earth kept the sabbath, debts were canceled, slaves were set free and, as it were, a new life was established again, the old one in a certain way attaining its fulfillment in the number seven. These things are figures of this present age which revolves through the seven days and passes us by; an age in which the penalties for the lesser sins are paid according to the loving care of the good Lord, so that we may not be handed over for punishment in the age without end.
THE NUMBER OF THIS PSALM IS NOT WITHOUT REASON. IT HAS REFERENCE TO THE YEAR OF THE JUBILEE, WHICH AMONG THE JEWS DISSOLVED OLD CONTRACTS AND OBLIGATIONS AND WHICH IN LEVITICUS THE LORD ORDERED ALL DWELLERS ON EARTH TO CALL THE YEAR OF REMISSION. THE NUMBER ALSO REFERS TO PENTECOST, WHEN AFTER THE LORD'S ASCENSION THE HOLY SPIRIT CAME ON THE APOSTLES, WORKING MIRACLES AND IMPARTING THE GIFT OF CHARISMS. SO TOO THIS PSALM, WHICH IS GIVEN THE NUMBER 50, if recited with a pure heart, looses sins, cancels the bond of our debt and, like the year of remission, frees us through the Lord's kindness of the debts of our sins.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Agriculture — Tilling the ground (Gen. 2:15; 4:2, 3, 12) and rearing cattle were the chief employments in ancient times. The Egyptians excelled in agriculture. And after the Israelites entered into the possession…
Law of Moses — Is the whole body of the Mosaic legislation (1 Kings 2:3; 2 Kings 23:25; Ezra 3:2). It is called by way of eminence simply “the Law” (Heb. Torah, Deut. 1:5; 4:8, 44; 17:18, 19; 27:3, 8). As a written…
Agriculture · LAWS CONCERNING — LAWS CONCERNING
Emancipation · Of all Jewish servants at the time of jubilee — Of all Jewish servants at the time of jubilee
Feast Of Jubilee, The · Held every fiftieth year — Held every fiftieth year
Holy Land · All inheritances in, inalienable — All inheritances in, inalienable
Jubilee · LAWS CONCERNING — LAWS CONCERNING
Liberty · Proclaimed in the year of jubilee — Proclaimed in the year of jubilee
Liberty, Christian · Typified — Typified
Sanitation · REST COMMAN — REST COMMAN
Servant · .Laws of Moses concerning — .Laws of Moses concerning
Servants · Slaves or bond: All Israelites sold as, to be free at the jubilee — Slaves or bond: All Israelites sold as, to be free at the jubilee
Leviticus 25:8-13
8. And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.
8. Numerabis quoque tibi septem hebdomadas armorum, id est septem annos septem vicibus; qui quidem dies septem Sabbathorum annorum efficient tibi quadraginta novem annos.
9. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.
9. Tunc transire facies tubam jubilationis mense septimo die mensis, id est die expiationum: transire inquam, facietis tubam per universam terrain vestram…
The law for the Year of Jubilee refers first of all to its observance (Lev 25:8-12), and secondly to its effects (a) upon the possession of property (vv. 13-34), and (b) upon the personal freedom of the Israelites (vv. 35-55).
Lev 25:8-9
Keeping the year of jubilee. Lev 25:8, Lev 25:9. Seven Sabbaths of years - i.e., year-Sabbaths or sabbatical years, or seven times seven years, the time of seven year-Sabbaths, that is to say, 49 years - they were to count, and then at the expiration of that time to cause the trumpet of jubilee to go (sound) through the whole land on the tenth of the seventh month, i.e., the day of atonement, to proclaim the entrance of the year of jubilee. This mode of anno…
proclaim freedom throughout the land for all who live there: See 25:39-43, 47-55. • return to the land that belonged to your ancestors: If the individual who originally owned the land had died, the land was returned to his heirs.
Rashi on Leviticus 25:10
וקדשתם AND YE SHALL SANCTIFY [THE FIFTIETH YEAR] — when it begins they declare it holy in the court by saying: “The year is holy!” (Sifra, Behar, Chapter 2 1; Rosh Hashanah 8b and Rosh Hashanah 24a).
וקראתם דרור AND YE SHALL PROCLAIM LIBERTY unto slaves, both to him whose ear has been pierced (and whose period of servitude has thus been prolonged until the Jubilee; cf. Exodus 21:6) and to him whose six years of servitude (the period prescribed for an ordinary Hebrew servant; Exodus 21:6 Exodus 21:2), reckoning from the time when he was sold, have not yet ended. R. Jehuda said, “What is the etymology of the term דרור, freedom? A free man is like a person who may dwell (דור) at an inn — meani…
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
