Verse 10
10. The fiftieth year was to be set apart for specific purposes, to be not only a year of rest but of release and restoration. To obviate the difficulty of two successive years of rest for the soil and idleness for the people, much ingenuity has been exhibited in trying to prove that the fiftieth means the forty-ninth! We prefer to let a clear, unequivocal statement, involving no inconsistency nor physical impossibility, stand as written by Moses. Thus the jubilee was strictly a pentecostal year, holding the same relation to the preceding seven sabbatical years as the pentecost day did to the seven sabbath days; substantially the same formula is used in each case. See Leviticus 23:15-16.
Proclaim liberty… unto all Not to all Hebrews only, but “to all sitting in her,” that is, in the land. The only exception may have been those sold for theft, but even this class is not excepted in the law. See concluding note, (2.)
Jubilee The term yobhel, primarily signifies a ram or ram’s horn, and secondarily, a cry of joy, as if from the verb yabhel, to shout joyfully. Others derive it from the causative form of the same verb, with the signification to make go, hence, to restore. We cannot speak with certainty on this obscure question. See Joshua 6:4, note.
His possession The land originally allotted to his ancestor by Joshua and the land commission. See Numbers 34:17-28; Joshua 14:1, notes.
His family From this he may have been separated either by selling himself, on account of poverty, (Leviticus 25:39; Leviticus 25:47,) or by being sold by judicial decree to compensate for a theft. Exodus 22:2-3.
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