Lev 25:4-5 | KD | STEP | The Sabbatical Year. - When Israel had come into the land which the Lord gave to it, it was to sanctify it to the Lord by the observance of a Sabbath. As the nation at large, with its labourers and beasts of burden, was to keep a Sabbath or day of rest every seventh day of the week, so the land which they filled was to rest (to keep, שׁבּי שׁבת as in ) a Sabbath to the Lord. Six years they were to sow the field and cut the vineyard, i.e., cultivate the corn-fields, vineyards, and olive-yards ( : see the remarks on cerem at ), and gather in their produce; but in the seventh year the land was to keep a Sabbath of rest ( Sabbath sabbathon , ), a Sabbath consecrated to the Lord (see ); and in this year the land was neither to be tilled nor reaped (cf. ). זמר in Kal applies only to the cutting of grapes, and so also in Niphal , ; hence zemorah , a vine-branch (Num 13:23), and mazmerah , a pruning-knife ( , etc.). The omission of sowing and reaping presupposed that the sabbatical year commenced with the civil year, in the autumn of the sixth year of labour, and not with the ecclesiastical year, on the first of Abib (Nisan), and that it lasted till the autumn of the seventh year, when the cultivation of the land would commence again with the preparation of the ground and the sowing of the seed for the eighth year; and with this the command to proclaim the jubilee year on “the tenth day of the seventh month” throughout all the land ( ), and the calculation in , , fully agree.

‏ Leviticus 25:4-5

The Sabbatical Year. - When Israel had come into the land which the Lord gave to it, it was to sanctify it to the Lord by the observance of a Sabbath. As the nation at large, with its labourers and beasts of burden, was to keep a Sabbath or day of rest every seventh day of the week, so the land which they filled was to rest (to keep, שׁבּי שׁבת as in Lev 23:32) a Sabbath to the Lord. Six years they were to sow the field and cut the vineyard, i.e., cultivate the corn-fields, vineyards, and olive-yards (Exo 23:11 : see the remarks on cerem at Lev 19:10), and gather in their produce; but in the seventh year the land was to keep a Sabbath of rest (Sabbath sabbathon, Exo 31:15), a Sabbath consecrated to the Lord (see Exo 20:10); and in this year the land was neither to be tilled nor reaped (cf. Exo 23:10-11). זמר in Kal applies only to the cutting of grapes, and so also in Niphal, Isa 5:6; hence zemorah, a vine-branch (Num 13:23), and mazmerah, a pruning-knife (Isa 2:4, etc.). ^{▼▼The meaning to sin and play, which is peculiar to the Piel, and is derived from zamar, to hum, has hardly anything to do with this. At all events the connection has not yet been shown to be a probable one. See Hupfeld, Psa 4:1-8 pp. 421-2, note.}

The omission of sowing and reaping presupposed that the sabbatical year commenced with the civil year, in the autumn of the sixth year of labour, and not with the ecclesiastical year, on the first of Abib (Nisan), and that it lasted till the autumn of the seventh year, when the cultivation of the land would commence again with the preparation of the ground and the sowing of the seed for the eighth year; and with this the command to proclaim the jubilee year on “the tenth day of the seventh month” throughout all the land (Lev 25:9), and the calculation in Lev 25:21, Lev 25:22, fully agree. Lev 25:5

“That which has fallen out (been shaken out) of thy harvest (i.e., the corn which had grown from the grains of the previous harvest that had fallen out) thou shalt not reap, and the grapes of thine uncut thou shalt not gather.” נזיר, the Nazarite, who let his hair grow freely without cutting it (Num 6:5), is used figuratively, both here and in Lev 25:11, to denote a vine not pruned, since by being left to put forth all its productive power it was consecrated to the Lord. The Roman poets employ a similar figure, and speak of the viridis coma of the vine (Tibull. i. 7, 34; Propert. ii. 15, 12).