The land shall not be sold irrevocably; for the land is mine, and you are but resident aliens and under my authority. Therefore, in every part of the country that you occupy, you must permit the land to be redeemed. Leviticus 25:23f.
To us moderns, land is merely a piece of real-estate bought and sold like anything else. Not so to the Hebrews. Their land was steeped in theological meaning. It was the land promised to Abraham, described as a land flowing with milk and honey. In fact, in their minds and hearts, to enter and possess this land was a return to Eden, to lost origins before our first parents were banished, a cherub blocking the way back with flaming sword. The land was YHWH’s lent to them as a gift, a very earthy and tangible reality, but also a symbol of a future state when, as their prophets foretold, heaven and earth will become united again into the paradise the human race longs for. This chapter on the land Sabbath and Jubilee describes the heaven on earth YHWH intended His people to experience.
What jumps out at us from the get-go is the divine command for the land to experience a Sabbath like the people of the land. Behind this is the curse on the ground, not for its own fault, but for the sin of Adam. The land bears the brunt of human sin, as St. Paul points out in Romans 8, and groans. This personification of the ground as a woman in labor is very revealing about the nature of the human/soil relationship. Adam, and therefore humanity, must not dominate the soil in an exploitive way, but in a nurturing way. He must take care of the land so the land can take care of him. The way to do this is to give it a Sabbath. Every seven years Israel was to let the ground go fallow. Israel may gather from what grows of its own from the land, but cannot harvest and produce its fruits as in normal years (25:5f., Milgrom, p. 312). This gives rest to the land, and the opportunity for the Hebrew to trust God for sustenance as their ancestors had to trust God for manna.
Every Hebrew was inextricably connected to his ancestral plot of land, allotted by Joshua to the tribes and clans at the conquest. The rights to the property could never be permanently transferred to someone else. This was behind Ahab’s depression when Naboth refused to sell him his vineyard; he couldn’t sell it by law even if he wanted to. Jezebel did not have such scruples and murdered Naboth, thus bringing down a curse on Ahab and his house. However, given the viscidities of life, one might have to sell his land, even himself, in grave necessity. This is the context for the Year of Jubilee.
The word “Jubilee” comes from the Hebrew yȏbēl meaning ram’s horn, which is blown at the commencement of the year 49th year, seven sevens of weeks, the year of freedom and redemption. Inevitably, people fall into hard times and are forced to sell off their land to survive. The year of Jubilee was instituted by God to limit the acquisition of land by the rich few to the impoverishment of the many, and maintain inalienable ancestral rights to the land. Three scenarios are presented in this chapter:
- The sell of land and its redemption (vv. 25-28)
If land has to be sold, the owner’s nearest kinsman is responsible to redeem the sold property. If this is not possible, he can buy the land back, and refund the buyer the difference. Otherwise, the property remains with the buyer until released to the original owner on the year of Jubilee.
- Lost Land (vv. 35-38)
This scenario assumes the land was not redeemed, and the owner is forced to borrow money to work the land, but for whatever reason, defaults on this loan. At this point he becomes a tenant farmer to his creditor on his own land. Emphasized is the command for the creditor not to demand interest on the loan; his take for his troubles comes from the fruit of land. It is assumed the land is returned to the original owner on the Jubilee.
- Resident Hireling (vv. 39-43)
This scenario builds on the previous situation, where, if the owner cannot extricate himself from the debt, the only way out is to “sell himself” to his creditor. This means he must live in the house of his creditor, and receive wages so as to free himself from debt, or working until the Jubilee frees him. This law virtually eliminates the possibility of a Hebrew becoming a slave. He cannot be ruled over with harshness.
We have wrestled with this difficult issue of slavery in Israel’s earlier legislation: See our Exodus post The Covenant Code: B. The Slavery Motif. Here we view it in the context of the Jubilee, where the Hebrews are really not treated as “slaves” but as hirelings, and must be released in a lifetime, the Jubilee being the approximate length of a person’s life back then. The key idea here, however, is given to us in verse 42, where the Hebrews are identified as YHWH’s slaves, and therefore shall not be sold as slaves. St. Paul picks up on this when he presents the two possible realities before us; we are either slaves to God and righteousness, or slaves to sin (Romans 6).
The Jubilee, in tandem with the whole legislation of Leviticus, presents to us a veritable heaven on earth. It is difficult to say if it was actually carried out, or if it existed for centuries as an ideal. What is for sure is how the beautiful words of verse 10, “…and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants” is picked up by Isaiah (61:1), and transported into the kerygma of the Gospel by Jesus Himself when He declared “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). We see the Jubilee is fulfilled in this present Kingdom Age of the Church, but as St. Bede teaches, its complete fulfillment will be in the Eternal City.
In the law the fiftieth year was ordered to be called [the year] of jubilee, that is, “forgiving” or “changed.” During it the people were to remain at rest from all their work, the debts of all were to be cancelled, slaves were to go free [and] the year itself was to be more notable than other years because of its greater solemnities and divine praises. Therefore by this number is rightly indicated that tranquility of greatest peace when, as the apostle says, at the sound of the last trumpet “the dead will rise and we shall be changed” into glory. Then, when the labors and hardships of this age come to an end and our debts, [that is] all our faults, have been forgiven, the entire people of the elect will rejoice eternally in the sole contemplation of the divine vision. And that most longed-for command of our lord and Savior will be fulfilled: “Be still, and see that I am God.”
Homilies on the Gospels 2.17.
Takeaway: The Sabbatical year and the Jubilee laws were given to create a sense of a return to the Garden in Eden, or forward looking, to heaven, upon the land of promise.
Questions:
- There have been many attempts to describe or create the ideal society: e.g. Plato, Thomas More, Napoleon, Marx. From what you may know of them, how do they compare with Leviticus 25?
- Explain how this year of Jubilee describes our lives as Catholics?
Resources Used:
ACCS vol. III, p. 198
Milgrom, J. Leviticus, pp. 304-316
Wenham, G. The Book of Leviticus, p. 319