Leviticus 25:7

And for thy cattle, and for the beasts that [are] in thy land,.... The former signifies tame cattle, such as were kept at home, or in fields, or were used in service, and the latter the wild beasts

That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land. No JFB commentary on these verses.

(7) And for thy cattle.—In accordance with the benign legislation which obtained during the second Temple, the administrators of the law inferred from this verse, and hence enacted, that the fruit of the seventh year may only be eaten by man at home, as long as the kind is found in the field. “As long as the animals eat the same kind in the field thou mayest eat what there is of it in the house, but if the animal has consumed it all in the field thou art bound to remove this kind from the house into the field.” (For the enactment which enjoins the remission of debts in the sabbatical year, see Deuteronomy 15:1-3.) During the second Temple the sabbatical year began on the first day of the month of Tishri, which was the beginning of the civil year. The tillage, however, and the cultivation of certain fields and gardens, were left off in the sixth year. The cultivation of corn-fields ceased from the Feast of Passover, and orchards from Pentecost of the sixth year. The reading of portions of the Law which is enjoined in Deuteronomy 31:10-13, was assigned during the second Temple to the king. At the termination of the seventh fallow year, which coincided with the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles of the eighth year, a wooden platform was erected in the outer court of the Temple, on which the king was seated. The chief of the synagogue took the Book of the Law, and gave it to the head of the synagogue, who gave it to the head of the priests. He gave it to the high priest, and the latter handed it to the king, who stood up to receive it. He then sat down again, and read the following seven sections :—(1) Deuteronomy 1:1 to Deuteronomy 6:3; (2) Deuteronomy 6:4-8; (3) Deuteronomy 11:13-22; (4) Deuteronomy 14:22 to Deuteronomy 15:23; (5) Deuteronomy 16:12-19; (6) Deuteronomy 17:14-20; (7) Deuteronomy 27:1 to Deuteronomy 28:68. The king concluded with the same benedictions, which the high priest pronounced (see Leviticus 16:27), only that he substituted the blessing for the festival for the absolution of sins.

1–7. The rest year was a transference to the land of the sabbatical idea emphasized each week for living creatures, the year being now taken as the unit instead of the day. See App. I, pp. 172 f. for the difference in standpoint between this and the parallel ordinances elsewhere in the Hexateucb, as indicating modifications of the same law in successive periods. The seventh year is to bear the same relation to the six preceding years as the sabbath to the six preceding days of the week. The parallel between the land and the bondman was close. The divinely appointed seventh day of rest is to be kept holy by abstaining from work, so the land shall keep every seventh year holy to the Lord by resting from all work. It cannot be wholly inactive, but nothing is to be done which will cause the land to put forth its full strength. By a curtailment of the full powers bestowed upon man and land by their Creator both were to keep holy a season to the Lord. In Exodus 23:10-11 the fallow year is regarded as a provision for the poor and part of the animal creation, while the religious idea underlies the injunctions of the passage in Leviticus. In pre-exilic times the law seems to have been, at any rate to a large extent, disregarded (see ch.Leviticus 26:35; Leviticus 26:43; 2 Chronicles 36:21). It is true that the custom of letting land lie fallow prevails in so many countries and can be traced back so far that it is certain that the Hebrews must have observed something of the kind from the time of their being settled. If the fallow time were different for different fields there would be nothing to call for special note, and it is not surprising that no reference is found to the practice in the historical Books. But a fixed fallow year for all the land would cause an interruption of social life of which some traces would be found in the history. Later on, in Nehemiah’s time (Nehemiah 10:31), the people bound themselves to carry out the Law. According to Josephus (Ant. xi. 8. 6) both Jews and Samaritans observed it in the time of Alexander the Great, and so later in the days of the Hasmonean dynasty (1Ma 6:49; 1Ma 6:53; Ant. xiii. 8. 1) and the Herods (ib. xiv. 16. 2). Tacitus (Hist. Leviticus 25:4), however, attributes the Jews’ observance of it to laziness. The sabbatical year concluded with the Feast of Tabernacles (Deuteronomy 31:10), and the old reckoning, by which the year began in autumn, not in spring (see on Leviticus 23:23-25), was necessarily applied in this case. The year’s circle of agricultural operations naturally would begin as soon as harvest and vine-gathering were finished. Had it begun in the first month (after the sowing of spring time) the harvests of both sixth and seventh years would have been lost.