Leviticus 25:4

But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(4) The seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest.—Literally, the seventh year shall be a rest of solemn resting, or a sabbath of sabbaths. For the import of this phrase see Note on Leviticus 16:31. Like the weekly sabbath, the seventh year is to be the Lord’s sabbath. The soil is therefore to have a perfect rest.

Thou shalt neither sow thy field.—What constitutes cultivation, and how much of labour was regarded as transgressing this law, may be seen from the following canons which obtained during the second Temple. No one was allowed to plant trees in the sabbatical year, nor to cut off dried-up branches, to break off withered leaves, to smoke under the plants in order to kill the insects, nor to besmear the unripe fruit with any kind of soil in order to protect them, &c. Any one who committed one of these things received the prescribed number of stripes. As much land, however, might be cultivated as was required for the payment of taxes as well as for growing the barley required for the omer or wave sheaf at the Passover, and wheat for the two wave-loaves at Pentecost.

Benson Commentary

Leviticus 25:4-5. A sabbath of rest to the land — They were neither to do any work about it, nor expect any harvest from it. All yearly labours were to be intermitted in the seventh year, as much as daily labours on the seventh day. Of its own accord — From the grains that fell out of the ears the last reaping time. Thou shalt not reap — That is, as thy own peculiarly, but only so as others may reap it with thee, for present food. Undressed — Not cut off by thee, but suffered to grow for the use of the poor. Proselytes and servants, rich and poor, had all an equal privilege: one man’s beast was to graze as freely as another’s; all were to live at rest and enjoy the comforts of this law, the merciful appointment of Heaven. It is a year of rest unto the land — This seems to have been one purpose of the institution, that the land might lie fallow, in order to recruit its strength.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

25:1-7 All labour was to cease in the seventh year, as much as daily labour on the seventh day. These statues tell us to beware of covetousness, for a man's life consists not in the abundance of his possessions. We are to exercise willing dependence on God's providence for our support; to consider ourselves the Lord's tenants or stewards, and to use our possessions accordingly. This year of rest typified the spiritual rest which all believers enter into through Christ. Through Him we are eased of the burden of wordly care and labour, both being sanctified and sweetened to us; and we are enabled and encouraged to live by faith.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

A sabbath of rest - See Leviticus 23:3 note. The express prohibition of sowing and reaping, and of pruning and gathering, affords a presumption in favor of the sabbatical year beginning, like the year of Jubilee Leviticus 25:9, in the first month of the civil year Leviticus 23:24, the seventh of the sacred year, when the land was cleared of the crops of the preceding year.

The great material advantage of the institution must have been the increased fertility of the soil from its lying fallow one year out of seven, at a time when neither the rotation of crops nor the art of manuring were understood. It must also have kept up a salutary habit of economy in the storing of grain. Compare Genesis 41:48-56. Its great spiritual lesson was that there was no such thing as absolute ownership in the land vested in any man, that the soil was the property of Yahweh, that it was to be held in trust for Him, and not to be abused by overworking, but to be made the most of for the good of every creature which dwelt upon it.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2-4. When ye come into the land which I give you—It has been questioned on what year, after the occupation of Canaan, the sabbatic year began to be observed. Some think it was the seventh year after their entrance. But others, considering that as the first six years were spent in the conquest and division of the land (Jos 5:12), and that the sabbatical year was to be observed after six years of agriculture, maintain that the observance did not commence till the fourteenth year.

the land keep a sabbath unto the Lord—This was a very peculiar arrangement. Not only all agricultural processes were to be intermitted every seventh year, but the cultivators had no right to the soil. It lay entirely fallow, and its spontaneous produce was the common property of the poor and the stranger, the cattle and game. This year of rest was to invigorate the productive powers of the land, as the weekly Sabbath was a refreshment to men and cattle. It commenced immediately after the feast of ingathering, and it was calculated to teach the people, in a remarkable manner, the reality of the presence and providential power of God.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land,.... From all tillage of it, from planting and cultivating any sort of trees in it; and even from digging pits, ditches; and caves, as say the Jewish writers (m): and this was typical of that rest which believers enter into under the Gospel dispensation, and of the rest in the new Jerusalem state, and especially in the ultimate glory; not only from the labours of the body, but of the mind, through sin, Satan, doubts and fears, and through conflicts with various enemies, and when even all spiritual labours and services will be at an end but that of praise:

a sabbath for the Lord; for his honour and glory, to ascertain his property in the land, to show the power of his providence, and display his goodness in his care of all creatures, without any means used by them:

thou shalt neither sow thy field nor prune thy vineyard; under which are comprehended all acts of agriculture, which respect the cultivation of vines, olives, figs, and, according to the Misnah (n), there were some instruments which it was not lawful to sell to an artificer in the seventh year, such as a plough, with all belonging to it, a yoke, a fan, a spade, but he may sell him a scythe, or a sickle, or a cart, and all its instruments; and which the commentators (o) interpret of one that is suspected of working in that year; the house of Shammai say, an heifer that ploughed might not be sold that year.

(m) Torat Cohenim apud Yalkut, ut supra. (par. 1. fol. 191. 1.) (n) Sheviith, c. 5. sect. 6. (o) Maimon. & Bartenora in ib.

Geneva Study Bible

But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Leviticus 25:4

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

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 Leviticus 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 (Exodus 23:11 : see the remarks on cerem at Leviticus 19:10), and gather in their produce; but in the seventh year the land was to keep a Sabbath of rest (Sabbath sabbathon, Exodus 31:15), a Sabbath consecrated to the Lord (see Exodus 20:10); and in this year the land was neither to be tilled nor reaped (cf. Exodus 23:10-11). זמר in Kal applies only to the cutting of grapes, and so also in Niphal, Isaiah 5:6; hence zemorah, a vine-branch (Numbers 13:23), and mazmerah, a pruning-knife (Isaiah 2:4, etc.).

(Note: 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, Psalm 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 (Leviticus 25:9), and the calculation in Leviticus 25:21, Leviticus 25:22, fully agree.