The Jubilee was the fiftieth-year release established for Israel. The land was to rest, ancestral property was restored, and Israelite servants were released, proclaiming God’s covenant justice and mercy.
Definition
The Jubilee was Israel’s great fiftieth-year festival, proclaimed by the sound of trumpets. During it the land lay fallow, ancestral landed property returned to its original owner, Israelite servants were released, and debts were remitted. It provided a periodic restoration of family inheritance and social balance.
Biblical Usage
The Jubilee expressed the covenant order governing Israel’s land, service, poverty, and release. The supplied material connects its principles with later allusions in the prophets and historical writings, though it records no direct narrative of an actual observance.
Historical Background
The institution limited the accumulation of land, preserved hereditary possessions, prevented permanent slavery, and gave those reduced by hardship an opportunity to begin again in their family inheritance.
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Easton's Bible Dictionary
A joyful shout or clangour of trumpets, the name of the great semi-centennial festival of the Hebrews. It lasted for a year. During this year the land was to be fallow, and the Israelites were only permitted to gather the spontaneous produce of the fields (Lev. 25:11, 12). All landed property during that year reverted to its original owner (13-34; 27:16-24), and all who were slaves were set free (25:39-54), and all debts were remitted. The return of the jubilee year was proclaimed by a blast of trumpets which sounded throughout the land. There is no record in Scripture of the actual observance of this festival, but there are numerous allusions (Isa. 5:7, 8, 9, 10; 61:1, 2; Ezek. 7:12, 13; Neh. 5:1-19; 2 Chr. 36:21) which place it beyond a doubt that it was observed. The advantages of this institution were manifold. “1. It would prevent the accumulation of land on the part of a few to the detriment of the community at large. 2. It would render it impossible for any one to be born to absolute poverty, since every one had his hereditary land. 3. It would preclude those inequalities which are produced by extremes of riches and poverty, and which make one man domineer over another. 4. It would utterly do away with slavery. 5. It would afford a fresh opportunity to those who were reduced by adverse circumstances to begin again their career of industry in the patrimony which they had temporarily forfeited. 6. It would periodically rectify the disorders which crept into the state in the course of time, preclude the division of the people into nobles and plebeians, and preserve the theocracy inviolate.”
