476
Patriarchs and Prophets
the year of release, is at hand; and thine eye be evil against thy poor
brother, and thou givest him nought; and he cry unto the Lord against
thee, and it be sin unto thee.” “The poor shall never cease out of the
land; therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand
wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land,” “and
shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he wanteth.”
Deuteronomy 15:7-9, 11, 8
.
None need fear that their liberality would bring them to want.
Obedience to God’s commandments would surely result in prosperity.
“Thou shalt lend unto many nations,” He said, “but thou shalt not
borrow; and thou shalt reign over many nations, but they shall not
reign over thee.”
Deuteronomy 15:6
.
After “seven sabbaths of years,” “seven times seven years,” came
that great year of release—the jubilee. “Then shalt thou cause the
trumpet of the jubilee to sound ... throughout all your land. And ye
shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the
land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you;
and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return
every man unto his family.”
Leviticus 25:9, 10
.
“On the tenth day of the seventh month, in the Day of Atonement,”
the trumpet of the jubilee was sounded. Throughout the land, wherever
the Jewish people dwelt, the sound was heard, calling upon all the
children of Jacob to welcome the year of release. On the great Day
of Atonement satisfaction was made for the sins of Israel, and with
gladness of heart the people would welcome the jubilee.
As in the sabbatical year, the land was not to be sown or reaped,
and all that it produced was to be regarded as the rightful property of
the poor. Certain classes of Hebrew slaves—all who did not receive
their liberty in the sabbatical year—were now set free. But that which
especially distinguished the year of jubilee was the reversion of all
landed property to the family of the original possessor. By the special
[534]
direction of God the land had been divided by lot. After the division
was made no one was at liberty to trade his estate. Neither was he to
sell his land unless poverty compelled him to do so, and then, whenever
he or any of his kindred might desire to redeem it, the purchaser must
not refuse to sell it; and if unredeemed, it would revert to its first
possessor or his heirs in the year of jubilee.