Verse-by-Verse Commentary
The Book of Leviticus
Chapter 25: The Sabbath Year and the Jubilee
Every seventh year the land itself was to rest, and every fiftieth year a trumpet sounded on the Day of Atonement to proclaim liberty throughout the land: debts released, slaves set free, and every family restored to its own inheritance. This is the year of Jubilee, one of the most beautiful pictures in the law. It taught Israel that the land belonged to God, that the poor must be redeemed, and that no bondage was final. And it pointed forward to Jesus, who stood up in Nazareth and announced that the true Jubilee had come.
About This Commentary
This is a verse-by-verse study of Leviticus chapter 25. For each section you will find the KJV text, the Hebrew words that sharpen the meaning, plain explanation, and a Gospel Focus. The chapter gives the sabbath year and the year of Jubilee, with the laws of redemption for land and for persons that flow from them. Together they teach that the earth is the LORD's, that His people are to care for the poor and the enslaved, and that liberty and restoration belong to God's design. Above all they point to Jesus Christ our Kinsman-Redeemer and the great Jubilee of the gospel. Every Scripture quotation is from the King James Version.
Setting the Stage
A Sabbath for the Land
Every seventh year the fields lay fallow and rested, and Israel trusted God to provide from His own hand.
The Year of Jubilee
Every fiftieth year a trumpet proclaimed liberty: debts freed, servants released, families restored to home.
The Kinsman Redeems
The land was God's, held in trust; a poor man's lost inheritance could be bought back by a near kinsman.
No Bondage Is Final
An Israelite sold into servitude went free at Jubilee, for God's people are His servants, not slaves of men.
A Sabbath for the Land (Leviticus 25:1-7)
As the people kept a weekly sabbath, so the land was to keep a sabbath year, resting every seventh year while Israel trusted God to provide.
A Sabbath of Rest unto the Land
"And the LORD spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; 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. 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. And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee, And for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat. And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land."
Hebrew Study
Just as people keep the seventh day, the land keeps a seventh year: "then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD." For a whole year the fields lie unsown, and Israel must trust God to provide from what grows of itself. The sabbath-year (and the Jubilee that follows seven of them) taught the nation that the land was God's, not theirs to exploit, and that their security rested on His provision, not their ceaseless labor. Rest itself was an act of faith.
Explanation
Six years Israel could sow and prune and gather; but "in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD." The fields lay fallow, the vineyards unpruned, and whatever grew of its own accord was left for all to share, "for thee, and for thy servant... and for thy stranger," even "for thy cattle, and for the beast." It was a bold act of faith: a whole year without planting, trusting God to feed them. Later in the chapter God answers the natural fear, "What shall we eat the seventh year?" with a promise, "I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years." The land rested, the poor were fed, and Israel learned to lean on the provision of God rather than on their own ceaseless labor.
Gospel Focus
The sabbath year teaches the rest of faith. Israel had to stop working the land and trust that God would provide, and God met that trust with a blessing large enough to carry them through. It is a lesson every believer must learn: our security is not in our endless striving but in the God who provides. Jesus calls the anxious to the same trust, "take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat... your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things" (Matthew 6:25, 32). And the deeper rest the sabbath year foreshadows is the rest we have in Christ, who invites, "come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). We cease from our own works of self-salvation and rest in His finished work, for "there remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God" (Hebrews 4:9). The fallow field, waiting quietly on God's provision, is a picture of the soul that stops striving and trusts the Lord to supply.
Proclaim Liberty: the Year of Jubilee (Leviticus 25:8-22)
Every fiftieth year the trumpet sounded on the Day of Atonement and liberty was proclaimed: debts released, land returned, and every family restored to its inheritance.
Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land
"And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. A jubile shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed. For it is the jubile; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field. In the year of this jubile ye shall return every man unto his possession. And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbour, or buyest ought of thy neighbour's hand, ye shall not oppress one another: According to the number of years after the jubile thou shalt buy of thy neighbour, and according unto the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee: According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it: for according to the number of the years of the fruits doth he sell unto thee. Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am the LORD your God. Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety. And the land shall yield her fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety. And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase: Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years. And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year; until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store."
Hebrew Study
"jubile," yobel (יוֹבֵל). Yobel means the ram's horn, the trumpet whose blast opened the year; the year took its name from the sound that announced it. Before a single debt was cancelled or a single field returned, something was heard. The whole nation learned that the fiftieth year had come by the note of a horn carrying across the land.
"liberty," deror (דְּרוֹר). Deror is release, freedom, a liberty proclaimed. This is the very word engraved on America's Liberty Bell, straight from this verse. The Jubilee was freedom sounded aloud over the whole land.
Explanation
After seven sabbaths of years, forty-nine years, the fiftieth year was hallowed as the Jubilee. Fittingly, "the trumpet of the jubile" sounded "on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement." Liberty flowed from atonement: only after sin was covered did the trumpet of freedom blow. Then "liberty" was proclaimed "throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." Every Israelite who had sold his land in poverty got it back; every one bound in servitude went home; "ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family." Land could never be sold forever, only leased until the next Jubilee, so no family was permanently ruined and no dynasty could permanently hoard. It was God's great reset of mercy, built into the calendar so that poverty and bondage could never become the final word.
Gospel Focus
The Jubilee is one of the clearest Old Testament pictures of the gospel, and Jesus claimed it as His own. In the synagogue at Nazareth He opened Isaiah and read, "the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor... to preach deliverance to the captives... to preach the acceptable year of the Lord" (Luke 4:18-19), and then declared, "this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears" (Luke 4:21). The "acceptable year" is the year of Jubilee, and Jesus announced that in Him the true Jubilee had come. Every strand of the fiftieth year is fulfilled in Him: liberty sounded after atonement, for our freedom flows from the blood that covers our sin; captives set free, for "if the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed" (John 8:36); debts cancelled, for He forgives all we could never repay; and every man restored to his possession and his family, for in Christ we are brought home to God and made members of His household. Stand fast, then, "in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free" (Galatians 5:1). The trumpet has sounded; the great Jubilee has come.
The Land Is Mine: the Kinsman Redeemer (Leviticus 25:23-38)
The land belonged to God and could not be sold forever; a poor man's lost inheritance could be bought back by a near kinsman, and the needy were to be relieved, not exploited.
The Land Is Mine
"The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me. And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land. If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold. And if the man have none to redeem it, and himself be able to redeem it; Then let him count the years of the sale thereof, and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it; that he may return unto his possession. But if he be not able to restore it to him, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it until the year of jubile: and in the jubile it shall go out, and he shall return unto his possession. And if a man sell a dwelling house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; within a full year may he redeem it. And if it be not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be established for ever to him that bought it throughout his generations: it shall not go out in the jubile. But the houses of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be counted as the fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubile. Notwithstanding the cities of the Levites, and the houses of the cities of their possession, may the Levites redeem at any time. And if a man purchase of the Levites, then the house that was sold, and the city of his possession, shall go out in the year of jubile: for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel. But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual possession. And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him: yea, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee. Take thou no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee. Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend him thy victuals for increase. I am the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God. And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant: But as an hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of jubile: And then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return."
Hebrew Study
"redeem," ga'al (גָּאַל). To ga'al is to buy back, to reclaim what was lost, to act as the near kinsman who ransoms a relative in trouble. It always involves a price paid by one person so that another may recover what he could not keep himself. It is one of the great redemption words of the Old Testament.
the redeemer, go'el (גֹּאֵל). The go'el was the family member with both the right and the duty to redeem, to pay the price and restore what a poor brother had lost. Redemption was not a favor he might choose to offer; it was an obligation that came with kinship, so that no ruined Israelite was left without someone bound by blood to stand for him.
Explanation
Behind the whole Jubilee lay one truth: "the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me." Israel did not own the land outright; God did, and they held it as tenants under Him. So land could not be sold forever, only until the Jubilee, and there was always to be "a redemption for the land." If a man grew poor and sold his field, his nearest kinsman could step in and "redeem that which his brother sold," buying it back to restore it to the family. And the poor were to be helped, not crushed: "if thy brother be waxen poor... then thou shalt relieve him," taking "no usury of him, or increase," for God had redeemed them all out of Egypt to be their God. The whole arrangement bent toward mercy: the earth was God's, the poor were His concern, and no one was to be left without a way back.
Gospel Focus
The kinsman-redeemer is one of Scripture's richest portraits of Jesus. We had lost our inheritance, sold under sin and unable to buy ourselves back. What did our Redeemer do? He became our kinsman. The Son of God took our own flesh and blood, "forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same" (Hebrews 2:14), so that as our near kinsman He had the right to redeem us. Then He paid the price no silver or gold could cover: "ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold... but with the precious blood of Christ" (1 Peter 1:18-19). "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us" (Galatians 3:13). He is the go'el who bought back our lost inheritance and restored us to the family of God. And the confession "the land is mine... ye are strangers and sojourners with me" is still ours; Peter calls us "strangers and pilgrims" (1 Peter 2:11) who hold this world loosely, for our true possession is an inheritance "reserved in heaven" for us (1 Peter 1:4). We belong to God, redeemed by our Kinsman, waiting for the home He has bought.
Redeemed from Bondage (Leviticus 25:39-55)
An Israelite sold into servitude was to be treated as a hired servant, not a slave, and set free at the Jubilee, for God's people are His servants, redeemed out of Egypt to be His own.
They Are My Servants
"For they are my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondmen. Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour; but shalt fear thy God. Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids. Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession. And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen for ever: but over your brethren the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigour. And if a sojourner or stranger wax rich by thee, and thy brother that dwelleth by him wax poor, and sell himself unto the stranger or sojourner by thee, or to the stock of the stranger's family: After that he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of his brethren may redeem him: Either his uncle, or his uncle's son, may redeem him, or any that is nigh of kin unto him of his family may redeem him; or if he be able, he may redeem himself. And he shall reckon with him that bought him from the year that he was sold to him unto the year of jubile: and the price of his sale shall be according unto the number of years, according to the time of an hired servant shall it be with him. If there be yet many years behind, according unto them he shall give again the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for. And if there remain but few years unto the year of jubile, then he shall count with him, and according unto his years shall he give him again the price of his redemption. And as a yearly hired servant shall he be with him: and the other shall not rule with rigour over him in thy sight. And if he be not redeemed in these years, then he shall go out in the year of jubile, both he, and his children with him. For unto me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God."
Hebrew Study
"redeem," ga'al (גָּאַל). An Israelite sold into servitude could be bought back by a near kinsman — a go'el, a kinsman-redeemer — or freed at the Jubilee, "for they are my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt." Because God had already redeemed them, they could never be permanently owned by another. The go'el who buys back his own flesh and blood is one of Scripture's clearest pictures of Christ, our near Kinsman, who redeemed us because we are His.
Explanation
If an Israelite grew so poor that he had to sell himself, he was not to be treated "as a bondservant" but "as an hired servant, and as a sojourner," and he went free "unto the year of jubile," departing "both he and his children with him" to return "unto the possession of his fathers." The reason is repeated like a refrain: "they are my servants, which I brought forth out of the land of Egypt." Because God owned them, no man could own them forever. Even an Israelite sold to a wealthy stranger kept "a redemption"; a kinsman could redeem him at any time, "his uncle, or his uncle's son... or any that is nigh of kin," and the price was reckoned fairly by the years left to Jubilee. The chapter ends where it centered all along, on God's ownership: "unto me the children of Israel are servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God."
Gospel Focus
The final theme is freedom grounded in belonging to God. Israel could not be permanently enslaved to any man, because they already belonged to the LORD who redeemed them out of Egypt. That is exactly our standing in Christ. We were slaves of sin, unable to free ourselves, but Christ has redeemed us, and now we belong to Him. "Ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body" (1 Corinthians 6:20). Our freedom is not lawlessness but a change of master: set free from sin, "ye became the servants of righteousness" (Romans 6:18). The redeemed Israelite went out of bondage back to his family and his land; the redeemed sinner goes out of the bondage of sin into the family and inheritance of God. And no power can enslave us again to our old master, for we are His: "stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage" (Galatians 5:1). We are the LORD's servants, brought out of our Egypt, and that belonging is the ground of our liberty.
Chapter 25 in Review
Leviticus 25 gives the sabbath year and the year of Jubilee, and the laws of redemption that flow from them. Every seventh year the land rested and Israel trusted God to provide. Every fiftieth year the Jubilee trumpet sounded on the Day of Atonement and proclaimed liberty throughout the land: debts released, servants freed, and every family restored to its inheritance. Because the land was God's and the people were His, no poverty and no bondage could be final; there was always a redemption, and a near kinsman could buy back what a poor brother had lost.
For the Apostolic reader, the whole chapter sings of Christ. The sabbath rest is the rest of faith fulfilled in Him who gives rest to the heavy laden. The Jubilee is the gospel itself, the "acceptable year of the Lord" that Jesus announced in Nazareth: liberty after atonement, captives freed, debts cancelled, every man brought home. The kinsman-redeemer is Jesus, who took our flesh to redeem us and paid the price with His own precious blood. And the freeing of the servant is our freedom in Christ, redeemed from the bondage of sin to belong to God. Hear the trumpet: the great Jubilee has come. Rest in Him, receive His liberty, and hold this world loosely as strangers and pilgrims whose inheritance is kept in heaven.
- The sabbath year taught the rest of faith: cease striving and trust God to provide (25:4; Matthew 11:28; Hebrews 4:9).
- The Jubilee proclaimed "liberty throughout all the land," fulfilled by Jesus, the "acceptable year of the Lord" (25:10; Luke 4:18-21).
- Liberty flowed from atonement: the Jubilee trumpet sounded on the Day of Atonement, for our freedom rests on the blood (25:9-10).
- The kinsman-redeemer pictures Christ, who took our flesh and redeemed us with His own blood (25:23-25; Hebrews 2:14; 1 Peter 1:18-19; Galatians 3:13).
- We belong to God as His servants, set free from sin's bondage: "stand fast in the liberty" (25:42; 1 Corinthians 6:20; Galatians 5:1).
Questions for Reflection
- Have you entered the rest of faith, ceasing from your own striving to trust the God who provides?
- Have you received the Jubilee of the gospel, the liberty Christ proclaims to captives of sin?
- Do you live as one redeemed, belonging wholly to God, holding this world loosely as a stranger and pilgrim?
References & Sources
Scripture is quoted from the King James Version (KJV). The Hebrew terms are standard and can be checked in any Hebrew lexicon. Supporting passages are listed so every claim can be verified in its own setting. If anything here does not look right, a verse, a reference, or a wording, please tell us at info@FruitBearers.net. Thank you for helping us keep Bible Learning error free.
- The sabbath year and the rest of faith: Leviticus 25:1-7; Matthew 6:25-32; Matthew 11:28; Hebrews 4:9.
- The Jubilee and the gospel Jesus proclaimed: Leviticus 25:8-22; Luke 4:18-21; John 8:36; Galatians 5:1.
- The land is God's, and the kinsman-redeemer: Leviticus 25:23-38; Hebrews 2:14; 1 Peter 1:18-19; Galatians 3:13; 1 Peter 2:11; 1 Peter 1:4.
- Redemption from bondage, belonging to God: Leviticus 25:39-55; 1 Corinthians 6:20; Romans 6:18; Galatians 5:1.