Chapter 16  

Sabbatical and Jubilee Years 

Jewish Sabbatical Years 

     The L

ORD

 said to Moses on Mount Sinai, `Say to the people of Israel, When you come into the land which 

I give you, the land shall keep a sabbath to the L

ORD

. Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you 

shall prune your vineyard, and gather in its fruits; but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn 

rest for the land, a sabbath to the L

ORD

; you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. What grows of 

itself in your harvest you shall not reap, and the grapes of your undressed vine you shall not gather; it shall be 

a year of solemn rest for the land. The sabbath of the land shall provide food for you all its yield shall be for 

food.'   (Lev 25:1 6). 

    Every seventh day is a day of rest and worship of God. The seventh day is called the Sabbath. In the Jewish 

faith, every seventh year is a day of rest and worship of God. The seventh year is called the Sabbatical year. 

Each set of seven years is a week of years, with the seventh year a Sabbath year, just as the seventh day in each 

week of days is a Sabbath day. 

      `For six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield; but the seventh year you shall let it rest and 

lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the wild beasts may eat. You shall do 

likewise with your vineyard, and with your olive orchard.'   (Ex 23:10 11). 

    The Sabbatical year was good news for the poor who did not own land. During this year, the land was 

neither sown nor harvested, but the poor could eat from the produce of the land, even if they did not own the 

land. 

    On the Sabbath day, we rest from work because we know that the things we need in life come from God, 

not from our own efforts. The Sabbath day is a day of trust in God. Likewise, the Sabbatical year was a year of 

rest from certain types of work, such as working the land, and a year of trust in God. The Jews trusted that 

God would provide for them, even though they would neither plant nor harvest in the Sabbatical year. 

Jewish Jubilee Years 

      `And you shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of 

years shall be to you forty nine years. Then you shall send abroad the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the 

seventh month; on the day of atonement you shall send abroad the trumpet throughout all your land. And you 

shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants; it shall be a jubilee 

for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his family. A jubilee shall 

that fiftieth year be to you; in it you shall neither sow, nor reap what grows of itself, nor gather the grapes from 

the undressed vines. For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you; you shall eat what it yields out of the field.'   

(Lev 25:8 12). 

    The usual understanding of the timing of the Sabbatical year is that each of the seven years is to be counted 

from Tishri 1, in the autumn. This calendar is called the Jewish civil calendar. The Jewish sacred calendar 

begins with Nisan 1, in the spring. 

    There is some disagreement among Rabbis as to which year is meant to be the Jubilee year. The usual idea 

is that the 49th year (the 7th year in the 7th week of years) is a Sabbatical year and the next year, the 50th year, 

is the Jubilee year. Some Rabbis place the 50th year between the count of each set of 49 years; whereas other 

Rabbis count the 50th year as also the first year in the next set of 49 years. In the former case, adding 50 to the 

year of one Jubilee would give the year of the next Jubilee; in the latter case, adding 49 to the year of one 

Jubilee would give the year of the next Jubilee. On the other hand, still other Rabbis count the 49th year as 

also the 50th (since it is the 50th year inclusive from the previous Jubilee year). In that case, the Sabbatical 

year and the Jubilee year would be the same year and the length of time from one Jubilee to the next would be 

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