Leviticus 25:8–12

Context

Chapter 25 of Leviticus contains ordinances concerning the land, given by God to Israel through Moses at Mount Sinai (Leviticus 25:1). The opening section (vv. 1–7) deals with the sabbatical year, in which the land is to rest every seventh year. This passage designates the year that follows seven such sabbatical years as the "Jubilee," a year of rejoicing. The Jubilee is proclaimed by the sounding of a trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month, the Day of Atonement. On that day the annual rite of atonement is performed to cleanse the people of their sins. The Hebrew word yobel is understood to refer to a trumpet made from a ram's horn. The verses that follow, from verse 13 onward, set out specific regulations for redeeming land and houses that have been sold and for releasing fellow Israelites who have become impoverished and entered the service of others.

Interpretation

• Historical and literal reading: Because God is the owner of the land (Leviticus 25:23), the land cannot be sold permanently. On this reading, the Jubilee is an institution that periodically reverses inequalities arising from debt and poverty.
• Christ-centered reading: In the synagogue at Nazareth, Jesus read from Isaiah 61 and proclaimed "the acceptable year of the Lord" (Luke 4:18–19). Many interpreters regard this scene as the fulfillment of the Jubilee in Jesus. In this reading, the Jubilee becomes a picture of salvation, of release from sin and bondage.
• Social-ethical reading: This reading seeks to apply the principles of land justice, debt forgiveness, and the liberation of slaves to present-day social problems. Jubilee 2000, an international debt-relief campaign of the late 1990s, took its name from this passage.

Debates and Issues

• Whether it was actually practiced: The historical books of the Old Testament contain few clear records of the Jubilee being observed. Scholars are therefore divided over whether the Jubilee was actually implemented or was presented as an ideal.
• Calculating the fiftieth year: It is also debated whether the Jubilee coincided with the sabbatical year in the forty-ninth year or was a separate fiftieth year. If it was a separate year, the land would have rested for two consecutive years.
• Scope of application: Emphases differ within the church over whether the Jubilee should be viewed solely as a metaphor for spiritual freedom or extended to serve as a principle for economic institutions.

In the Korean Church

In the Korean church, a congregation's fiftieth anniversary is commonly celebrated as its "Jubilee." In its 1988 "Declaration of the Churches of Korea on National Reunification and Peace," the National Council of Churches in Korea proposed that 1995, the fiftieth anniversary of Korea's liberation, be proclaimed a Jubilee year. This proposal became an occasion for linking the idea of the Jubilee with discussions of reunification. The Catholic Church also designates and observes jubilees (holy years).

Related Passages

• Leviticus 25:23
• Deuteronomy 15:1–2
• Jeremiah 34:8–17
• Isaiah 61:1–3
• Luke 4:18–19