2 "Speak to the People of Israel. Tell them: When you enter the land which I am going to give you, the land will observe a Sabbath to God. 3 Sow your fields, prune your vineyards, and take in your harvests for six years. 4 But the seventh year the land will take a Sabbath of complete and total rest, a Sabbath to God; you will not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. 5 Don't reap what grows of itself; don't harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land gets a year of complete and total rest. 6 But you can eat from what the land volunteers during the Sabbath year - you and your men and women servants, your hired hands, and the foreigners who live in the country, 7 and, of course, also your livestock and the wild animals in the land can eat from it. Whatever the land volunteers of itself can be eaten. "The Fiftieth Year Shall Be a Jubilee for You"
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Leviticus 25:2-7
Commentary on Leviticus 25:1-7
(Read Leviticus 25:1-7)
All labour was to cease in the seventh year, as much as daily labour on the seventh day. These statues tell us to beware of covetousness, for a man's life consists not in the abundance of his possessions. We are to exercise willing dependence on God's providence for our support; to consider ourselves the Lord's tenants or stewards, and to use our possessions accordingly. This year of rest typified the spiritual rest which all believers enter into through Christ. Through Him we are eased of the burden of wordly care and labour, both being sanctified and sweetened to us; and we are enabled and encouraged to live by faith.