The Fiftieth Year is the Jubilee Year
Leviticus 25 describes the fiftieth, or Jubilee, year. "Jubilee" means "liberty." The Jubilee year is proclaimed with the sound of a trumpet on the Day of Atonement, so that all know the holy year has begun. God owns the land, and in the Jubilee, He wants the return of every man to his possession. Men, who have worked as a servant to pay off their debt, must be freed and allowed to return to their own land and to their families:
"And you shall count seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years; and the time of the seven sabbaths of years shall be to you forty-nine years. Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land. And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family. That fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee to you . . . For it is the Jubilee; it shall be holy to you; you shall eat its produce from the field.
"In this Year of Jubilee, each of you shall return to his possession. And if you sell anything to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor’s hand, you shall not oppress one another . . .
"If one of your brethren becomes poor, and falls into poverty among you, then you shall help him, like a stranger or a sojourner, that he may live with you. Take no usury or interest from him; but fear your God, that your brother may live with you. You shall not lend him your money for usury, nor lend him your food at a profit. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.
"And if one of your brethren who dwells by you becomes poor, and sells himself to you, you shall not compel him to serve as a slave. As a hired servant and a sojourner he shall be with you, and shall serve you until the Year of Jubilee. And then he shall depart from you — he and his children with him — and shall return to his own family. He shall return to the possession of his fathers." (Leviticus 25:8-14, 35-41)
Leviticus 27:14-34 describes the redemption of gifts and tithes, which are calculated based on the number of years to Jubilee. Numbers 36:1-9 says that the purpose of Jubilee is to keep the inheritances separate, preventing dispossession. Ezekiel 46:16-18 states that even the prince of Israel is not to dispossess people of their inheritance. Gifts from the prince shall revert back to the family of the prince at the year of liberty.
Why did Israel go into captivity?
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READ MORE ABOUT THE JUBILEE PRAYERS AND CELEBRATION here.
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