56 Jubilee

Leviticus 25

In biblical law, the Jubilee year is the culmination of seven sabbatical cycles. Every seventh year, we are commanded to let the land lie fallow; in the fiftieth year—the Jubilee—all debts are erased, slaves are freed, and land that has been sold is returned to its original owners. As with the weekly Sabbath, the sabbatical years and the Jubilee serve to remind us that “the Earth is the Lord’s” and we are only sojourners upon it. The Jubilee was a reset button for the ancient Israelite economy, ensuring that the gap between rich and poor never grew too wide.