L
E V I T I C U S
CHAP. XXV.
The
law of this chapter concerns the lands and estates of the Israelites in
Canaan, the occupying and transferring of which were to be under the divine
direction, as well as the management of religious worship; for, as the
tabernacle was a holy house, so Canaan was a holy land; and upon that account,
as much as any thing, it was the glory of all lands. In token of a peculiar
title which God had to this land, and a right to dispose of it, he appointed,
I. That every seventh year should be a year of rest from occupying the land, a
sabbatical year, ver. 1-7. In this God expected from them extraordinary
instances of faith and obedience, and they might expect from God extraordinary
instances of power and goodness in providing for them, ver. 18-22. II. That
every fiftieth year should be a year of jubilee, that is, 1. A year of release
of debts and mortgages, and return to the possession of their alienated lands,
ver. 8-17. Particular directions are given, (1.) Concerning the sale and
redemption of lands, ver. 23-28. (2.) Of houses in cities and villages, with a
proviso for Levite-cities, ver. 29-34. 2. A year of release of servants and
bond-slaves. (1.) Here is inserted a law for the kind usage of poor debtors,
ver. 35-38. (2.) Then comes the law for the discharge of all Israelites that
were sold for servants, in the year of jubilee, if they were not redeemed
before. [1.] If they were sold to Israelites, ver. 39-46. And, [2.] If sold to
proselytes, ver. 47-55. All these appointments have something moral and of
perpetual obligation in them, though in the letter of them they were not only
peculiar to the Jews, but to them only while they were in Canaan.
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The
Sabbatical Year.
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B.
C. 1490.
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1 And the LORD
spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying, 2 Speak unto the children
of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you,
then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD.
3 Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy
vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; 4 But in the seventh
year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD:
thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. 5 That
which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither
gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto
the land. 6 And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for
thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and
for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee, 7 And for thy cattle,
and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof
be meat.
The law of Moses laid a great deal of stress upon the sabbath, the
sanctification of which was the earliest and most ancient of all divine
institutions, designed for the keeping up of the knowledge and worship of the
Creator among men; that law not only revived the observance of the weekly
sabbath, but, for the further advancement of the honour of them, added the
institution of a sabbatical year: In the seventh year shall be a sabbath of
rest unto the land, v. 4. And hence the Jews collect that vulgar
tradition that after the world has stood six thousand years (a thousand years
being to God as one day) it shall cease, and the eternal sabbath shall
succeed--a weak foundation on which to build the fixing of that day and hour
which it is God's prerogative to know. This sabbatical year began in
September, at the end of harvest, the seventh month of their ecclesiastical
year: and the law was, 1. That at the seed-time, which immediately followed
the end of their in-gathering, they should sow no corn in their land, and that
they should not in the spring dress their vineyards, and consequently that
they should not expect either harvest or vintage the next year. 2. That what
their ground did produce of itself they should not claim any property or use
in, otherwise than from hand to mouth, but leave it for the poor, servants,
strangers, and cattle, v. 5-7. It must be a sabbath of rest to the
land; they must neither do any work about it, nor expect any fruit from it;
all annual labours must be intermitted in the seventh year, as much as daily
labours on the seventh day. The Jews say they "began not to reckon for
the sabbatical year till they had completed the conquest of Canaan, which was
in the eighth year of Joshua; the seventh year after that was the first
sabbatical year, and so the fiftieth year was the jubilee." This year
there was to be a general release of debts (Deut. xv. 1, 2), and a public
reading of the law in the feast (Deut. xxxi. 10, 11), to make it the more
solemn. Now, (1.) God would hereby show them that he was their landlord, and
that they were tenants at will under him. Landlords are wont to stipulate with
their tenants when they shall break up their ground, how long they shall till
it, and when they shall let it rest: God would thus give, grant, and convey,
that good land to them, under such provisos and limitations as should let them
know that they were not proprietors, but dependents on their Lord. (2.) It was
a kindness to their land to let it rest sometimes, and would keep it in
heart (as our husbandmen express it) for posterity, whose satisfaction God
would have them to consult, and not to use the ground as if it were designed
only for one age. (3.) When they were thus for a whole year taken off from all
country business, they would have the more leisure to attend the exercises of
religion, and to get the knowledge of God and his law. (4.) They were hereby
taught to be charitable and generous, and not to engross all to themselves,
but to be willing that others should share with them in the gifts of God's
bounty, which the earth brought forth of itself. (5.) They were brought to
live in a constant dependence upon the divine providence, finding that, as man
lives not by bread alone, so he has bread, not by his own industry alone, but,
if God pleases, by the word of blessing from the mouth of God, without any
care or pains of man, Matt. iv. 4. (6.) They were reminded of the easy life
man lived in paradise, when he ate of every good thing, not, as since, in the
sweat of his face. Labour and toil came in with sin. (7.) They were taught to
consider how the poor lived, that did neither sow nor reap, even by the
blessing of God upon a little. (8.) This year of rest typified the spiritual
rest which all believers enter into through Christ, our true Noah, who giveth
us comfort and rest concerning our work, and the toil of our hands, because
of the ground which the Lord hath cursed, Gen. v. 29. Through him we are
eased of the burden of worldly care and labour, both being sanctified and
sweetened to us, and we are enabled and encouraged to live by faith. And, as
the fruits of this sabbath of the land were enjoyed in common, so the
salvation wrought out by Christ is a common salvation; and this sabbatical
year seems to have been revived in the Christian church, when the believers
had all things common, Acts ii. 44.
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Institution
of the Jubilee; the Year of the Jubilee.
B. C.
1490.
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8 And thou shalt number
seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of
the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.
9 Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day
of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound
throughout all your land. 10 And ye shall hallow the fiftieth
year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the
inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every
man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.
11 A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither
reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of
thy vine undressed. 12 For it is the jubilee; it shall be
holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field.
13 In the year of this jubilee ye shall return every man unto his
possession. 14 And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbour, or
buyest ought of thy neighbour's hand, ye shall not oppress one
another: 15 According to the number of years after the jubilee
thou shalt buy of thy neighbour, and according unto the number of years
of the fruits he shall sell unto thee: 16 According to the
multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the
fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it: for according to
the number of the years of the fruits doth he sell unto thee.
17 Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God:
for I am the LORD
your God. 18 Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my
judgments, and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety.
19 And the land shall yield her fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell
therein in safety. 20 And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the
seventh year? behold, we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase:
21 Then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall
bring forth fruit for three years. 22 And ye shall sow the eighth
year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year; until her fruits
come in ye shall eat of the old store.
Here is, I. The general institution of the jubilee, v. 8, &c.
1. When it was to be observed: after seven sabbaths of years (v.
8), whether the forty-ninth or fiftieth is a great question among learned men:
that it should be the seventh sabbatical year, that is, the forty-ninth (which
by a very common form of speech is called the fiftieth), seems to me most
probable, and is, I think, made pretty clear and the objections removed by
that learned chronologer Calvisius; but this is not a place for arguing the
question. Seven sabbaths of weeks were reckoned from the passover to the feast
of pentecost (or fiftieth day, for so pentecost signifies), and so seven
sabbaths of years from one jubilee to another, and the seventh is called the
fiftieth; and all this honour is put upon the sevenths for the sake of God's
resting the seventh day from the work of creation.
2. How it was to be proclaimed, with sound of trumpet in all parts of the
country (v. 5), both to give notice to all persons of it, and to
express their joy and triumph in it; and the word jobel, or jubilee,
is supposed to signify some particular sound of the trumpet distinguishable
from any other; for the trumpet that gives an uncertain sound is of little
service, 1 Cor. xiv. 8. The trumpet was sounded in the close of the day of
atonement; thence the jubilee commenced, and very fitly; when they had been
humbling and afflicting their souls for sin, then they were made to hear this
voice of joy and gladness, Ps. xi. 8. When their peace was made with
God, then liberty was proclaimed; for the removal of guilt is necessary to
make way for the entrance of all true comfort, Rom. v. 1, 2. In allusion to
this solemn proclamation of the jubilee, it was foretold concerning our Lord
Jesus that he should preach the acceptable year of the Lord, Isa. lxi.
2. He sent his apostles to proclaim it with the trumpet of the everlasting
gospel, which they were to preach to every creature. And it stands still
foretold that at the last day the trumpet shall sound, which shall release the
dead out of the bondage of the grave, and restore us to our possessions.
3. What was to be done in that year extraordinary; besides the common rest of
the land, which was observed every sabbatical year (v. 11, 12), and the
release of personal debts (Deut. xv. 2, 3), there was to be the legal
restoration of every Israelite to all the property, and all the liberty, which
had been alienated from him since the last jubilee; so that never was any
people so secured in their liberty and property (those glories of a people) as
Israel was. Effectual care was taken that while they kept close to God these
should not only not be taken from them by the violence of others, but not
thrown away by their own folly.
(1.) The property which every man had in his dividend of the land of Canaan
could not be alienated any longer than till the year of jubilee, and then he
or his should return to it, and have a title to it as undisputed, and the
possession of it as undisturbed, as ever (v. 10, 13): "You
shall return every man to his possession; so that if a man had sold or
mortgaged his estate, or any part of it, it should then return to him or his
heirs, free of all charge and encumbrance. Now this was no wrong to the
purchaser, because the year of jubilee was fixed, and every man knew when it
would come, and made his bargain accordingly. By our law indeed, if lands be
granted to a man and his heirs, upon condition that he should never sell or
alienate them, the grant is good, but the condition is void and repugnant: Iniquum
est ingenuis hominibus (say the lawyers) non esse liberam rerum suarum
alienationem--It is unjust to prevent free men from alienating their own
possessions. Yet it is agreed in the books that if the king grant lands to
a man in fee upon condition he shall not alienate, the condition is good. Now
God would show his people Israel that their land was his, and they were his
tenants; and therefore he ties them up that they shall not have power to sell,
but only to make leases for any term of years, not going beyond the next
jubilee. By this means it was provided, [1.] That their genealogies should be
carefully preserved, which would be of use for clearing our Saviour's
pedigree. [2.] That the distinction of tribes should be kept up; for, though a
man might purchase lands in another tribe, yet he could not retain them longer
than till the year of jubilee, and then they would revert of course. [3.] That
none should grow exorbitantly rich, by laying house to house, and field to
field (Isa. v. 8), but should rather apply themselves to the cultivating
of what they had than the enlarging of their possessions. The wisdom of the
Roman commonwealth sometimes provided that no man should be master of above
500 acres. [4.] That no family should be sunk and ruined, and condemned to
perpetual poverty. This particular care God took for the support of the honour
of that people, and the preserving, not only of that good land to the nation
in general, but of every man's share to his family in particular, for a
perpetual inheritance, that it might the better typify that good part which
shall never be taken away from those that have it.
(2.) The liberty which every man was born to, if it were sold or forfeited,
should likewise return at the year of jubilee: You shall return every man
to his family, v. 10. Those that were sold into other families
thereby became strangers to their own; but in this year of redemption they
were to return. This was typical of our redemption by Christ from the slavery
of sin and Satan, and our restoration to the glorious liberty of the children
of God. Some compute that the very year in which Christ died was a year of
jubilee, and the last that ever was kept. But, however that be, we are sure it
is the Son that makes us free, and then we are free indeed.
II. A law upon this occasion against oppression in buying and selling of land;
neither the buyer nor the seller must overreach, v. 14-17. In short,
the buyer must not give less, nor the seller take more, than the just value of
the thing, considered as necessarily returning at the year of jubilee. It must
be settled what the clear yearly value of the land was, and then how many
years' purchase it was worth till the year of jubilee. But they must reckon
only the years of the fruits (v. 15), and therefore must
discount for the sabbatical years. It is easy to observe that the nearer the
jubilee was the less must the value of the land be. According to the
fewness of the years thou shalt diminish the price. But we do not find it
so easy practically to infer thence that the nearer the world comes to its
period the less value we should put upon the things of it: because the time
is short, and the fashion of the world passeth away, let those that
buy be as though they possessed not. One would put little value on an
old house, that is ready to drop down. All bargains ought to be made by this
rule, You shall not oppress one another, nor take advantage of one
another's ignorance or necessity, but thou shalt fear thy God. Note,
The fear of God reigning in the heart would effectually restrain us from doing
any wrong to our neighbour in word or deed; for, though man be not, God is the
avenger of those that go beyond or defraud their brethren, 1 Thess.
iv. 6. Perhaps Nehemiah refers to this very law (ch. v. 15), where he
tells us that he did not oppress those he had under his power, because of
the fear of God.
III. Assurance given them that they should be no losers, but great gainers, by
observing these years of rest. It is promised, 1. That they should be safe: You
shall dwell in the land in safety, v. 18, and again, v. 19.
The word signifies both outward safety and inward security and confidence of
spirit, that they should be quiet both from evil and from the fear of evil. 2.
That they should be rich: You shall eat your fill. Note, If we be
careful to do our duty, we may cheerfully trust God with our comfort. 3. That
they should not want food convenient that year in which they did neither sow
nor reap: I will command my blessing in the sixth year, and it shall bring
forth fruit for three years, v. 21. This was, (1.) A standing
miracle, that, whereas at other times one year did but serve to bring in
another, the productions of the sixth year should serve to bring in the ninth.
Note, The blessing of God upon our provision will make a little go a great
way, and satisfy even the poor with bread, Ps. cxxxi. 15. (2.) A
lasting memorial of the manna which was given double on the sixth day for two
days. (3.) It was intended for an encouragement to all God's people, in all
ages, to trust him in the way of duty, and to cast their care upon him. There
is nothing lost by faith and self-denial in our obedience.
23 The land shall not be
sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and
sojourners with me. 24 And in all the land of your possession ye
shall grant a redemption for the land. 25 If thy brother be waxen
poor, and hath sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin
come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold.
26 And if the man have none to redeem it, and himself be able to redeem
it; 27 Then let him count the years of the sale thereof, and
restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it; that he may return unto
his possession. 28 But if he be not able to restore it to
him, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought
it until the year of jubilee: and in the jubilee it shall go out, and he shall
return unto his possession. 29 And if a man sell a dwelling house
in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; within
a full year may he redeem it. 30 And if it be not redeemed within
the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city
shall be established for ever to him that bought it throughout his
generations: it shall not go out in the jubilee. 31 But the houses
of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be counted as the
fields of the country: they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the
jubilee. 32 Notwithstanding the cities of the Levites, and
the houses of the cities of their possession, may the Levites redeem at any
time. 33 And if a man purchase of the Levites, then the house that
was sold, and the city of his possession, shall go out in the year of
jubilee: for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their
possession among the children of Israel. 34 But the field of the
suburbs of their cities may not be sold; for it is their perpetual
possession. 35 And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in
decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him: yea, though he be a
stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee. 36 Take thou
no usury of him, or increase: but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with
thee. 37 Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor lend
him thy victuals for increase. 38 I am the LORD
your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the
land of Canaan, and to be your God.
Here is, I. A law concerning the real estates of the Israelites in the land of
Canaan, and the transferring of them. 1. No land should be sold for ever from
the family to whose lot it fell in the division of the land. And the reason
given is, The land is mine, and you are strangers and sojourners with me,
v. 23. (1.) God having a particular propriety in this land, he would by
this restraint keep them sensible of it. The possessions of good people, who,
having given up themselves to God, have therewith given up all they have to
him, are in a particular manner at his disposal, and his disposal of them must
be submitted to. (2.) They being strangers and sojourners with him in
that land, and having his tabernacle among them, to alienate their part of
that land would be in effect to cut themselves off from their fellowship and
communion with God, of which that was a token and symbol, for which reason
Naboth would rather incur the wrath of a king than part with the inheritance
of his fathers, 1 Kings xxi. 3. 2. If a man was constrained through poverty to
sell his land for the subsistence of his family, yet, if afterwards he was
able, he might redeem it before the year of jubilee (v. 24, 26, 27),
and the price must be settled according to the number of years since the sale
and before the jubilee. 3. If the person himself was not able to redeem it,
his next kinsman might (v. 25): The redeemer thereof, he that is
near unto him, shall come and shall redeem, so it might be read. The
kinsman is called Goel, the redeemer (Num. v. 8; Ruth iii. 9), to whom
belonged the right of redeeming the land. And this typified Christ, who
assumed our nature, that he might be our kinsman, bone of our bone and
flesh of our flesh, and, being the only kinsman we have that is able to do it,
to him belonged the right of redemption. As for all our other kinsmen, their
shoe must be plucked off (Ruth iv. 6, 7); they cannot redeem. But Christ can
and hath redeemed the inheritance which we by sin had forfeited and alienated,
and made a new settlement of it upon all that by faith become allied to him.
We know that this Redeemer liveth, Job xix. 25. And some make this duty
of the kinsman to signify the brotherly love that should be among Christians,
inclining them to recover those that are fallen, and to restore them with the
spirit of meekness. 4. If the land was not redeemed before the year of
jubilee, then it should return of course to him that had sold or mortgaged it:
In the jubilee it shall go out, v. 28. This was a figure of the
free grace of God towards us in Christ, by which, and not by any price or
merit of our own, we are restored to the favour of God, and become entitled to
paradise, from which our first parents, and we in them, were expelled for
disobedience. 5. A difference was made between houses in walled cities, and
lands in the country, or houses in country villages. Houses in walled cities
were more the fruits of their own industry than land in the country, which was
the immediate gift of God's bounty; and therefore, if a man sold a house in a
city, he might redeem it any time within a year after the sale, but otherwise
it was confirmed to the purchaser for ever, and should not return, no, not at
the year of the jubilee, v. 29, 30. This provision was made to
encourage strangers and proselytes to come and settle among them. Though they
could not purchase land in Canaan to them and their heirs, yet they might
purchase houses in walled cities, which would be most convenient for those who
were supposed to live by trade. But country houses could be disposed of no
otherwise than as lands might. 6. A clause is added in favour of the Levites,
by way of exception from these rules. (1.) Dwelling houses in the cities of
the Levites might be redeemed at any time, and, if not redeemed, should revert
in the year of jubilee (v. 32, 33), because the Levites had no other
possessions than cities and their suburbs, and God would show that the Levites
were his peculiar care; and it was for the interest of the public that they
should not be impoverished, or wormed out of their inheritances. (2.) The
fields adjoining to their cities (Num. xxxv. 4, 5) might not be sold at any
time, for they belonged, not to particular Levites, but to the city of the
Levites, as a corporation, who could not alienate without a wrong to their
tribe; therefore, if any of those fields were sold, the bargain was void, v.
34. Even the Egyptians took care to preserve the land of the priests,
Gen. xlvii. 22. And there is no less reason for the taking of the maintenance
of the gospel ministry under the special protection of Christian governments.
II. A law for the relief of the poor, and the tender usage of poor debtors,
and these are of more general and perpetual obligation than the former.
1. The poor must be relieved, v. 35. Here is, (1.) Our brother's
poverty and distress supposed: If thy brother be waxen poor; not only
thy brother by nation as a Jew, but thy brother by nature as a man, for it
follows, though he be a stranger or a sojourner. All men are to be
looked upon and treated as brethren, for we have all one Father, Mal.
ii. 10. Though he is poor, yet still he is thy brother, and is to be loved and
owned as a brother. Poverty does not destroy the relation. Though a son of
Abraham, yet he may wax poor and fall into decay. Note, Poverty and decay are
great grievances, and very common: The poor you have always with you.
(2.) Our duty enjoined: Thou shalt relieve him. By sympathy, pitying
the poor; by service, doing for them; and by supply, giving to them according
to their necessity and thy ability.
2. Poor debtors must not be oppressed: If thy brother be waxen poor,
and have occasion to borrow money of thee for the necessary support of his
family, take thou no usury of him, either for money or victuals, v.
36, 37. And thus far this law binds still, but could never be thought binding
where money is borrowed for purchase of lands, trade, or other improvements;
for there it is reasonable that the lender share with the borrower in the
profit. The law here is plainly intended for the relief of the poor, to whom
it is sometimes as great a charity to lend freely as to give. Observe the
arguments here used against extortion. (1.) God patronizes the poor: "Fear
thy God, who will reckon with thee for all injuries done to the poor: thou
fearest not them, but fear him." (2.) Relieve the poor, that they may
live with thee, and some way or other they may be serviceable to thee. The
rich can as ill spare the hands of the poor as the poor can the purses of the
rich. (3.) The same argument is used to enforce this precept that prefaces all
the ten commandments: I am the Lord your God which brought you out of
Egypt, v. 38. Note, It becomes those that have received mercy to
show mercy. If God has been gracious to us, we ought not to be rigorous with
our brethren.
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Oppression
of Brethren Forbidden.
B. C.
1490.
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39 And if thy brother that
dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; thou shalt not
compel him to serve as a bondservant: 40 But as an hired
servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee, and shall
serve thee unto the year of jubilee: 41 And then shall he
depart from thee, both he and his children with him, and shall return
unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he
return. 42 For they are my servants, which I brought forth
out of the land of Egypt: they shall not be sold as bondmen. 43
Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour; but shalt fear thy God.
44 Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be
of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and
bondmaids. 45 Moreover of the children of the strangers that do
sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are
with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your
possession. 46 And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your
children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be
your bondmen for ever: but over your brethren the children of Israel, ye shall
not rule one over another with rigour. 47 And if a sojourner or
stranger wax rich by thee, and thy brother that dwelleth by him wax
poor, and sell himself unto the stranger or sojourner by thee, or to
the stock of the stranger's family: 48 After that he is sold he
may be redeemed again; one of his brethren may redeem him: 49
Either his uncle, or his uncle's son, may redeem him, or any that is
nigh of kin unto him of his family may redeem him; or if he be able, he may
redeem himself. 50 And he shall reckon with him that bought him
from the year that he was sold to him unto the year of jubilee: and the price
of his sale shall be according unto the number of years, according to the time
of an hired servant shall it be with him. 51 If there be
yet many years behind, according unto them he shall give again the
price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for.
52 And if there remain but few years unto the year of jubilee, then he shall
count with him, and according unto his years shall he give him again
the price of his redemption. 53 And as a yearly hired
servant shall he be with him: and the other shall not rule with rigour
over him in thy sight. 54 And if he be not redeemed in these years,
then he shall go out in the year of jubilee, both he, and his children
with him. 55 For unto me the children of Israel are
servants; they are my servants whom I brought forth out of the land of
Egypt: I am the LORD
your God.
We have here the laws concerning servitude, designed to preserve the honour of
the Jewish nation as a free people, and rescued by a divine power out of the
house of bondage, into the glorious liberty of God's sons, his first-born. Now
the law is,
I. That a native Israelite should never be made a bondman for perpetuity. If
he was sold for debt, or for a crime, by the house of judgment, he was to
serve but six years, and to go out the seventh; this was appointed, Exod. xxi.
2. But if he sold himself through extreme poverty, having nothing at all left
him to preserve his life, and if it was to one of his own nation that he sold
himself, in such a case it is here provided, 1. That he should not serve as
a bond-servant (v. 39), nor be sold with the sale of a bondman
(v. 42); that is, "it must not be looked upon that his master that
bought him had as absolute a property in him as in a captive taken in war,
that might be used, sold, and bequeathed, at pleasure, as much as a man's
cattle; no, he shall serve thee as a hired servant, whom the master has
the use of only, but not a despotic power over." And the reason is, They
are my servants, v. 42. God does not make his servants slaves, and
therefore their brethren must not. God had redeemed them out of Egypt, and
therefore they must never be exposed to sale as bondmen. The apostle applies
this spiritually (1 Cor. vii. 23), You are bought with a price, be not the
servants of men, that is, "of the lusts of men, no, nor of your own
lusts;" for, having become the servants of God, we must not let
sin reign in our mortal bodies, Rom. vi. 12, 22. 2. That while he did
serve he should not be ruled with rigour, as the Israelites were in Egypt, v.
43. Both his work and his usage must be such as were fitting for a son of
Abraham. Masters are still required to give to their servants that which is
just and equal, Col. iv. 1. They may be used, but must not be abused.
Those masters that are always hectoring and domineering over their servants,
taunting them and trampling upon them, that are unreasonable in exacting work
and giving rebukes, and that rule them with a high hand, forget that their
Master is in heaven; and what will they do when he rises up? as holy Job
reasons with himself, Job xxxi. 13, 14. 3. That at the year of jubilee he
should go out free, he and his children, and should return to
his own family, v. 41. This typified our redemption from the
service of sin and Satan by the grace of God in Christ, whose truth makes
us free, John vii. 32. The Jewish writers say that, for ten days before
the jubilee-trumpet sounded, the servants that were to be discharged by it did
express their great joy by feasting, and wearing garlands on their heads: it
is therefore called the joyful sound, Ps. lxxxix. 15. And we are thus
to rejoice in the liberty we have by Christ.
II. That they might purchase bondmen of the heathen nations that were round
about them, or of those strangers that sojourned among them (except of those
seven nations that were to be destroyed); and might claim a dominion over
them, and entail them upon their families as an inheritance, for the year of
jubilee should give no discharge to them, v. 44, 46. Thus in our
English plantations the negroes only are used as slaves; how much to
the credit of Christianity I shall not say. Now, 1. This authority which they
had over the bondmen whom they purchased from the neighbouring nations was in
pursuance of the blessing of Jacob, Gen. xxvii. 29, Let people serve thee.
2. It prefigured the bringing in of the Gentiles to the service of Christ and
his church. Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thy
inheritance, Ps. ii. 8. And it is promised (Isa. lxi. 5), Strangers
shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your
vine-dressers; see Rev. ii. 26, 27. The upright shall have the dominion
in the morning, Ps. xlix. 14. 3. It intimates that none shall have the
benefit of the gospel jubilee but those only that are Israelites indeed, and
the children of Abraham by faith: as for those that continue heathenish, they
continue bondmen. See this turned upon the unbelieving Jews themselves, Gal.
iv. 25, where Jerusalem, when she had rejected Christ, is said to be in
bondage with her children. Let me only add here that, though they are not
forbidden to rule their bondmen with rigour, yet the Jewish doctors say,
"It is the property of mercy, and way of wisdom, that a man should be
compassionate, and not make his yoke heavy upon any servant that he has."
III. That if an Israelite sold himself for a servant to a wealthy proselyte
that sojourned among them care should be taken that he should have the same
advantages as if he had sold himself to an Israelite, and in some respects
greater. 1. That he should not serve as a bondman, but as a hired servant, and
not to be ruled with rigour (v. 53), in thy sight, which
intimated that the Jewish magistrates should particularly have an eye to him,
and, if he were abused, should take cognizance of it, and redress his
grievances, though the injured servant did not himself complain. Also he was
to go free at the year of jubilee, v. 54. Though the sons of strangers
might serve them for ever, yet the sons of Israel might not serve strangers
for ever; yet the servant here, having made himself a slave by his own act and
deed, should not go out in the seventh year of release, but in the jubilee
only. 2. That he should have this further advantage that he might be redeemed
again before the year of jubilee, v. 48, 49. He that had sold himself
to an Israelite might, if ever he was able, redeem himself, but his relations
had no right to redeem him. "But if a man sold himself to a
stranger," the Jews say, "his relations were urged to redeem him; if
they did not, it was fit that he should be redeemed at the public
charge," which we find done, Neh. v. 8. The price of his ransom was to be
computed according to the prospect of the year of jubilee (v. 50-52),
as in the redemption of land, v. 15, 16. The learned bishop Patrick
quotes one of the Jewish rabbin for an evangelical exposition of that
appointment (v. 48), One of his brethren shall redeem him.
"This Redeemer," says the rabbi, "is the Messiah, the Son of
David." They expected this Messiah to be their Redeemer out of their
captivity, and to restore them to their own land again; but we welcome him as
the Redeemer who shall come to Zion, and shall turn away ungodliness from
Jacob, for he shall save his people from their sins; and under this
notion there were those that looked for redemption in Jerusalem.
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