its on the morrow of the Passover, so the
Jubilee was the 49th year from the "morrow" of a sabbatic year; it
followed immediately after a sabbatic year. The Jubilee was thus the
49th year from the previous Jubilee; it was the 50th from the particular
sabbatic year from which the original reckoning was made.

Actually the year of Jubilee began before the sabbatic year was
completed, because the trumpet of the Jubilee was to be blown upon the
Day of Atonement, the 10th day of the seventh month--that is to say,
whilst the sabbatic year was yet in progress. Indeed, literally
speaking, this trumpet, "loud of sound," blown on the 10th day of the
seventh month, _was_ the Jubilee, that is to say, the sound of
rejoicing, the joyful sound. A difficulty comes in here. The Israelites
were commanded--

"Ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself
in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed. For
it is the Jubile; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the
increase thereof out of the field."

This would appear to mean that the Jubilee extended over a whole year
following a sabbatic year, so that the land lay fallow for two
consecutive years. But this seems negatived by two considerations. It is
expressly laid down in the same chapter (Lev. xxv. 22) that the
Israelites were to sow in the eighth year--that is to say, in the year
after a sabbatic year, and the year of Jubilee would be always a year of
this character. Further, if the next sabbatic year was the seventh after
the one preceding the Jubilee, then the land would be tilled for only
five consecutive years, not for six, though this is expressly commanded
in Lev. xxv. 3. If, on the contrary, it was tilled for six years, then
the run of the sabbatic years would be interrupted.

The explanation of this difficulty may possibly be found in the fact
that that which distinguished the year of Jubilee was something which
did not run through the whole circuit of the seasons. The land in that
year was to return to its original owners. The freehold of the land was
never sold; the land was inalienable, and in the year of Jubilee it
reverted. "In the year of this Jubile ye shall return every man unto his
possession."

It is quite clear that it could not have been left to the caprice of the
owners of property as to when this transfer took place, or as to when
such Hebrews as had fallen through poverty into slavery should be
liberated. If t