Leviticus 25:10-12

25:10 So you must consecrate the fiftieth year, 1  and you must proclaim a release 2  in the land for all its inhabitants. That year will be your jubilee; 3  each one of you must return 4  to his property and each one of you must return to his clan. 25:11 That fiftieth year will be your jubilee; you must not sow the land, harvest its aftergrowth, or pick the grapes of its unpruned vines. 5  25:12 Because that year is a jubilee, it will be holy to you – you may eat its produce 6  from the field.

1 tn Heb “the year of the fifty years,” or perhaps “the year, fifty years” (GKC 435 §134.o, note 2).

2 tn Cf. KJV, ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV “liberty”; TEV, CEV “freedom.” The characteristics of this “release” are detailed in the following verses. For substantial summaries and bibliography on the biblical and ancient Near Eastern material regarding such a “release” see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 427-34, and B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 270-74.

3 tn Heb “A jubilee that shall be to you.” Although there has been some significant debate about the original meaning of the Hebrew word translated “jubilee” (יוֹבֵל, yovel; see the summary in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 434), the term most likely means “ram” and can refer also to a “ram’s horn.” The fiftieth year would, therefore, be called the “jubilee” because of the associated sounding of the “ram’s horn” (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 172, and the literature cited there).

4 tn Heb “you [plural] shall return, a man.”

5 tn Heb “you shall not sow and you shall not…and you shall not….”

sn See v. 5 above and the notes there.

6 tn That is, the produce of the land (fem.; cf. v. 7 above).