ts
services, though every seventh month was not distinguished. But the
weekly sabbath was expressed not only in days but in years, and was one
both of rest and of release.

The sabbath of years was first enjoined from Mount Sinai, in the third
month after the departure from Egypt, certainly within a day or so, if
not on the actual day, of the second great feast of the year, variously
known to the Hebrews as the Feast of Firstfruits, or the Feast of Weeks,
and to us as Pentecost, that is Whitsuntide. It is most shortly given in
Exod. xxi. 2, and xxiii. 10, 11:--

"If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and
in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing."

"Six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the
fruits thereof: but the seventh year thou shalt let it rest
and lie still; that the poor of thy people may eat: and what
they leave the beasts of the field shall eat. In like manner
thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, and with thy oliveyard."

These laws are given at greater length and with fuller explanation in
the twenty-fifth chapter of the Book of Leviticus. In addition there is
given a promise of blessing for the fulfilment of the laws, and, in the
twenty-sixth chapter, a sign to follow on their breach.

"If ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold,
we shall not sow, nor gather in our increase: then I will
command My blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall
bring forth fruit for three years. 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."

"Ye shall keep My sabbaths . . . and if ye walk contrary unto
Me . . . I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw
out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and
your cities waste. Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as
long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies' land;
even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths. As long
as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in
your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it."

In the fifteenth chapter of the Book of Deuteronomy this sabbatic year
is called a year of release. The specific injunctions here relate to
loans made to a Hebrew and to a foreigner, and to the taking of a Hebrew
into bondage. The laws as to loans had direct reference