he time were made optional, grasping men would put it off
till the end of the year, and sooner or later that would be the general
rule. There can be no doubt that the blowing of the trumpet on the 10th
day of the seventh month was the proclamation of liberty throughout all
the land and to all the inhabitants thereof; and that the transfer of
the land must have taken place at the same time. The slave would return
to the possession of his ancestors in time to keep, as a freeman, the
Feast of Tabernacles on his own land. The four days between the great
day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles were sufficient for this
change to be carried out.

The term "Year of Jubilee" is therefore not to be taken as signifying
that the events of the Jubilee were spread over twelve months, but
simply, that it was the year in which the restoration of the Jubilee was
accomplished. We speak of the king's "coronation year," though his
coronation took place on but a single day, and the meaning that we
should attach to the phrase would depend upon the particular sense in
which we were using the word "year." Whilst, therefore, the Jubilee
itself was strictly defined by the blowing of trumpets on the 10th day
of the seventh month, it would be perfectly correct to give the title,
"year of Jubilee," to any year, no matter in what season it commenced,
that contained the day of that proclamation of liberty. It is also
correct to say that it was the fiftieth year because it was placed at
the very end of the forty-ninth year.

The difficulty still remains as to the meaning of the prohibition to sow
or reap in the year of Jubilee. The command certainly reads as if the
land was to lie fallow for two consecutive years; but it would seem an
impracticable arrangement that the poor man returning to his inheritance
should be forbidden to plough or sow until more than a twelvemonth had
elapsed, and hence that he should be forbidden to reap until nearly two
full years had run their course. It also, as already stated, seems
directly contrary to the command to sow in the eighth year, which would
also be the fiftieth. It may therefore be meant simply to emphasize the
prohibition to sow and reap in the sabbatic year immediately preceding
the Jubilee. The temptation would be great to a grasping man to get the
most he could out of the land before parting with it for ever.

In spite of the strong array of commentators who claim that the Jubilees
were to be held