Almanac › Time & the calendar

Jubilee

Hebrew יוֹבֵל. Literally "a ram's horn". Also called Yovel, Year of Jubilee.

Every fiftieth year: land returns to the family that lost it, and everyone sold into service goes free.

After seven sabbatical cycles the fiftieth year is announced on the Day of Atonement with a horn, and two things happen that no other law in the ancient world attempts: land sold reverts to the family it belonged to, and Israelites in bonded service go home. The effect is that land could not really be sold, only leased until the next Jubilee — which is why Leviticus says the price must be reckoned by the number of harvests left. Whether it was ever actually kept is not recorded.

Seven sabbatical years, and the Jubilee Forty-nine years laid out as seven rows of seven, with every seventh year marked as a sabbatical year when the land rests (Leviticus 25:4). The fiftieth year, the Jubilee, stands apart, announced with a horn on the Day of Atonement, when land returns to the family that sold it and bonded servants go home (Leviticus 25:9–10). A bar chart shows what a field sold for in each year of the cycle: the number of harvests left before the next Jubilee, falling to nothing by year 49 (Leviticus 25:15–16). 12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031323334353637383940414243444546474849seven sabbaths of yearsforty-nine years (Leviticus 25:8)every seventh year the land rests(Leviticus 25:4)50the Jubileeliberty proclaimedthe horn, on the Day of Atonement(Leviticus 25:9–10)land goes back to the familythat sold it; bonded servantsgo homewhat a field sold forthe harvests left until the Jubilee(Leviticus 25:15–16)sold in year 1year 49
Every seventh year the fields lie fallow and debts are released, and after seven of those cycles the fiftieth year returns land to the families that sold it. So land was never really sold, only its harvests until the next Jubilee, and Leviticus says the price should follow the harvests left: it drops by a harvest each year, and holds still across a sabbatical year, which has no harvest to sell. Whether the Jubilee was ever actually kept is not recorded.

Disputed. The law is detailed, but no narrative anywhere in the Old Testament describes a Jubilee being observed, and scholars disagree about whether it functioned as law or as ideal.

Where it appears

All 84 almanac entries