What is Jubilee?

Jubilee is an English variation of the Hebrew word jobel, which means "ram's horn," the curved horn used as a trumpet to signal the year of the Jubilee. The Jubilee year, the Bible explains, was to be a year of rest, including the forgiveness of all debts, and the liberation of slaves and servants to their native lands. Likewise, if a Hebrew has taken a fellow Hebrew as an indentured servant, he must release the servant and cancel his debt in the Jubilee year.

The Year of Jubilee, which came every 50th year, was a year full of releasing people from their debts, releasing all slaves, and returning property to whoever owned it (Leviticus 25:1-13).

During this year, the Israelites were not supposed to reap or harvest; it was a time for people to return to their families and loved ones. 

So why did this happen during the fiftieth year? 

The Bible places a special emphasis on the number 7. After all, there are seven days in a week, and the seventh day is supposed to be the Sabbath, a day dedicated to rest and worship: 7 x 7 = 49 years.

So, after seven years of Sabbaths, we reach the 50th year. A year dedicated to rest, to the restoration of property, and to freeing people from debts, servitude, and slavery.

Now, this isn’t the only year that they let the land rest. There are Sabbath years, as indicated in Leviticus 25:18-22.

But the Year of Jubilee seemed to serve as a nice bookend for the cycles of Sabbath days, months, and years. Because everyone was released from debts and slavery, everyone got to rest during this year and was able to start off the next year with a clean slate. 

Why Did God Enact the Year of Jubilee?

It’s important to note that God owns everything. Anything he’s given to us, such as resources, crops, etc., belongs to him. Therefore, the Israelites would dedicate this year of rest to him, acknowledging that God would provide for their needs.

From a practical standpoint, it also makes sense in terms of the land. Vegetation won’t grow if people overwork the land. Therefore, by instituting years of rest, the land has time to recover and produce a bountiful harvest in future years to come.

In fact, part of the reason the Israelites went into captivity was that they didn’t observe these resting years (Leviticus 26). Because they didn’t trust that God would provide, and dedicate time to resting, they reaped the consequences.

God also instituted the Year of Jubilee as a foreshadowing for his future work on the cross. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, he relieves us of all spiritual debts and our slavery to sin. We are freed from both and can commune with our heavenly family.

Why Does This Matter?

This matters because God takes rest seriously. He doesn’t want his people to make work an idol, thinking that if they plant and harvest enough, they can provide for their needs on their own.

In the same way, he wants us to dedicate time to stepping away from the computer and spend time in worship instead. Sometimes this looks like dedicating a specific day to God or a 24-hour period. 

Other times it looks like avoiding the email or the computer for a day to spend our time focusing on God instead of worrying about the next paycheck. No matter what rest looks like, God wants us to trust him each week, each month, and each year.

Is a Year of Jubilee Possible in Modern Society?

It would be rather difficult to ask your boss if you could take an entire year off unless you happen to be a professor on sabbatical.

Although we can’t celebrate a year of Jubilee as non-Israelites in modern society, we can dedicate our year to the Lord. We can find times to rest, times to forgive others of their moral debts (however they’ve wronged us), and times to let God move so we don’t overwork ourselves.

And we can remember that through Jesus’ work on the cross, we can have the chance to experience an eternal Jubilee in heaven.

Theologically, the jubilee affirms that the Lord is not only the God who owns Israel’s land; he is sovereign over all time and nature.  In practical terms, the jubilee year embodies the trust all Israelites could have that God would provide for their immediate needs and for the future of their families.  The jubilee provided a socioeconomic solution to keep the family whole even in the face of economic calamity.  Family debt was a reality in ancient times as it is today, and its effects include a frightening list of social ills. Bankruptcy laws provide relief to those burdened with unpayable debts, and descendants are not liable for ancestors' debts.

Myths about Jubilee

Myth #1:  Jubilee involves a redistribution of wealth (land)

There is no redistribution of wealth because the land (legal title) never left the ownership of the original family to which God had given the land. Michael Harbin concludes, “Jubilee did not entail the forgiveness of debt and nor did it require a periodic redistribution of wealth. Jubilee only applied to land in the country (outside the city). There was no redistribution of permanently owned houses in the cities, and there was no redistribution of wealth gained through leasing the land. 

Myth #2:  Jubilee shows the relative nature (relativization) of private property

God owns the land but has given the Promised Land to the tribes and families of Israel with the condition that private property cannot be sold, squandered, or given away permanently. The property rights remain in the hands of the tribe or family that was given the land in the first place

Myth #3:  Jubilee leads to income equality

Some argue that the periodic “redistribution” of land at Jubilee kept the rich from getting richer and the poor from getting poorer. So while the Jubilee law did prevent all the land from being permanently owned by one family or a few families, it did not prevent some from becoming much wealthier than others. God wanted to prevent Israelite families from losing their ability to enjoy the Promised Land. God had promised His people freedom from slavery and a land flowing with “milk and honey.” A land where they could prosper and enjoy life with their family using their creativity.

Myth #4:  Jubilee is a universally applicable principle (applies to all people)

Even though an alien (sojourner or stranger) might be able to “lease” land or hire an indentured servant, they could not permanently own land or slaves. The poorest “people of the land” were to be included in feasts (alien, widow, orphan), but they did not have property (land) rights (except to houses in walled cities).