SABBATICAL YEAR (שַׁבָּת, H8701, sabbath, sabbath year). The sabbatical year was the final year in a cycle of seven years within the Heb. calendar, set aside as a year of rest for the soil, care for the poor and for animals, remission of debts, and manumission of Israelite slaves. The year following seven such sabbatical years was known as the year of Jubilee, during which the soil was given another year of rest, and during which there was also the manumission of Israelite slaves and the reversion of landed property to the original owner or his heirs.

The Book of the Covenant refers to the sabbatical year merely as “the seventh year” (Exod 21:2; 23:11; cf. Neh 10:31). It provided for the automatic release of Heb. slaves in the seventh year (Exod 21:2). It should be pointed out, however, that this may simply mean that an Israelite could serve as a slave to a fellow Israelite only for six years, and was freed after that time, whether or not the seventh year fell on a sabbatical year. The Book of the Covenant did provide for the land to remain uncultivated during the sabbatical year, so that the poor people and the wild animals might eat from it (Exod 23:10, 11).

In the Holiness or Priestly Code, the seventh year is designated as “a sabbath of solemn rest for the land” (Lev 25:4). During that year, the Israelite was not to sow his field or prune his vineyard (25:4). Moreover, he was not to reap any harvest that grew of itself, nor gather any grapes from the undressed vine, but such spontaneous fruitage was to be for the poor people and the animals, both domestic and wild (25:5-7). A close parallel should be noted between the regulations with regard to the sabbatical year and those with regard to the weekly sabbath (25:2-7; Exod 20:8-11; Deut 5:12-15).

The Holiness Code also provided special observance of the seventh year in a series of seven sabbatical years (Lev 25:8, 9) and the observance of the fiftieth year as the year of Jubilee, during which the land was also to remain untilled and the vines undressed, and during which everyone should return to his family estate and all Heb. slaves serving other Hebrews should be set free (25:10-55). The only properties exempt from this law were houses within walled cities which were not redeemed within one year (25:29-31), and the houses of the Levites (25:32-34).

In the Deuteronomic Code, the sabbatical year is called “the year of release” or the year of “dropping” or “cancellation” (Deut 15:9). This code provided for the cancellation of all debts owed by one Israelite to another at the end of the sabbatical year (15:1-3), adding a warning against unwillingness to lend to a poor neighbor in view of the nearness of the sabbatical year (15:7-11). This code also provided for the manumission of Israelite slaves held by fellow Israelites during the sabbatical year (15:12-15). A further provision was made in the Deuteronomic covenant for the reading of the law at the Feast of Booths during the sabbatical year (31:10-13).

It is not known how well the Israelites observed the sabbatical years, but 2 Chronicles 36:21 implies that they failed to do so, hence were taken into captivity “until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths” (cf. also Lev 26:34). The gathering of the returned exiles to hear Ezra read the law was undoubtedly in fulfillment of the Deuteronomic covenant (Neh 8:1-8) and must, therefore, have been in the sabbatical year. One of the reforms instituted by Nehemiah was the enforcement of the observance of the sabbatical year (Neh 10:31).

There is evidence from extra-Biblical lit. that the Jews observed the sabbatical year after the Exile. Both the Book of Maccabees and Josephus recount that Bethzur fell to Antiochus IV because the food supply of the garrison was quickly exhausted, since it was during a sabbatical year (1 Macc 6:49-54; Antiquities, XIII. 8:1; War I. 2:4). He relates that during the reign of John Hyrcanus the Jewish nation refrained from aggressive warfare during the sabbatical year (Antiquities. XIII. 8:1; War. I. 2:4). He also relates that Julius Caesar remitted the annual tribute from the Jewish people in the sabbatical year, since in it the people did not till their fields or gather their fruit (Antiquities, XIV. 10:6). In the Book of Jubilees, Enoch is said to have “recounted the sabbaths of the years” (4:18).

The Qumran community seems to have observed the sabbatical year by non-cultivation of the soil and cancellation of debts. Rabbinical writers refer to a similar observance, but the absence of detailed discussion of such observance in the Talmud bears witness to its gradual discontinuance. There is no evidence that it was ever observed outside of Pal. Even in Pal., it became meaningless, impractical, and eventually obsolete.