Leviticus 25:3

Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof;

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(3) Six years thou shalt sow.—See Exodus 23:10.

The fruit thereof.—That is, of the land which is mentioned in the preceding verse, and which includes fields, vineyards, olive-gardens, &c. (See Exodus 23:11.)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

25:1-7 All labour was to cease in the seventh year, as much as daily labour on the seventh day. These statues tell us to beware of covetousness, for a man's life consists not in the abundance of his possessions. We are to exercise willing dependence on God's providence for our support; to consider ourselves the Lord's tenants or stewards, and to use our possessions accordingly. This year of rest typified the spiritual rest which all believers enter into through Christ. Through Him we are eased of the burden of wordly care and labour, both being sanctified and sweetened to us; and we are enabled and encouraged to live by faith.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Vineyard - Rather, fruit-garden. The Hebrew word is a general one for a plantation of fruit-trees.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2-4. When ye come into the land which I give you—It has been questioned on what year, after the occupation of Canaan, the sabbatic year began to be observed. Some think it was the seventh year after their entrance. But others, considering that as the first six years were spent in the conquest and division of the land (Jos 5:12), and that the sabbatical year was to be observed after six years of agriculture, maintain that the observance did not commence till the fourteenth year.

the land keep a sabbath unto the Lord—This was a very peculiar arrangement. Not only all agricultural processes were to be intermitted every seventh year, but the cultivators had no right to the soil. It lay entirely fallow, and its spontaneous produce was the common property of the poor and the stranger, the cattle and game. This year of rest was to invigorate the productive powers of the land, as the weekly Sabbath was a refreshment to men and cattle. It commenced immediately after the feast of ingathering, and it was calculated to teach the people, in a remarkable manner, the reality of the presence and providential power of God.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Six years thou shalt sow thy field,.... Under which is comprehended everything relating to agriculture, both before and after sowing, as dunging the land, ploughing and harrowing it, treading the corn, reaping and gathering it in; see Exodus 23:10,

and six years thou shall prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; which is not to be restrained to vineyards only, but to be extended to oliveyards, orchards and gardens, and to the planting and cultivating of them, and gathering in the fruits of them.

Geneva Study Bible

{a} Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof;

(a) The Jews began to count the year in September: for then all the fruits were gathered.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Leviticus 25:3

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The Sabbatical Year. - When Israel had come into the land which the Lord gave to it, it was to sanctify it to the Lord by the observance of a Sabbath. As the nation at large, with its labourers and beasts of burden, was to keep a Sabbath or day of rest every seventh day of the week, so the land which they filled was to rest (to keep, שׁבּי שׁבת as in Leviticus 23:32) a Sabbath to the Lord. Six years they were to sow the field and cut the vineyard, i.e., cultivate the corn-fields, vineyards, and olive-yards (Exodus 23:11 : see the remarks on cerem at Leviticus 19:10), and gather in their produce; but in the seventh year the land was to keep a Sabbath of rest (Sabbath sabbathon, Exodus 31:15), a Sabbath consecrated to the Lord (see Exodus 20:10); and in this year the land was neither to be tilled nor reaped (cf. Exodus 23:10-11). זמר in Kal applies only to the cutting of grapes, and so also in Niphal, Isaiah 5:6; hence zemorah, a vine-branch (Numbers 13:23), and mazmerah, a pruning-knife (Isaiah 2:4, etc.).

(Note: The meaning to sin and play, which is peculiar to the Piel, and is derived from zamar, to hum, has hardly anything to do with this. At all events the connection has not yet been shown to be a probable one. See Hupfeld, Psalm 4:1-8 pp. 421-2, note.)

The omission of sowing and reaping presupposed that the sabbatical year commenced with the civil year, in the autumn of the sixth year of labour, and not with the ecclesiastical year, on the first of Abib (Nisan), and that it lasted till the autumn of the seventh year, when the cultivation of the land would commence again with the preparation of the ground and the sowing of the seed for the eighth year; and with this the command to proclaim the jubilee year on "the tenth day of the seventh month" throughout all the land (Leviticus 25:9), and the calculation in Leviticus 25:21, Leviticus 25:22, fully agree.