Isaiah 5:8-10 Woe to them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place… The Hebrew legislation further prevented the exhaustion of the soil and the fruit trees, by enforcing fallow and rest during every seventh year. The offerings of first fruits really constituted a kind of land tax, payable to Jehovah as Over-Lord, and tending to prevent the conversion of folk land into "thane's land," or king's land. The legislation placed Jehovah's tenants under a poor law, which compelled cultivators to leave the gleanings of the crops, and all that the fallows of the seventh year Sabbaths produced spontaneously in those prolific fields, for the support of the needy. By the limitations of the right of private ownership, — a right that was not denied, and was frequently exercised, — every man was taught his responsibilities to his fellows. The theory was, as someone has written: "Brotherhood in the enjoyment of a Father's bounty." (F. Sessions.) Parallel Verses KJV: Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth! |
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