(22) And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit.--Better, And when ye shall sow in the eighth year, ye shall yet eat of the old produce, that is, when at the termination of the sabbatical year the Israelites resume the cultivation of the soil in the eighth year, the abundant crop of the sixth year--the year preceding the sabbatical year--will not only suffice for this year, but will reach till that part of the ninth year when the crops sown in the eighth are ripe and gathered in. Accordingly, the sixth year's harvest will suffice till the Feast of Tabernacles, or till Tishri 1 of the ninth year.

Until her fruits come in.--Better, until its produce come in, that is, the produce of the eighth year which was gathered in the ninth. Leviticus 25:20, therefore, which states the anticipated question, and Leviticus 25:21-22, which contain the reply, ought properly to follow immediately after Leviticus 25:7, since they meet the difficulty arising from the rest of the land during the sabbatical year. The redactor of Leviticus may, however, have inserted Leviticus 25:20-22 here because the difficulty raised in them, and the reply given to the anticipated question, apply equally to the jubile year. The special Divine interposition which is here promised to meet the requirements of one year's cessation from cultivating the land will, as a matter of course, be all the more readily vouchsafed when the Israelites will have to exercise greater obedience and faith in the jubile, and abstain two successive years from tilling the ground.

25:8-22 The word jubilee signifies a peculiarly animated sound of the silver trumpets. This sound was to be made on the evening of the great day of atonement; for the proclamation of gospel liberty and salvation results from the sacrifice of the Redeemer. It was provided that the lands should not be sold away from their families. They could only be disposed of, as it were, by leases till the year of jubilee, and then returned to the owner or his heir. This tended to preserve their tribes and families distinct, till the coming of the Messiah. The liberty every man was born to, if sold or forfeited, should return at the year of jubilee. This was typical of redemption by Christ from the slavery of sin and Satan, and of being brought again to the liberty of the children of God. All bargains ought to be made by this rule, Ye shall not oppress one another, not take advantage of one another's ignorance or necessity, but thou shalt fear thy God. The fear of God reigning in the heart, would restrain from doing wrong to our neighbour in word or deed. Assurance was given that they should be great gainers, by observing these years of rest. If we are careful to do our duty, we may trust God with our comfort. This was a miracle for an encouragement to all neither sowed or reaped. This was a miracle for an encouragement to all God's people, in all ages, to trust him in the way of duty. There is nothing lost by faith and self-denial in obedience. Some asked, What shall we eat the seventh year? Thus many Christians anticipate evils, questioning what they shall do, and fearing to proceed in the way of duty. But we have no right to anticipate evils, so as to distress ourselves about them. To carnal minds we may appear to act absurdly, but the path of duty is ever the path of safety.And ye shall sow the eighth year,.... Sow the land in the eighth year, and likewise dress their vines, olives, &c.

and eat yet of the old fruit; even in the eighth year, of the old fruit of the sixth year, as the Targum of Jonathan adds:

until the ninth year; that is, as Jarchi explains it, until the feast of tabernacles of the ninth, which was the time that the increase of the eighth came into the house; for all summer it was in the field, and in Tisri or September was the time of gathering it into the house; and sometimes it was necessary to provide for four years on the sixth, which was before the sabbatical year, the seventh, for they ceased from tilling the ground two years running, the seventh and the jubilee year; but this Scripture is said concerning all the rest of the sabbatical years: these encouraging promises, one would have thought, would have been placed more naturally after the account of the sabbatical year that followed, Leviticus 25:7; but the reason of their being inserted here seems to be, because in the year of jubilee they were neither to sow nor reap, nor gather in the grapes of the undressed vine, as in the sabbatical year, Leviticus 25:11; wherefore those things are said for encouragement at the one time as at the other; since it might easily be concluded, that he that could provide for them every sixth year for three years to come, could once in fifty years provide for four:

until her fruits come in, ye shall eat of the old store; some of which came in in March, as barley, others in May, as the wheat, and others in August and September, as the grapes, olives, &c. which was the time of ingathering several fruits of the earth, and of finishing the whole.