SABBATIC YEAR. - The last year of a week of years among the Jews. In Ex. 23, 10 ff. it is prescribed that during this period the land was to be left in absolute rest. Whatever the soil produced spontaneously was to be left for the poor and for the livestock.
The law is repeated in Lev. 25, 7-7 with a slight variation: spontaneous fruits could be consumed by anyone, including the owner and the stranger, not only by the poor and the animals. In Deut. 15, 1-11, however, the seventh year is spoken of as a period of remission and general cancellation of debts. Only the foreign debtor was excluded from this generous privilege. The legislator insists on emphasizing the social importance of the provision and warns that any malicious evasion would incur the divine curse.
This law appears more idealistic than practical. It was intended to affirm God's lordship over the soil, which was to rest in his honor, and complete equality among men, who for at least one year would have had the same right of access to the means necessary for life. But its observance, perhaps because it appeared impossible, was completely neglected, at least before the exile (cf. Lev. 26, 34, 35, 43; Neb. 10, 31). For a more recent period there is some evidence concerning its observance, but always with emphasis on the practical difficulties that followed from it (cf. I Mach. 6, 49, 53; Flavio Giuseppe, Antiq. Ind., XI, 343; XV, 7).