Leviticus 25:10-18

25:10 So you must consecrate the fiftieth year, ¹  and you must proclaim a release ²  in the land for all its inhabitants. That year will be your jubilee; ³  each one of you must return ⁴  to his property and each one of you must return to his clan. 25:11 That fiftieth year will be your jubilee; you must not sow the land, harvest its aftergrowth, or pick the grapes of its unpruned vines. ⁵  25:12 Because that year is a jubilee, it will be holy to you – you may eat its produce ⁶  from the field.

Release of Landed Property

25:13 “‘In this year of jubilee you must each return ⁷  to your property. 25:14 If you make a sale ⁸  to your fellow citizen ⁹  or buy ¹⁰  from your fellow citizen, no one is to wrong his brother. ¹¹  25:15 You may buy it from your fellow citizen according to the number of years since ¹²  the last jubilee; he may sell it to you according to the years of produce that are left. ¹³  25:16 The more years there are, ¹⁴  the more you may make its purchase price, and the fewer years there are, ¹⁵  the less you must make its purchase price, because he is only selling to you a number of years of ¹⁶  produce. 25:17 No one is to oppress his fellow citizen, ¹⁷  but you must fear your God, because I am the Lord your God. 25:18 You must obey my statutes and my regulations; you must be sure to keep them ¹⁸  so that you may live securely in the land. ¹⁹ 

Leviticus 25:23

25:23 The land must not be sold without reclaim ²⁰  because the land belongs to me, for you are foreigners and residents with me. ²¹ 

Isaiah 61:2

61:2 to announce the year when the Lord will show his favor,

the day when our God will seek vengeance, ²² 

to console all who mourn,

Luke 4:18-19

4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed ²³  me to proclaim good news ²⁴  to the poor. ²⁵ 

He has sent me ²⁶  to proclaim release ²⁷  to the captives

and the regaining of sight ²⁸  to the blind,

to set free ²⁹  those who are oppressed, ³⁰ 

4:19 to proclaim the year ³¹  of the Lord’s favor.” ³² 

[25:10]  ¹ tn Heb “the year of the fifty years,” or perhaps “the year, fifty years” (GKC 435 §134.o, note 2).

[25:10]  ² tn Cf. KJV, ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV “liberty”; TEV, CEV “freedom.” The characteristics of this “release” are detailed in the following verses. For substantial summaries and bibliography on the biblical and ancient Near Eastern material regarding such a “release” see J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 427-34, and B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 270-74.

[25:10]  ³ tn Heb “A jubilee that shall be to you.” Although there has been some significant debate about the original meaning of the Hebrew word translated “jubilee” (יוֹבֵל, yovel; see the summary in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 434), the term most likely means “ram” and can refer also to a “ram’s horn.” The fiftieth year would, therefore, be called the “jubilee” because of the associated sounding of the “ram’s horn” (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 172, and the literature cited there).

[25:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “you [plural] shall return, a man.”

[25:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “you shall not sow and you shall not…and you shall not….”

[25:12]  ⁶ tn That is, the produce of the land (fem.; cf. v. 7 above).

[25:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “you [plural] shall return, a man.”

[25:14]  ⁸ tn Heb “sell a sale.”

[25:14]  ⁹ tn Or “to one of your countrymen” (NIV); NASB “to your friend.”

[25:14]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew infinitive absolute קָנֹה (qanoh, “buying”) substitutes for the finite verb here in sequence with the previous finite verb “sell” at the beginning of the verse (see GKC 345 §113.z).

[25:14]  ¹¹ tn Heb “do not oppress a man his brother.” Here “brother” does not refer only to a sibling, but to a fellow Israelite.

[25:15]  ¹² tn Heb “in the number of years after.”

[25:15]  ¹³ tn The words “that are left” are not in the Hebrew text, but are implied.

[25:16]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “To the mouth of the many years.”

[25:16]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “to the mouth of the few years.”

[25:16]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “a number of produce”; the words “years of” are implied. As an alternative this could be translated “a number of harvests” (cf. NRSV, NLT).

[25:17]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “And you shall not oppress a man his fellow citizen.”

[25:18]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “And you shall keep and do them.” This appears to be a kind of verbal hendiadys, where the first verb is a modifier of the action of the second verb (see GKC 386 §120.d, although שָׁמַר [shamar, “to keep”] is not cited there; cf. Lev 20:8, etc.).

[25:18]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and you shall dwell on the land to security.”

[25:23]  ²⁰ tn The term rendered “without reclaim” means that the land has been bought for the full price and is, therefore, not subject to reclaim under any circumstances. This was not to be done with land in ancient Israel (contrast the final full sale of houses in v. 30; see the evidence cited in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 174).

[25:23]  ²¹ tn That is, the Israelites were strangers and residents who were attached to the Lord’s household. They did not own the land. Note the parallel to the “priest’s lodger” in Lev 22:10.

[61:2]  ²² tn Heb “to announce the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of our God’s vengeance.

[4:18]  ²³ sn The phrase he has anointed me is an allusion back to Jesus’ baptism in Luke 3:21-22.

[4:18]  ²⁴ tn Grk “to evangelize,” “to preach the gospel.”

[4:18]  ²⁵ sn The poor is a key term in Luke. It refers to the pious poor and indicates Jesus’ desire to reach out to those the world tends to forget or mistreat. It is like 1:52 in force and also will be echoed in 6:20 (also 1 Pet 2:11-25). Jesus is commissioned to do this.

[4:18]  ²⁶ tc The majority of mss, especially the later Byzantines, include the phrase “to heal the brokenhearted” at this point (A Θ Ψ 0102 ˹ Ï). The phrase is lacking in several weighty mss (א B D L W Ξ Ë¹³ 33 579 700 892* pc lat sy^s co), including representatives from both the Alexandrian and Western texttypes. From the standpoint of external evidence, the omission of the phrase is more likely original. When internal evidence is considered, the shorter reading becomes almost certain. Scribes would be much more prone to add the phrase here to align the text with Isa 61:1, the source of the quotation, than to remove it from the original.

[4:18]  ²⁷ sn The release in view here is comprehensive, both at a physical level and a spiritual one, as the entire ministry of Jesus makes clear (Luke 1:77-79; 7:47; 24:47; Acts 2:38; 5:31; 10:43).

[4:18]  ²⁸ sn Again, as with the previous phrase, regaining of sight may well mean more than simply miraculously restoring physical sight, which itself pictures a deeper reality (Luke 1:77-79; 18:35-43).

[4:18]  ²⁹ sn The essence of Jesus’ messianic work is expressed in the phrase to set free. This line from Isa 58 says that Jesus will do what the nation had failed to do. It makes the proclamation messianic, not merely prophetic, because Jesus doesn’t just proclaim the message – he brings the deliverance. The word translated set free is the same Greek word (ἄφεσις, afesi") translated release earlier in the verse.

[4:18]  ³⁰ sn Again, as with the previous phrases, oppressed may well mean more than simply political or economic oppression, but a deeper reality of oppression by sin (Luke 1:77-79; 18:35-43).

[4:19]  ³¹ sn The year of the Lord’s favor (Grk “the acceptable year of the Lord”) is a description of the year of Jubilee (Lev 25:10). The year of the total forgiveness of debt is now turned into a metaphor for salvation. Jesus had come to proclaim that God was ready to forgive sin totally.

[4:19]  ³² sn A quotation from Isa 61:1-2a. Within the citation is a line from Isa 58:6, with its reference to setting the oppressed free.