Land Concentration, Efficiency, Slavery, and the Jubilee

The Jubilee, as laid out in the Bible, is generally viewed as a time for celebration-a time during which horns are blown, families reunited, and heirlooms reclaimed. This article focuses on the need for reconsideration of the goals of jubilee. It is a time of freedom, with the release of slaves and the resulting return of their civil liberties, and of social justice, with land sold during the previous fifty years returning to its original owners. Thus, the Jubilee seems to be partially a sociological precept, with its main goal seemingly to achieve a certain degree of equality among people. However, a careful study of the precise decrees raises a number of questions that are difficult to understand when this view of the Jubilee is taken. This article explains the two main goals of Jubilee Laws, the role of slavery, and the clean slate proclamations.