Suh-bat´i-kuhl
Year, the biblical prescription that every seventh year the land must lie uncultivated, based on the assumption that the land does not actually belong to any one person to dispose of at will, but to God. Fruit that grows on its own in the Sabbatical Year was to be left for the poor and the wild animals (Exod 23:10-11; Lev 25:1-7). In addition, “every creditor shall remit the claim that is held against a neighbor” (Deut 15:2). This remission of debts is designed to provide the means to correct social inequities. Observance of the Sabbatical Year in Second Temple times (late fifth century BCE–70 CE) is attested in (Neh 10:32 and 1Macc 6:49, 1Macc 6:53).
