Principle
Under the Law of Moses, God told Israel to let the land rest every seventh year. There was to be no sowing, harvesting, or pruning vineyards.
Explanation
GOD said to Moses:
1 Now the Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, 2 “Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘When you come into the land I give you, then the land shall keep a Sabbath to the Lord. 3 Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather its fruit; 4 but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord. You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard. 5 What grows by itself in your field you shall not reap, nor gather the grapes of the vines you dedicated, for it is a year of rest for the land. 6 So the products of the land during the Sabbath year shall be food for you: for you, your male and female servants, your hired man, and the alien who dwells with you, 7 and for your cattle and the wild animals in your land—all its produce shall be for food.
Leviticus 25:1-7 OSB
GOD also used this land sabbath as special provisions for the poor:
10 “Six years you shall sow your land and gather in its produce, 11 but in the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave, the beasts of the field may eat. In like manner you shall do with your vineyard and your olive grove.
Exodus 23:10-11 OSB
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