Reference: Year
American
The Hebrews always had years of twelve months. But at the beginning, as some suppose, they were solar years of twelve months, each month having thirty days, excepting the twelfth, which had thirty-five days. We see, by the enumeration of the days of the deluge, Ge 7-8, that the original year consisted of three hundred and sixty-five days. It is supposed that they had an intercalary month at the end of one hundred and twenty years, at which time the beginning of their year would be out of its place full thirty days. Subsequently, however, and throughout the history of the Jews, the year was wholly lunar, having alternately a full month of thirty days, and a defective month of twenty-nine days, thus completing their year in three hundred and fifty-four days. To accommodate this lunar year to the solar year, (365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 47.7 seconds,) or the period of the revolution of the earth around the sun, and to the return of the seasons, they added a whole month after Adar, usually once in three years. This intercalary month they call Ve-adar. See MONTH.
The ancient Hebrews appear to have had no formal and established era, but to have dated from the most memorable events in their history; as from the exodus out of Egypt, Ex 19:1; Nu 33:38; 1Ki 6:1; from the erection of Solomon's temple, 1Ki 8:1; 9:10; and from the Babylonish captivity, Eze 33:21; 40:1. See SABBATICAL YEAR, and JUBILEE.
The phrase, "from two years old and under," Mt 2:16, that is, "from a child of two years and under," is thought by some to include all the male children who had not entered their second year; and by others, all who were near the beginning of their second year, within a few months before or after. The cardinal and ordinal numbers are often used indiscriminately. Thus in Ge 7:6,11, Noah is six hundred years old, and soon after in his six hundredth year; Christ rose from the dead "three days after," Mt 27:63, and "on the third day," Mt 16:21; circumcision took place when the child was "eight days old," Ge 17:11, and "on the eighth day," Le 12:3. Compare Lu 1:59; 2:21. Many slight discrepancies in chronology may be thus accounted for.
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And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.
In the six hundredth year of Noah's life in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of the heavens were opened.
And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be a token of the covenant between me and you.
In the third month from when the sons of Israel had gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day they came into the wilderness of Sinai.
And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.
And Aaron, the priest, went up into Mount Hor at the commandment of the LORD and died there in the fortieth year, after the sons of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the first day of the fifth month.
Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the princes of the families of the sons of Israel, unto King Solomon in Jerusalem that they might bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of the city of David, which is Zion.
And it came to pass at the end of twenty years in which Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the LORD and the king's house
And it came to pass in the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth month, in the fifth day of the month, that one that had escaped out of Jerusalem came unto me, saying, The city is smitten.
In the twenty-fifth year of our captivity, in the beginning of the year, in the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city was smitten, in that same day the hand of the LORD was upon me, and brought me there.
Then Herod, seeing that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth and sent forth and killed all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the borders thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had understood of the wise men.
From that time forth Jesus began to declare unto his disciples, how it was expedient for him to go unto Jerusalem and to suffer many things of the elders and the princes of the priests and of the scribes and to be killed and to be raised again the third day.
saying, Lord, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again.
And it came to pass that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they called him Zacharias after the name of his father.
And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called Jesus, which he was called by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
Easton
Heb shanah, meaning "repetition" or "revolution" (Ge 1:14; 5:3). Among the ancient Egyptians the year consisted of twelve months of thirty days each, with five days added to make it a complete revolution of the earth round the sun. The Jews reckoned the year in two ways, (1) according to a sacred calendar, in which the year began about the time of the vernal equinox, with the month Abib; and (2) according to a civil calendar, in which the year began about the time of the autumnal equinox, with the month Nisan. The month Tisri is now the beginning of the Jewish year.
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And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for appointed times and for days and years;
And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image, and called his name Seth:
Fausets
shanah, a repetition, like the Latin annus, "year." Literally, a circle, namely, of seasons, in which the same recur yearly. The 360 day year, 12 months of 30 days each, is indicated in Da 7:25; 12:7, time (i.e. one year) times and dividing of a time, or 3 1/2 years; the 42 months (Re 11:2), 1260 days (Re 5:3; 12:6). The Egyptian vague year was the same, without the five intercalary days. So the year of Noah in Ge 7:11-24; 8:3-4,13; the interval between the 17th day of the second month and the 17th of the seventh month being stated as 150 days, i.e. 30 days in each of the five months. Also between the tenth month, first day, and the first day of the first month, the second year, at least 54 days, namely, 40 + 7 + 7 (oxen. Ge 8:5-6,10,12-13). Hence, we infer a year of 12 months. The Hebrew month at the time of the Exodus was lunar, but their year was solar.
(See WEIGHTS AND MEASURES, on P. Smyth's view of the year marked in the great pyramid). The Egyptian vague year is thought to be as old as the 12th dynasty. (See EGYPT.) The Hebrew religious year began in spring, the natural beginning when all nature revives; the season also of the beginning of Israel's national life, when the religious year's beginning was transferred from autumn to spring, the month Abib or Nisan (the name given by later Hebrew: Ex 12:2; 13:4; 23:15-16; 34:18,22). The civil year began at the close of autumn in the month Tisri, when, the fruits of the earth having been gathered in, the husbandman began his work again preparing for another year's harvest, analogous to the twofold beginning of day at sunrise and sunset. "The feast of ingathering in the end of the year" (Ex 23:16) must refer to the civil or agrarian year.
The Egyptian year began in June at the rise of the Nile. Hebrew sabbatic years and Jubilees were counted from the beginning of Tisri (Le 25:9-17). The Hebrew year was as nearly solar as was compatible with its commencement coinciding with the new moon or first day of the month. They began it with the new moon nearest to the equinox, yet late enough to allow of the firstfruits of barley harvest being offered about the middle of the first month. So Josephus (Ant. 3:10, section 5) states that the Passover was celebrated when the sun was in Aries. They may have determined their new year's day by observing the heliacal or other star risings or settings marking the right time of the solar year (compare Jg 5:20-21; Job 38:31). They certainly after the captivity, and probably ages before, added a 13th month whenever the 12th ended too long before the equinox for the offering of the firstfruits to be made at the time fixed. (See JUBILEE.)
In Ex 23:10; De 31:10; 15:1, the sabbatical year appears as a rest to the land (no sowing, reaping, planting, pruning, gathering) in which its ownership was in abeyance, and its chance produce at the service of all comers. Debtors were released from obligations for the year, except when they could repay without impoverishment (De 15:2-4). Trade, handicrafts, the chase, and the care of cattle occupied the people during the year. Education and the reading of the law at the feast of tabernacles characterized it (De 31:10-13). The soil lay fallow one year out of seven at a time when rotation of crops and manuring were unknown; the habit of economizing grain was fostered by the institution (Ge 41:48-56).
Israel learned too that absolute ownership in the land was Jehovah's alone, and that the human owners held it in trust, to be made the most of for the good of every creature which dwelt upon it (Le 25:23,1-7,11-17; Ex 23:11, "that the poor may eat, and what they leave the beasts," etc.). The weekly sabbath witnessed the equality of the people as to the covenant with Jehovah. The Jubilee year witnessed that every Israelite had an equal claim to the Lord's land, and that the hired servant, the foreigner, the cattle, and even wild beasts, had a claim. The whole thus indicates what a blessed state would have followed the Sabbath of Paradise, had not sin disturbed all. During 70 Sabbath years, i.e. 490, the period of the monarchy, the Sabbath year was mainly slighted, and so 70 years' captivity was the retributive punishment (2Ch 36:20-21; Le 26:34-35,43).
Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar exempted the Jews from tribute on the sabbatical year (Josephus Ant. 11:8, section 6, 14:10, section 6; compare 16, Section 2; 15:1, section 2; compare also under Antiochus Epiphanes, 1Ma 4:49); the institution has no parallel in the world's history, and would have been submitted to by no people except under a divine revelation. The day of atonement on which the sabbatical year was proclaimed stood in the same relation to the civil year that the Passover did to the religious year. The new moon festival of Tisri is the only one distinguished by peculiar observance, which confirms the view that the civil year began then. The Hebrew divided the year into "summer and winter "(Ge 8:22; Ps 74:17; Zec 14:8), and designated the earth's produce as the fruits of summer (Jer 8:20; 40:10-12; Mic 7:1).
Abib "the month of green ears" commenced summer; and the seventh month, Ethanim, "the month of flowing streams," began winter. The 'atsereth or "concluding festival" of the feast of tabernacles closed the year (Le 23:34). Both the spring feast in Abib and the autumn feast in Ethanim began at the full moon in their respective months. (See MONTH; SABBATICAL YEAR; JUBILEE.) The observances at the beginning festival of the religious year resemble those at the beginning festival of the civil year. The Passover lamb in the first month Abib corresponds to the atonement goats on the tenth of Tisri, the seventh month. The feast of unleavened bread from the 15th to the gist of Abib answers to the feast of tabernacles from the 15th to 22nd of Tisri. As there is a Sabbath attached to the first day as well as to the seventh, so the first and the seventh month begin respectively the religious and the civil year.
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In the six hundredth year of Noah's life in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of the heavens were opened. And there was rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights. read more. In that same day Noah and Shem and Ham and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered into the ark, they and every animal after its kind and all the beasts after their kind and every creeping thing that moves upon the earth after its kind and every fowl after its kind, every bird, every thing with wings. And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two by two of all flesh in which is the spirit of life. And those that went in went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him, and the LORD shut him in. And the flood was forty days upon the earth, and the waters multiplied and bore up the ark, and it was lifted up above the earth. And the waters prevailed and multiplied greatly upon the earth, and the ark went upon the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth, and all the high mountains that were under all the heavens were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail, and the mountains were covered. And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl and of beasts and of animals and of every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth and every man; all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life of all that was in the dry land died. And every substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man and cattle and the animals and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth, and only Noah remained alive and those that were with him in the ark. And the waters prevailed upon the earth one hundred and fifty days.
and the waters turned back and forth upon the earth, and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated. And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat. read more. And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen. And it came to pass at the end of forty days that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made,
And he waited yet another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark,
And he stayed yet other seven days and sent forth the dove, which returned not again unto him any more. And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year of Noah, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth, and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked and, behold, the face of the ground was dry.
And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year of Noah, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth, and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked and, behold, the face of the ground was dry.
While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
And he gathered up all the food of the seven years, which were in the land of Egypt and laid up the food in the cities, placing in each city the food of the field, which was round about. And Joseph gathered wheat as the sand of the sea, very much, until he left off numbering; for it was without number. read more. And unto Joseph were born two sons before the years of famine came, which Asenath, the daughter of Potipherah, prince of On, bore unto him. And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh; For God, said he, has made me forget all my toil and all my father's house. And the name of the second he called Ephraim, For God, said he, has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction. And the seven years of the abundance that was in the land of Egypt were ended. And the seven years of famine began to come, according as Joseph had said; and the famine was in all lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread. And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. And Pharaoh said unto all the Egyptians, Go unto Joseph; what he saith to you, do. And the famine was over all the face of the earth. Then Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold unto the Egyptians; for the famine waxed sore in the land of Egypt.
This month shall be unto you the beginning of the months; it shall be the first month of the year to you.
And six years thou shalt sow thy land and shalt gather in its increase, but the seventh year thou shalt leave it free and release it, that the poor of thy people may eat, and what they leave the beasts of the field shall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard and with thy oliveyard.
Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib, for in it thou didst come out from Egypt; and none shall appear before me empty), And the feast of the harvest of the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field, and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.
And the feast of the harvest of the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field, and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.
The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, in the time of the month Abib; for in the month Abib thou didst come out from Egypt.
And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of the reaping of the wheat, and the feast of ingathering at the year's end.
Speak unto the sons of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles unto the LORD for seven days.
And the LORD spoke unto Moses in Mount Sinai, saying, Speak unto the sons of Israel and say unto them, When ye have come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD. read more. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard and gather in the fruit thereof, but the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath of rest, a sabbath unto the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field nor prune thy vineyard. That which grows of its own accord in thy land that was harvested, thou shalt not reap; neither fence in the grapes of thy consecrated vine; for it is a year of rest unto the land. But the sabbath of the land shall be food for you, for thee and for thy slave and for thy maid and for thy hired servant and for thy stranger that sojourns with thee and for thy beast and for the animals that are in thy land shall all the fruit thereof be food.
Then shalt thou cause the shofar to sound an alarm on the tenth day of the seventh month; in the day of the reconciliations shall ye cause the shofar to sound throughout all your land. And ye shall sanctify the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof; it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every one unto his possession, and ye shall return each one unto his family. read more. A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you; ye shall not sow nor reap that which grows of itself in it nor fence in thy consecrated vine.
A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you; ye shall not sow nor reap that which grows of itself in it nor fence in thy consecrated vine. For it is the jubilee; it shall be holy unto you; ye shall eat the fruit of the land.
For it is the jubilee; it shall be holy unto you; ye shall eat the fruit of the land. In this year of jubilee ye shall return each one unto his possession.
In this year of jubilee ye shall return each one unto his possession. And if thou sell anything unto thy neighbour or buy anything of thy neighbour's hand, ye shall not oppress one another.
And if thou sell anything unto thy neighbour or buy anything of thy neighbour's hand, ye shall not oppress one another. According to the number of years after the jubilee thou shalt buy of thy neighbour, and according unto the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee.
According to the number of years after the jubilee thou shalt buy of thy neighbour, and according unto the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee. According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it; for according to the number of the years of the fruits does he sell unto thee.
According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it; for according to the number of the years of the fruits does he sell unto thee. Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God; for I am the LORD your God.
Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God; for I am the LORD your God.
The land shall not be sold for ever, for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.
Then shall the land rest for her sabbaths all the days that it lies desolate, while you are in your enemies' land; even then shall the land rest and enjoy her sabbaths. All the time that it shall be desolate, it shall rest that which it did not rest in your sabbaths when ye dwelt upon it.
That the land shall be without them and shall rest her sabbaths, being desolate because of them; and they shall plead because of their iniquity because they despised my rights and their soul abhorred my statutes.
At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release. And this is the manner of the release: everyone who has lent anything to his neighbour, causing him to be in debt, shall release it; he shall not exact it any more of his neighbour or of his brother, because the release of the LORD is proclaimed. read more. Of the foreigner thou shalt demand that it be repaid; but that which thy brother has of thine thy hand shall release, so that thus there shall be no poor among you, for the LORD shall greatly bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God gives thee for an inheritance to possess it;
And Moses commanded them, saying, At the beginning of the seventh year, in the appointed time of the year of release, in the feast of the tabernacles,
And Moses commanded them, saying, At the beginning of the seventh year, in the appointed time of the year of release, in the feast of the tabernacles, when all Israel is come to appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing. read more. Gather the people together, men and women and children and thy strangers that are within thy gates, that they may hear and that they may learn and fear the LORD your God and observe to do all the words of this law, and that their children, who have not known any thing, may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God all the days that ye live in the land unto which ye are to pass the Jordan to inherit it.
They fought from the heavens; the stars from their ways fought against Sisera. The river of Kishon swept them away, that ancient river, the river Kishon. Tread down, O my soul, with strength.
And those that escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon; where they were slaves to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah until the land had fulfilled her sabbaths; for all the time of her desolation she rested until the seventy years were fulfilled.
Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?
Thou hast set all the borders of the earth; thou hast made summer and winter.
The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.
As for me, behold, I dwell in Mizpah to serve the Chaldeans, which will come unto us; but ye, gather ye the wine and the bread and the oil and put them in your vessels and dwell in your cities that ye have taken. Likewise when all the Jews that were in Moab and among the Ammonites and in Edom and that were in all the lands heard how the king of Babylon had left a remnant in Judah and that he had set over them Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan, read more. all these Jews returned out of all places where they were driven and came to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah in Mizpah, and gathered wine and much fruit.
And he shall speak great words against the most High and shall break down the saints of the most High and think to move the times and the law; and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the half or dividing of a time.
And I heard the Man clothed in linens, who was upon the waters of the river, who raised his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and swore by the living one in the ages that it shall be for a time, times, and a half; and when the scattering of the power of the holy people shall be finished, all these things shall be fulfilled.
Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grapegleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat: my soul desired the firstripe fruit.
And it shall be in that day that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem: half of them toward the eastern sea and half of them toward the western sea; in summer and in winter it shall be.
And no one was able not in the heaven nor in the earth neither under the earth to open the book neither to look upon it.
But leave out the court which is within the temple and measure it not, for it is given unto the Gentiles, and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty-two months.
And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and sixty days.
Hastings
Morish
Under the word MONTHS it has been stated that the Jews reckoned the months to consist alternately of twenty-nine and thirty days, being therefore in twelve months eleven and a quarter days short of the year. To remedy this an additional month was added about every three years. In the various data given for the last half of the last of Daniel's Seventy Weeks, it will be seen that all the months are reckoned as having thirty days; thus 'a time, times, and a half' in Da 12:7 and Re 12:14 point out three and a half years: this period is again called forty two months in Re 11:2; 13:5; and again twelve hundred and sixty days in Re 11:3; 12:6. The prophetic year may therefore be called three hundred and sixty days. See MONTHS and SEASONS.
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And I heard the Man clothed in linens, who was upon the waters of the river, who raised his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and swore by the living one in the ages that it shall be for a time, times, and a half; and when the scattering of the power of the holy people shall be finished, all these things shall be fulfilled.
But leave out the court which is within the temple and measure it not, for it is given unto the Gentiles, and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty-two months. And I will give my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.
And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and sixty days.
And to the woman were given two wings of the great eagle that she might fly from the presence of the serpent into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time and times.
And there was given unto it a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto it to continue forty and two months.
Smith
Year,
the highest ordinary division of time. Two years were known to, and apparently used by, the Hebrews.
1. A year of 360 days appears to have been in use in Noah's time.
2. The year used by the Hebrews from the time of the exodus may: be said to have been then instituted, since a current month, Abib, on the 14th day of which the first Passover was kept, was then made the first month of the year. The essential characteristics of this year can be clearly determined, though we cannot fix those of any single year. It was essentially solar for the offering of productions of the earth, first-fruits, harvest produce and ingathered fruits, was fixed to certain days of the year, two of which were in the periods of great feasts, the third itself a feast reckoned from one of the former days. But it is certain that the months were lunar, each commencing with a new moon. There must therefore have been some method of adjustment. The first point to be decided is how the commencement of each gear was fixed. Probably the Hebrews determined their new year's day by the observation of heliacal or other star-risings or settings known to mark the right time of the solar year. It follows, from the determination of the proper new moon of the first month, whether by observation of a stellar phenomenon or of the forwardness of the crops, that the method of intercalation can only have been that in use after the captivity, --the addition of a thirteenth month whenever the twelfth ended too long before the equinox for the offering of the first-fruits to be made at the time fixed. The later Jews had two commencements of the year, whence it is commonly but inaccurately said that they had two years, the sacred year and the civil. We prefer to speak of the sacred and civil reckonings. The sacred reckoning was that instituted at the exodus, according to which the first month was Abib; by the civil reckoning the first month was the seventh. The interval between the two commencements was thus exactly half a year. It has been supposed that the institution at the time of the exodus was a change of commencement, not the introduction of a new year, and that thenceforward the year had two beginnings, respectively at about the vernal and the autumnal equinox. The year was divided into --
1. Seasons. Two seasons are mentioned in the Bible, "summer" and "winter." The former properly means the time of cutting fruits, the latter that, of gathering fruits; they are therefore originally rather summer and autumn than summer and winter. But that they signify ordinarily the two grand divisions of the year, the warm and cold seasons, is evident from their use for the whole year in the expression "summer and winter."
2. Months. [MONTHS]
3. Weeks. [WEEKS]
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Thou hast set all the borders of the earth; thou hast made summer and winter.
And if the family of Egypt does not go up and does not come, there shall be no rain upon them; instead there shall be the plague, with which the LORD will smite the Gentiles that do not come up to celebrate the feast of the tabernacles.
Watsons
YEAR. The Hebrews had always years, of twelve months each. But at the beginning, and in the time of Moses, these were solar years, of twelve months; each having thirty days, except the twelfth, which had thirty-five. We see, by the reckoning that Moses gives us of the days of the deluge, Genesis vii, that the Hebrew year consisted of three hundred and sixty-five days. It is supposed that they had an intercalary month at the end of one hundred and twenty years; at which time the beginning of their year would be out of its place full thirty days. But it must be owned, that no mention is made in Scripture of the thirteenth month, or of any intercalation. It is not improbable that Moses retained the order of the Egyptian year, since he himself came out of Egypt, was born in that country, had been instructed and brought up there, and since the people of Israel, whose chief he was, had been for a long time accustomed to this kind of year. But the Egyptian year was solar, and consisted of twelve months of thirty days each, and that for a very long time before. After the time of Alexander the Great, and the reign of the Grecians in Asia, the Jews reckoned by lunar months, chiefly in what related to religion, and the order of the festivals. St. John, in his Re 11:2-3; 12:6,14; 13:5, assigns but twelve hundred and sixty days to three years and a half, and consequently just thirty days to every month, and just three hundred and sixty days to every year. Maimonides tells us, that the years of the Jews were solar, and their months lunar. Since the completing of the Talmud, they have made use of years that are purely lunar, having alternately a full month of thirty days, and then a defective month of twenty-nine days. And to accommodate this lunar year to the course of the sun, at the end of three years their intercalate a whole month after Adar; which intercalated month they call Ve-adar, or the second Adar.
The beginning of the year was various among different nations: the ancient Chaldeans, Babylonians, Medes, Persians, Armenians, and Syrians, began their year about the vernal equinox; and the Chinese in the east, and Latins and Romans in the west, originally followed the same usage. The Egyptians, and from them the Jews, began their civil year about the autumnal equinox. The Athenians and Greeks in general began theirs about the summer solstice; and the Chinese, and the Romans after Numa's correction, about the winter solstice. At which of these the primeval year, instituted at the creation, began, has been long contested among astronomers and chronologers. Philo, Eusebius, Cyril, Augustine, Abulfaragi, Kepler, Capellus, Simpson, Lange, and Jackson, contend for the vernal equinox; and Josephus, Scaliger, Petavius, Usher, Bedford, Kennedy, &c, for the autumnal. The weight of ancient authorities, and also of argument, seems to preponderate in favour of the former opinion.
1. All the ancient nations, except the Egyptians, began their civil year about the vernal equinox: but the deviation of the Egyptians from the general usage may easily be accounted for, from a local circumstance peculiar to their country; namely, that the annual inundation of the Nile rises to its greatest height at the autumnal equinox.
2. Josephus, the only ancient authority of any weight on the other side, seems to be inconsistent with himself, in supposing that the deluge began in the second civil month, Dius, or Markeshvan, rather than in the second sacred month; because Moses, throughout the Pentateuch, uniformly adopts the sacred year; and fixes its first month by an indelible and unequivocal character, calling it Abib, as ushering in the season of green corn. And as Josephus calls the second month elsewhere Artemisius, or Iar, in conformity with Scripture, there is no reason why he should deviate from the same usage in the case of the deluge.
3. To the authority of Josephus, we may oppose that of the great Jewish antiquary, Philo, in the generation before him; who thus accounts for the institution of the sacred year by Moses:
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And in process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground a present unto the LORD.
And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.
In the six hundredth year of Noah's life in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of the heavens were opened.
And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year of Noah, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth, and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked and, behold, the face of the ground was dry.
And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be a token of the covenant between me and you.
If thou should buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years; and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
And the feast of the harvest of the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field, and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.
And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of the reaping of the wheat, and the feast of ingathering at the year's end.
And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.
And the LORD spoke unto Moses in Mount Sinai, saying, Speak unto the sons of Israel and say unto them, When ye have come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD. read more. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard and gather in the fruit thereof, but the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath of rest, a sabbath unto the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field nor prune thy vineyard. That which grows of its own accord in thy land that was harvested, thou shalt not reap; neither fence in the grapes of thy consecrated vine; for it is a year of rest unto the land. But the sabbath of the land shall be food for you, for thee and for thy slave and for thy maid and for thy hired servant and for thy stranger that sojourns with thee and for thy beast and for the animals that are in thy land shall all the fruit thereof be food. And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty-nine years.
And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty-nine years. Then shalt thou cause the shofar to sound an alarm on the tenth day of the seventh month; in the day of the reconciliations shall ye cause the shofar to sound throughout all your land.
Then shalt thou cause the shofar to sound an alarm on the tenth day of the seventh month; in the day of the reconciliations shall ye cause the shofar to sound throughout all your land. And ye shall sanctify the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof; it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every one unto his possession, and ye shall return each one unto his family.
And ye shall sanctify the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof; it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every one unto his possession, and ye shall return each one unto his family.
And ye shall sanctify the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof; it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every one unto his possession, and ye shall return each one unto his family. A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you; ye shall not sow nor reap that which grows of itself in it nor fence in thy consecrated vine.
A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you; ye shall not sow nor reap that which grows of itself in it nor fence in thy consecrated vine. For it is the jubilee; it shall be holy unto you; ye shall eat the fruit of the land. read more. In this year of jubilee ye shall return each one unto his possession.
In this year of jubilee ye shall return each one unto his possession. And if thou sell anything unto thy neighbour or buy anything of thy neighbour's hand, ye shall not oppress one another. read more. According to the number of years after the jubilee thou shalt buy of thy neighbour, and according unto the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee. According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it; for according to the number of the years of the fruits does he sell unto thee. Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God; for I am the LORD your God.
And if ye shall say, What shall we eat the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow nor gather in our fruits, then I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years. read more. And ye shall sow the eighth year and eat yet of old fruit; until the ninth year, until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store. The land shall not be sold for ever, for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me. Therefore, in all the land of your possession, ye shall grant a redemption for the land.
Therefore, in all the land of your possession, ye shall grant a redemption for the land. If thy brother becomes poor and has sold away some of his possession, his redeemer shall come, his closest kinsman, and shall redeem that which his brother sold. read more. And when the man has no redeemer and is able to stretch forth his hand and find enough for his redemption, then he shall count the years from the sale thereof and pay that which remains unto the man to whom he sold it; that he may return unto his possession. But if he is not able to stretch forth his hand and find enough to return unto it, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of the one that has bought it until the year of jubilee; and in the jubilee the land shall go out free, and he shall return unto his possession.
And when thy brother becomes poor, being with thee, and if he should sell himself unto thee, thou shalt not compel him to serve as a slave. As a hired servant and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee and shall serve thee unto the year of jubilee. read more. Then he shall depart free from thy house, both he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he be restored. For they belong to me, I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves. Thou shalt not rule over him with rigor, but shalt fear thy God. Both thy menslaves and thy maidslaves, which thou shalt have, shall be of the Gentiles that are round about you; of them shall ye buy slaves. Ye may also buy of the children of the strangers that live among you and of those of their lineage that are born in your land, who are with you, and they shall be your possession. And ye shall possess them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit as a possession; they shall be your bondmen for ever; but over your brethren, the sons of Israel, ye shall not rule over one another with rigor.
Then shall the land rest for her sabbaths all the days that it lies desolate, while you are in your enemies' land; even then shall the land rest and enjoy her sabbaths. All the time that it shall be desolate, it shall rest that which it did not rest in your sabbaths when ye dwelt upon it.
And if a man shall sanctify unto the LORD some part of a field of his possession, then thy estimation shall be according to the seed thereof; one homer of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver. If he sanctifies his field from the year of jubilee, according to thy estimation it shall stand. read more. But if he sanctifies his field after the jubilee, then the priest shall reckon unto him the money according to the years that remain until the year of the jubilee, and it shall be abated from thy estimation. And if he that sanctified the field desires to redeem it, then he shall add the fifth part of the money of thy estimation unto it, and it shall be assured to him. But if he should not redeem the field, and if the field is sold to another, it shall not be redeemed any more; but the field, when it goes out in the jubilee, shall be holy unto the LORD, as a field of anathema; the possession thereof shall be the priest's.
In the year of the jubilee the field shall return unto the one of whom it was bought, unto whom the inheritance of the land did belong.
And Balaam said unto Balak, Build me here seven altars and prepare me here seven oxen and seven rams.
And Aaron, the priest, went up into Mount Hor at the commandment of the LORD and died there in the fortieth year, after the sons of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the first day of the fifth month.
And when the jubilee of the sons of Israel shall come, then shall their inheritance be put unto the inheritance of the tribe unto which they are received; so shall their inheritance be taken away from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers.
At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release.
At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release. And this is the manner of the release: everyone who has lent anything to his neighbour, causing him to be in debt, shall release it; he shall not exact it any more of his neighbour or of his brother, because the release of the LORD is proclaimed.
And this is the manner of the release: everyone who has lent anything to his neighbour, causing him to be in debt, shall release it; he shall not exact it any more of his neighbour or of his brother, because the release of the LORD is proclaimed. Of the foreigner thou shalt demand that it be repaid; but that which thy brother has of thine thy hand shall release, read more. so that thus there shall be no poor among you, for the LORD shall greatly bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God gives thee for an inheritance to possess it; only if thou carefully hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep and to do all these commandments which I command thee this day. For when the LORD thy God has blessed thee, as he promised thee, thou shalt lend unto many Gentiles, but thou shalt not borrow; and thou shalt rule over many Gentiles, but they shall not rule over thee. If there should be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy towns in thy land which the LORD thy God gives thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother, but thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he lacks. Keep thyself that there not be a thought of Belial in thy heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother to give him nothing; for he shall cry unto the LORD against thee, and it shall be a sin unto thee.
Keep thyself that there not be a thought of Belial in thy heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother to give him nothing; for he shall cry unto the LORD against thee, and it shall be a sin unto thee. Thou shalt surely give unto him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him because for this thing the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all thy works and in all that thou puttest thine hand to.
And if thy brother, a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew woman, is sold unto thee and serves thee six years, then in the seventh year thou shalt send him forth from thee free.
And Moses commanded them, saying, At the beginning of the seventh year, in the appointed time of the year of release, in the feast of the tabernacles,
And Moses commanded them, saying, At the beginning of the seventh year, in the appointed time of the year of release, in the feast of the tabernacles, when all Israel is come to appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing.
when all Israel is come to appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Gather the people together, men and women and children and thy strangers that are within thy gates, that they may hear and that they may learn and fear the LORD your God and observe to do all the words of this law,
Gather the people together, men and women and children and thy strangers that are within thy gates, that they may hear and that they may learn and fear the LORD your God and observe to do all the words of this law, and that their children, who have not known any thing, may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God all the days that ye live in the land unto which ye are to pass the Jordan to inherit it.
and that their children, who have not known any thing, may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God all the days that ye live in the land unto which ye are to pass the Jordan to inherit it.
And with God helping the Levites that bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD, they sacrificed seven bullocks and seven rams.
And it came to pass at the end of twenty years, in which Solomon had built the house of the LORD and his own house,
to fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah until the land had fulfilled her sabbaths; for all the time of her desolation she rested until the seventy years were fulfilled.
Therefore, take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my slave Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my slave Job shall pray for you; for only because I will accept him, I shall not deal with you according to your folly, in that ye have not spoken by me in uprightness, like my slave Job.
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to preach good tidings unto those who are cast down; to bind up the wounds of the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those that are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD's favour, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;
when the king of Babylon's army fought against Jerusalem and against all the cities of Judah that were left, against Lachish, and against Azekah, for of the strong cities of Judah these had remained.
At the end of seven years each one shall let his Hebrew brother go, who has been sold unto thee; therefore he shall serve thee six years, and thou shalt send him forth free from thee: but your fathers did not hearken unto me, nor incline their ear.
And it came to pass in the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth month, in the fifth day of the month, that one that had escaped out of Jerusalem came unto me, saying, The city is smitten.
In the twenty-fifth year of our captivity, in the beginning of the year, in the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city was smitten, in that same day the hand of the LORD was upon me, and brought me there.
From that time forth Jesus began to declare unto his disciples, how it was expedient for him to go unto Jerusalem and to suffer many things of the elders and the princes of the priests and of the scribes and to be killed and to be raised again the third day.
And after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John, his brother, and brought them apart up into a high mountain
saying, Lord, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again.
And he began to teach them that it was convenient that the Son of man must suffer many things and be rejected of the elders and of the princes of the priests and of the scribes, and be killed and after three days rise again.
And six days afterwards Jesus took Peter and James and John, and separated them apart by themselves unto a high mountain; and he was transfigured before them.
And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called Jesus, which he was called by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
saying, The Son of man must suffer many things and be rejected of the elders and of the princes of the priests and scribes and be slain and be raised the third day.
And it came to pass about eight days after these words, he took Peter and John and James and went up into the mountain to pray.
And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country and there wasted his estate with riotous living.
And some days after, Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord and see how they do.
But leave out the court which is within the temple and measure it not, for it is given unto the Gentiles, and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty-two months. And I will give my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.
And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and sixty days.
And to the woman were given two wings of the great eagle that she might fly from the presence of the serpent into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time and times.
And there was given unto it a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto it to continue forty and two months.