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 the son of six hundred years, and the flood of waters was upon the earth.
In the year of six hundred years of Noah's life, in the second month, in the seventeenth day of the month, in the same day all the fountains of the great deep were divided and the sluices of the heavens were opened.
And ye circumcised the flesh of your uncircumcision; and it was for a sign of the covenant between me and between you.
In the third month, in the coming forth of the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt, in that day they came to the desert of Sinai.
And in the eighth day the flesh of his uncircumcision shall be circumcised.
And Aaron the priest will go up to mount Hor by the mouth of Jehovah, and will die there in the fortieth year to the coming out of the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt., in the fifth month, in one to the month.
Then Solomon will convoke together the old men of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, chiefs of the fathers to the sons of Israel, to king Solomon at Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of Jehovah from the city of David: this is Zion.
And it will be from the end of twenty years, when Solomon built the two houses, the house of Jehovah and the house of the king,
And it will be in the twelfth year, in the tenth, in the fifth to the month, to our captivity, he having escaped from Jerusalem came to me, saying, The city was struck.
In the twenty and fifth year to our captivity, in the beginning, of the year, in the tenth to the month, in the fourteenth year after that the city was struck, in this very day the hand of Jehovah was upon me, and he will bring me there.
Then Herod, seeing he was deluded by the magi, was very angry, and having sent, destroyed all the children which in Bethlehem, and in all its bounds, from two years and under, according to the time he examined thoroughly of the magi.
From then Jesus began to shew to his disciples, that he must depart to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised in the third day.
Saying, Lord, we remember that that impostor said, yet living, After three days, I arise.
And it was in the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; and they called him by the name of his father Zacharias.
And when eight days were completed for circumcising the child and his name was called JESUS, called by the messenger 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 will say there shall be lights in the firmament of the heavens to separate between the day and between the night: and they shall be for signs and for set times, and for days and for years.
And Adam shall live thirty and one hundred years, and shall beget in his likeness, according to his image, and will call 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 year of six hundred years of Noah's life, in the second month, in the seventeenth day of the month, in the same day all the fountains of the great deep were divided and the sluices of the heavens were opened. And the rain shall be upon the earth forty days and forty nights. read more. In that very day went in Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth; Noah's sons, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them to the ark. They, and every living thing after its kind, and all cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing creeping upon the earth, after its kind, and every bird after his kind, and every small bird of every wing. And they shall go in to Noah to the ark, two from all flesh in which is the breath of life. And they going in, went in male and female from all flesh according to which God commanded him: and Jehovah shut him within. And the flood shall be forty days upon the earth, and the waters shall multiply, and shall take up the ark, and it shall be lifted up from above the earth. And the waters shall prevail and shall multiply exceedingly upon the earth: and the ark shall go upon the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly exceedingly upon the earth: and all the high mountains which are underneath all the heavens shall be covered. Fifteen cubits from upward, the waters prevailed: and will cover the mountains. And all flesh shall die that creeping upon the earth, with birds and with cattle and with beast and with every creeping thing that creeping upon the earth, and every man. All which the breath of the spirit of life in the nostrils of all which is in the dry land died. And every living thing shall be wiped off which upon the face of the earth, from man even to cattle, even to the creeping thing, and even to the birds of the heavens; and they shall be wiped out from the earth, and Noah only shall remain and they which with him in the ark. And the waters shall prevail upon the earth fifty and one hundred days.
And the waters shall turn back from over the earth, going and turning back, and the waters shall fail from the end of fifty and one hundred days. And the ark shall rest in the seventh month in the seventeenth day of the month upon the mountains of Ararat read more. And the waters were going and diminishing until the tenth month: in the tenth, in the one of the month, the heads of the mountains were seen. And it shall be from the end of forty days Noah shall open the window of the ark which he made.
And he will wait yet again other seven days, and he will add to send forth the dove from the ark.
And he will wait yet again, other seven days, and will send forth the dove; and she will not add to turn back to him yet again. And it shall be in the one and six hundredth year, in the beginning, in one of the month, the waters were diminished from over the earth: and Noah will turn away the covering of the ark, and he will see and behold the face of the earth was dry.
And it shall be in the one and six hundredth year, in the beginning, in one of the month, the waters were diminished from over the earth: and Noah will turn away the covering of the ark, and he will see and behold the face of the earth was dry.
Yet all the days of the earth, seed and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
And he will gather all the food of the seven years which were in the land of Egypt, and he will give the food in the cities: the food of the field of the city which round about her, he gave in the midst of her. And Joseph will gather grain as the sand of the sea, exceedingly much that he ceased to number; for there was no numbering. read more. And to Joseph will be born two sons before the years of the famine will come: which Asenath, daughter of Poti-Pherah, priest of Ain, bare to him. And Joseph will call the name of the first-born, Manasseh; for God made me forget all my toils and all my father's house. And the name of the second, he called Ephraim; for God caused me to flourish in the land of my affliction. And the seven years of plenty will be completed, which was in the land of Egypt And the seven years of famine will begin to come, according to that Joseph said: and the famine will be in all the lands; and in all the land of Egypt was bread. And all the land of Egypt shall hunger, and the people will cry out to Pharaoh for bread; and Pharaoh will say to all Egypt, Go to Joseph; what he shall say to you, ye shall do. And the famine was upon all the face of the earth: and Joseph will open all which in them, and he will sell to Egypt; and the famine was strong in the land of Egypt
This month is to you the beginning of months: this to you the first month of the year.
Six years shalt thou sow thy land, and gather its produce: And the seventh thou shalt remit, and let it be; and the poor of thy people shall eat; and the remains, the beast of the field shall eat. So shalt thou do to thy vineyard and to thy olive tree.
Thou shalt watch the festival of unleavened: seven days shalt thou eat unleavened as I commanded thee according to the appointment of the month Abib; for in it thou camest forth out of Egypt: and they shall not be seen before me empty. And the festival of the harvest, the first fruits of thy works, which thou shalt sow in the field: and the festival of gathering in the going out of the year, in thy gathering thy works out of the field.
And the festival of the harvest, the first fruits of thy works, which thou shalt sow in the field: and the festival of gathering in the going out of the year, in thy gathering thy works out of the field.
The festival of unleavened thou. shalt watch. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened, which I commanded thee, for the appointment of the month Abib: for in the month Abib thou earnest forth out of Egypt.
And the festival of seven thou shalt make to thee, the first fruits of the harvest of wheat, and the festival of collection of the circuit of the year.
Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, In the fifteenth day of this seventh month the festival of tents seven days to Jehovah.
And Jehovah will speak to Moses, in mount Sinai, saying, Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, When ye shall come into the land which I gave to you, the land shall rest a Sabbath to Jehovah. read more. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather its produce; And in the seventh year, a Sabbath of rest shall be to the land, a Sabbath to Jehovah: thy field thou shalt not sow, and thy vineyard thou. shalt not prune. The overflowing of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, and the grapes of thy separation thou shalt not gather: a year of the Sabbaths shall be to the land. And the Sabbath of the land shall be to you for food; to thee and to thy servant, and to thy maid, and to thy hireling, and to thine inhabitant sojourning with thee. And to thy cattle, and to the beast which is in thy land shall all its produce be for food.
And cause the trumpet of shouts of joy to pass over: in the seventh month, in the tenth of the month, in the day of expiations, shall ye cause the trumpet to pass over in all your land. And consecrate the year, the fiftieth year, and call a letting go free in the land, to all inhabiting it: it shall be a jubilee to you; and return ye each to his possession, and each to his family shall ye turn back. read more. It a jubilee the year, the fiftieth year shall be to you: ye shall not sow and ye shall not reap its overflowings, and ye shall not gather its separations.
It a jubilee the year, the fiftieth year shall be to you: ye shall not sow and ye shall not reap its overflowings, and ye shall not gather its separations. For it a jubilee; holy shall it be to you: from the field ye shall eat its produce.
For it a jubilee; holy shall it be to you: from the field ye shall eat its produce. In the year of this jubilee ye shall turn back each to his possession.
In the year of this jubilee ye shall turn back each to his possession. And when ye shall sell a selling to thy neighbor, or buying of thy neighbor's hand, ye shall not oppress each his brother.
And when ye shall sell a selling to thy neighbor, or buying of thy neighbor's hand, ye shall not oppress each his brother. According to the number of years after the jubilee, thou shalt buy from thy neighbor; according to the number of the years' produce shall he sell to thee.
According to the number of years after the jubilee, thou shalt buy from thy neighbor; according to the number of the years' produce shall he sell to thee. According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase his purchase, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish his purchase: for from the numbering of the produce, he sold to thee.
According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase his purchase, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish his purchase: for from the numbering of the produce, he sold to thee. And ye shall not oppress each his neighbor; and thou shalt fear thy God: for I Jehovah your God.
And ye shall not oppress each his neighbor; and thou shalt fear thy God: for I Jehovah your God.
And the land shall not be sold to be cut off, for the land is to me; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.
Then shall the land delight with its Sabbaths, all the days of its desolation, and ye in the land of your enemies: then shall the land rest and delight with its Sabbaths. All the days of its desolation shall it rest, which it did not rest in your Sabbaths, in your dwelling upon it
And the land shall be left of them, and shall delight with its Sabbaths in its desolation from them: and they shall be satisfied because of their iniquity, and because they rejected my judgments, and my laws their soul abhorred.
From the end of seven years thou shalt make a remission: And this the word of the remission: Every lord to release the lending of his hand which he shall put upon his friend; he shall not exact his friend and his brother, for a remission was called to Jehovah. read more. Foreigners thou shalt exact of, and what shall be to thee with thy brother thine hand shall remit: Only when no needy shall be with thee; for Jehovah blessing will bless thee in the land which Jehovah thy God gave to thee an inheritance to possess it:
And Moses commanded them, saying, From the end of seven years, in the appointment of the year of remission in the festival of tents,
And Moses commanded them, saying, From the end of seven years, in the appointment of the year of remission in the festival of tents, In the coming of all Israel to see the face of Jehovah thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their ears read more. Gather the people, the men and the women and the little ones and thy stranger which is in thy gates, so that they shall hear, and so that they shall learn and fear Jehovah your God, and watch to do all the words of this law: And their sons which knew not shall hear and shall learn to fear Jehovah your God all the days which they lived upon the land which ye pass over Jordan there to possess it.
From the heavens they fought; The stars from their raised ways fought with Sisera. The torrent Kishon snatched them away The torrent of ancient days, the torrent of Kishon. Thou wilt tread down strength, O my soul.
And the remainder from the sword he will carry away captive to Babel; and they will be to him and to his sons for servants, even to the reigning of the kingdom of Persia: To fill up the word of Jehovah in the mouth of Jeremiah, till the land delighted in her Sabbaths: all the days she was laid waste she rested, to complete seventy years.
Wilt thou bind the bands of the cluster, or wilt thou open the cords of Orion?
Thou didst set all the bounds of the earth: summer and autumn thou didst form them.
The harvest passed by, the summer was completed, and we were not saved.
And I, behold me dwelling in Mizpeh to stand before the Chaldeans who will come to us: and ye, gather ye Wine, and the fruit harvest, and oil, and put in your vessels, and dwell in your cities which ye took And also all the Jews which are in Moab, and among the sons of Ammon, and in Edom, and in the lands, heard that the king of Babel gave a remnant to Judah, and that he appointed over them Gedaliah son of Alukam, son of Shaphan. read more. And all the Jews from all the places where they were thrust out there will turn back, and they will come to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah, to Mizpeh, and they will gather wine and the fruit harvest exceeding much.
And he shall speak words against the Most High, and he shall vex the holy ones of the Most High, and he will hope to change times and law: and they shall be given into his hand even to a time and times, and the dividing of time.
And I shall hear the man clothed with linen garments, who was above to the waters of the river, and he will lift up his right hand and his left to the heavens, and swear by him living forever, that for an appointment of appointments and a half; in the scattering of the hand of the holy people being finished, all these shall be finished.
Wo to me! for I was as the gatherings of the fruit harvest, as the gleanings of the vintage, no cluster to eat: my soul desired the first ripe fig.
And it was in that day living waters went forth from Jerusalem: half of them to the former sea, and half of them to the last sea: in summer and in autumn shall it be.
And none was able in heaven, nor upon earth, nor under the earth, to open the book, nor to look upon it.
And the court-yard that without the temple throw out, and thou mayest not measure it: for it was given to the nations: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty-two months.
And the woman fled into the desert where she has a place prepared from God, that they might nourish 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 shall hear the man clothed with linen garments, who was above to the waters of the river, and he will lift up his right hand and his left to the heavens, and swear by him living forever, that for an appointment of appointments and a half; in the scattering of the hand of the holy people being finished, all these shall be finished.
And the court-yard that without the temple throw out, and thou mayest not measure it: for it was given to the nations: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty-two months. And I will give to my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, surrounded with sackcloth.
And the woman fled into the desert where she has a place prepared from God, that they might nourish her there a thousand two hundred and sixty days.
And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly to the desert, to her place, where she is nourished there a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.
And a mouth was given him speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given him to make war forty-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 didst set all the bounds of the earth: summer and autumn thou didst form them.
And if the family of Egypt shall not go up, and it not coming, and not upon them there shall be the smiting which Jehovah shall smite the nations which will not come up to keep the festival, the festival of booths.
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 it shall be at the end of days, and Cain shall bring in from the fruit of the earth an offering to Jehovah.
And Noah the son of six hundred years, and the flood of waters was upon the earth.
In the year of six hundred years of Noah's life, in the second month, in the seventeenth day of the month, in the same day all the fountains of the great deep were divided and the sluices of the heavens were opened.
And it shall be in the one and six hundredth year, in the beginning, in one of the month, the waters were diminished from over the earth: and Noah will turn away the covering of the ark, and he will see and behold the face of the earth was dry.
And ye circumcised the flesh of your uncircumcision; and it was for a sign of the covenant between me and between you.
If thou shalt buy a Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve: and in the seventh he shall go forth free gratuitously.
And the festival of the harvest, the first fruits of thy works, which thou shalt sow in the field: and the festival of gathering in the going out of the year, in thy gathering thy works out of the field.
And the festival of seven thou shalt make to thee, the first fruits of the harvest of wheat, and the festival of collection of the circuit of the year.
And in the eighth day the flesh of his uncircumcision shall be circumcised.
And Jehovah will speak to Moses, in mount Sinai, saying, Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, When ye shall come into the land which I gave to you, the land shall rest a Sabbath to Jehovah. read more. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather its produce; And in the seventh year, a Sabbath of rest shall be to the land, a Sabbath to Jehovah: thy field thou shalt not sow, and thy vineyard thou. shalt not prune. The overflowing of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, and the grapes of thy separation thou shalt not gather: a year of the Sabbaths shall be to the land. And the Sabbath of the land shall be to you for food; to thee and to thy servant, and to thy maid, and to thy hireling, and to thine inhabitant sojourning with thee. And to thy cattle, and to the beast which is in thy land shall all its produce be for food. And number to thee seven Sabbaths of years, seven years, seven times; and they shall be to thee the days of seven Sabbaths of years, nine and forty years.
And number to thee seven Sabbaths of years, seven years, seven times; and they shall be to thee the days of seven Sabbaths of years, nine and forty years. And cause the trumpet of shouts of joy to pass over: in the seventh month, in the tenth of the month, in the day of expiations, shall ye cause the trumpet to pass over in all your land.
And cause the trumpet of shouts of joy to pass over: in the seventh month, in the tenth of the month, in the day of expiations, shall ye cause the trumpet to pass over in all your land. And consecrate the year, the fiftieth year, and call a letting go free in the land, to all inhabiting it: it shall be a jubilee to you; and return ye each to his possession, and each to his family shall ye turn back.
And consecrate the year, the fiftieth year, and call a letting go free in the land, to all inhabiting it: it shall be a jubilee to you; and return ye each to his possession, and each to his family shall ye turn back.
And consecrate the year, the fiftieth year, and call a letting go free in the land, to all inhabiting it: it shall be a jubilee to you; and return ye each to his possession, and each to his family shall ye turn back. It a jubilee the year, the fiftieth year shall be to you: ye shall not sow and ye shall not reap its overflowings, and ye shall not gather its separations.
It a jubilee the year, the fiftieth year shall be to you: ye shall not sow and ye shall not reap its overflowings, and ye shall not gather its separations. For it a jubilee; holy shall it be to you: from the field ye shall eat its produce. read more. In the year of this jubilee ye shall turn back each to his possession.
In the year of this jubilee ye shall turn back each to his possession. And when ye shall sell a selling to thy neighbor, or buying of thy neighbor's hand, ye shall not oppress each his brother. read more. According to the number of years after the jubilee, thou shalt buy from thy neighbor; according to the number of the years' produce shall he sell to thee. According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase his purchase, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish his purchase: for from the numbering of the produce, he sold to thee. And ye shall not oppress each his neighbor; and thou shalt fear thy God: for I Jehovah your God.
And when ye shall say, What shall we eat in the seventh year? behold, we shall not sow and we shall not gather our produce. And I commanded my blessing to you in the sixth year, and it made the produce for three years. read more. And ye sowed the eighth year, and ate from the old produce till the ninth year; till its produce came in ye shall eat the old. And the land shall not be sold to be cut off, for the land is to me; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me. And in all the land of your possession ye shall give a redemption to the land.
And in all the land of your possession ye shall give a redemption to the land. When thy brother shall be poor, and he sold his possession, and he being near to him came to redeem it, and he redeemed the selling of his brother. read more. And when to a man there shall be none to him to redeem, and his hand attained and found a sufficiency to redeem it; And he reckoned the years of his selling, and he returned that remaining over to the man to whom he sold it, and turned back to his possession. And if his hand found not a sufficiency to return to him, and his selling was in the hand of him buying it, till the year of the jubilee: and it went forth in the jubilee, and he turned back to his possession.
And when thy brother shall be poor with thee, and he was sold to thee, thou shalt not serve upon him the service of a servant. As the hireling, as the sojourner, he shall be with thee; till the year of jubilee he shall serve with thee; read more. And he shall go forth from thee, he and his sons with him, and turn back to his family, to the possession of his fathers shall he turn back. For they are my servants whom I brought them out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold from the sale of a servant Thou shalt not rule over him with crushing, and thou shalt be afraid of thy God. And thy servant and thy maid which shall be to thee, from the nations which are round about you, from them ye shall buy servant and maid. And from the sons of the sojourner sojourning with you, from them shall ye buy, and from their families which are with you, which were born in your land: and they were to you for a possession. And ye shall possess them for your sons after you to take possession forever; ye shall serve with them: and over your brethren the sons of Israel, ye shall not rule over him, each over his brother with oppression.
Then shall the land delight with its Sabbaths, all the days of its desolation, and ye in the land of your enemies: then shall the land rest and delight with its Sabbaths. All the days of its desolation shall it rest, which it did not rest in your Sabbaths, in your dwelling upon it
And if from the field of his possession a man shall consecrate to Jehovah, and thy estimation was according to its seed: the seed of an omer of barley, at fifty shekels of silver. If from the year of jubilee he shall consecrate his field, according to thy estimation it shall stand. read more. And if after the jubilee he shall consecrate his field, and the priest reckoned to him the silver upon the month of the years remaining, till the year of the jubilee, and it was taken away from thy estimation. And if he consecrating it, redeeming, shall redeem the field, and he shall add the fifth of the silver of thy estimation upon it, and it stood to him. And if he shall not redeem the field, and if he sold the field to another man, it shall be redeemed no more. And the field in its going forth in the jubilee was holy to Jehovah, as a consecrated field: to the priest shall be its possession.
In the year of the jubilee the field shall return to whom they bought it from him, to him to whom the possession of the land.
And Balaam will say to Balak, Build to me here seven altars, and prepare to me here seven bullocks and seven rams.
And Aaron the priest will go up to mount Hor by the mouth of Jehovah, and will die there in the fortieth year to the coming out of the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt., in the fifth month, in one to the month.
And when the jubilee shall be to the sons of Israel, and their inheritance was added to the inheritance of the tribe which they shall be to them: and from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers their inheritance shall be taken away.
From the end of seven years thou shalt make a remission:
From the end of seven years thou shalt make a remission: And this the word of the remission: Every lord to release the lending of his hand which he shall put upon his friend; he shall not exact his friend and his brother, for a remission was called to Jehovah.
And this the word of the remission: Every lord to release the lending of his hand which he shall put upon his friend; he shall not exact his friend and his brother, for a remission was called to Jehovah. Foreigners thou shalt exact of, and what shall be to thee with thy brother thine hand shall remit: read more. Only when no needy shall be with thee; for Jehovah blessing will bless thee in the land which Jehovah thy God gave to thee an inheritance to possess it: Only if hearing, thou shalt hear to the voice of Jehovah thy God, to watch to do all these commands which I command thee this day. For Jehovah thy God blessed thee as he spake to thee: and thou didst lend to many nations, and thou shalt not borrow; and thou didst rule over many nations, and they shall not rule over thee. When the needy shall be among thee, from one of thy brethren, in one of thy gates in thy land which Jehovah thy God gave to thee, thou shalt not harden thy heart, and thou shalt not shut thy hand from thy needy brother. For opening, thou shalt open thy hand to him, and lending, thou shalt lend him a sufficiency for his want which he shall want Watch to thyself lest a word shall be with thy heart, of Belial, saying. The seventh year, the year of remission is drawing near; and thine eye be evil against thy needy brother and thou wilt not give to him; and he call against thee to Jehovah, and it was sin in thee.
Watch to thyself lest a word shall be with thy heart, of Belial, saying. The seventh year, the year of remission is drawing near; and thine eye be evil against thy needy brother and thou wilt not give to him; and he call against thee to Jehovah, and it was sin in thee. Giving, thou shalt give to him, and thy heart shall not be evil in thy giving to him; for because of this word Jehovah thy God will bless thee in all thy works, and in all the sending forth of thy hand.
When thy brother a Hebrew, or Hebrewess, shall be sold to thee, and serving thee six years; in the seventh year thou shalt send him away free from thee.
And Moses commanded them, saying, From the end of seven years, in the appointment of the year of remission in the festival of tents,
And Moses commanded them, saying, From the end of seven years, in the appointment of the year of remission in the festival of tents, In the coming of all Israel to see the face of Jehovah thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their ears
In the coming of all Israel to see the face of Jehovah thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their ears Gather the people, the men and the women and the little ones and thy stranger which is in thy gates, so that they shall hear, and so that they shall learn and fear Jehovah your God, and watch to do all the words of this law:
Gather the people, the men and the women and the little ones and thy stranger which is in thy gates, so that they shall hear, and so that they shall learn and fear Jehovah your God, and watch to do all the words of this law: And their sons which knew not shall hear and shall learn to fear Jehovah your God all the days which they lived upon the land which ye pass over Jordan there to possess it.
And their sons which knew not shall hear and shall learn to fear Jehovah your God all the days which they lived upon the land which ye pass over Jordan there to possess it.
And it will be in God's helping the Levites lifting up the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, and they will sacrifice seven bullocks and seven rams.
And it will be from the end of twenty years, which Solomon built the house of Jehovah and his house,
To fill up the word of Jehovah in the mouth of Jeremiah, till the land delighted in her Sabbaths: all the days she was laid waste she rested, to complete seventy years.
And now take to you seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and bring up a burnt-offering for yourselves; and my servant Job shall pray for you: for his face I will accept, so as not to do with you for folly, for ye spake not to me the right as my servant Job.
The spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon me; because Jehovah anointed me to announce good news to the afflicted, he sent me to bind up to the broken of heart, to call freedom to the captives, and the opening of the prison to the bound. To call the year of acceptance to Jehovah, and the day of vengeance to our God; to comfort all those mourning;
And the strength of the king of Babel warred against Jerusalem, and against all the cities of Judah being left against Lachish, and against Azekah: for these remained of the cities of Judah, fortified cities.
From the end of seven years ye shall send away a man his brother, the Hebrew who shall be sold to thee, and serving thee six years, and send him away free from thee; and your fathers heard not to me and inclined not their ear
And it will be in the twelfth year, in the tenth, in the fifth to the month, to our captivity, he having escaped from Jerusalem came to me, saying, The city was struck.
In the twenty and fifth year to our captivity, in the beginning, of the year, in the tenth to the month, in the fourteenth year after that the city was struck, in this very day the hand of Jehovah was upon me, and he will bring me there.
From then Jesus began to shew to his disciples, that he must depart to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised in the third day.
And after six days Jesus takes Peter, James, and John his brother, and brings them up into a high mountain apart.
Saying, Lord, we remember that that impostor said, yet living, After three days, I arise.
And he began to teach them that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be disapproved of by the elders, and the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise up.
And after six days Jesus takes Peter, and James, and John, and brings them up into a high mountain apart alone: and he was transformed before them.
And when eight days were completed for circumcising the child and his name was called JESUS, called by the messenger before he was conceived in the womb.
Saying, That the Son of man must suffer many things, and be disapproved of by the more ancient and the chief priests and the scribes, and be slain, and be raised up the third day.
And it was after these words about eight days, and having taken Peter and John and James, he went up into the mount to pray.
And not many days after, having gathered all things, the younger son went abroad into a far-off country, and there disposed his property, living in a profligate manner.
And after certain days said Paul to Barnabas, Now having turned back, let us review our brethren in every city in which we announced the word of the Lord, how they hold.
And the court-yard that without the temple throw out, and thou mayest not measure it: for it was given to the nations: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty-two months. And I will give to my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, surrounded with sackcloth.
And the woman fled into the desert where she has a place prepared from God, that they might nourish her there a thousand two hundred and sixty days.
And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly to the desert, to her place, where she is nourished there a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.
And a mouth was given him speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given him to make war forty-two months.