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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Noah {was six hundred years old} when the flood waters came upon the earth.
In the six hundredth year of the life of Noah, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month--on that day all the springs of the great deep were split open, and the windows of heaven were opened.
And you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.
In the third month after the {Israelites} went out from the land of Egypt, on this day they came to the Sinai desert.
And on the eighth day his foreskin's flesh shall be circumcised.
Aaron the priest went up to Mount Hor at the {command} of Yahweh, and he died there in the fortieth year after the {Israelites} had gone out from the land of Egypt, in the fifth month on the first [day] of the month.
At that time, Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, all the heads of the tribes, and the leaders of the {families} of the {Israelites} before King Solomon, in order to bring up the ark of the covenant of Yahweh from the city of David, that is, Zion.
It happened at the end of twenty years [in] which Solomon had built the two houses, the house of Yahweh and the house of the king,
{And then} it was in {the twelfth} year, in the tenth [month], on the fifth [day] of the month of our exile, a survivor from Jerusalem came to me, {saying}, "The city was destroyed!"
In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth [day] of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city was destroyed, in this day exactly, the hand of Yahweh was on me, and he brought me there
Then Herod, [when he] saw that he had been deceived by the wise men, became very angry, and he sent [soldiers] [and] executed all the children in Bethlehem and in all the region [around] it from [the age of] two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined precisely from the wise men.
From that time [on] Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many [things] from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised on the third day.
saying, "Sir, we remember that [while] that deceiver was still alive he said, 'After three days I will rise.'
And it happened that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were wanting to name him {after} his father Zechariah.
And when eight days were completed {so that he could be circumcised}, he was named Jesus, his name [that] [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 vaulted dome of heaven {to separate day from night}, and let them be as signs and for appointed times, and for days and years,
And when Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years, he fathered a child in his likeness, according to his image. And he 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 the life of Noah, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month--on that day all the springs of the great deep were split open, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain came upon the earth forty days and forty nights. read more. On this same day, Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and the wife of Noah and the three wives of his sons with them, went into the ark, they and all the living creatures according to their kind, and all the domesticated animals according to their kind, and all the creatures that creep upon the earth according to their kind, all the birds according to their kind, every winged creature. And they came to Noah to the ark, {two of each}, from every living thing in which [was] the breath of life. And those that came, male and female, of every living thing, came as God had commanded him. And Yahweh shut the door behind him. And the flood came forty days and forty nights upon the earth. And the waters increased, and lifted the ark, and it rose up from the earth. And the waters prevailed and increased greatly upon the earth. And the ark went upon the surface of the waters. And the waters prevailed {overwhelmingly} upon the earth, and they covered all the high mountains which were under the entire heaven. {The waters swelled fifteen cubits above the mountains, covering them}. And every living thing that moved on the earth perished--the birds, and the domesticated animals, and the wild animals, and everything that swarmed on the earth, and all humankind. Everything in whose nostrils [was] {the breath of life}, among all that [was] on dry land, died. And he blotted out every living thing upon the surface of the ground, from humankind, to animals, to creeping things, and to the birds of heaven; they were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah and those who [were] with him in the ark remained. And the waters prevailed over the earth one hundred and fifty days.
And the waters receded from the earth {gradually}, and the waters abated at the end of one hundred and fifty days. And the ark came to rest in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat. read more. And the waters {continued to recede} to the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared. And it happened [that] at the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made.
And he waited another seven days, and {again he sent out} the dove from the ark.
And he waited {seven more days}, and he sent out the dove. But it did not return again to him. And it happened that, in the six hundred and first year, in the first [month], on the first [day] of the month, the waters dried up from upon the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked. And behold, the face of the ground was dried up.
And it happened that, in the six hundred and first year, in the first [month], on the first [day] of the month, the waters dried up from upon the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked. And behold, the face of the ground was dried up.
{As long as the earth endures}, seed and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will not cease.
And he gathered all the food of the seven years which [occurred] in the land of Egypt. And he stored the food in the cities. The food of the field that surrounded [each] city he stored in its midst. And Joseph piled up grain like the sand of the sea in great abundance until he stopped counting [it], for {it could not be counted}. read more. Before the years of famine came, Asenath, daughter of Potiphera priest of On, bore two sons to him. And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh, for [he said], "God has caused me to forget all my hardship and all my father's house." And the name of the second he called Ephraim, for [he said], "God has made me fruitful in the land of my misfortune." And the seven years of abundance which [were] in the land of Egypt came to an end. And the seven years of famine began to come as Joseph had said. And there was famine in all of the countries, but in the land of Egypt there was food. And when all the land of Egypt was hungry the people cried out to Pharaoh for food. And Pharaoh said to all the land of Egypt, "Go to Joseph; what he says to you, you must do." And the famine was over the whole land, and Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold [food] to the Egyptians. And the famine was severe in the land of Egypt.
"This month [will be] the beginning of months; it [will be] for you the first of the months of the year.
" 'And six years you will sow your land and gather its yield. But the seventh you will let it rest and leave it fallow, and the poor of your people will eat, and their remainder the animals of the field will eat. You will do likewise for your vineyard and for your olive trees.
You will keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days you will eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you at [the] appointed time, the month of Abib, because in it you came out from Egypt, and {no one will} appear before me empty-handed. And [you will keep] the Feast of Harvest, [with] the firstfruits of your work, what you sow in the field. And [you will keep] the Feast of Harvest Gathering when the year goes out, when you gather your work from the field.
And [you will keep] the Feast of Harvest, [with] the firstfruits of your work, what you sow in the field. And [you will keep] the Feast of Harvest Gathering when the year goes out, when you gather your work from the field.
"You will keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Seven days you will eat unleavened bread, which I commanded you, at the appointed time of the month of Abib, for in the month of Abib you came out from Egypt.
And {you yourself} will observe the Feast of Weeks--the firstfruits of the wheat harvest--and the Feast of Harvest Gathering at the turn of the year.
"Speak to the {Israelites}, saying, 'On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, this [shall be] the Feast of Booths [for] seven days for Yahweh.
Then Yahweh spoke to Moses on {Mount Sinai}, saying, "Speak to the {Israelites}, and say to them, 'When you come into the land that I [am about to] give to you, then the land shall observe a Sabbath for Yahweh. read more. Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and you shall gather its yield. But in the seventh year it shall be {a Sabbath of complete rest} for the land--a Sabbath for Yahweh; you must not sow your field, and you must not prune your vineyard. You must not reap your harvest's aftergrowth, and you must not harvest the grapes of your unpruned vines--it shall be {a year of complete rest} for the land. And a Sabbath of the land shall be for food for you: for you and for your slave and for your slave woman and for your hired worker and for your temporary residents who are dwelling as aliens with you; and all its yield shall be for your domestic animal and for the wild animal, which [are] in your land to eat.
And you shall cause {a loud horn blast} to be heard on the seventh month on the tenth of the month; on the Day of Atonement you shall cause a ram's horn to be heard in all your land. And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and you shall proclaim a release in the land for all its inhabitants. It [is] a Jubilee; it shall be for you, and you shall return. You must return--everyone to his property and everyone to his clan. read more. {You shall have the fiftieth year as a Jubilee}; you must not reap its aftergrowth, and you must not harvest its unpruned vines.
{You shall have the fiftieth year as a Jubilee}; you must not reap its aftergrowth, and you must not harvest its unpruned vines. Because it is a Jubilee, it shall be holy to you. You must eat its produce from the field.
Because it is a Jubilee, it shall be holy to you. You must eat its produce from the field. " 'In this Year of Jubilee {each of you shall return} to his property.
" 'In this Year of Jubilee {each of you shall return} to his property. And when you sell something to your fellow citizen or [you] buy from your neighbor's hand, you must not oppress {one another}.
And when you sell something to your fellow citizen or [you] buy from your neighbor's hand, you must not oppress {one another}. You must buy from your fellow citizen according to [the] number of years after the Jubilee; he must sell to you according to [the] number of years of yield.
You must buy from your fellow citizen according to [the] number of years after the Jubilee; he must sell to you according to [the] number of years of yield. You must increase its price {according to a greater number of years}, but you must decrease its price {according to a lesser number of years}, because he is selling [its] yields to you.
You must increase its price {according to a greater number of years}, but you must decrease its price {according to a lesser number of years}, because he is selling [its] yields to you. And you must not oppress {one another}, but you shall revere your God, because I [am] Yahweh, your God.
And you must not oppress {one another}, but you shall revere your God, because I [am] Yahweh, your God.
" 'But the land must not be sold in perpetuity, because the land [is] mine, because you [are] aliens and temporary residents with me.
Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths all the days of its lying desolate, and you [shall be] in the land of your enemies; then the land shall rest, and it shall enjoy its Sabbaths. All the days of its lying desolate it shall rest [for the time] that it had not rested during your Sabbaths while you were living on it.
And the land shall be deserted by them, and it shall enjoy its Sabbaths in its being desolate from them, and they themselves must pay for their guilt, {simply because} they rejected my regulations, and their inner self abhorred my statutes.
"At the end of seven years you shall grant remission of debt. And this [is] the manner of the remission of debt: every {creditor} shall remit his claim that he holds against his neighbor, and he shall not exact payment [from] his brother because there remission of debt has been proclaimed unto Yahweh. read more. [With respect to] the foreigner you may exact payment, but {you must remit} what shall be [owed] to you [with respect to] your brother. Nevertheless, there shall not be among you a poor [person], because Yahweh will certainly bless you in the land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you [as] an inheritance, to take possession of it.
Then Moses commanded them, {saying}, "At the end of seven years, in the time of the year for canceling debts during the Feast of Booths,
Then Moses commanded them, {saying}, "At the end of seven years, in the time of the year for canceling debts during the Feast of Booths, {when all Israel comes to appear before} Yahweh their God at the place that he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel {in their hearing}. read more. Assemble the people, the men and the women and the little children and your aliens that are in your {towns}, so that they may hear and so that they may learn and they may revere Yahweh your God, and {they shall diligently observe} all the words of this law. And [then] their children, who have not known, they [too] may hear, and they may learn to revere Yahweh their God all the days {that you live} on the land that you [are] crossing the Jordan {to get there} to take possession of it."
The stars fought from heaven; from their courses they fought against Sisera. The wadi torrent of Kishon swept them away, the raging wadi torrent, the wadi torrent of Kishon. March on, my soul, [with] strength!
And he took {those who escaped the sword} to Babylon. And they became servants to him and to his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of Yahweh by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land has enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days of desolation it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.
"Can you bind [the] chains of [the] Pleiades, or can you loosen [the] cords of Orion?
You defined all [the] boundaries of [the] earth; Summer and winter--you formed them.
[The] harvest has passed, [the] summer has come to an end, and we have not received help.
{As for me}, look, I [am] staying at Mizpah to represent [you] {before} the Chaldeans who come to us. But you, gather wine and summer fruit and oil, and put [them] in your vessels, and live in your towns that you have seized." And also all the Judeans who [were] in Moab, and among the {Ammonites}, and in Edom, and who [were] in all the lands, [when] they heard that the king of Babylon had given a remnant to Judah and that he had appointed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, [in an official position] over them, read more. then all the Judeans returned from all the places [to] which they were scattered. And they came [to] the land of Judah, to Gedaliah [at] Mizpah, and they gathered wine and summer fruit that yielded {in great abundance}.
And he will speak words against the Most High, and he will wear out [the] holy ones of the Most High, and he will attempt to change times and law, and they will be given into his hand for a time and two times and half a time.
And I heard the man [who] was clothed in linen who [was] above the water of the stream, and he raised his right hand and his left hand to heaven and he swore {by the one who lives forever} that [an] appointed time, appointed times, and half [an appointed time] [would pass] when [the] shattering of {the power of the holy people} {would be completed}; [then] all these things will be accomplished.
Woe is me! For I have become like the gatherings of summer, like the gleanings of the grape harvest, [when] there is no cluster of grapes to eat [or] early ripened fruit [that] my soul desires.
{And then} on that day, living waters will flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea, and the other half to the western sea; it will happen [both] in the summer and in the winter.
And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it.
And leave out the courtyard outside of the temple, and do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles, and they will trample the holy city [for] forty two months.
And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she had a place prepared there by God, so that they could feed her there [for one] thousand two hundred 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.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And I heard the man [who] was clothed in linen who [was] above the water of the stream, and he raised his right hand and his left hand to heaven and he swore {by the one who lives forever} that [an] appointed time, appointed times, and half [an appointed time] [would pass] when [the] shattering of {the power of the holy people} {would be completed}; [then] all these things will be accomplished.
And leave out the courtyard outside of the temple, and do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles, and they will trample the holy city [for] forty two months. And I will grant [authority] to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy [for one] thousand two hundred sixty days, dressed in sackcloth."
And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she had a place prepared there by God, so that they could feed her there [for one] thousand two hundred sixty days.
And the two wings of a great eagle were given to the woman, in order that she could fly into the wilderness, to her place where she is fed there [for] a time, and times, and half a time, from the presence of the serpent.
And a mouth was given to him speaking great [things] and blasphemies, and authority to act was given to him [for] 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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You defined all [the] boundaries of [the] earth; Summer and winter--you formed them.
And if the clan of Egypt will not go up and come in, on them will be that plague Yahweh inflicts on the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast 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:
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And {in the course of time} Cain brought an offering from the fruit of the ground to Yahweh,
Noah {was six hundred years old} when the flood waters came upon the earth.
In the six hundredth year of the life of Noah, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month--on that day all the springs of the great deep were split open, and the windows of heaven were opened.
And it happened that, in the six hundred and first year, in the first [month], on the first [day] of the month, the waters dried up from upon the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked. And behold, the face of the ground was dried up.
And you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.
'If you buy a Hebrew slave, he will serve six years, and in the seventh he will go out as free for nothing.
And [you will keep] the Feast of Harvest, [with] the firstfruits of your work, what you sow in the field. And [you will keep] the Feast of Harvest Gathering when the year goes out, when you gather your work from the field.
And {you yourself} will observe the Feast of Weeks--the firstfruits of the wheat harvest--and the Feast of Harvest Gathering at the turn of the year.
And on the eighth day his foreskin's flesh shall be circumcised.
Then Yahweh spoke to Moses on {Mount Sinai}, saying, "Speak to the {Israelites}, and say to them, 'When you come into the land that I [am about to] give to you, then the land shall observe a Sabbath for Yahweh. read more. Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and you shall gather its yield. But in the seventh year it shall be {a Sabbath of complete rest} for the land--a Sabbath for Yahweh; you must not sow your field, and you must not prune your vineyard. You must not reap your harvest's aftergrowth, and you must not harvest the grapes of your unpruned vines--it shall be {a year of complete rest} for the land. And a Sabbath of the land shall be for food for you: for you and for your slave and for your slave woman and for your hired worker and for your temporary residents who are dwelling as aliens with you; and all its yield shall be for your domestic animal and for the wild animal, which [are] in your land to eat. " 'And you shall count for yourself seven Sabbaths of years, seven times seven years, and they shall be for you {time periods of} years: {forty-nine} years.
" 'And you shall count for yourself seven Sabbaths of years, seven times seven years, and they shall be for you {time periods of} years: {forty-nine} years. And you shall cause {a loud horn blast} to be heard on the seventh month on the tenth of the month; on the Day of Atonement you shall cause a ram's horn to be heard in all your land.
And you shall cause {a loud horn blast} to be heard on the seventh month on the tenth of the month; on the Day of Atonement you shall cause a ram's horn to be heard in all your land. And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and you shall proclaim a release in the land for all its inhabitants. It [is] a Jubilee; it shall be for you, and you shall return. You must return--everyone to his property and everyone to his clan.
And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and you shall proclaim a release in the land for all its inhabitants. It [is] a Jubilee; it shall be for you, and you shall return. You must return--everyone to his property and everyone to his clan.
And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and you shall proclaim a release in the land for all its inhabitants. It [is] a Jubilee; it shall be for you, and you shall return. You must return--everyone to his property and everyone to his clan. {You shall have the fiftieth year as a Jubilee}; you must not reap its aftergrowth, and you must not harvest its unpruned vines.
{You shall have the fiftieth year as a Jubilee}; you must not reap its aftergrowth, and you must not harvest its unpruned vines. Because it is a Jubilee, it shall be holy to you. You must eat its produce from the field. read more. " 'In this Year of Jubilee {each of you shall return} to his property.
" 'In this Year of Jubilee {each of you shall return} to his property. And when you sell something to your fellow citizen or [you] buy from your neighbor's hand, you must not oppress {one another}. read more. You must buy from your fellow citizen according to [the] number of years after the Jubilee; he must sell to you according to [the] number of years of yield. You must increase its price {according to a greater number of years}, but you must decrease its price {according to a lesser number of years}, because he is selling [its] yields to you. And you must not oppress {one another}, but you shall revere your God, because I [am] Yahweh, your God.
And if you should say, "What shall we eat in the seventh year, {if} we do not sow and we do not gather its yield?" then I will command my blessing for you in the sixth year, so that it will make the yield for three years. read more. And you will sow [in] the eighth year, and you shall eat from the old yield; until the ninth year, until the coming of its yield, you shall eat [the] old [yield]. " 'But the land must not be sold in perpetuity, because the land [is] mine, because you [are] aliens and temporary residents with me. And in all your property's land you must provide redemption for the land.
And in all your property's land you must provide redemption for the land. " 'When your brother becomes poor and he sells part of his property, then {his nearest redeemer} shall come, and he shall redeem the thing sold by his brother. read more. But if a man {does not have} a redeemer, then {he prospers} and he finds enough for his redemption, then he shall calculate the years of its selling, and he shall refund the balance to the man to whom he sold [it], and he shall return to his property. But if his hand does not find enough to refund to him, then {what he has sold} shall be in the buyer's hand until the Year of Jubilee; and it shall go out [of the buyer's hand] in the Jubilee, and he shall return to his property.
" 'And if your countryman [who is] with you becomes poor, and he is sold to you, {you shall not treat him as a slave}. He shall be with you like a hired worker, like a temporary resident; he shall work with you until the Year of Jubilee. read more. And he and his sons with him shall go out from you, and he shall return to his clan, and to the property of his ancestors he shall return. Because they [are] my servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt, they shall not be sold {as a slave}. You shall not rule over him with ruthlessness, but you shall revere your God. " 'As for your slave and your slave woman who are yours, from the nations that [are] all around you, from them you may buy a slave or a slave woman. And you may buy also from the children of the temporary residents who are dwelling with you as aliens and from their clan who are with you, who have children in your land; indeed, they may be as property for you. And you may pass them on as an inheritance to your sons after you to take possession of as property {for all time}--you may let them work. But [as for] your countrymen, the {Israelites}, you shall not rule with ruthlessness over {one another}.
Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths all the days of its lying desolate, and you [shall be] in the land of your enemies; then the land shall rest, and it shall enjoy its Sabbaths. All the days of its lying desolate it shall rest [for the time] that it had not rested during your Sabbaths while you were living on it.
" 'And if a man consecrates {some of} his property's fields for Yahweh, then your proper value shall be {in accordance with its seed requirements}: a homer of barley seed for fifty shekels of money. If he consecrates his field from the Year of Jubilee, it shall stand as your proper value. read more. But if he consecrates his field after the Jubilee, then the priest shall calculate the money for him {according to the number of years} that are left over until the Year of Jubilee; and it shall be deducted from your proper value. And if he indeed redeems the field that is consecrated, then he shall add a fifth of your proper value's money onto it, and it shall stand for him. And if he does not redeem the field and if he sells the field to another man, it may not be redeemed again, and the field shall be a holy object for Yahweh when it goes out in the Jubilee, like a devoted field; {it shall be the priest's property}.
In the Year of the Jubilee the field shall return to the one who bought it from him, to the one whose property the land [is].
Balaam said to Balak, "Build for me this: seven altars. And prepare for me this: seven bulls and seven rams."
Aaron the priest went up to Mount Hor at the {command} of Yahweh, and he died there in the fortieth year after the {Israelites} had gone out from the land of Egypt, in the fifth month on the first [day] of the month.
When the Jubilee of the {Israelites} {comes}, it will be added to the inheritance of the tribe to which they belong; and their inheritance will disappear from the tribe of our father."
"At the end of seven years you shall grant remission of debt.
"At the end of seven years you shall grant remission of debt. And this [is] the manner of the remission of debt: every {creditor} shall remit his claim that he holds against his neighbor, and he shall not exact payment [from] his brother because there remission of debt has been proclaimed unto Yahweh.
And this [is] the manner of the remission of debt: every {creditor} shall remit his claim that he holds against his neighbor, and he shall not exact payment [from] his brother because there remission of debt has been proclaimed unto Yahweh. [With respect to] the foreigner you may exact payment, but {you must remit} what shall be [owed] to you [with respect to] your brother. read more. Nevertheless, there shall not be among you a poor [person], because Yahweh will certainly bless you in the land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you [as] an inheritance, to take possession of it. If only you listen well to the voice of Yahweh your God {by observing diligently} all of these commandments that I [am] commanding you {today}. When Yahweh your God has blessed you, [just] as he {promised} to you, then you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow [from them], and you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you. If [there] is a poor [person] among you from [among] one of your brothers in one of your {towns} that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you, you shall not harden your heart, and you shall not shut your hand toward {your brother who is poor}. But you shall certainly open your hand for him, and {you shall willingly lend} [to] him enough to meet his need, {whatever it is}. {Take care} so that there will not be {a thought of wickedness} in your heart, {saying}, 'The seventh year, the year of the remission of debt is near,' {and you view your needy neighbor with hostility}, and [so] you [do] not give to him, and he might cry [out] against you to Yahweh, and {you would incur guilt against yourself}.
{Take care} so that there will not be {a thought of wickedness} in your heart, {saying}, 'The seventh year, the year of the remission of debt is near,' {and you view your needy neighbor with hostility}, and [so] you [do] not give to him, and he might cry [out] against you to Yahweh, and {you would incur guilt against yourself}. By all means you must give to him, and {you must not be discontented} at your giving to him, because on account of this [very] thing, Yahweh your God will bless you in all your work and {in all that you undertake}.
If your relative who is a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman is sold to you, and [he or she] has served you six years, then in the seventh year you shall send that person [out] {free}.
Then Moses commanded them, {saying}, "At the end of seven years, in the time of the year for canceling debts during the Feast of Booths,
Then Moses commanded them, {saying}, "At the end of seven years, in the time of the year for canceling debts during the Feast of Booths, {when all Israel comes to appear before} Yahweh their God at the place that he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel {in their hearing}.
{when all Israel comes to appear before} Yahweh their God at the place that he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel {in their hearing}. Assemble the people, the men and the women and the little children and your aliens that are in your {towns}, so that they may hear and so that they may learn and they may revere Yahweh your God, and {they shall diligently observe} all the words of this law.
Assemble the people, the men and the women and the little children and your aliens that are in your {towns}, so that they may hear and so that they may learn and they may revere Yahweh your God, and {they shall diligently observe} all the words of this law. And [then] their children, who have not known, they [too] may hear, and they may learn to revere Yahweh their God all the days {that you live} on the land that you [are] crossing the Jordan {to get there} to take possession of it."
And [then] their children, who have not known, they [too] may hear, and they may learn to revere Yahweh their God all the days {that you live} on the land that you [are] crossing the Jordan {to get there} to take possession of it."
And it happened [that] when God helped the Levites carrying the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, they sacrificed seven bulls and seven rams.
And it happened [that] at the end of twenty years [in] which Solomon had built the house of Yahweh and his own house,
to fulfill the word of Yahweh by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land has enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days of desolation it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.
{So then}, take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, and go to my servant Job and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job will pray for you, for {I will certainly accept his prayer}, so that it will not be done with you [according to your] folly, for you have not spoken to me what is right as my servant Job [has]."
[The] Spirit of the Lord Yahweh [is] upon me, because Yahweh has anointed me, he has sent me to bring good news [to the] oppressed, to bind up {the brokenhearted}, to {proclaim} release to [the] captives and liberation to those who are bound, to {proclaim} [the] year of Yahweh's favor, and our God's day of vengeance, to comfort all those in mourning,
when the army of the king of Babylon [was] fighting against Jerusalem and against all the cities of Judah that were left over--Lachish and Azekah, for these remained among the cities of Judah, the cities of fortification.
"At [the] end of seven years you must let go each one his fellow countryman, the Hebrew who has been sold to you and who has served you six years, and you must let him go free from you." But your ancestors did not listen to me, and they did not incline their ears.
{And then} it was in {the twelfth} year, in the tenth [month], on the fifth [day] of the month of our exile, a survivor from Jerusalem came to me, {saying}, "The city was destroyed!"
In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth [day] of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city was destroyed, in this day exactly, the hand of Yahweh was on me, and he brought me there
From that time [on] Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many [things] from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised on the third day.
And after six days Jesus took along Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves.
saying, "Sir, we remember that [while] that deceiver was still alive he said, 'After three days I will rise.'
And he began to teach them that it was necessary [for] the Son of Man to suffer many [things] and to be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and to be killed, and after three days to rise.
And after six days, Jesus took along Peter and James and John, and led them to a high mountain by themselves alone. And he was transfigured before them,
And when eight days were completed {so that he could be circumcised}, he was named Jesus, his name [that] [he] was called by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
saying, "It is necessary [for] the Son of Man to suffer many [things] and to be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and to be killed, and to be raised on the third day.
Now it happened that about eight days after these words, he took along Peter and John and James [and] went up on the mountain to pray.
And after not many days, the younger son gathered everything [and] went on a journey to a distant country, and there he squandered his wealth [by] living wastefully.
And after some days, Paul said to Barnabas, "Come then,[let us] return [and] visit the brothers in every town in which we proclaimed the word of the Lord, [to see] how they are [doing]."
And leave out the courtyard outside of the temple, and do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles, and they will trample the holy city [for] forty two months. And I will grant [authority] to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy [for one] thousand two hundred sixty days, dressed in sackcloth."
And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she had a place prepared there by God, so that they could feed her there [for one] thousand two hundred sixty days.
And the two wings of a great eagle were given to the woman, in order that she could fly into the wilderness, to her place where she is fed there [for] a time, and times, and half a time, from the presence of the serpent.
And a mouth was given to him speaking great [things] and blasphemies, and authority to act was given to him [for] forty-two months.