Leviticus 25:4

A sabbath of rest -SeeLeviticus 23:3note. The express prohibition of sowing and reaping, and of pruning and gathering, affords a presumption in favor of the sabbatical year beginning, like the year of JubileeLeviticus 25:9, in the first month of the civil yearLeviticus 23:24, the seventh of the sacred year, when the land was cleared of the crops of the preceding year. The great material advantage of the institution must have been the increased fertility of the soil from its lying fallow one year out of seven, at a time when neither the rotation of crops nor the art of manuring were understood. It must also have kept up a salutary habit of economy in the storing of grain.