KCAJCI (7) The Year of Jubilee. The land was Je hovah's and could not, therefore, be permanently alienated. Every fiftieth year, whatever land had been sold returned to its former owner. The value and price of land naturally rose or fell in proportion to the number of years there were to elapse prior to the ensuing fiftieth or jubilee year. If he who sold the land, or a kinsman, could redeem the land before the year of jubilee, it was to be restored to him on his paying to the purchaser the value of the produce of the years remaining till the jubilee. Houses in villages or unwalled towns might not be sold forever ; they were restored at the jubilee, and might at any time be redeemed. If a man sold a dwelling house situated in a walled city, he had the option of re deeming it within the space of a full year after it had been sold; but if it remained unredeemed, it belonged to the purchaser, and did not return to him who sold it even at the jubilee (Lev. xxv :8, 23). The Levites were not allowed to sell the land in the suburbs of their cities, though they might dispose of the cities themselves, which, how ever, were redeemable at any time, and must return at the jubilee to their original possessors (Lev. xxvii :16). (See JumLEE.) (8) Wills. The regulations which the laws of Moses established rendered wills or a testamentary disposition of (at least) landed property, almost, if not quite, unnecessary ; we accordingly find no provision for anything of the kind. Some diffi culty may have been now and then occasioned when near relations failed; but this was met by the traditional law, which furnished minute directions on the point (Misch. Baba Rathra, iv:3, c. 8, 9) Personal property would naturally follow the land or might be bequeathed by word of mouth. At a later period of the Jewish polity the mention of wills is found, but the idea seems to have been taken from foreign nations. In princely families they appear to have been used, as we learn from Josephus (Antiq. xiii :16, 1; xvii ;3, 2 ; De Bell.
Ind. ii :2, 3) ; but such a practice can hardly suffice to establish the general use of wills among the people. In the New Testament, however, wills are expressly mentioned (Gal iii :is ; Heb. ix :17). Michaelis (Commentaries, i asserts that the phrase (2 Sam. xvii :23 ; 2 Kings xx :i), 'set thine house in order,' has reference to a will or testament. But his grounds are by no means suf ficient. J R. B.
Figurative. (i) God himself, and his ever lasting salvation, are the inhentance of his people, to which, through Jesus their Savior, they have a free and honorable claim on which they live, and in which they delight and glory (Ps. xvi :5 ; Jer. iii :19; I Pet. i :4). (2) Christ's glorious char acter of Mediator, and the heathen, or Gentiles, are his inheritance; he has an honorable claim to his renown and happiness as God-man, and the Gen tiles are given into his hand to be called and con verted by him (Heb. i :4 ; Ps. ii :8). (3) The Jews took their inheritance in themselves, when they were forsaken by God, deprived of their civil and ecclesiastic enjoyments, and left to look out for themselves, under the load of their deserved punishment (Ezek. xxii :16). (4) The inheritance of the congregation of Jacob is either the Israel ites, who were God's inheritance, or the law, which God gave them as a valuable possession (Deut. xxxiii :4). (5) Gad was the Levites' inheritance; they lived on his offerings (Deut. x :9). (6) God's testimonies are his people's inheritance; are of great value, and they delight in and live on them (Ps. cxix :t t I). (7) Children are God's heritage and reward; he freely gives them to par ents, and cheerfully ought they to devote them to God (Ps. cxxvii :3).