Deut. vi. 4-8 cvnv,"); Dew.. xi. 13-22 (rrrn in+m) ; xiv. 22-XV. 23 MI/ le1P1) ; V. Deut. xxvi. 12-19 cli.:1)9 +z) ; Dent. xvii. 14-20 ci9nn TIVID) ; and vii. Deut.
xxvii. xxviii. (roinn rapl mn:).
The king then concluded with the same benedic tion which the high-priest pronounced, only that he substituted the blessing of the festivals for the absolution of sins' (111ishna , Sota, vii. 8). This benediction forms to the present day a part of the blessing pronounced by the Alaphtir, or the one who is called to the reading of the lesson from the Prophets after the reading of the lesson from the I,aw, and is given in an English translation in the article HAPHTARA of this Cyclopdia, beginning with the words For the Law, for the divine set- vice, etc.' The Sabbatical year, however, was only binding upon the inhabitants of Palestine (Kid dushin,i. 9 ; Orlah, 9), the limits of which were determined on the east by the desert of Arabia, on the west by the sea, on the north by Amana, whilst on the south the boundary was doubtful (comp. Geiger, Lehr und Lesebuch zur Sprache der Miskna, vol. ii. p. 75, etc., Breslau 1845). As to the obedience to this law, ancient Jewish tradition tells us that it was never kept before the exile, and that it is for this reason that the Jews were seventy years in the Babylonish captivity, to give to the land the seventy years of which it was deprived during the seventy Sabbatical years, or the 430 years between the entrance into Canaan and the captivity, as it is written (2 Chron. xxxvi. 20, 21)
until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths [i.e. Sabbatical years], for as long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath to fulfil threescoie and ten years [i.e. Sabbatical years]' (comp. Shabbath, 13 a ; Seder Olam, cap. xxvi ; Rashi on 2 Chron. xxxvi. 20). After the captivity, however, when all the neglected laws were more rigidly observed, the Sabbatical year was duly kept, as is evident from the declaration in Maccab. vi. 49, that they came out of the city, because they had no victuals there to endure the siege, it being a year of rest for the land,' from the fact that both Alexander the Great and Caius Cxsar exempted the Jews from tribute on the seventh year, because it was unlawful for them to sow seed or reap the harvest (Joseph. A ntig. xiv. To. 6), and from the sneers of Tacitus about the origin of this festival (HzIrt. V. 2, 4), as well as from the undoubted records and the post exile minute regulations about the Sabbatical year contained in the ancient Jewish writings.
4. Literature.—Mishna, Shebiith ; the Talmud on this Alishna ; Maimonides, lad Ha-Chezaka Hilchoth Shemita Ve-Yobel ; Michaelis, Con2men taries on the Laws of Moses, articles lxxiv.-Ixxvii. vol. p. 387-4'9, English Translation, London, 1814 ; Bahr, Symbolik des Afosaischen Cultus, vol. ii.pp. 569, ff. ; ff., Heidelberg 1839.—C. D. G.