King Hezekiah observed the Sabbath year in obedience to Hashem and thus averted Sennacherib’s siege in the spring and summer of 701 BC (2 Kings 19:32-37). Using this as a solid date, we thus can calculate that the last Jubilee was in 2001 and the most recent Sabbatical year began in September of 2008.

1.    Every seventh year is a Sabbath of Rest for the land and the fields must lie fallow and the ground must not be tilled. (Leviticus 25:2-7, 20-22) 

2. Do not prune your vineyard or trees in the seventh year. (Leviticus 25:4) 3. Do not reap your harvest in the seventh year. (Leviticus 25:5) 4. Do not gather the grapes of the untended vine in the seventh year. (Leviticus 25:5) 

3.    In the seventh year everything that grows is to be eaten by all. (Leviticus 25:2-7,20-22)

4.    You must consecrate and proclaim the Jubilee year. (Leviticus 25:10-12) Do not till the earth or sow the fields in the Jubilee year. Do not reap the harvest in the Jubilee year. Do not gather the grapes of the untended vines in the Jubilee year.(Leviticus 25:11) 

5.    On the Day of Atonement in the Jubilee year, the shofar must be sounded and all Hebrew slaves set free. (Leviticus 25:9-10, 13)

6.    In the Jubilee year all the land is to be returned to its appointed owners. (Leviticus 25:23-28)

7.    In a walled city the seller has a right to buy back a house within a year of the sale. (Leviticus 25:29-30)

8.    The years until the Jubilee must be counted. (Leviticus 25:8)

9.    The seventh year is the Year of Release. (Deuteronomy 15:3)

10.    In the seventh year a foreigner may be pressed for payment of a debt. (Deuteronomy 15:3)

See also: Exodus 23:10-11; Deuteronomy 15:1-6; 31:10-13; Jeremiah 34:13-14; Nehemiah 10:32; 2 Chronicles 36:20-21; 2 Kings 19:20-30.

In our economy of macro, mono-culture farms run with high-tech gear that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars these commands seem strange. Yet to periodically allow the soil to replenish itself is simply good management of natural resources. More than that, it kept firmly before the people the decision to make God and ecological stewardship come before profits. 

Nothing says that couldn’t store up food and money for the other six years to prepare for that seventh year. And nothing says that they couldn’t harvest what grew naturally. They simply were not allowed to work the soil. 

• Leviticus 25:6-7 HCSB  Whatever the land produces during the Sabbath year can be food for you; for yourself, your male or female slave, and the hired hand or foreigner who stays with you.  (7)  All of its growth may serve as food for your livestock and the wild animals in your land.

Here again we see that what grows naturally is not to be harvested (i.e. for sale or profit) but may remain available for personal food.

• Leviticus 25:11-12 HCSB  The fiftieth year will be your Jubilee; you are not to sow, reap what grows by itself, or harvest its untended vines.  (12)  It is to be holy to you because it is the Jubilee; you may only eat its produce directly from the field.

Though the principle of allowing the land to periodically rest is wise, the ritual obligation is maleh since the Sabbath year was meant for Eretz Yisra'el and not for those in the Diaspora:

• Leviticus 25:22-24 HCSB  (22)  When you sow in the eighth year, you will be eating from the previous harvest. You will be eating this until the ninth year when its harvest comes in.  (23)  "The land is not to be permanently sold because it is Mine, and you are only foreigners and temporary residents on My land.  (24)  You are to allow the redemption of any land you occupy.