Starting with the time of entering the Promised Land, the nation of Israel was to count six years during which time the land was sown, cultivated and harvested, but the seventh year was to be a sabbath year, during which the land must lie fallow. In the seventh year no sowing or pruning could be done. Even the growth from kernels of grain spilled during the harvest of the previous year could not be reaped, and they were not to gather the grapes of their unpruned vines. Grain and fruit that grew of itself would be available to the owner, his slaves, hired laborers, alien residents and the poor. Domestic animals and wild beasts also were allowed to eat of it. (Lev. 25:2-7; Ex. 23:10,11) Seven of these seven-year periods (7x7=49) were to be counted, and the following year, the fiftieth, was to be a Jubilee ear. It shared features of the sabbatical year. The land again had complete rest. The same regulations applied to the produce of the land. (Lev. 25:8-12) This meant that the produce of the forty-eighth year of each fifty year cycle would be the primary source of food for that year and for a little over two years following, until the harvest of the fifty-first, or the year after the Jubilee. Jehovah' special blessing on the crop in the sixth year resulted in a crop yield sufficient to furnish food through the sabbath year. (Lev. 25:20-22)Similarly, God provided a bountiful and sufficient harvest in the forty-eighth year to supply the nation through the sabbath year and the Jubilee that followed, if the Jews kept his law.
The Jubilee was in a sense an entire year of festival, a year of liberty. The keeping of it would demonstrate Israel's faith in their God Jehovah and would be a time of thanksgiving and happiness in his provisions. AID TO BIBLE UNDERSTANDING WT publication
The Jubilee law taught the need for forgiveness in a practical sense-food and wealth, not just a statement of forgiveness. It showed human nature as deficient, as unable to keep from dept and getting behind in life and the need for forgiveness to straighten life out.
