a festival celebrated among the Jews every fifty years, and which led to important changes in their social condition. The word is supposed to be derived from jobel, a ram's horn, which was used as the trumpet for proclaiming the arrival of the year of jubilee; or, according to others, it was derived from jabal, to recall or return, because slaves were restored to liberty, and exiles recalled during this year. The periodical recurrence of the jubilee is closely connected with the Sabbatical institutions of Moses. As the seventh year, as well as the seventh day, was to be observed as a period of rest, it follows that every forty-ninth year would be one devoted to rest; and during it no crops were to be sown; but, according to the enactment in Exod. xxv., the year of jubilee was to be one of rest also, so that during two successive years there would be no crops sown. This has appeared such a difficulty to many, that they have endeavoured to prove the year of jubilee to be the forty-ninth instead of the fiftieth; but, in opposition to this, there are insuperable objections, for, in Exod. xxxviii.-17, the fiftieth year is repeatedly referred to as that on which the jubilee was to be celebrated. As to the difficulty, that a famine would follow if, for two successive years, all agricultural operations were neglected, it is to be remembered that the Jews were under a theocracy, and, so long as the Divine command was faithfully obeyed, there was no danger of famine. The injunction which required all the males periodically to visit Jerusalem necessarily left the country exposed to foreign invasion, but so long as they obeyed the Divine injunction, no man was to desire their land.

The object of the jubilee was to prevent the rise of any great disparity between the social condition of individuals. If the institution did not encourage splendid affluence on the one side, it helped to prevent sordid pauperism on the other. It tended to restrain cupidity, and preclude domestic tyranny, as well as to remind the rich and poor of their essential equality. It also served to preserve the distinction of families and tribes down to the coming of Messiah. For it is admitted that the original institution was in actual operation after the Babylonish captivity, as indeed can be proved from Ezek. xlvii. 17; Maccabees vi. 49; Josephus Antiq. xiv. 10, 6; and Tacitus, Hist. v. 4. The acceptable year of the Lord, spoken of by Isaiah before the captivity, must, without doubt, refer to the year of jubilee. Like the Greek Olympiads and the Roman Lustra, the jubilee was also most useful in a chronological point of view.

In modern times the word jubilee has been used to denote the ceremony at Rome, during which the pope grants plenary indulgence to those who visit the churches of St Peter and St Paul. This jubilee first took place under Boniface VII. in 1300, and was to return every 100 years; but as it was the means of bringing vast wealth to Rome, Clement VI. shortened the time to fifty years. This period was in its turn reduced to thirty-five years, and in 1475, by Sextus IV., to twenty-five years. The privilege of holding jubilees was also bestowed upon princes and convents, and in process of time the celebration of a jubilee was determined as occasion required.