but in the seventh year you must let it rest and lie fallow, so that the poor among your people may eat from the field and the wild animals may consume what they leave. Do the same with your vineyard and olive grove.
God commanded the land to rest every seventh year to show Israel both His abundance and their dependence on Him alone. This was no mercy to the soil but a test of their obedience in the very matter that touches their purse, whether they would trust His Providence as surely as the sixth day's manna served for two days' meat.
AI summary
Commenting on Exodus 23:10-19
Six days thou shalt do thy work,.... That is, they might do what work they would on the six days of the week: and on the seventh day thou shall rest; from all the work and labour done on other days, and give up themselves to religious exercises: that thine ox and thine ass may rest; and so every other beast, as horses, camels, &c.
The seventh year thou shalt let it rest - As, every seventh day was a Sabbath day, so every seventh year was to be a Sabbath year. The reasons for this ordinance Calmet gives thus: - "1. To maintain as far as possible an equality of condition among the people, in setting the slaves at liberty, and in permitting all, as children of one family...