[44] 2 Kings, xxiii. 6, 7.

[45] Isaiah, i. 11-17.

[46] Micah, vi. 6-8.

[47] Isaiah, xi. 2-5.

[48] Isaiah, v. 8; iii. 14, 15.

[49] Cf.  Exodus, xxiii, 10, 11 (the earliest code) with Deuteronomy, xv. 1-18.

[50] The latter seems the probable influence of Persia.  At all events, from this time Hebrew literature shows the gradual development of an angelic hierarchy.

[51] The comparison of the earlier prophetic writings with the exilic prophecies, and with the later writings, such as Jonah, Ecclesiastes, &c., will illustrate this change.

[52] Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones is the earliest appearance of this thought in any writing of whose date we are certain.

[53] And thou shalt-number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.  Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.  And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof:  it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.  A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you:  ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of the vine undressed.  For it is the jubilee; it shall be holy unto you:  ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field.  In the year of this jubilee ye shall return every man unto his possession.  And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbor, or buyest ought of thy neighbor’s hand, ye shall not oppress one another:  According to the number of years after the jubilee thou shalt buy of thy neighbor, and according unto the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee:  According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it:  for according to the number of the years of the fruits doth he sell unto thee.  Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God:  for I am the Lord your God.

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The land shall not be sold for ever:  for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.  And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land.

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