The biblical legislation of the sabbatical year (Ex. 21:2-6 and 23:10-11; Lev. 25:1-7,18-22; Deut. 15:1-18) initially called on farmers to let the fields fallow every seventh year and on creditors to let unsolvable debtors go free after having served six years. Its purpose was agricultural and social. This legislation is anchored in ancient traditions and practices, partly paralleled in Mesopotamia, as shown mainly by royal decrees from the Old Babylonian period. Its actual observance is not attested in Israel, while Jer. 34,8-22 shows that the manumission of enslaved Judaeans was not put into practice, even when their emancipation was solemnly proclaimed. Neh. 10:32 records the post-Exilic community’s firm agreement to suspend agricultural work every seventh year and to forgo all debts, as commanded in the “Law of God”. The remission of debts was later circumvented by the prosbol practice, but a fallow seventh year was observed until the Roman times.
