Jubilee

Biblical (Hebrew)Historical unit (no longer in standard use)

Fifty years (some readings say 49), the biblical cycle after which land was returned.

1 jubilee = 1,577,847,600 seconds (exactly).

About the jubilee

Leviticus 25 tells the Israelites to count seven sabbaths of years, then to hallow the fiftieth year, when land returned to its original holders and bondservants went free. The Hebrew word yovel also meant a ram and a ram's horn trumpet, and the year was announced by a shofar blast on Yom Kippur. The English word comes from the Latin form iobeleus used in the Vulgate.

Whether the jubilee lasted 49 or 50 years is disputed. Judah the Prince identified it with the 49th year, while most classical rabbis and Maimonides read it as a separate 50th year, and some modern scholars favour 49. The figure used here is 50 years, about 1.58 billion seconds, as one common reading and a convention rather than a settled length. Practice lapsed after the exile. The Catholic Church later borrowed the name: Boniface VIII declared a jubilee in 1300, the interval was set at 50 years in 1343 and 25 years in 1470, and the 2025 jubilee ran from December 2024 to January 2026.

Sources: Wikipedia: Jubilee (biblical); Wikipedia: Jubilee in the Catholic Church

Jubilee conversion chart

1 jubilee expressed in every other time unit:

More Biblical (Hebrew) units

• biblical cubit (length)
• Sabbath day's journey (length)
• shekel (biblical) (weight & mass)
• Hebrew talent (weight & mass)
• omer (volume)
• hin (volume)
• bath (biblical) (volume)
• homer (volume)

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