And thou shalt number. — Better, And thou shalt count unto thee, as the Authorised Version renders the same phrase in Leviticus 23:15.
Number seven sabbaths of years. — Better, count seven weeks of years (see Leviticus 23:15). The seven days of each week stand for so many years, so that seven weeks of years make forty-nine years. Hence the explanation in the next clause: “Seven times seven years.” As the observance of the jubile, like that of the sabbatical year, was only to become obligatory when the Israelites had taken possession of the promised land (see Leviticus 25:2), and as the first sabbatical year, according to the authorities during the second Temple, came into operation in the twenty-first year after their entrance into Canaan (see Leviticus 25:2), the first jubile was celebrated in the sixty-fourth year after they came into the land of promise.