It is a year of rest unto the land— It is a known rule in husbandry, that land requires rest; and therefore it is generally laid fallow, in order to recruit its strength: this, doubtless, among others, was a reason for the present institution. The sabbath of the land, in the next verse, signifies the accidental crop which grew in the sabbatical year; sabbath, by a metonymy, being put for the crop of the sabbath, or sabbatical year. Houbigant renders it, erunt terrae quiescentis fructus, the fruit of the earth at rest shall be. The grapes of thy vine undressed, should rather be rendered, as in the margin of our English Bibles, the grapes of the separation; i.e. the grapes which are separated, alienated, or set apart from private property to public utility. See Leviticus 25:11.
Note; (1.) The salvation of the Gospel is a common salvation; and all the great and precious promises of pardon and adoption, strength, consolation, &c. which grow in the field of grace, are to be gathered freely: whosoever will, let him come. (2.) When we have for the few years of life toiled to subdue the stubborn soil of our hearts, we shall at last sit down, and rest from our labours, in the enjoyment of an eternal sabbath in glory.