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The fiftieth year after Israel’s occupation of the land is to be observed as the Year of Jubilee. The word jubilee comes from the Hebrew yôb̠ēl, meaning “ram’s horn,” which is blown as a trumpet. The blowing of the trumpet on the Day of Atonement during the forty-ninth year is to signal the beginning of the Year of Jubilee. Scholars are uncertain whether this meant that the jubilee was to begin immediately with the blowing of the trumpet or six months later when the fiftieth year started. The main provisions of this special year are: (1) all leases are to expire and everyone is to return to his family property (vv.10, 13) and (2) all slaves are to be freed (v.10). The theological principle on which these provisions are based is given in v.23: “The land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants.”