As for the peoples of the land who bring wares or any grain on the sabbath day to sell, we will not buy from them on the sabbath or a holy day; and we will forego the crops the seventh year and the exaction of every debt.This encompasses much of the sabbath laws, both those of the sabbath day and the sabbath year. On the sabbath day, they were to do no work, nor require others to do work. This is why they won't buy from outsiders on the sabbath either. The sabbath year was the command to not farm every seventh year, to let the land rest. Today, we know this to be good farming practice, so the soil regains nutrients.
I wonder if these things were specified because they had been neglected by the previous generations. We know that they did not observe the sabbath year for their land, which is why their length of exile was how long it was. But did they forget the sabbath day as well? Were they too busy to rest and honor God that day? Or did they lose the sabbath along with their turning away from God?
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