The law of the Jubilee gave personal liberty to all bondmen. Of this, more must be said under “Hebrew servitude.” It also provided for the return of all real estate――all the lands of Canaan――to their original possessors. Lands could be alienated only till the jubilee. They were sold, if at all, subject to this law. Consequently a sale of land was only a lease for at longest forty-nine years――_i. e._ for the years intervening till the next jubilee. They were subject to redemption at any time――the price to be graduated by the years which the lease had to run. Houses in walled cities were redeemable only within one year from sale; but in unwalled cities, houses followed the law of land, returning with the land to their original owner at the jubilee. The houses of Levites were accounted as land.――――These statutes had a twofold purpose; to afford relief to the poor; and to prevent the entire alienation of the lands of Canaan from the tribes, families, and individuals to whom they were originally given.――――The question, how far these institutions――the Sabbatic year and the Jubilee――were observed in the future history of Israel is foreign from our present purpose. VI. _Crimes against reputation_; (the details of the ninth commandment). Here are stringent statutes against _false accusation_ and _false witness_. Under this general head fall two distinct cases:――(a) Testimony given to favor the guilty (Ex. 23: 1, 3);――――and (b) allegations designed to condemn the innocent (Deut. 19: 16–21). (a.) The former class (as given Ex. 23: 1, 3) forbids not merely originating (“raise”), but _taking up_ a false report and seconding it by indorsement. It warns men not to be drawn in to help the wicked in their malicious plots to screen each other, though they be many. The cause of the poor man which you may not favor (v. 3) is certainly supposed to be a bad one. Your sympathy for him as poor must not override justice and truth. (b.) False witness, purposed to condemn the innocent, is met by the statute (Deut. 19: 16–21). The accuser and the accused are to be brought face to face before the Lord and before the priests and the judges who are to “make diligent inquisition,” obviously hearing both parties, and if the accuser is proved to be a false witness, “Ye shall do to him as he thought to do to his brother; thine eye shall not pity, but life shall go for life; eye for eye,” etc.