First, indeed, the Seventy, as I said above, disguised this word Iobel in this chapter [Josh 6]; but in Leviticus 25 they usually translate it ἄφεσις [aphesis, “release, remission”]; and to them Aquila and Abenezra [Ibn Ezra] subscribe, and the Greek fathers Theodoret (q. 35 on Leviticus), Nazianzen (oration On Pentecost), and the Latin Rupert also (on Ezekiel, book 2, ch. 11; on Leviticus, book 2, ch. 41). “And this,” says Benzonius at the place cited, “seems to me the true derivation.” Secondly. Josephus (book 3, ch. 10): τῷ ἰωβήλῳ ἐλευθερίαν σημαίνει τοὔνομα [tō iōbēlō eleutherian sēmainei tounoma] — that is, “the name Iobel signifies liberty.” Thirdly, of the Rabbis, Moses Gerundensis [Nachmanides] and Bahaia [Bachya] expound it as “approach” or “access,” because in the Jubilee year a return to liberty and to the ancestral possessions lay open to everyone. Fourthly. The Chaldee Paraphrast, as was already noted in the previous question, turns it into “ram”; and to this opinion, as to a Rock, cleave the rest of the Jewish Rabbis, especially the Talmudists (at the place indicated in the previous question), where they hand down that the same notion of this same word exists among the Arabs too. Fifthly. Abulensis (q. 6 here): “Iobel in Hebrew,” he says, “signifies horn or trumpet” (Leviticus 25 and on Ruth, q. 10); and so, on the same Leviticus passage, Rashi, Lyra, and — in his Thesaurus — Pagninus, where thus: “Iobel, that is, Jubilee, and a buccina of ram’s horn; and it is of feminine gender among the Hebrews, as Leviticus 25:10, ‘This Iobel shall be to you.’” Sixthly. Masius here says it is an ancient word, derived from the first inventor of music, who is called Iubal (Genesis 4:21); and that it signifies those tuneful sounds, great indeed, but rustic, hard, and rural, and as it were howling. Seventhly. The Venerable Bede (book On the Tabernacle) [says] it is “beginning” [initium], because liberty began at the beginning and threshold of the year. Eighthly. The same Bede (homily On Pentecost): “Jubilaeus,” he says, “was ordered to be called ‘changed’ [mutatus], because slaves were changed from captivity into liberty,” etc. Ninthly. Cajetan (on Leviticus 25): “Iobel is the land’s sprout, and the year Iobel is interpreted ‘the year of germination,’ as being fruitful of the liberties of men and of lands.” Tenthly. Benzonius, at the place cited, brings forward other derivations or significations, but which are either too inept in the Hebrew tongue, or are not according to the mind of the authors he cites. For what is more ridiculous than what John Baptist Paulianus handed down in his books to Pope Julius — that Iobel is interpreted “great God”? What more foreign to the mind of Eusebius in the Chronicle than that Iobel signifies “fiftieth”? What less thought-out by Gregory (book 1 on Job, ch. 9) and Bede (in the homily On Pentecost) than that by the word Iobel is signified “rest”? I say, therefore:
I. Among the Hebrews there is the verb iobal [יבל], which is read only in the hiphil conjugation; and the Rabbis say it signifies “to lead, to bring, to bring in”; and from it they derive four nouns. (1) Iebul [יבול], that is, “sprout and fruit” — Judges 6:4, Habakkuk 3:16, Job 20:28, Leviticus 26:4, Ezekiel 34:27, Psalm 66:6, Psalm 77:45, Psalm 85:13, Exodus 32:22. (2) iubal [יובל], that is, “a stream” — Isaiah 30:25, ch. 44:4. (3) Iabbeleth [יבלת], “a wart” or “pustule,” as our [Vulgate] renders it, Leviticus 22:22. (4) Iobel [יובל], on account of which this whole disputation has now been undertaken. Concerning these, Oleaster (on Leviticus 25) thus: “These nouns, derived from that verb, seem to have no agreement with that [proposed] signification of it.” And a little after: “I could have no conjecture toward hunting out the proper signification.”
Secondly. Yet if we consider the use of this verb in the Scriptures, we shall see that it signifies, as was said, “to lead, to bring,” but with a certain emphasis of joy and gladness, which is either in the one who leads, or in the one who is led, or in both. Jeremiah 31:9, where the Lord promises his people a happy and glad return from captivity: when he had said, “Rejoice in gladness, O Jacob,” he added, “In weeping (which is wont to flow for joy) they shall come, and in mercy I will lead them back,” or “in supplications.” Psalm 44[45]:15, “They shall be led in gladness.” Psalm 59[60], when David had said, “I will rejoice, and I will divide Shechem,” and was singing his victories: “Who,” he says, “will lead me (gladly, that is, and happily) into the fortified city?” Psalm 67[68]:29, “To thee the kings shall bring gifts” — with a glad and cheerful mind, of course, which makes all gifts much greater and more welcome, 2 Corinthians 9:7, [drawn] from the Greek [of] Proverbs ch. 22. So Psalm 75[76]:12, Psalm 107[108]:11, Zephaniah 3:10, Isaiah 18:7; but ch. 23:7, “They themselves shall lead” — namely the enemies, glad with victory and spoils — “Tyre (borne now not by horses and chariot, but) walking on her own feet, far off, to go into exile.” For in such [passages] the preposition is easily understood — “into” — especially since among the Hebrews “feet” are feminine, but the verb “they shall lead” masculine; for which the same sense our [Vulgate has]: “her own feet shall lead her far off, to go into exile,” ch. 25. And “In peace you shall be led back.” Hosea 10:6, “And he himself shall be led to Assur, that he may be a minchah [מנחה] or gift to the avenging king” — with that gladness of those leading, of which was said a little before, and which is wont to be in those who trust they will win some great favor with the king by a gift. And these are indeed all clear enough. But in some [passages], in which one might suppose there is no indication of any joy, four occur. I. Job 10:19, “Would that I had been consumed, that I had been as though I were not, carried from the womb to the tomb” — in Hebrew, “let me be led to the grave.” II. Job 20[21]:30 and 32, “The wicked man is kept for the day of destruction, and shall be led to the day of wrath. He himself shall be led to the graves.” III. Isaiah 53:7, “As a sheep he shall be led to the slaughter.” IV. Jeremiah 11:19, “I am as a gentle lamb, that is borne to be the victim” — in Hebrew, “that shall be led.” But truly joy is not absent even from these. For as to I: those who are in great evils long for death as a kind of good and glad thing. “Many,” says Pliny in the proem of book 7, “have existed who judged it best not to be born, or to be destroyed as quickly as possible.” As to II: those who shall lead these wicked, impious men to death and butchery will do it with great exultation — whether they be [the powers] who will drag them off to hell, [namely] the Demons, or the men themselves, or the enemies, or any others oppressed by them and stricken by some wrong; for not a few are wont to exult at the destruction of tyrants and of wicked men. As to III: CHRIST the Lord was led to the slaughter not simply, but with the monstrous joy of the Jews, while, [him] whom they pursued with such bitter hatred, and whom they had so often demanded for death, they now rejoiced to have seized…
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…they [the Jews] rejoiced [to have seized him], and triumphed over him by the cross granted by Pilate. Equal is the reason in [case] IV. For although the sheep that is to be slaughtered, while it is led to the shambles, may seem not to rejoice, yet the Butcher who is about to slaughter it does rejoice. It appears, therefore, that together with the “leading” there is in this word a notable and beautiful co-signification of joy.
Thirdly. But in the very nouns that flow from this verb, the same two can also be found — a “leading,” namely, and a certain adjoined joy. For first, the sprouts and fruits are led forth from the earth itself, and they gladden men, and (whatever exists for men’s sake) the beasts and cattle; whence someone once called the crops “glad” [laetas segetes]. Secondly, streams likewise are led from their mountains, springs, and gushings, and bring to the same no unequal joy — especially in Judaea, a dry and thirsty land. See with what longing and labor Isaac seeks wells (Genesis 26), and how he calls the name of one “Breadth” [Latitudo, Rehoboth], saying (v. 22): “Now the Lord has enlarged us, and made us grow upon the earth.” See what Achsah, Caleb’s daughter, asks of Caleb (Judges 1:15). Thirdly, in “warts” [verrucae] too there seems to be a metaphor, whence the likeness was drawn — that, as a sprout [is led] from the earth, so those [warts] are led out from the human body, so that they stand out on the outermost surface; just as in the Greek name too another likeness is regarded, when they are called achrocordones, thymia, and myrmeciae (whence, in the cited Leviticus passage, in the 70, μυρμηκῶντα [myrmēkōnta]), concerning which [see] Paul of Aegina (book 4, ch. 15), Celsus (book 5, last ch.). And perhaps at first there is some itching, which is indeed scratched pleasantly, but ends in warts — as there is a Jewish proverb about the itch: “widely and pleasantly are five dogs set upon a hare, which, however, once caught, is wretchedly handled.” For here the hare is the itch of the scab; and the five [things] — the fingers of the hand with which one scratches oneself — are those hunting dogs. Concerning Iobel, it follows.
Fourthly. It seems Iobel can be taken in two ways. First, as the participle of the verb iobal, and then it would be “leading with joy”; yet no one asserts this. Secondly, as a substantive — and this all teach with one mouth — and it seems to signify a word indicative of joy, which leads to glad persons or to glad things, or is led forth from a glad heart, whether that sound be vocal [assa vox] or instrumental. For [firstly] in this signification is preserved the analogy that has been set out thus far. Secondly, hence seems to have arisen the Latin iubilum, of which Silius Italicus: “And on the broad rocks the Cyclops heard the jubilations”; also the verb “to jubilate,” which Varro (book 5) and Festus say is a word of country folk — just as quiritatus is of townsfolk, because quiritare is “to call the Quirites.” Beautifully the divine Augustine, on Psalm 65[66]: “What is ‘Jubilate’? Break forth into a voice of joys, if you cannot [into a voice] of words. For one does not jubilate with words, but only the sound of those rejoicing is rendered — as if the joy of a heart in travail and giving birth [is poured out] into the voice of a thing conceived, which cannot be explained in words.” And on Psalm 94[95]: “What is to jubilate? That joy cannot be explained in words, and yet is testified by the voice — [that joy] which is conceived in the heart and cannot be explained in words. This is to jubilate.” Thirdly, in the Septuagint (Leviticus 25) it is often σημασία τῆς ἀφέσεως [sēmasia tēs apheseōs, “a signal of release”], or τὸ ἔτος τῆς ἀφέσεως σημασίας [“the year of the signal of release”]. Fourthly, the affinity of the name with iobab, and its antithesis with obal [אבל, “mourning”]. Fifthly, this signification rightly explains all the Scriptures. For iobel in those [passages] is read in two ways: either so that it is openly governed by another substantive, or so that it appears placed absolutely. In the former way it is said at Leviticus 25:12, 13, 28, 53, 54, “the year of iobel,” and in this ch. 6, those [phrases] cited in the previous question — namely “the trumpet of iobel” or “iobelim.” In the latter way, here at vv. 10 and 11 it is iobel; likewise at v. 15, “after iobel”; at v. 28, “he shall go out in iobel”; and likewise at vv. 30, 31, 33. But what do those [passages] signify, other than “the year of jubilation,” “the trumpets of the jubilee or of the jubilees”? For that year led to liberty and the recovery of possessions — things indeed most desired and most joyful — and it was announced by the glad sound of buccinae throughout the whole land of the Israelites. The same is the reason of the Jericho buccinae, as will be said below. But when it seems to be placed absolutely, “year” is always understood — as seems to appear well enough at v. 10, where must be repeated what was placed a little before, schanoth [שנת, “the year of”]; and because this [word] is of feminine gender, Pagninus was deluded about the gender of Iobel, as was said above. It appears from this too, that “to go out in iobel” is expressed at v. 54 by “to go out in the year of iobel”; and [because] it would be ridiculous to say that someone “goes out in a ram’s horn,” or in some similar thing which iobel is said to signify. Or else, certainly, by metonymy, the very year is called iobel or iubilum, because it is announced to those jubilating with buccinae — since with glad blasts it leads to those good things which have been mentioned; in that manner, namely, in which it is said in the old Greek proverb, “the year fructifies, not the field.” And so, at the place cited, Josephus says: καλεῖ δ’ ὑπὸ Ἑβραίων ὁ πεντηκοστός· ἐνιαυτὸς ἰώβηλος [“by the Hebrews the fiftieth is called… the year iobel”]. Sixthly. By this name too the said signification can be admitted, because it indicates the course and, as it were, the manner by which, through some trope, iobel can signify almost all the more famous things which, at the beginning of the question, so many interpretations were saying [it meant]. For — to run briefly through them one by one — ἄφεσις [aphesis], that is, “remission and liberty,” is that to which this year gladly leads, [and] which the jubilation of the trumpets announces. Why, then, could not iobel be said to signify these things too?
Hence Josephus too seems to have drawn his [ἐλευθερίαν, “liberty”], because in Leviticus 25 in Hebrew deror [דרור] is written at v. 10, and our Interpreter says, “thou shalt call remission to all the inhabitants of thy land,” just as the 70 [have] διαβοήσετε ἄφεσιν [“you shall proclaim release”]. So the very return to liberty after the post-liminium is a iubilum. So the ram — by reason of that old deed by which it freed Isaac (Genesis 22), and by reason of the horns by which one jubilates — the very horns and trumpets [are called iobel]. Nor did Masius conjecture badly about the signification of this word from Iubal, the author of musical instruments. For since Cain’s offspring, wholly poured out into this world’s joys and pleasures (Genesis 5:19 and ch. 6:2), gladly imposed on their children names that would be, as it were, auguries and omens of future gladness — the Lord sweetly ordering these their wishes, and sometimes fittingly [matching them] to future events — since therefore iabal had the signification that was mentioned, Lamech called one of his sons by Adah [Hadama] his wife Iabal (or, as our [Vulgate] and the 70 write, Iabel); and he was the inventor of tents and of cattle-keeping, and therefore also [the father] of the songs and jubilations of country folk, of which was said before from Varro. But the other [son], who [was master] of the mirth and jubilation of harps and organs, ma-… [The Lamech/Jabal/Jubal narrative is Genesis 4:19–21.]
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…[the other son, who] was the first master [of harps and organs], that same Iubal named. So that, although iobel is not [derived] from iubal, yet all these nouns are shown to have proceeded from the ancient signification of this word. Bede I pass over; and Cajetan I praise, because he saw the affinity of this year and of the earth’s fruits — although he less [fully] set out the cause whence this affinity in the thing and in the word arose; which [affinity], unless something deceives me, is clear enough from what has just been said.