Leviticus 23 King James Version (KJV)
23 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts.
3 Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings.
4 These are the feasts of the Lord, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons.
5 In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the Lord‘s passover.
6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the Lord: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.
7 In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.
8 But ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord seven days: in the seventh day is an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.
9 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
10 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest:
11 And he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.
12 And ye shall offer that day when ye wave the sheaf an he lamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt offering unto the Lord.
13 And the meat offering thereof shall be two tenth deals of fine flour mingled with oil, an offering made by fire unto the Lord for a sweet savour: and the drink offering thereof shall be of wine, the fourth part of an hin.
14 And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the selfsame day that ye have brought an offering unto your God: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
15 And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete:
16 Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the Lord.
17 Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals; they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the Lord.
18 And ye shall offer with the bread seven lambs without blemish of the first year, and one young bullock, and two rams: they shall be for a burnt offering unto the Lord, with their meat offering, and their drink offerings, even an offering made by fire, of sweet savour unto the Lord.
19 Then ye shall sacrifice one kid of the goats for a sin offering, and two lambs of the first year for a sacrifice of peace offerings.
20 And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits for a wave offering before the Lord, with the two lambs: they shall be holy to the Lord for the priest.
21 And ye shall proclaim on the selfsame day, that it may be an holy convocation unto you: ye shall do no servile work therein: it shall be a statute for ever in all your dwellings throughout your generations.
22 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the Lord your God.
23 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
24 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation.
25 Ye shall do no servile work therein: but ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord.
26 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
27 Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord.
28 And ye shall do no work in that same day: for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the Lord your God.
29 For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people.
30 And whatsoever soul it be that doeth any work in that same day, the same soul will I destroy from among his people.
31 Ye shall do no manner of work: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
32 It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath.
33 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
34 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the Lord.
35 On the first day shall be an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.
36 Seven days ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord: on the eighth day shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord: it is a solemn assembly; and ye shall do no servile work therein.
37 These are the feasts of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord, a burnt offering, and a meat offering, a sacrifice, and drink offerings, every thing upon his day:
38 Beside the sabbaths of the Lord, and beside your gifts, and beside all your vows, and beside all your freewill offerings, which ye give unto the Lord.
39 Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the Lord seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath.
40 And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days.
41 And ye shall keep it a feast unto the Lord seven days in the year. It shall be a statute for ever in your generations: ye shall celebrate it in the seventh month.
42 Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths:
43 That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
44 And Moses declared unto the children of Israel the feasts of the Lord.
Commentary
23:1-27:34 SPECIAL OCCASIONS
God’s holy days (23:1-3)
There were three main feasts, or festivals, of the Israelite religious year: Passover-Unleavened Bread and Pentecost-Harvest Firstfruits at the beginning of the year, and Tabernacles-Ingathering half way through the year. On these three occasions all the men of Israel were to assemble at the central place of worship (Exod 23:14-17). People participated in these feasts with a mixture of solemnity and joy. They were humbled before God, yet thankful to him for his merciful salvation and never-failing provision (23:1-2).
Before God gave his people the details of these festivals, he reminded them that the most basic of all their special religious days was the weekly Sabbath of holy rest. In the excitement of the annual festivals, the people were not to forget their regular weekly obligations (3).
Feasts at the beginning of the year (23:4-22)
The Israelite religious year began with the month that celebrated the Passover and the escape from Egypt (Exod 12:2). This was the season of spring in Israel and corresponds with March-April on our calendar. (It seems that Israelites also had a secular calendar, which differed from the religious calendar by six months. This means that the first month of the religious calendar was the seventh month of the secular calendar, and the beginning of the seventh month of the religious calendar was New Year on the secular calendar.)
On the fourteenth day of the first month was the Passover, which commemorated God’s act of ‘passing over’ the houses of Israel when the firstborn throughout Egypt were killed (4-5; see notes on Exod 12:1-14). Immediately after the Passover was the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread. This was in remembrance of the people’s hurried departure from Egypt, when they had no time to bake their bread
leavened but carried their dough and baking pans with them, baking as they went (6-8; see notes on Exod 12:15-36).
At this time the barley was ripe and ready to harvest. (The wheat was not ready till a few weeks later.) Therefore, on the day after the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, a sheaf of the firstfruits of the barley harvest was presented to the priests and waved up and down in offering to God. This was the people’s acknowledgment to God that he had given the harvest that they were about to reap (9-11).
On the same day as they presented the sheaf offering, the people also presented animal sacrifices. They sought forgiveness for their sins through a sin offering, and in gratitude to God for his gifts they consecrated themselves to him afresh through a burnt offering. They also acknowledged his care and provision in general by presenting a cereal offering and a wine offering taken from their daily household food (12-13; Num 28:16-25). Only after they acknowledged the whole harvest as belonging to God were they allowed to gain benefit from it for themselves (14).
During the next six weeks people were busy harvesting, first the barley and then the wheat. At the end of the wheat harvest they offered to God two loaves of bread such as they ate in their normal meals, as an expression of gratitude to him for their daily food. They also sacrificed a sin offering and a burnt offering as at the time of the barley firstfruits, and, in addition, a peace offering. Because this was a harvest festival, the holy worship was accompanied by much rejoicing (15-21; Num 28:26-31).
This festival was known by different names. Falling as it did on the fiftieth day after Passover, it was sometimes called the Feast of Pentecost (‘pentecost’ meaning ‘fiftieth’). It was also called the Feast of Weeks (being a week of weeks after the offering of the barley firstfruits), the Feast of Firstfruits and the Feast of Harvest.
Since this festival marked the end of the harvest season, a reminder was given not to be selfish when reaping, but to leave some grain for the poor (22; cf. Deut 16:9-12).
Mid-year festival season (23:23-44)
The first day of the seventh month (somewhere during September-October on our calendar) was the Day of Trumpets. On this occasion the people were called together for a religious ceremony by the blowing of trumpets, the purpose of the ceremony being to prepare the people for the solemn cleansing of sin that followed ten days later on the Day of Atonement (23-32; see notes on 16:1-34).
A further five days later, on the fifteenth day of the month, was the start of the week-long Feast of Tabernacles (RSV: Feast of Booths; GNB: Festival of Shelters). On this occasion the people lived in booths (huts or shelters) made of branches of trees and palm leaves in memory of their time in the wilderness. This feast was also called the Feast of Ingathering, for it marked the end of the agricultural year, when all the grapes, olives, dates, figs and other produce of the land had been gathered in. It was a joyous festival, as all Israel rejoiced in thanksgiving before God for his blessing on all their farming activity (33-44; Deut 16:13-15; for details see Num 29:12-38).
The people were now well stocked with food for the winter months that lay ahead. During winter the rains came, and soon the people began sowing and planting for the next annual cycle.