Leviticus 23

Berean Standard Bible (BSB) · English

1 Then the LORD said to Moses, 2 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them, ‘These are My appointed feasts, the feasts of the LORD that you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies. 3 For six days work may be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of complete rest, a day of sacred assembly. You must not do any work; wherever you live, it is a Sabbath to the LORD. 4 These are the LORD’s appointed feasts, the sacred assemblies you are to proclaim at their appointed times. 5 The Passover to the LORD begins at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month. 6 On the fifteenth day of the same month begins the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD. For seven days you must eat unleavened bread. 7 On the first day you are to hold a sacred assembly; you are not to do any regular work. 8 For seven days you are to present an offering made by fire to the LORD. On the seventh day there shall be a sacred assembly; you must not do any regular work.’” 9 And the LORD said to Moses, 10 “Speak to the Israelites and say, ‘When you enter the land that I am giving you and you reap its harvest, you are to bring to the priest a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest. 11 And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD so that it may be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath. 12 On the day you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a year-old lamb without blemish as a burnt offering to the LORD, 13 along with its grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil—an offering made by fire to the LORD, a pleasing aroma—and its drink offering of a quarter hin of wine. 14 You must not eat any bread or roasted or new grain until the very day you have brought this offering to your God. This is to be a permanent statute for the generations to come, wherever you live. 15 From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, you are to count off seven full weeks. 16 You shall count off fifty days until the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the LORD. 17 Bring two loaves of bread from your dwellings as a wave offering, each made from two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour, baked with leaven, as the firstfruits to the LORD. 18 Along with the bread you are to present seven unblemished male lambs a year old, one young bull, and two rams. They will be a burnt offering to the LORD, together with their grain offerings and drink offerings—an offering made by fire, a pleasing aroma to the LORD. 19 You shall also prepare one male goat as a sin offering and two male lambs a year old as a peace offering. 20 The priest is to wave the lambs as a wave offering before the LORD, together with the bread of the firstfruits. The bread and the two lambs shall be holy to the LORD for the priest. 21 On that same day you are to proclaim a sacred assembly, and you must not do any regular work. This is to be a permanent statute wherever you live for the generations to come. 22 When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap all the way to the edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the foreign resident. I am the LORD your God.’” 23 The LORD also said to Moses, 24 “Speak to the Israelites and say, ‘On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of rest, a sacred assembly announced by trumpet blasts. 25 You must not do any regular work, but you are to present an offering made by fire to the LORD.’” 26 Again the LORD said to Moses, 27 “The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. You shall hold a sacred assembly and humble yourselves, and present an offering made by fire to the LORD. 28 On this day you are not to do any work, for it is the Day of Atonement, when atonement is made for you before the LORD your God. 29 If anyone does not humble himself on this day, he must be cut off from his people. 30 I will destroy from among his people anyone who does any work on this day. 31 You are not to do any work at all. This is a permanent statute for the generations to come, wherever you live. 32 It will be a Sabbath of complete rest for you, and you shall humble yourselves. From the evening of the ninth day of the month until the following evening you are to keep your Sabbath.” 33 And the LORD said to Moses, 34 “Speak to the Israelites and say, ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the Feast of Tabernacles to the LORD begins, and it continues for seven days. 35 On the first day there shall be a sacred assembly. You must not do any regular work. 36 For seven days you are to present an offering made by fire to the LORD. On the eighth day you are to hold a sacred assembly and present an offering made by fire to the LORD. It is a solemn assembly; you must not do any regular work. 37 These are the LORD’s appointed feasts, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies for presenting offerings by fire to the LORD—burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each on its designated day. 38 These offerings are in addition to the offerings for the LORD’s Sabbaths, and in addition to your gifts, to all your vow offerings, and to all the freewill offerings you give to the LORD. 39 On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, after you have gathered the produce of the land, you are to celebrate a feast to the LORD for seven days. There shall be complete rest on the first day and also on the eighth day. 40 On the first day you are to gather the fruit of majestic trees, the branches of palm trees, and the boughs of leafy trees and of willows of the brook. And you are to rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days. 41 You are to celebrate this as a feast to the LORD for seven days each year. This is a permanent statute for the generations to come; you are to celebrate it in the seventh month. 42 You are to dwell in booths for seven days. All the native-born of Israel must dwell in booths, 43 so that your descendants may know that I made the Israelites dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.’” 44 So Moses announced to the Israelites the appointed feasts of the LORD.

Commentary — not Bible text

Leviticus 23:2

Verse 2

These are my feasts - The original word מועד moad is properly applied to any solemn anniversary, by which great and important ecclesiastical, political, or providential facts were recorded; see Clarke on Gen 1:14 (note). Anniversaries of this kind were observed in all nations; and some of them, in consequence of scrupulously regular observation, became chronological epochs of the greatest importance in history: the Olympiads, for example.

Leviticus 23:3-4

Verse 3

The seventh day is the Sabbath - This, because the first and greatest solemnity, is first mentioned. He who kept not this, in the most religious manner, was not capable of keeping any of the others. The religious observance of the Sabbath stands at the very threshold of all religion. See Clarke's note on Gen 2:3.

Leviticus 23:5-10

Verse 5

The Lord's passover - See this largely explained in the notes on Exo 12:21-27 (note).

Leviticus 23:11-13

Verse 11

He shalt wave the sheaf - He shall move it to and fro before the people, and thereby call their attention to the work of Divine Providence, and excite their gratitude to God for preserving to them the kindly fruits of the earth. See Clarke's note on Exo 29:27, and Exodus 7 at end.

Leviticus 23:14

Verse 14

Ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears - It is right that God, the dispenser of every blessing, should be acknowledged as such, and the first-fruits of the field, etc., dedicated to him. Concerning the dedication of the first-fruits, see the note on Exo 22:29. Parched ears of corn and green ears, fried, still constitute a part, and not a disagreeable one, of the food of the Arabs now resident in the Holy Land. See Hasselquist.

Leviticus 23:15-21

Verse 15

Ye shall count unto you - seven Sabbaths - That is, from the sixteenth of the first month to the sixth of the third month. These seven weeks, called here Sabbaths, were to be complete, i. e., the forty-nine days must be finished, and the next day, the fiftieth, is what, from the Septuagint, we call pentecost. See the note on Luk 6:1.

Leviticus 23:22-23

Verse 22

Neither shalt thou gather any gleaning - See the note on Lev 19:9.

Leviticus 23:24-27

Verse 24

A memorial of blowing of trumpets - This is generally called the feast of trumpets; and as it took place on the first day of the seventh month, Tisri, which answers to September, which month was the commencement of what was called the civil year, the feast probably had no other design than to celebrate the commencement of that year, if indeed such a distinction obtained among the ancient Jews. See the note on Exo 12:2. Some think creation began at this time.

Leviticus 23:28-33

Verse 28

A day of atonement - See the note on Lev 16:2, etc., where this subject is largely explained.

Leviticus 23:34-39

Verse 34

The feast of tabernacles - In this solemnity the people left their houses, and dwelt in booths or tents made of the branches of goodly trees and thick trees, (of what kind the text does not specify), together with palm-trees and willows of the brook, Lev 23:40. And in these they dwelt seven days, in commemoration of their forty years' sojourning and dwelling in tents in the wilderness while destitute of any fixed habitations. In imitation of this feast among the people of God, the Gentiles had their feasts of tents. Plutarch speaks particularly of feasts of this kind in honor of Bacchus, and thinks from the custom of the Jews in celebrating the feast of tabernacles, that they worshipped the god Bacchus, "because he had a feast exactly of the same kind called the feast of tabernacles, Σκηνη, which they celebrated in the time of vintage, bringing tables out into the open air furnished with all kinds of fruit, and sitting under tents made of vine branches and ivy." - Plut. Symp., lib. iv., Q. 6. According to Ovid the feast of Anna Perenna was celebrated much in the same way. Some remained in the open air, others formed to themselves tents and booths made of branches of trees, over which they spread garments, and kept the festival with great rejoicings. "Sub Jove pars durat; pauci tentoria ponunt;

Sunt, quibus e ramis frondea facta easa est.

Pars sibi pro rigidis calamos statuere columnis;

Desuper extentas imposuere togas."

Ovid, Fast., lib. ill.

Concerning this feast of tabernacles, see the note on Joh 7:37, Joh 7:38; and for the various feasts among the Jews, See the note on Exo 23:14.

Leviticus 23:40-42

Verse 40

Boughs of goodly trees - The Jews and many critics imagine the citron-tree to be intended, and by boughs of thick tree the myrtle.

Leviticus 23:43-44

Verse 43

That your generations may know, etc. - By the institution of this feast God had two great objects in view:

1. To perpetuate the wonderful display of his providence and grace in bringing them out of Egypt, and in preserving them in the wilderness.

2. To excite and maintain in them a spirit of gratitude and obedience, by leading them to consider deeply the greatness of the favors which they had received from his most merciful hands.

Signal displays of the mercy, kindness, and providential care of God should be particularly remembered. When we recollect that we deserve nothing at his hands, and that the debt of gratitude is all the debt we can pay, in it we should be cheerful, fervent, and frequent. An ungrateful heart is an unfeeling, unloving, unbelieving, and disobedient heart. Reader, pray to God that he may deliver thee from its influence and its curse.

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