Leviticus23
New American Standard
1The Lord spoke again to Moses, saying,
2“Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘The Lord’s appointed times which you shall proclaim as holy convocations—My appointed times are these:
3‘For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a Sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation. You shall not do any work; it is a Sabbath to the Lord in all your dwellings.
4‘These are the appointed times of the Lord, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at the times appointed for them.
5In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight is the Lord’s Passover.
6Then on the fifteenth day of the same month there is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.
7On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work.
8But for seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work.’”
9Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
10“Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you enter the land which I am going to give to you and you gather its harvest, then you shall bring in the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest.
11He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord for you to be accepted; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.
12Now on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb one year old without defect as a burnt offering to the Lord.
13Its grain offering shall then be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering by fire to the Lord for a soothing aroma, with its drink offering, a fourth of a hin of wine.
14Until this very day, until you have brought in the offering of your God, you shall eat neither bread nor roasted grain nor new produce. It is to be a permanent statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places.
15‘You shall also count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day when you brought in the sheaf of the wave offering; there shall be seven complete Sabbaths.
16You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall present a new grain offering to the Lord.
17You shall bring in from your dwelling places two loaves of bread as a wave offering, made of two-tenths of an ephah; they shall be of a fine flour, baked with leaven as first fruits to the Lord.
18Along with the bread you shall present seven one-year-old male lambs without defect, and a bull of the herd and two rams; they are to be a burnt offering to the Lord, with their grain offering and their drink offerings, an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the Lord.
19You shall also offer one male goat as a sin offering, and two male lambs one year old as a sacrifice of peace offerings.
20The priest shall then wave them with the bread of the first fruits as a wave offering with two lambs before the Lord; they are to be holy to the Lord for the priest.
21On this very day you shall make a proclamation as well; you are to have a holy convocation. You shall do no laborious work. It is to be a permanent statute in all your dwelling places throughout your generations.
22‘When you reap the harvest of your land, moreover, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field nor gather the gleaning of your harvest; you are to leave them for the needy and the stranger. I am the Lord your God.’”
23Again the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
24“Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘In the seventh month on the first of the month you shall have a rest, a reminder by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation.
25You shall not do any laborious work, but you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord.’”
26Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
27“On exactly the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement; it shall be a holy convocation for you, and you shall humble yourselves and present an offering by fire to the Lord.
28You shall not do any work on this very day, for it is a Day of Atonement, to make atonement on your behalf before the Lord your God.
29If there is any person who does not humble himself on this very day, he shall be cut off from his people.
30As for any person who does any work on this very day, that person I will eliminate from among his people.
31You shall not do any work. It is to be a permanent statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places.
32It is to be a Sabbath of complete rest for you, and you shall humble yourselves; on the ninth of the month at evening, from evening until evening, you shall keep your Sabbath.”
33Again the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
34“Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘On the fifteenth of this seventh month is the Feast of Booths for seven days to the Lord.
35On the first day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work.
36For seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation and present an offering by fire to the Lord; it is an assembly. You shall not do any laborious work.
37‘These are the appointed times of the Lord which you shall proclaim as holy convocations, to present offerings by fire to the Lord—burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each day’s matter on its own day—
38besides those of the Sabbaths of the Lord, and besides your gifts and besides all your vowed and voluntary offerings, which you give to the Lord.
39‘On exactly the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the crops of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the Lord for seven days, with a rest on the first day and a rest on the eighth day.
40Now on the first day you shall take for yourselves the foliage of beautiful trees, palm branches and branches of trees with thick branches and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days.
41So you shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It shall be a permanent statute throughout your generations; you shall celebrate it in the seventh month.
42You shall live in booths for seven days; all the native-born in Israel shall live in booths,
43so that your generations may know that I had the sons of Israel live in booths when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.’”
44So Moses declared to the sons of Israel the appointed times of the Lord.
Study Guide
Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for Leviticus 23.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter: The feasts of the Lord, The Sabbath. (1–3). The Passover, The offering of first-fruits. (4–14). The feast of Pentecost. (15–22). The feast of Trumpets, The day of atonement. (23–32). The feast of Tabernacles. (33–44).
vv1-3
In this chapter we have the institution of holy times; many of which have been mentioned before. Though the yearly feasts were made more remarkable by general attendance at the sanctuary, yet these must not be observed more than the sabbath. On that day they must withdraw from all business of the world. It is a sabbath of rest, typifying spiritual rest from sin, and rest in God. God's sabbaths are to be religiously observed in every private house, by every family apart, as well as by families together, in holy assemblies. The sabbath of the Lord in our dwellings will be their beauty, strength, and safety; it will sanctify, build up, and glorify them.
vv4-14
The feast of the Passover was to continue seven days; not idle days, spent in sport, as many that are called Christians spend their holy-days. Offerings were made to the Lord at his altar; and the people were taught to employ their time in prayer, and praise, and godly meditation. The sheaf of first-fruits was typical of the Lord Jesus, who is risen from the dead as the First-fruits of them that slept. Our Lord Jesus rose from the dead on the very day that the first-fruits were offered. We are taught by this law to honour the Lord with our substance, and with the first-fruits of all our increase, Pr 3:9. They were not to eat of their new corn, till God's part was offered to him out of it; and we must always begin with God: begin every day with him, begin every meal with him, begin every affair and business with him; seek first the kingdom of God.
vv15-22
The feast of Weeks was held in remembrance of the giving of the law, fifty days after the departure from Egypt; and looked forward to the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, fifty days after Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. On that day the apostles presented the first-fruits of the Christian church to God. To the institution of the feast of Pentecost, is added a repetition of that law, by which they were required to leave the gleanings of their fields. Those who are truly sensible of the mercy they received from God, will show mercy to the poor without grudging.
Key Words
דָבַר: perhaps properly, to arrange; but used figuratively (of words), to speak; rarely (in a destructive sense) to subdue
מֹשֶׁה: Mosheh, the Israelite lawgiver
אָמַר: to say (used with great latitude)
בֵּן: a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etc., (like father or brother), etc.)
יִשְׂרָאֵל: Jisrael, a symbolical name of Jacob; also (typically) of his posterity
מוֹעֵד: properly, an appointment, i.e. a fixed time or season; specifically, a festival; conventionally ayear; by implication, an assembly (as convened for a definite purpose); technically the congregation; by extension, the place of meeting; also a signal (as appointed beforehand)
קָרָא: to call out to (i.e. properly, address by name, but used in a wide variety of applications)
קֹדֶשׁ: a sacred place or thing; rarely abstract, sanctity
מִקְרָא: something called out, i.e. a public meeting (the act, the persons, or the place); also a rehearsal
שֵׁשׁ: six (as an overplus beyond five or the fingers of the hand); as ord. sixth
Cross References
Leviticus 23The wave-sheaf of firstfruits directly typifies Christ risen from the dead as the firstfruits of believers.
Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB
Pentecost (fifty days after the sheaf offering) is fulfilled by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Gives the detailed sacrificial offerings prescribed for the Feast of Trumpets on the first of the seventh month.
Supported by Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole
Specifies the precise sacrificial offerings for the Day of Atonement alongside the self-affliction.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Direct historical fulfillment where post-exilic Israel restored this specific command to construct and dwell in booths.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Christ is our ultimate Passover sacrificed for us, fulfilling the redemption memorialized here.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Parallels the instruction on counting weeks from the time Israel begins to put the sickle to the corn.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Establishment of the tenth day of the seventh month for afflicting souls and resting.
Supported by Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole
The post-exilic community discovers and acts upon the command to dwell in booths during this feast.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Details the joyful celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles after gathering the corn and wine.
Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB
Specifically lists the gathering of olive, pine, myrtle, and palm branches to make booths.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Typified the patriarchs living in temporary dwellings as strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Parallel Deuteronomic legislation concerning the observation of the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Supported by John Calvin
Spiritual fulfillment of eating unleavened bread, representing sincerity and truth.
Supported by JFB
Establishes the first and seventh days of Unleavened Bread as holy convocations with no servile work.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Exhorts honoring the Lord with the firstfruits of all increase before consuming the rest.
Supported by Matthew Henry
If the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; the wave-sheaf sanctified the harvest.
Supported by JFB
Expands the gleaning laws for the poor, stranger, fatherless, and widow.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Commandment to blow the trumpets over sacrifices and on the beginnings of months.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Prophetic requirement for all nations to worship God by keeping the Feast of Tabernacles.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Jesus stands and cries out on the eighth, 'that great day of the feast.'
Supported by Matthew Henry
Records the literal implementation of keeping the feast for seven days, following the Levitical mandate.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Mandated reading the Law at the Feast of Tabernacles so succeeding generations would learn to fear God.
Supported by JFB
Specifies the offerings and the prohibition of servile work on the first day of Unleavened Bread.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Details the preparation of the meat offering of firstfruits as green ears of corn dried.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Believers are begotten by the word of truth to be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Further sacrificial regulations for the day of the firstfruits at the Feast of Weeks.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Verbatim parallel command to not clean reap corners of fields or gather gleanings.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Exhortation to blow the trumpet in the new moon and at the solemn feast day.
Supported by JFB
Identifies the eighth day of the festival as a solemn assembly with no servile work.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Provides the specific sacrificial regulations for this seven-day feast of the seventh month.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Reinforces the obligation to teach future generations the historical saving acts of God.
Supported by JFB
Commandment to blow the trumpets over sacrifices and during solemn feasts and new moons.
Supported by Matthew Poole
New Testament instruction regarding the shadow of things to come, including sabbaths and holy days.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Connects the physical sabbaths of rest to the spiritual rest believers enter through faith.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Frames the conclusion of the chapter, echoing the opening charge to declare the feasts of the Lord.
Supported by Matthew Poole, Calvin