Leviticus23
New International Version
1The Lord said to Moses,
2“Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘These are my appointed festivals, the appointed festivals of the Lord, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.
3“‘There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a day of sabbath rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a sabbath to the Lord.
4“‘These are the Lord’s appointed festivals, the sacred assemblies you are to proclaim at their appointed times:
5The Lord’s Passover begins at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month.
6On the fifteenth day of that month the Lord’s Festival of Unleavened Bread begins; for seven days you must eat bread made without yeast.
7On the first day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work.
8For seven days present a food offering to the Lord. And on the seventh day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work.’”
9The Lord said to Moses,
10“Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain you harvest.
11He is to wave the sheaf before the Lord so it will be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath.
12On the day you wave the sheaf, you must sacrifice as a burnt offering to the Lord a lamb a year old without defect,
13together with its grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour mixed with olive oil—a food offering presented to the Lord, a pleasing aroma—and its drink offering of a quarter of a hin of wine.
14You must not eat any bread, or roasted or new grain, until the very day you bring this offering to your God. This is to be a lasting ordinance 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, count off seven full weeks.
16Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the Lord.
17From wherever you live, bring two loaves made of two-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour, baked with yeast, as a wave offering of firstfruits to the Lord.
18Present with this bread seven male lambs, each a year old and without defect, one young bull and two rams. They will be a burnt offering to the Lord, together with their grain offerings and drink offerings—a food offering, an aroma pleasing to the Lord.
19Then sacrifice one male goat for a sin offering and two lambs, each a year old, for a fellowship offering.
20The priest is to wave the two lambs before the Lord as a wave offering, together with the bread of the firstfruits. They are a sacred offering to the Lord for the priest.
21On that same day you are to proclaim a sacred assembly and do no regular work. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live.
22“‘When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and for the foreigner residing among you. I am the Lord your God.’”
23The Lord said to Moses,
24“Say to the Israelites: ‘On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of sabbath rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts.
25Do no regular work, but present a food offering to the Lord.’”
26The Lord said to Moses,
27“The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves, and present a food offering to the Lord.
28Do not do any work on that day, because it is the Day of Atonement, when atonement is made for you before the Lord your God.
29Those who do not deny themselves on that day must be cut off from their people.
30I will destroy from among their people anyone who does any work on that day.
31You shall do no work at all. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live.
32It is a day of sabbath rest for you, and you must deny yourselves. From the evening of the ninth day of the month until the following evening you are to observe your sabbath.”
33The Lord said to Moses,
34“Say to the Israelites: ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the Lord’s Festival of Tabernacles begins, and it lasts for seven days.
35The first day is a sacred assembly; do no regular work.
36For seven days present food offerings to the Lord, and on the eighth day hold a sacred assembly and present a food offering to the Lord. It is the closing special assembly; do no regular work.
37(“‘These are the Lord’s appointed festivals, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies for bringing food offerings to the Lord—the burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings required for each day.
38These offerings are in addition to those for the Lord’s Sabbaths and in addition to your gifts and whatever you have vowed and all the freewill offerings you give to the Lord.)
39“‘So beginning with the fifteenth day of the seventh month, after you have gathered the crops of the land, celebrate the festival to the Lord for seven days; the first day is a day of sabbath rest, and the eighth day also is a day of sabbath rest.
40On the first day you are to take branches from luxuriant trees—from palms, willows and other leafy trees—and rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days.
41Celebrate this as a festival to the Lord for seven days each year. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come; celebrate it in the seventh month.
42Live in temporary shelters for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in such shelters
43so your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in temporary shelters when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.’”
44So Moses announced to the Israelites the appointed festivals 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