4 "These are the appointed feasts of God, the sacred assemblies which you are to announce at the times set for them 5 "God's Passover, beginning at sundown on the fourteenth day of the first month. 6 "God's Feast of Unraised Bread, on the fifteenth day of this same month. You are to eat unraised bread for seven days. 7 Hold a sacred assembly on the first day; don't do any regular work. 8 Offer Fire-Gifts to God for seven days. On the seventh day hold a sacred assembly; don't do any regular work." 9 God spoke to Moses: 10 "Tell the People of Israel, When you arrive at the land that I am giving you and reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain that you harvest. 11 He will wave the sheaf before God for acceptance on your behalf; on the morning after Sabbath, the priest will wave it. 12 On the same day that you wave the sheaf, offer a year-old male lamb without defect for a Whole-Burnt-Offering to God 13 and with it the Grain-Offering of four quarts of fine flour mixed with oil - a Fire-Gift to God, a pleasing fragrance - and also a Drink-Offering of a quart of wine. 14 Don't eat any bread or roasted or fresh grain until you have presented this offering to your God. This is a perpetual decree for all your generations to come, wherever you live
15 "Count seven full weeks from the morning after the Sabbath when you brought the sheaf as a Wave-Offering, 16 fifty days until the morning of the seventh Sabbath. Then present a new Grain-Offering to God. 17 Bring from wherever you are living two loaves of bread made from four quarts of fine flour and baked with yeast as a Wave-Offering of the first ripe grain to God. 18 In addition to the bread, offer seven yearling male lambs without defect, plus one bull and two rams. They will be a Whole-Burnt-Offering to God together with their Grain-Offerings and Drink-Offerings - offered as Fire-Gifts, a pleasing fragrance to God. 19 Offer one male goat for an Absolution-Offering and two yearling lambs for a Peace-Offering 20 The priest will wave the two lambs before God as a Wave-Offering, together with the bread of the first ripe grain. They are sacred offerings to God for the priest. 21 Proclaim the day as a sacred assembly. Don't do any ordinary work. It is a perpetual decree wherever you live down through your generations 22 "When you reap the harvest of your land, don't reap the corners of your field or gather the gleanings. Leave them for the poor and the foreigners. I am God, your God."
23 God said to Moses: 24 "Tell the People of Israel, On the first day of the seventh month, set aside a day of rest, a sacred assembly - mark it with loud blasts on the ram's horn. 25 Don't do any ordinary work. Offer a Fire-Gift to God." 26 God said to Moses, 27 "The tenth day of the seventh month is the Day of Atonement. Hold a sacred assembly, fast, and offer a Fire-Gift to God. 28 Don't work on that day because it is a day of atonement to make atonement for you before your God. 29 Anyone who doesn't fast on that day must be cut off from his people. 30 I will destroy from among his people anyone who works on that day. 31 Don't do any work that day - none. This is a perpetual decree for all the generations to come, wherever you happen to be living. 32 It is a Sabbath of complete and total rest, a fast day. Observe your Sabbath from the evening of the ninth day of the month until the following evening."
33 God said to Moses, 34 "Tell the People of Israel, God's Feast of Booths begins on the fifteenth day of the seventh month. It lasts seven days. 35 The first day is a sacred assembly; don't do any ordinary work. 36 Offer Fire-Gifts to God for seven days. On the eighth day hold a sacred assembly and offer a gift to God. It is a solemn convocation. Don't do any ordinary work 37 "These are the appointed feasts of God which you will decree as sacred assemblies for presenting Fire-Gifts to God: the Whole-Burnt-Offerings, Grain-Offerings, sacrifices, and Drink-Offerings assigned to each day. 38 These are in addition to offerings for God's Sabbaths and also in addition to other gifts connected with whatever you have vowed and all the Freewill-Offerings you give to God 39 "So, summing up: On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, after you have brought your crops in from your fields, celebrate the Feast of God for seven days. The first day is a complete rest and the eighth day is a complete rest. 40 On the first day, pick the best fruit from the best trees; take fronds of palm trees and branches of leafy trees and from willows by the brook and celebrate in the presence of your God for seven days - 41 yes, for seven full days celebrate it as a festival to God. Every year from now on, celebrate it in the seventh month. 42 Live in booths for seven days - every son and daughter of Israel is to move into booths 43 so that your descendants will know that I made the People of Israel live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am God, your God." 44 Moses posted the calendar for the annual appointed feasts of God which Israel was to celebrate.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Leviticus 23:4-44
Commentary on Leviticus 23:4-14
(Read Leviticus 23:4-14)
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, Proverbs 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.
Commentary on Leviticus 23:15-22
(Read Leviticus 23:15-22)
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.
Commentary on Leviticus 23:23-32
(Read Leviticus 23:23-32)
the blowing of trumpets represented the preaching of the gospel, by which men are called to repent of sin, and to accept the salvation of Christ, which was signified by the day of atonement. Also it invited to rejoice in God, and become strangers and pilgrims on earth, which was denoted by the feast of Tabernacles, observed in the same month. At the beginning of the year, they were called by this sound of trumpet to shake off spiritual drowsiness, to search and try their ways, and to amend them. The day of atonement was the ninth day after this; thus they were awakened to prepare for that day, by sincere and serious repentance, that it might indeed be to them a day of atonement. The humbling of our souls for sin, and the making our peace with God, is work that requires the whole man, and the closest application of mind. On that day God spake peace to his people, and to his saints; therefore they must lay aside all their wordly business, that they might the more clearly hear that voice of joy and gladness.
Commentary on Leviticus 23:33-44
(Read Leviticus 23:33-44)
In the feast of Tabernacles there was a remembrance of their dwelling in tents, or booths, in the wilderness, as well as their fathers dwelling in tents in Canaan; to remind them of their origin and their deliverance. Christ's tabernacling on earth in human nature, might also be prefigured. And it represents the believer's life on earth: a stranger and pilgrim here below, his home and heart are above with his Saviour. They would the more value the comforts and conveniences of their own houses, when they had been seven days dwelling in the booths. It is good for those who have ease and plenty, sometimes to learn what it is to endure hardness. The joy of harvest ought to be improved for the furtherance of our joy in God. The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof; therefore whatever we have the comfort of, he must have the glory of, especially when any mercy is perfected. God appointed these feasts, "Beside the sabbaths and your free-will offerings." Calls to extraordinary services will not excuse from constant and stated ones.