Leviticus 23
The Appointed Times of the LORD and the Weekly Sabbath 1–3
Passover and Unleavened Bread 4–8
The Offering of Firstfruits 9–14
The Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) 15–22
The Feast of Trumpets 23–25
The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) 26–32
The Feast of Tabernacles (Booths) 33–44
Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain
Study Notes for Leviticus 23
Verse 2
my feasts — Moed is an appointed time, used in Gen 1:14 of the lights ‘for signs, and for seasons’, and in 1:1 of the ‘tabernacle of the congregation’, the place of meeting. ‘Proclaim’ (qara) and ‘convocation’ (miqra) share a root, so the holy convocation is a called assembly. Verse 4 repeats the formula and v.37 closes it.
Verse 3
the sabbath of rest — Shabbaton is a rest of observance, the weekly Sabbath placed first among the LORD’s appointed times, and kept ‘in all your dwellings’. Ex 31:15 gives it the same name, ‘the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD’. Christ says ‘the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath’ (Mark 2:28).
Verse 5
the LORD’S passover — Pesach is the passover, ‘it is the LORD’S passover’ (Ex 12:11), kept in the first month, ‘the beginning of months’ (Ex 12:2). It falls on the fourteenth, and the unleavened bread begins on the fifteenth (v.6). Paul writes, ‘Christ our passover is sacrificed for us’ (1 Cor 5:7).
Verse 6
seven days ye must eat unleavened bread — Matstsah is unleavened bread, eaten for seven days from the fifteenth, with the first and seventh days a holy convocation (v.7; Ex 12:16). Ex 12:17 gives the reason: ‘in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt’. Paul applies it: ‘the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth’ (1 Cor 5:8).
Verse 10
a sheaf of the firstfruits — Omer is a sheaf, and the firstfruits (reshit) are the first of the harvest, brought only ‘when ye be come into the land’. Israel ate of its grain at Gilgal ‘on the morrow after the passover’ (Josh 5:11). The sheaf belongs to the LORD first, and Paul calls the risen Christ ‘the firstfruits of them that slept’ (1 Cor 15:20).
Verse 11
wave the sheaf — Nuph is to wave, a lifting and moving of the sheaf ‘before the LORD, to be accepted for you’. ‘The morrow after the sabbath’ has been read of the weekly Sabbath inside the feast and of the feast’s first holy day (v.7). The women came to the tomb ‘as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week’ (Matt 28:1) and found him risen, ‘Christ the firstfruits’ (1 Cor 15:23).
Verse 15
seven sabbaths shall be complete — Saphar is to count, and tamim is whole, so seven full weeks are counted from the day the sheaf was waved. Deut 16:9 says the same, ‘Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee’, beginning when the sickle is put to the corn. The jubilee reckons likewise, ‘seven sabbaths of years’ (25:8).
Verse 16
fifty days — Chamishim is fifty: seven complete weeks make forty-nine days, and the fiftieth is ‘the morrow after the seventh sabbath’. Its Greek name is Pentecost, the fiftieth, and Acts 2:1 begins ‘when the day of Pentecost was fully come’. Deut 16:10 calls it ‘the feast of weeks’, kept with a freewill offering.
Verse 17
baken with leaven — Chamets is leaven, forbidden in every offering made by fire (2:11). These two loaves are a firstfruits offering (bikkurim), and of such ‘they shall not be burnt on the altar for a sweet savour’ (2:12). They are ‘wave loaves’ (tenuphah) of fine flour, ‘two tenth deals’.
Verse 22
the corners of thy field — The gleaning law of 19:9–10 is repeated inside the calendar, between the feast of weeks and the seventh month, with the same people named, ‘the poor, and… the stranger’. The harvest feast thus carries the same provision for them. Boaz told his reapers to ‘let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose’ for Ruth (Ruth 2:16).
Verse 24
a memorial of blowing of trumpets — Teruah is a blast or shout, and zikkaron a memorial. Num 29:1 calls the day ‘a day of blowing the trumpets’, and Num 10:10 says the trumpets are for ‘a memorial before your God’. The seventh month holds three appointed times: this day, the day of atonement (v.27) and the feast of tabernacles (v.34).
Verse 27
a day of atonement — Kippur is the covering for sin, the day of chapter 16, on which Aaron made atonement ‘once in the year’ (Ex 30:10). ‘Afflict your souls’ (anah nephesh) is the command for the day, and Acts 27:9 dates a voyage by ‘the fast’. Hebrews notes that the high priest entered ‘alone once every year’ (Heb 9:7).
Verse 28
no work in that same day — Etsem is the very day itself, rendered ‘that same day’ here and in v.29. ‘To make an atonement for you before the LORD’ (kaphar) is what the day is for. Hebrews presents Christ as ending the yearly repeating: ‘now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself’ (Heb 9:26).
Verse 29
cut off from among his people — The sentence is karath, the same as 22:3. Verse 30 adds that whoever works that day, ‘the same soul will I destroy from among his people’. The day is kept from the ninth day ‘at even, from even unto even’ (v.32), and it is a ‘sabbath of rest’ (shabbaton) like the weekly one in v.3.
Verse 34
the feast of tabernacles — Chag is a pilgrim feast and sukkah a booth. It falls on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, five days after the day of atonement. John 7:2 notes ‘the Jews’ feast of tabernacles was at hand’ before Christ’s teaching in the temple. After the return the people ‘kept also the feast of tabernacles, as it is written’ (Ezra 3:4).
Verse 36
a solemn assembly — Atsarah is a closing assembly, held on the eighth day (Num 29:35). Seven days of offerings by fire come first. John 7:37 places Christ’s invitation ‘In the last day, that great day of the feast’: ‘If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.’
Verse 40
boughs of goodly trees — ‘Boughs’ is peri, usually ‘fruit’, and ‘goodly’ is hadar, splendour. Nehemiah’s people fetched ‘olive branches, and pine branches, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches of thick trees’ to make booths (Neh 8:15). John sees ‘a great multitude’ with ‘palms in their hands’ (Rev 7:9). The command is to ‘rejoice before the LORD your God seven days’.
Verse 42
dwell in booths — Sukkah is a booth, and ezrach means those born in the land, so the command binds every native Israelite. Nehemiah records the return from captivity keeping it: ‘since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done so’ (Neh 8:17). Jacob had once ‘made booths for his cattle’ at Succoth (Gen 33:17).
Verse 43
That your generations may know — The reason is stated in the verse: the booths are what Israel lived in ‘when I brought them out of the land of Egypt’. The law was read to all Israel at this feast every seventh year, ‘that their children, which have not known any thing, may hear’ (Deut 31:10–13). Ps 78:5–6 states the aim: ‘that the generation to come might know them’.