Book of Leviticus · Chapter 23 of 27
44 verses · 5 video commentaries from 2 courses · Berean Standard Bible
1Then 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.
3For 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.
4These are the LORD’s appointed feasts, the sacred assemblies you are to proclaim at their appointed times.
5The Passover to the LORD begins at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month.
6On the fifteenth day of the same month begins the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD. For seven days you must eat unleavened bread.
7On the first day you are to hold a sacred assembly; you are not to do any regular work.
8For seven days you are to present a food offering to the LORD. On the seventh day there shall be a sacred assembly; you must not do any regular work.’”
9And 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.
11And 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.
12On the day you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a year-old lamb without blemish as a burnt offering to the LORD,
13along with its grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil—a food offering to the LORD, a pleasing aroma—and its drink offering of a quarter hin of wine.
14You 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.
15From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, you are to count off seven full weeks.
16You shall count off fifty days until the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the LORD.
17Bring 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.
18Along 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—a food offering, a pleasing aroma to the LORD.
19You shall also prepare one male goat as a sin offering and two male lambs a year old as a peace offering.
20The 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.
21On 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.
22When 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.’”
23The 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.
25You must not do any regular work, but you are to present a food offering to the LORD.’”
26Again 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 a food offering to the LORD.
28On 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.
29If anyone does not humble himself on this day, he must be cut off from his people.
30I will destroy from among his people anyone who does any work on this day.
31You are not to do any work at all. This is a permanent statute for the generations to come, wherever you live.
32It 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.”
33And 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.
35On the first day there shall be a sacred assembly. You must not do any regular work.
36For seven days you are to present a food offering to the LORD. On the eighth day you are to hold a sacred assembly and present a food offering to the LORD. It is a solemn assembly; you must not do any regular work.
37These are the LORD’s appointed feasts, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies for presenting food offerings to the LORD—burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each on its designated day.
38These 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.
39On 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.
40On 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.
41You 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.
42You are to dwell in booths for seven days. All the native-born of Israel must dwell in booths,
43so 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.’”
44So Moses announced to the Israelites the appointed feasts of the LORD.
Lev 23:4-8
A papyrus from Elephantine, dated to 419 BCE, contains instructions for observing Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread, including specific dates. This suggests that Jerusalem was communicating a new, precise calendar for these festivals, likely after Ezra introduced the Torah, which provided these detailed dates for the first time.
Summarized by AI · Judaism Before Jesus · Lecture 3: Ezra and the Law · watch the clip
Lev 23:27-32
Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is described in the Pentateuch as a "Sabbath of Sabbaths" requiring self-affliction. By the first century, this instruction was widely interpreted as fasting from food and drink, a practice observed almost universally by Jews, even those not typically strict in their piety, as noted by Philo and Josephus.
Summarized by AI · Judaism in the Time of Jesus: Torah Law and Everyday Life in First-Century Judea · Lecture 4: Daily Life II: Sabbath and Festivals · watch the clip
Lev 23:15-16
The Pentateuch instructs counting 50 days "on the morrow of the Sabbath" to determine the date of Pentecost. However, the exact interpretation of "the Sabbath" was debated in the first century, leading to different groups observing Pentecost on different days, as evidenced by the Dead Sea Scrolls and rabbinic literature.
Summarized by AI · Judaism in the Time of Jesus: Torah Law and Everyday Life in First-Century Judea · Lecture 4: Daily Life II: Sabbath and Festivals · watch the clip
Lev 23:33-36
Nehemiah 8 describes Ezra's public reading of the Law, during which the people 'discovered' the Festival of Booths (Sukkot) written in the Torah. This indicates that the festival, with its specific instructions for living in booths, was not widely known or observed in Jerusalem before Ezra's arrival, suggesting the Torah he brought was a new or newly emphasized text.
Summarized by AI · Judaism Before Jesus · Lecture 3: Ezra and the Law · watch the clip
Lev 23:40-43
Leviticus 23 outlines two main rituals for Sukkot: dwelling in booths for seven days to commemorate the Israelites' time in the wilderness, and taking the "fruit of a majestic tree, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook." These were understood as separate rituals, widely practiced by Jews in the first century.
Summarized by AI · Judaism in the Time of Jesus: Torah Law and Everyday Life in First-Century Judea · Lecture 4: Daily Life II: Sabbath and Festivals · watch the clip