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Leviticus 23 Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
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Better, <span class= "ital">the festivals of the Lord which ye shall proclaim as holy convocations, these are my festivals. </span>That is, the following festivals God claims as His, on which solemn assemblies are to be held in the sanctuary.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-3.htm">Leviticus 23:3</a></div><div class="verse">Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day <i>is</i> the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work <i>therein</i>: it <i>is</i> the sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings.</div>(3) <span class= "bld">Six days shall work be done.</span>—Recurring every week, and being the most important as well as the oldest of all festivals, the sabbath introduces the holy seasons. Hence, during the second Temple it was declared that “the sabbath is in importance equal to the whole law; he who profanes the sabbath openly is like him who transgresses the whole law.” The hour at which it began and ended was announced by three blasts of the trumpets.<p><span class= "bld">Ye shall do no work therein.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">ye shall do no manner of work, </span>as the Authorised version renders this phrase in <a href="/leviticus/23-31.htm" title="You shall do no manner of work: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.">Leviticus 23:31</a> of this very chapter. (See <a href="/leviticus/16-29.htm" title="And this shall be a statute for ever to you: that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger that sojournes among you:">Leviticus 16:29</a>.) Whilst on all other festivals servile work only was forbidden (see <a href="/context/leviticus/23-7.htm" title="In the first day you shall have an holy convocation: you shall do no servile work therein.">Leviticus 23:7-8</a>; <a href="/leviticus/23-21.htm" title="And you shall proclaim on the selfsame day, that it may be an holy convocation to you: you shall do no servile work therein: it shall be a statute for ever in all your dwellings throughout your generations.">Leviticus 23:21</a>; <a href="/leviticus/23-25.htm" title="You shall do no servile work therein: but you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD.">Leviticus 23:25</a>; <a href="/context/leviticus/23-35.htm" title="On the first day shall be an holy convocation: you shall do no servile work therein.">Leviticus 23:35-36</a>), and work connected with the preparation of the necessary food was permitted (see <a href="/exodus/12-16.htm" title="And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you.">Exodus 12:16</a>), the sabbath and the day of atonement were the only days on which the Israelites were prohibited to engage in any work whatsoever. (See <a href="/leviticus/23-28.htm" title="And you shall do no work in that same day: for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the LORD your God.">Leviticus 23:28</a>; <a href="/leviticus/23-30.htm" title="And whatever soul it be that does any work in that same day, the same soul will I destroy from among his people.">Leviticus 23:30</a>; <a href="/leviticus/16-29.htm" title="And this shall be a statute for ever to you: that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger that sojournes among you:">Leviticus 16:29</a>.) Though manual labour on the sabbath was punished with death by lapidation (see <a href="/context/exodus/31-14.htm" title="You shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy to you: every one that defiles it shall surely be put to death: for whoever does any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.">Exodus 31:14-15</a>; <a href="/exodus/35-2.htm" title="Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a sabbath of rest to the LORD: whoever does work therein shall be put to death.">Exodus 35:2</a>; <a href="/context/numbers/15-35.htm" title="And the LORD said to Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp.">Numbers 15:35-36</a>), and though the authorities during the second Temple multiplied and registered most minutely the things which constitute labour, yet these administrators of the Law have enacted that in cases of illness and of any danger work is permitted. They laid down the principle that “the sabbath is delivered into your hand, but not you into the hand of the sabbath.” Similar is the declaration of Christ (<a href="/matthew/12-8.htm" title="For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.">Matthew 12:8</a>, <a href="/context/mark/2-27.htm" title="And he said to them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:">Mark 2:27-28</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-4.htm">Leviticus 23:4</a></div><div class="verse">These <i>are</i> the feasts of the LORD, <i>even</i> holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons.</div>(4) <span class= "bld">These are the feasts of the Lord.</span>—Because the following are the festivals proper as distinguished from the sabbath (see <a href="/context/leviticus/23-37.htm" title="These are the feasts of the LORD, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire to the LORD, a burnt offering, and a meat offering, a sacrifice, and drink offerings, every thing on his day:">Leviticus 23:37-38</a>), and because they are now enumerated in their regular order, the introductory heading is here repeated.<p><span class= "bld">Ye shall proclaim in their seasons.</span>—By the blast of trumpets on the day of the month on which they are to be observed.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-5.htm">Leviticus 23:5</a></div><div class="verse">In the fourteenth <i>day</i> of the first month at even <i>is</i> the LORD'S passover.</div>(5) <span class= "bld">In the fourteenth day of the first month.</span>—This month is called <span class= "ital">Abib </span>in the Pentateuch (<a href="/exodus/13-4.htm" title="This day came you out in the month Abib.">Exodus 13:4</a>; <a href="/exodus/23-15.htm" title="You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread: (you shall eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded you, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it you came out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty:)">Exodus 23:15</a>; <a href="/deuteronomy/16-1.htm" title="Observe the month of Abib, and keep the passover to the LORD your God: for in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you forth out of Egypt by night.">Deuteronomy 16:1</a>), and <span class= "ital">Nisan </span>in the later books of Scripture (<a href="/nehemiah/2-1.htm" title="And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him: and I took up the wine, and gave it to the king. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence.">Nehemiah 2:1</a>; <a href="/esther/3-7.htm" title="In the first month, that is, the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of king Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman from day to day, and from month to month, to the twelfth month, that is, the month Adar.">Esther 3:7</a>). The fourteenth day of this month is about the beginning of April. On this day, which was called both “the preparation for the Passover” (<a href="/john/19-14.htm" title="And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and he said to the Jews, Behold your King!">John 19:14</a>), and “the first day of Passover,” all handicraftsmen, with the exception of tailors, barbers, and laundresses, were obliged to relinquish work either from morning or from noon, according to the custom of the different places in Palestine. Leaven was only eaten till midday, and it had to be burned in the afternoon. The time for desisting from and burning the leaven was thus indicated: “Two desecrated cakes of thanksgiving offerings were placed on a bench in the Temple; as long as they were thus exposed all the people ate leaven. When one of them was removed they abstained from eating, but did not burn it; but when the other was taken away all the people began burning the leaven.” It was on this day that every Israelite who was not infirm, ceremonially defiled, uncircumcised, or beyond fifteen miles from the walls of Jerusalem, had to appear before the Lord in the holy city, with an offering in proportion to his means (<a href="/exodus/23-5.htm" title="If you see the ass of him that hates you lying under his burden, and would forbear to help him, you shall surely help with him.">Exodus 23:5</a>; <a href="/context/deuteronomy/16-16.htm" title="Three times in a year shall all your males appear before the LORD your God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty:">Deuteronomy 16:16-17</a>). Those who came from the country were gratuitously accommodated by the inhabitants with the necessary apartments (<a href="/context/luke/22-10.htm" title="And he said to them, Behold, when you are entered into the city, there shall a man meet you, bearing a pitcher of water; follow him into the house where he enters in.">Luke 22:10-12</a>; <a href="/matthew/26-18.htm" title="And he said, Go into the city to such a man, and say to him, The Master said, My time is at hand; I will keep the passover at your house with my disciples.">Matthew 26:18</a>), and the guests in acknowledgment of the hospitality they received left to their hosts the skins of the paschal lambs, and the vessels which they used in their religious ceremonies. Josephus, who was an eye-witness to the fact, tells us that at the Passover, in the reign of Nero, there were 2,700,000 people, when 256,500 lambs were sacrificed. Most of the Jews must therefore have encamped in tents without the walls of the city, as the Mohammedan pilgrims now do at Mecca. It was for this reason that the Romans took great precaution, using both force and conciliatory measures, during the festivals (<a href="/matthew/26-5.htm" title="But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar among the people.">Matthew 26:5</a>; <a href="/luke/13-1.htm" title="There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.">Luke 13:1</a>).<p><span class= "bld">At even.</span>—Or, <span class= "ital">in the evening, </span>as the Authorised version renders this phrase in the parallel passage (<a href="/exodus/12-6.htm" title="And you shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.">Exodus 12:6</a>), literally, <span class= "ital">denotes between the two evenings. </span>The interpretation of this expression constituted one of the differences between the Sadducees and the Pharisees during the second Temple, and seriously affected the time for offering up the paschal lamb and the evening sacrifices. According to the Sadducees it denotes the time between the setting of the sun and the moment when the stars become visible, or when darkness sets in, <span class= "ital">i.e., </span>between six and seven o’clock, a space of about one hour and twenty minutes. According to the Pharisees, however, “between the two evenings” means from the afternoon to the disappearing of the sun. The first evening is from the time when the sun begins to decline towards the west, whilst the second is when it goes down and vanishes out of sight. This is the reason why the paschal lamb in the evening sacrifice began to be killed and the blood sprinkled at 12.30 p.m. This is more in harmony with the fact that the large number of sacrifices on this day could only be offered up in the longer period of time.<p><span class= "bld">The Lord’s passover.</span>—Also called “the feast of unleavened bread.” (See <a href="/leviticus/23-6.htm" title="And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread to the LORD: seven days you must eat unleavened bread.">Leviticus 23:6</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-6.htm">Leviticus 23:6</a></div><div class="verse">And on the fifteenth day of the same month <i>is</i> the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.</div>(6) <span class= "bld">Seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.</span>—See <a href="/exodus/12-15.htm" title="Seven days shall you eat unleavened bread; even the first day you shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.">Exodus 12:15</a>; <a href="/context/exodus/12-18.htm" title="In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even.">Exodus 12:18-20</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-7.htm">Leviticus 23:7</a></div><div class="verse">In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.</div>(7) <span class= "bld">In the first day.</span>—That is, the first of the seven days, or the fifteenth of the month Nisan. (See <a href="/exodus/12-16.htm" title="And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you.">Exodus 12:16</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">Ye shall do no servile work therein.</span>—Servile work was defined during the second Temple to consist in building, pulling down edifices, weaving, reaping, threshing, winnowing, grinding, &c, whilst needful work which was allowed was killing beasts, kneading dough, baking bread, boiling, roasting, &e. For violating this law the offender was not to be stoned to death, as in the case of violating the sabbath, but to receive forty stripes save one.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-8.htm">Leviticus 23:8</a></div><div class="verse">But ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD seven days: in the seventh day <i>is</i> an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work <i>therein</i>.</div>(8) <span class= "bld">But ye shall offer.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">and ye shall offer. </span>In addition to the daily ordinary sacrifices, there were offered on this day, and on the following six days, two young bullocks, a ram, and seven lambs of the first year, with meat offerings for a burnt offering, and a goat for a sin offering (<a href="/context/numbers/28-19.htm" title="But you shall offer a sacrifice made by fire for a burnt offering to the LORD; two young bullocks, and one ram, and seven lambs of the first year: they shall be to you without blemish:">Numbers 28:19-23</a>). Be sides these public sacrifices, there were the voluntary offerings which were made by every private individual who appeared before the Lord in Jerusalem (<a href="/exodus/23-15.htm" title="You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread: (you shall eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded you, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it you came out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty:)">Exodus 23:15</a>; <a href="/deuteronomy/16-16.htm" title="Three times in a year shall all your males appear before the LORD your God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty:">Deuteronomy 16:16</a>), and which, according to the practice during the second Temple, consisted of (1) a burnt offering of not less in value than sixteen grains of corn; (2) a festive offering called <span class= "ital">chagigah, </span>the minimum value of which was thirty-two grains of corn; and (3) a peace or joyful offering (<a href="/deuteronomy/27-7.htm" title="And you shall offer peace offerings, and shall eat there, and rejoice before the LORD your God.">Deuteronomy 27:7</a>), the value of which was left to be determined by the good will of the offerer in accordance with <a href="/deuteronomy/27-7.htm" title="And you shall offer peace offerings, and shall eat there, and rejoice before the LORD your God.">Deuteronomy 27:7</a>. These victims were offered with the ritual prescribed in <a href="/context/leviticus/3-1.htm" title="And if his oblation be a sacrifice of peace offering, if he offer it of the herd; whether it be a male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before the LORD.">Leviticus 3:1-5</a>; <a href="/context/leviticus/7-16.htm" title="But if the sacrifice of his offering be a vow, or a voluntary offering, it shall be eaten the same day that he offers his sacrifice: and on the morrow also the remainder of it shall be eaten:">Leviticus 7:16-18</a>; <a href="/context/leviticus/7-29.htm" title="Speak to the children of Israel, saying, He that offers the sacrifice of his peace offerings to the LORD shall bring his oblation to the LORD of the sacrifice of his peace offerings.">Leviticus 7:29-34</a>.<p><span class= "bld">In the seventh day . . . ye shall do no servile work.</span>—This was, in all respects, celebrated like the first, with the exception that it did not commence with the paschal meal. During the intervening days the people indulged in public amusements, as dances, songs, games, &c, to fill up the time in harmony with the joyful and solemn character of the festival. They were also allowed to irrigate dry land, dig watercourses, repair conduits, reservoirs, roads, &c.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-9.htm">Leviticus 23:9</a></div><div class="verse">And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,</div>(9) <span class= "bld">And the Lord spake unto Moses.</span>—As the celebration of the sheaf of first-fruits formed no part of the original institution of the Passover (<a href="/context/exodus/12-1.htm" title="And the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt saying,">Exodus 12:1-20</a>), and as the omer ritual could not be observed in the wilderness, where there was no sowing of corn, it is here enacted as a prospective part of the feast of unleavened bread, and hence is introduced by a separate formula.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-10.htm">Leviticus 23:10</a></div><div class="verse">Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest:</div>(10) <span class= "bld">When ye be come into the land.</span>—This is the third of the four instances in Leviticus where a law is given prospectively, having no immediate bearing on the condition of the people of Israel. (See <a href="/leviticus/19-23.htm" title="And when you shall come into the land, and shall have planted all manner of trees for food, then you shall count the fruit thereof as uncircumcised: three years shall it be as uncircumcised to you: it shall not be eaten of.">Leviticus 19:23</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">Then ye shall bring a sheaf of the first-fruits of your harvest.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">ye shall bring the first-fruit omer of your harvest. </span>The omer had to be from the best and ripest standing corn of a field near Jerusalem. The measure of an omer was of the meal obtained from the barley offering. Hence three <span class= "ital">seahs = </span>one <span class= "ital">ephah, </span>or ten omers, were at first gathered in the following manner :—“Delegates from the Sanhedrim went into the field nearest to Jerusalem a day before the festival, and tied together the ears in bundles whilst still fastened to the ground.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-11.htm">Leviticus 23:11</a></div><div class="verse">And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.</div>(11) <span class= "bld">And he shall wave the sheaf.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">and he shall wave the omer. </span>The priest mixed with the omer of meal a log of oil, put on a handful of frankincense (see <a href="/leviticus/2-15.htm" title="And you shall put oil on it, and lay frankincense thereon: it is a meat offering.">Leviticus 2:15</a>), as on other meat-offerings, waved it, took a handful of it and caused it to ascend in smoke (see <a href="/leviticus/2-16.htm" title="And the priest shall burn the memorial of it, part of the beaten corn thereof, and part of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof: it is an offering made by fire to the LORD.">Leviticus 2:16</a>), and then consumed the residue in company with his fellow-priests. Immediately after this ceremony, bread, parched corn, green ears, &c, of the new crop were exposed for sale in the streets of Jerusalem, as, prior to the offering of the omer, no use whatever was allowed to be made of the new corn.<p><span class= "bld">On the morrow after the sabbath.—</span>The interpretation of this phrase also constituted one of the differences between the Pharisees and the Sadducees during the second Temple. According to the Pharisees, the term sabbath here, as elsewhere (see <a href="/leviticus/23-24.htm" title="Speak to the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall you have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation.">Leviticus 23:24</a>; <a href="/leviticus/23-32.htm" title="It shall be to you a sabbath of rest, and you shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even to even, shall you celebrate your sabbath.">Leviticus 23:32</a>; <a href="/leviticus/23-39.htm" title="Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep a feast to the LORD seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath.">Leviticus 23:39</a>), is not the weekly sabbath, but the next day, or the first day of the holy convocation, the first day of Passover, on which the Israelites had to abstain from all unnecessary work. It is the 16th of Nisan. The Sadducees, however, maintained that it is to be understood in its literal sense as denoting the weekly sab-bath in the Passover week, which might happen to fall within the seven days, and possibly the fifth or sixth day of the festival. But this is against the import of <a href="/leviticus/23-15.htm" title="And you shall count to you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete:">Leviticus 23:15</a>. Here the feast of Pentecost is to be reckoned from this sabbath, and if this sabbath might either be on the second or sixth day of the Passover, not only would the feast of Pentecost have no definite day, but the Passover itself would, in the course of time, be displaced from the fundamental position which it occupies in the order of the annual festivals. Hence the Pharisees, rightly regarding the word sabbath here as an alternative term for the day of holy convocation, took the morrow after the sabbath to denote Nisan 16. On the afternoon of this day, therefore, the inhabitants of the neighbouring towns of Jerusalem assembled together “so that the reaping might take place amidst great tumult.” As soon as it became dark, each of the reapers asked, “Has the sun gone down?” To which the people replied, “Yes.” They asked twice again, “Has the sun gone down?” to which the people each time replied, “Yes.” Each reaper then asked three times, “Is this the scythe? “to which the people each time replied “Yes.” “Is this the box?” they next asked three times. “Yes,” was again thrice the reply of the people. “Is this the Sabbath?” the reaper asked three times; and three times the people replied, “Yes.” “Shall I cut?” he asked three times; and three times the people replied, “Yes.” When cut it was laid in boxes, brought into the court of the Temple, threshed with canes and sticks, that the grains might not be crushed, and laid in a roast with holes, so that the fire might touch each grain. Thereupon it was spread in the court of the sanctuary for the wind to pass over it, and ground in a barley mill which left the hulls unground. The flour thus obtained was sifted through thirteen different sieves, each one finer than its predecessor. In this manner was the prescribed omer or tenth part got from the seah.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-12.htm">Leviticus 23:12</a></div><div class="verse">And ye shall offer that day when ye wave the sheaf an he lamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt offering unto the LORD.</div>(12) <span class= "bld">And he shall offer.—</span>With the omer of the first-fruits a lamb was offered, besides the sacrifices for the feast enumerated in <a href="/leviticus/23-8.htm" title="But you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD seven days: in the seventh day is an holy convocation: you shall do no servile work therein.">Leviticus 23:8</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-13.htm">Leviticus 23:13</a></div><div class="verse">And the meat offering thereof <i>shall be</i> two tenth deals of fine flour mingled with oil, an offering made by fire unto the LORD <i>for</i> a sweet savour: and the drink offering thereof <i>shall be</i> of wine, the fourth <i>part</i> of an hin.</div>(13) <span class= "bld">Two tenth deals of fine flour.</span>—Ordinarily only one-tenth deal of fine Hour was required for a meat-offering (<a href="/exodus/29-40.htm" title="And with the one lamb a tenth deal of flour mingled with the fourth part of an hin of beaten oil; and the fourth part of an hin of wine for a drink offering.">Exodus 29:40</a>; <a href="/numbers/15-4.htm" title="Then shall he that offers his offering to the LORD bring a meat offering of a tenth deal of flour mingled with the fourth part of an hin of oil.">Numbers 15:4</a>; <a href="/numbers/28-9.htm" title="And on the sabbath day two lambs of the first year without spot, and two tenth deals of flour for a meat offering, mingled with oil, and the drink offering thereof:">Numbers 28:9</a>; <a href="/numbers/28-13.htm" title="And a several tenth deal of flour mingled with oil for a meat offering to one lamb; for a burnt offering of a sweet smell, a sacrifice made by fire to the LORD.">Numbers 28:13</a>, &c.), to exhibit the plentiful harvest. With the exception of the handful of flour and oil, and of all the frankincense, this meat-offering was the perquisite of the priests. (See <a href="/context/leviticus/2-2.htm" title="And he shall bring it to Aaron's sons the priests: and he shall take out of there his handful of the flour thereof, and of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof; and the priest shall burn the memorial of it on the altar, to be an offering made by fire, of a sweet smell to the LORD:">Leviticus 2:2-3</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-14.htm">Leviticus 23:14</a></div><div class="verse">And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the selfsame day that ye have brought an offering unto your God: <i>it shall be</i> a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.</div>(14) <span class= "bld">And ye shall eat neither bread.</span>—In acknowledgment of the bountiful Giver of the new harvest, it was ordained that the Israelites were not to taste any of it till they had dedicated the first- fruit to the Lord. By bread is meant the unleavened bread which they were now enjoined to eat. The unleavened bread for the first and the second days of Passover was prepared from the last year’s harvest, but the bread for the following days could only be made from the new harvest after the normal dedication of it to the Lord.<p><span class= "bld">Parched corn.—</span>See <a href="/leviticus/2-14.htm" title="And if you offer a meat offering of your first fruits to the LORD, you shall offer for the meat offering of your first fruits green ears of corn dried by the fire, even corn beaten out of full ears.">Leviticus 2:14</a>.<p><span class= "bld">Green ears.—</span>The expression <span class= "ital">carmel, </span>which the Authorised version renders “full ears” in Lev. 214, the authorities during the second Temple took to denote the five kinds of the new grain, viz., wheat, rye, oats, and two kinds of barley, which were forbidden to be used in any form whatsoever prior to this public dedication of the harvest to the Lord. The same custom of dedicating the first-fruits of the harvest to the divine beings also obtained amongst the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and other nations of antiquity.<p><span class= "bld">A statute for ever . . . —</span>See <a href="/leviticus/3-17.htm" title="It shall be a perpetual statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that you eat neither fat nor blood.">Leviticus 3:17</a>; <a href="/context/leviticus/7-23.htm" title="Speak to the children of Israel, saying, You shall eat no manner of fat, of ox, or of sheep, or of goat.">Leviticus 7:23-25</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-15.htm">Leviticus 23:15</a></div><div class="verse">And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete:</div>(15) <span class= "bld">Ye shall count . . . from the morrow after the sabbath.</span>—That is, from the day following the first day of holy convocation, which was a rest day. As this was the fifteenth of Nisan, the counting began from the sixteenth (see <a href="/leviticus/23-11.htm" title="And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.">Leviticus 23:11</a>), the day on which the omer of the first-fruits was presented to the Lord.<p><span class= "bld">Seven sabbaths shall be complete.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">seven weeks shall be complete. </span>That is, seven entire weeks, making forty-nine days. The expression sabbath denotes here a week, hence the parallel passage substitutes the word week, viz., “seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee” (<a href="/deuteronomy/16-9.htm" title="Seven weeks shall you number to you: begin to number the seven weeks from such time as you begin to put the sickle to the corn.">Deuteronomy 16:9</a>), The same usage is to be found in the New Testament. Thus the passage rendered in the Authorised version, “the first day of the week,” is “the first day of the sabbath” (<a href="/matthew/28-1.htm" title="In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher.">Matthew 28:1</a>); and “I fast twice in the week” (<a href="/luke/18-12.htm" title="I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.">Luke 18:12</a>), is, “I fast twice in the sabbath.” In accordance with the injunction here given, the Jews to the present day begin to count the forty-nine days at the conclusion of the evening service on the second day of Passover, and pronounce the following blessing every evening of the forty-nine days: “Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who hast sanctified us with thy commandments, and hast enjoined us to count the omer. This is the first day of the omer. May it please thee, O Lord our God, and the God of our fathers, to rebuild the sanctuary speedily in our days, and give us our portion in thy Law.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-16.htm">Leviticus 23:16</a></div><div class="verse">Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD.</div>(16) <span class= "bld">Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath.</span>—That is, the day after the seven complete weeks, or the fiftieth day. Hence its name, “Pentecost, or fiftieth-day” feast in the New Testament (<a href="/acts/2-1.htm" title="And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.">Acts 2:1</a>; <a href="/acts/20-16.htm" title="For Paul had determined to sail by Ephesus, because he would not spend the time in Asia: for he hurried, if it were possible for him, to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost.">Acts 20:16</a>; <a href="/1_corinthians/16-8.htm" title="But I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost.">1Corinthians 16:8</a>), and “feast of weeks” in the Old Testament (<a href="/exodus/34-12.htm" title="Take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you go, lest it be for a snare in the middle of you:">Exodus 34:12</a>; <a href="/deuteronomy/16-10.htm" title="And you shall keep the feast of weeks to the LORD your God with a tribute of a freewill offering of your hand, which you shall give to the LORD your God, according as the LORD your God has blessed you:">Deuteronomy 16:10</a>; <a href="/deuteronomy/16-16.htm" title="Three times in a year shall all your males appear before the LORD your God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty:">Deuteronomy 16:16</a>; <a href="/2_chronicles/8-13.htm" title="Even after a certain rate every day, offering according to the commandment of Moses, on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the solemn feasts, three times in the year, even in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles.">2Chronicles 8:13</a>). The fiftieth day, according to the Jewish canons, may fall on the 5th, 6th, or 7th of <span class= "ital">Sivan, </span>the third month of the year, <span class= "ital">i.e., </span>from the new moon of May to the new moon of June.<p><span class= "bld">Shall offer a new meat offering.</span>—That is, of the first-fruits of the wheat-harvest in contradistinction to the omer first-fruits, which was of barley-harvest. Hence this festival is also called “the feast of harvest” (<a href="/exodus/23-16.htm" title="And the feast of harvest, the first fruits of your labors, which you have sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when you have gathered in your labors out of the field.">Exodus 23:16</a>), because it concluded the harvest of the later grain.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-17.htm">Leviticus 23:17</a></div><div class="verse">Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; <i>they are</i> the firstfruits unto the LORD.</div>(17) <span class= "bld">Ye shall bring out of your habitations.</span>—During the second Temple this clause was taken to be elliptical, and to denote ye shall <span class= "ital">bring out of, </span>or <span class= "ital">from, the land of your habitations, </span>that is, from Palestine (<a href="/numbers/15-2.htm" title="Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When you be come into the land of your habitations, which I give to you,">Numbers 15:2</a>).<p><span class= "bld">Two wave loaves of two tenth deals.</span>—These two loaves were prepared in the following manner. Three seahs of new wheat were brought into the court of the Temple, were beaten and trodden and ground into flour. Two omers of the flour were respectively obtained from a seah and a half, and after having been sieved in the twelve different sieves, were kneaded separately with leaven into two loaves outside the Temple, but were baked inside the sanctuary on the day preceding the festival. Each loaf was seven hand-breadths long, four hand-breadths broad, and five fingers high. These were offered to the Lord as firstlings (<a href="/exodus/34-17.htm" title="You shall make you no molten gods.">Exodus 34:17</a>), whence this festival is also called “the day of first-fruits” (<a href="/numbers/28-26.htm" title="Also in the day of the first fruits, when you bring a new meat offering to the LORD, after your weeks be out, you shall have an holy convocation; you shall do no servile work:">Numbers 28:26</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-18.htm">Leviticus 23:18</a></div><div class="verse">And ye shall offer with the bread seven lambs without blemish of the first year, and one young bullock, and two rams: they shall be <i>for</i> a burnt offering unto the LORD, with their meat offering, and their drink offerings, <i>even</i> an offering made by fire, of sweet savour unto the LORD.</div>(18) <span class= "bld">And ye shall offer with the bread seven lambs.</span>—The additional sacrifices for the feast day consisted of two bullocks, one ram, and seven lambs, which were a burnt offering, and of a goat as a sin offering (<a href="/context/numbers/28-26.htm" title="Also in the day of the first fruits, when you bring a new meat offering to the LORD, after your weeks be out, you shall have an holy convocation; you shall do no servile work:">Numbers 28:26-27</a>; <a href="/numbers/28-30.htm" title="And one kid of the goats, to make an atonement for you.">Numbers 28:30</a>). Besides these, however, the new meat offering of the two loaves mentioned in the text before us is to be brought, and with it are to be offered one bullock, two rams, and seven lambs, all for burnt offerings.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-19.htm">Leviticus 23:19</a></div><div class="verse">Then ye shall sacrifice one kid of the goats for a sin offering, and two lambs of the first year for a sacrifice of peace offerings.</div>(19) <span class= "bld">Then ye shall sacrifice.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">and ye shall sacrifice. </span>They were, moreover, to offer a goat for a sin offering, and two lambs for a peace offering. Hence Josephus, who was an eye-witness to the Temple service, in summing up the number of animal sacrifices on this festival, says that there were fourteen lambs, three young bullocks, and three goats, the number <span class= "ital">two </span>instead of three goats being manifestly a transcriber’s error (<span class= "ital">Antiq. </span>III<span class= "bld">., </span>10:6). The two statements, therefore, viz., the one in the passage before us, and the other in <a href="/numbers/28-27.htm" title="But you shall offer the burnt offering for a sweet smell to the LORD; two young bullocks, one ram, seven lambs of the first year;">Numbers 28:27</a>, according to the authorities during the second Temple, refer to two distinct sacrifices. The one before us speaks of the sacrifices which are to accompany the wave loaves, whilst the order in Numbers refers to the properly appointed sacrifices for the festival. Those prescribed in Numbers were offered in the wilderness, whilst those prescribed here were only to be offered when the Israelites entered the Promised Land.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-20.htm">Leviticus 23:20</a></div><div class="verse">And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits <i>for</i> a wave offering before the LORD, with the two lambs: they shall be holy to the LORD for the priest.</div>(20) <span class= "bld">And the priest shall wave them . . . with the two lambs.</span>—During the second Temple this was done in the following manner :—The two lambs were brought into the Temple, and waved together or separately by the priest while yet alive. Whereupon they were slain, and the priest took the breast and shoulder of each one (see <a href="/context/leviticus/7-30.htm" title="His own hands shall bring the offerings of the LORD made by fire, the fat with the breast, it shall he bring, that the breast may be waved for a wave offering before the LORD.">Leviticus 7:30-32</a>), laid them down by the side of the two loaves, put both his hands under them, and waved them all together or separately towards the east side forwards and backwards, up and down. He then burned the fat of the two lambs, after which the remainder of the flesh, which became the perquisite of the officiating priest, was eaten by him and his fellow-priests. Of the two loaves the high priest took one, and the other was divided between the officiating priests, who had to eat them up within the same day and half the following night, just as the flesh of the most holy things. After these prescribed sacrifices had been offered, each individual brought his free-will offering, which formed the cheerful and hospitable meal of the family, and to which the Levite, the widow, the orphan, the poor, and the stranger, were invited.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-21.htm">Leviticus 23:21</a></div><div class="verse">And ye shall proclaim on the selfsame day, <i>that</i> it may be an holy convocation unto you: ye shall do no servile work <i>therein: it shall be</i> a statute for ever in all your dwellings throughout your generations.</div>(21).<span class= "bld">And ye shall proclaim on the selfsame day.</span>—This proclamation was made to the people by the priest with trumpet blasts.<p><span class= "bld">Ye shall do no servile work.</span>—For what constituted servile work, see <a href="/leviticus/23-7.htm" title="In the first day you shall have an holy convocation: you shall do no servile work therein.">Leviticus 23:7</a>.<p><span class= "bld">A statute for ever . . . . —</span>See <a href="/leviticus/23-14.htm" title="And you shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the selfsame day that you have brought an offering to your God: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.">Leviticus 23:14</a>, <a href="/leviticus/3-17.htm" title="It shall be a perpetual statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that you eat neither fat nor blood.">Leviticus 3:17</a>; <a href="/context/leviticus/7-23.htm" title="Speak to the children of Israel, saying, You shall eat no manner of fat, of ox, or of sheep, or of goat.">Leviticus 7:23-25</a>. In accordance with this declaration, and with the fact that the Jews during the second Temple regarded it as the day on which the Decalogue was given, the Israelites to this day sacredly keep this festival on the 6th and 7th of <span class= "ital">Sivan, i.e. </span>between the second half of May and the first half of June. From their circumstances, however, the harvest character of the festival is now subordinate, and more prominence is given to its commemorating the giving of the Law on Sinai. Still the synagogues and the private houses are adorned with flowers and odoriferous herbs. The male members of the community purify themselves for its celebration by immersion and confession of sin, and many of them spend all night in their respective places of worship.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-22.htm">Leviticus 23:22</a></div><div class="verse">And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I <i>am</i> the LORD your God.</div>(22) <span class= "bld">Thou shalt not make a clean riddance.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">thou shalt not wholly reap, </span>as the Authorised version translates the same phrase in <a href="/leviticus/19-9.htm" title="And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, neither shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest.">Leviticus 19:9</a>. In the midst of rejoicing and thankfulness to God for a bountiful harvest, the Lawgiver again inculcates the duty of remembering the poor, and reminds the proprietors of the land that the needy have legally a share in the produce, as has been enacted in <a href="/leviticus/19-9.htm" title="And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, neither shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest.">Leviticus 19:9</a>.<span class= "bld"><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-23.htm">Leviticus 23:23</a></div><div class="verse">And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,</div>(23) <span class= "bld">And the Lord spake unto Moses.</span>—The new festival about which regulations are given in <a href="/context/leviticus/23-24.htm" title="Speak to the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall you have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation.">Leviticus 23:24-32</a>, is introduced by a separate formula, which describes the subject matter as a separate and distinct Divine communication.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-24.htm">Leviticus 23:24</a></div><div class="verse">Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first <i>day</i> of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation.</div>(24) <span class= "bld">A memorial of blowing of trumpets.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">remembrance blowing, </span>for which see <a href="/numbers/29-1.htm" title="And in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have an holy convocation; you shall do no servile work: it is a day of blowing the trumpets to you.">Numbers 29:1</a>, the only place in the Old Testament where this festival is named as “the day of blessing,” <span class= "ital">i.e., </span>the trumpets. As the first of <span class= "ital">Ethanim, </span>as the month is called in the Bible (<a href="/1_kings/8-2.htm" title="And all the men of Israel assembled themselves to king Solomon at the feast in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month.">1Kings 8:2</a>), or <span class= "ital">Tishri, </span>as the Jews call it, in which this festival occurs, is the commencement of the civil new year, this festival was called “the Festival of New Year” ever since the time of the second Temple, and has been regarded as preparatory to the great day of Atonement, which is ten days later. The blowing of trumpets, therefore, which was the distinguishing feature of this festival, was designed to summon the Israelites to enter upon the work of sanctification, which will be accounted to them as a merit in the sight of God, and for which they are promised to be especially remembered before the Lord (<a href="/context/numbers/10-9.htm" title="And if you go to war in your land against the enemy that oppresses you, then you shall blow an alarm with the trumpets; and you shall be remembered before the LORD your God, and you shall be saved from your enemies.">Numbers 10:9-10</a>). Hence its name, <span class= "ital">Remembrance blowing—</span>the blowing of trumpets, which will make them to be remembered before the Lord. The synagogue, however, takes the name more in the sense of “reminding” God of the merits of the patriarchs and his covenant with them, and for this reason has appointed <a href="/context/genesis/21-1.htm" title="And the LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did to Sarah as he had spoken.">Genesis 21:1-34</a>; <a href="/context/genesis/22-1.htm" title="And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said to him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.">Genesis 22:1-24</a>, recording the birth and sacrifice of Isaac, as the lesson for this festival.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-25.htm">Leviticus 23:25</a></div><div class="verse">Ye shall do no servile work <i>therein</i>: but ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD.</div>(25) <span class= "bld">Ye shall do no servile work.</span>—With the exception of what was absolutely necessary, all handicraft and trade were stopped. (See <a href="/leviticus/23-7.htm" title="In the first day you shall have an holy convocation: you shall do no servile work therein.">Leviticus 23:7</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">But ye shall offer.</span>—As the festival is also the new moon, a threefold sacrifice was offered on it, (1) viz. the ordinary daily sacrifice which was offered first; (2) the appointed new moon sacrifice (<a href="/context/numbers/28-11.htm" title="And in the beginnings of your months you shall offer a burnt offering to the LORD; two young bullocks, and one ram, seven lambs of the first year without spot;">Numbers 28:11-15</a>); and (3) the sacrifice for this festival, which consisted of a young bullock, a ram, and seven lambs of the first year, with the usual meat offerings, and a kid for a sin offering (<a href="/context/numbers/29-1.htm" title="And in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have an holy convocation; you shall do no servile work: it is a day of blowing the trumpets to you.">Numbers 29:1-6</a>). With the exception, therefore, of there being one bullock instead of two, this sacrifice was simply a repetition of the monthly offering by which it was preceded in the service. During the offering of the drink offering and the burnt offering the Levites engaged in vocal and instrumental music, singing the eighty-first and other psalms, whilst the priests at stated intervals broke forth with awful blasts of the trumpets. After the offering up of the sacrifices, the service was concluded by the priests, who pronounced the benediction (<a href="/context/numbers/6-23.htm" title="Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, On this wise you shall bless the children of Israel, saying to them,">Numbers 6:23-27</a>), which the people received in a prostrate position before the Lord. Having prostrated themselves a second time in the court, the congregation resorted to the adjoining synagogue, where the appointed lessons from the Law and the Prophets were read, consisting of <a href="/context/genesis/21-1.htm" title="And the LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did to Sarah as he had spoken.">Genesis 21:1-34</a>; <a href="/context/numbers/29-1.htm" title="And in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have an holy convocation; you shall do no servile work: it is a day of blowing the trumpets to you.">Numbers 29:1-6</a>; <a href="/1_samuel/1-1.htm" title="Now there was a certain man of Ramathaimzophim, of mount Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephrathite:">1Samuel 1:1</a> to <a href="/1_samuel/2-10.htm" title="The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall he thunder on them: the LORD shall judge the ends of the earth; and he shall give strength to his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed.">1Samuel 2:10</a>; <a href="/context/genesis/22-1.htm" title="And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said to him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.">Genesis 22:1-24</a>; <a href="/context/jeremiah/31-2.htm" title="Thus said the LORD, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.">Jeremiah 31:2-20</a>. Psalms were recited and the festival prayers were offered, beseeching the Lord to pardon the sins of the past year, and to grant the people a happy new year. This concluded the morning service, after which the families resorted to their respective homes, partook of the social and joyous repast, and in the evening went again into the Temple to witness the offering of the evening sacrifices, and to see the candlestick lighted with which the festival concluded, all wishing each other, “May you be written down for a happy new year; may the Creator decree for you a happy new year.” To which was responded, “And you likewise.” With the exception of the sacrifices, the Jews keep this festival to the present day. The trumpet which they use on this occasion consists of the curved horn of a ram, in remembrance of the ram which Abraham sacrificed instead of Isaac. This event, as we have seen, is also commemorated in the lesson of the day.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-26.htm">Leviticus 23:26</a></div><div class="verse">And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,</div>(26) <span class= "bld">And the Lord spake unto Moses.</span>—The same formula which introduced the regulations about the feast of trumpets (see <a href="/leviticus/23-23.htm" title="And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,">Leviticus 23:23</a>), now introduces the laws about the day of Atonement.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-27.htm">Leviticus 23:27</a></div><div class="verse">Also on the tenth <i>day</i> of this seventh month <i>there shall be</i> a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD.</div>(27) <span class= "bld">Also on the tenth.</span>—See <a href="/leviticus/16-29.htm" title="And this shall be a statute for ever to you: that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger that sojournes among you:">Leviticus 16:29</a>.<p><span class= "bld">And ye shall afflict your souls.</span>—That is, fast. (See <a href="/leviticus/16-29.htm" title="And this shall be a statute for ever to you: that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger that sojournes among you:">Leviticus 16:29</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">And offer an offering.</span>—See <a href="/context/numbers/29-8.htm" title="But you shall offer a burnt offering to the LORD for a sweet smell; one young bullock, one ram, and seven lambs of the first year; they shall be to you without blemish:">Numbers 29:8-11</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-28.htm">Leviticus 23:28</a></div><div class="verse">And ye shall do no work in that same day: for it <i>is</i> a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the LORD your God.</div>(28) <span class= "bld">And ye shall do no work.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">And ye shall do no manner of work, </span>as the Authorised version has it in <a href="/leviticus/23-31.htm" title="You shall do no manner of work: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.">Leviticus 23:31</a> of this very chapter. (See <a href="/leviticus/16-29.htm" title="And this shall be a statute for ever to you: that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger that sojournes among you:">Leviticus 16:29</a>.) This is the only day which had to be kept like the sabbath, and on which no manner of work was allowed. (See <a href="/leviticus/23-3.htm" title="Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; you shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings.">Leviticus 23:3</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">To make an atonement for you.</span>—See <a href="/leviticus/16-30.htm" title="For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins before the LORD.">Leviticus 16:30</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-29.htm">Leviticus 23:29</a></div><div class="verse">For whatsoever soul <i>it be</i> that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people.</div>(29) F<span class= "bld">or whatsoever soul . . . he shall be cut off from among his people.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">For whatsoever soul </span>. . . <span class= "ital">that shall be cut off from his people. </span>(See Note on <a href="/leviticus/19-8.htm" title="Therefore every one that eats it shall bear his iniquity, because he has profaned the hallowed thing of the LORD: and that soul shall be cut off from among his people.">Leviticus 19:8</a>.) Any member of the community who does not fast on this day God himself will punish with excision, except those who through old age or sickness are unable to endure it.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-30.htm">Leviticus 23:30</a></div><div class="verse">And whatsoever soul <i>it be</i> that doeth any work in that same day, the same soul will I destroy from among his people.</div>(30) <span class= "bld">That doeth any work.</span>—That is, engages in any kind of work whatsoever, since this is the only festival which is to be kept like the sabbath.<p><span class= "bld">Will I destroy.</span>—Whilst in all other instances where God threatens the offender with the penalty of excision the expression “cut off” is used, in the passage before us the word is “destroy.” This stronger term may be owing to the fact that the day of Atonement is the most solemn day in the whole year, and that violating its sanctity will be visited more severely. Hence the severer expression used on this occasion. It is, however, to be remarked that whilst working on the sabbath was punished with death by stoning, he who transgressed the law of labour on the day of Atonement was punished with excision.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-31.htm">Leviticus 23:31</a></div><div class="verse">Ye shall do no manner of work: <i>it shall be</i> a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.</div>(31) <span class= "bld">Ye shall do no manner of work.</span>—Owing to the great sanctity of the day, the command to abstain from all work is repeated after the enactment of the penalty, in order to impress it more effectually upon the people.<p><span class= "bld">A statute for ever. . . </span>—See <a href="/leviticus/3-17.htm" title="It shall be a perpetual statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that you eat neither fat nor blood.">Leviticus 3:17</a>; <a href="/context/leviticus/7-23.htm" title="Speak to the children of Israel, saying, You shall eat no manner of fat, of ox, or of sheep, or of goat.">Leviticus 7:23-25</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-32.htm">Leviticus 23:32</a></div><div class="verse">It <i>shall be</i> unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth <i>day</i> of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath.</div>(32) <span class= "bld">It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest.</span>—Rather, <span class= "ital">It shall be a sabbath of rest unto you, </span>as the Authorised version renders it in <a href="/leviticus/16-31.htm" title="It shall be a sabbath of rest to you, and you shall afflict your souls, by a statute for ever.">Leviticus 16:31</a>. It is most unaccountable why the translators varied this important formula, when it is exactly the same in the original in both passages. For the import of this phrase see <a href="/leviticus/16-31.htm" title="It shall be a sabbath of rest to you, and you shall afflict your souls, by a statute for ever.">Leviticus 16:31</a>.<p><span class= "bld">And ye shall afflict your souls.</span>—Having set forth in <a href="/context/leviticus/23-30.htm" title="And whatever soul it be that does any work in that same day, the same soul will I destroy from among his people.">Leviticus 23:30-31</a>, and in the first clause of this verse, the duty of abstaining from all work, and of celebrating this day as a day of solemn rest, the law giver repeats the second feature of the day, which is of equal importance, viz., the fasting, lest some should think that doing the one and leaving the other undone would pass as having kept this law.<p><span class= "bld">In the ninth day of the month at even.</span>—In accordance with the ancient mode of counting the day, the tenth of the month began with the evening of the ninth. (See <a href="/leviticus/16-29.htm" title="And this shall be a statute for ever to you: that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger that sojournes among you:">Leviticus 16:29</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">Celebrate your sabbath.</span>—In <a href="/leviticus/25-2.htm" title="Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When you come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath to the LORD.">Leviticus 25:2</a>, where this phrase occurs again, the Authorised version inconsistently renders it k<span class= "ital">eep . </span>. . <span class= "ital">sabbath. </span>In both instances, however, the margin has, “Heb., rest.” This alternative rendering of part of the phrase has no meaning. To convey to the English reader an idea of the Hebrew idiom here used, which was the intention of the translators, the whole phrase should have been translated, which is, <span class= "ital">rest the day of rest, </span>that is, to “keep rest,” to “keep the day of rest.” Just as to “fast a fast” (<a href="/2_samuel/12-16.htm" title="David therefore sought God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night on the earth.">2Samuel 12:16</a>; <a href="/zechariah/7-5.htm" title="Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did you at all fast to me, even to me?">Zechariah 7:5</a>) denotes “to keep a fast.” In <a href="/2_samuel/12-16.htm" title="David therefore sought God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night on the earth.">2Samuel 12:16</a> the margin has consistently reproduced the Hebraism by remarking “Heb., fasted a fast.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-33.htm">Leviticus 23:33</a></div><div class="verse">And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,</div>(33) <span class= "bld">And the Lord spake unto Moses.</span>—Like the festivals of new year and the day of Atonement (see <a href="/leviticus/23-23.htm" title="And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,">Leviticus 23:23</a>; <a href="/leviticus/23-26.htm" title="And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,">Leviticus 23:26</a>), the feast of Tabernacles, which is discussed in <a href="/context/leviticus/23-34.htm" title="Speak to the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days to the LORD.">Leviticus 23:34-43</a>, is introduced by this special formula, thus indicating that it was a separate communication.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-34.htm">Leviticus 23:34</a></div><div class="verse">Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month <i>shall be</i> the feast of tabernacles <i>for</i> seven days unto the LORD.</div>(34) <span class= "bld">The fifteenth day of this seventh month.</span>—That is, the month Tishri, corresponding to the end of September and the beginning of October, and only four days after the day of Atonement.<p><span class= "bld">Shall be the feast of tabernacles.</span>—How and where these tabernacles are to be erected the law here gives no directions. The details, as in many other enactments, are left to the administrators of the Law. From the account of the first celebration of this festival after the return from Babylon, the Jews, according to the command of Ezra, made themselves booths upon the roofs of houses, in the courts of their dwellings, and of their sanctuary, in the streets of the Water-gate and the gate of Ephraim. These tabernacles they made of olive branches, pine branches, myrtle branches, palm branches, and branches of thick trees (<a href="/context/nehemiah/8-15.htm" title="And that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities, and in Jerusalem, saying, Go forth to the mount, and fetch olive branches, and pine branches, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written.">Nehemiah 8:15-18</a>). The construction of these temporary abodes, however, was more minutely defined by Ezra’s successors. It was ordained during the second Temple that the interior of each tabernacle must not be higher than twenty cubits, and not lower than ten palms, it must at least have three walls, with <span class= "bld">a </span>thatched roof partially open so as to admit a view of the sky and the stars. It must not be under a tree, nor must it be covered with a cloth, or with any material which contracts defilement. Only branches or shrubs which grow out of the ground are to be used for the covering. These booths the Israelites began to erect on the morrow after the Day of Atonement. On the fourteenth, which was the day of preparation, the pilgrims came up to Jerusalem, and on the eve of this day the priests proclaimed the approach of the holy convocation by the blasts of trumpets. As on the feasts of Passover and Pentecost, the altar of burnt-offering was cleansed in the first night watch, and the gates of the Temple, as well as those of the inner court, were opened immediately after midnight, for the convenience of the priests who resided in the city, and for the people, who filled the court before the cock crew, to have their sacrifices duly examined by the priests.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-35.htm">Leviticus 23:35</a></div><div class="verse">On the first day <i>shall be</i> an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work <i>therein</i>.</div>(35) <span class= "bld">on the first day shall be an holy convocation.</span>—At daybreak of this day one of the priests, accompanied by a jubilant procession and a band of music, went with a golden pitcher to the pool of Siloam, and having filled it with water, returned with it to the Temple in time to join his brother-priests in the morning sacrifices. He entered from the south through the water-gate, when he was welcomed by three blasts of the trumpets. He then ascended the steps of the altar with another priest, who carried a pitcher of wine for the drink offering. The two priests turned to the left of the altar, where two silver basins were fixed with holes at the bottom, and simultaneously poured into their respective basins the water and the wine in such a manner that both were emptied at the same time upon the base of the altar. This ceremony of drawing the water was repeated every morning during the seven days of the festival. Another jubilant multitude, who went outside Jerusalem at the same time to gather willows, now returned. With great rejoicings and amidst blasts of trumpets they carried the willows into the Temple, and placed them at the altar in such a manner that their tops overhung and formed a kind of canopy.<p><span class= "bld">Ye shall do no servile work therein.</span>—For the difference between servile and necessary work see <a href="/leviticus/23-7.htm" title="In the first day you shall have an holy convocation: you shall do no servile work therein.">Leviticus 23:7</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-36.htm">Leviticus 23:36</a></div><div class="verse">Seven days ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD: on the eighth day shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD: it <i>is</i> a solemn assembly; <i>and</i> ye shall do no servile work <i>therein</i>.</div>(36) <span class= "bld">Seven days ye shall offer.</span>—The special sacrifices for this day consisted of a burnt offering of thirteen bullocks, two rams, and fourteen lambs, with an appropriate meat and drink offering, and a goat for a sin offering (<a href="/context/numbers/29-12.htm" title="And on the fifteenth day of the seventh month you shall have an holy convocation; you shall do no servile work, and you shall keep a feast to the LORD seven days:">Numbers 29:12-38</a>). Whereupon were offered the peace offerings, the vows and the free-will offerings which constituted the repasts of the people. Whilst these sacrifices were being offered up the Levites chanted the festive Hallel, as on the feasts of Passover and Pentecost. This was repeated every day during the seven days of the festival, only that the number of animals offered as sacrifices diminished daily during the middle days of the festival, according to the prescription in <a href="/context/numbers/29-12.htm" title="And on the fifteenth day of the seventh month you shall have an holy convocation; you shall do no servile work, and you shall keep a feast to the LORD seven days:">Numbers 29:12-38</a>. On the eve of the second day, or what is called the lesser festival, and on each of the five succeeding nights, was celebrated the “Rejoicing of the water-drawing<span class= "ital">” </span>in the court of the Temple. Four huge golden candelabra were lighted in the centre of the court, and the light emanating from them was visible to the whole city. Around these lights pious men danced before the people with lighted flambeaux in their hands, singing hymns and songs of praise, whilst the Levites, who were stationed on the fifteen steps which led into the women’s court, and which corresponded to the fifteen psalms of degrees, <span class= "ital">i.e., </span>steps (Psalms 120-134), accompanied the songs with instrumental music. It is supposed that on the last evening of the festival, when the splendid light of this grand illumination was to cease, Christ called attention to himself, “I am the light of the world” (<a href="/john/8-12.htm" title="Then spoke Jesus again to them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.">John 8:12</a>), which is to shine for ever, and illuminate not only the Temple and the holy city, but all the world.<p><span class= "bld">On the eighth day shall be an holy convocation.</span>—That is, like the first day, since no servile work is to be done on it. As it is not only the finishing of the feast of Tabernacles, but the conclusion of the whole cycle of festivals, the dwelling in tabernacles is to cease on it.<p><span class= "bld">Ye shall offer.</span>—For this reason the sacrifices offered on this day are to be distinct, and unlike the sacrifices of the preceding days. The burnt sacrifice is to consist of one bullock, one ram, and seven lambs, with the appropriate meat and drink offerings, and one goat for a sin offering. (<a href="/context/numbers/29-36.htm" title="But you shall offer a burnt offering, a sacrifice made by fire, of a sweet smell to the LORD: one bullock, one ram, seven lambs of the first year without blemish:">Numbers 29:36-38</a>.) Being, however, attached to the feast of Tabernacles, the two festivals are often joined together, and spoken of as one festival of eight days.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-37.htm">Leviticus 23:37</a></div><div class="verse">These <i>are</i> the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim <i>to be</i> holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD, a burnt offering, and a meat offering, a sacrifice, and drink offerings, every thing upon his day:</div>(37) <span class= "bld">These are the feasts of the Lord.</span>—That is, the above-named six festivals, viz.—(1) the Passover (<a href="/context/leviticus/23-4.htm" title="These are the feasts of the LORD, even holy convocations, which you shall proclaim in their seasons.">Leviticus 23:4-14</a>), (2) Pentecost <a href="/context/leviticus/23-15.htm" title="And you shall count to you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete:">Leviticus 23:15-22</a>), (3) New Year (<a href="/context/leviticus/23-23.htm" title="And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,">Leviticus 23:23-25</a>), (4) Day of Atonement (<a href="/context/leviticus/23-26.htm" title="And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,">Leviticus 23:26-32</a>), (5) Tabernacles (<a href="/context/leviticus/23-33.htm" title="And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,">Leviticus 23:33-36</a> a), and (6) the concluding festival (<a href="/leviticus/23-36.htm" title="Seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD: on the eighth day shall be an holy convocation to you; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD: it is a solemn assembly; and you shall do no servile work therein.">Leviticus 23:36</a> b). Thus the list of these festivals concludes with the formula by which they were introduced in <a href="/leviticus/23-4.htm" title="These are the feasts of the LORD, even holy convocations, which you shall proclaim in their seasons.">Leviticus 23:4</a>.<p><span class= "bld">To offer an offering.</span>—On these festivals sacrifices are to be offered as prescribed in Numbers 28, 29.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-38.htm">Leviticus 23:38</a></div><div class="verse">Beside the sabbaths of the LORD, and beside your gifts, and beside all your vows, and beside all your freewill offerings, which ye give unto the LORD.</div>(38) <span class= "bld">Beside the sabbaths.</span>—By a figure of speech called metonymy, which is frequently used both in the Old and New Testaments, the expression sabbaths stands here for <span class= "ital">the sacrifices of the sabbaths, </span>just as in <a href="/leviticus/25-6.htm" title="And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for you, and for your servant, and for your maid, and for your hired servant, and for your stranger that sojournes with you.">Leviticus 25:6</a> “sabbath of the land” denotes the produce of the sabbath of the land, or of the sabbatic year, and as the phrase “it is written in the prophets” (<a href="/mark/1-2.htm" title="As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before your face, which shall prepare your way before you.">Mark 1:2</a>) is used for “it is written in <span class= "ital">the writings </span>of the prophets.” (Comp. also <a href="/matthew/5-17.htm" title="Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.">Matthew 5:17</a>; <a href="/matthew/7-12.htm" title="Therefore all things whatever you would that men should do to you, do you even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.">Matthew 7:12</a>; <a href="/matthew/22-40.htm" title="On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.">Matthew 22:40</a>, &c.) The meaning, therefore, of the passage before us is that the sacrifices ordered for each of these festivals are to be in addition to the sacrifices appointed to each weekly sabbath in the year; so that when one of these festivals falls on a sabbath, the sacrifices due to the latter are not set aside by the former. Both must be offered in their proper order.<p><span class= "bld">Beside your gifts.</span>—Nor are they to interfere with the voluntary offerings which each individual brought privately (<a href="/deuteronomy/16-10.htm" title="And you shall keep the feast of weeks to the LORD your God with a tribute of a freewill offering of your hand, which you shall give to the LORD your God, according as the LORD your God has blessed you:">Deuteronomy 16:10</a>; <a href="/deuteronomy/16-17.htm" title="Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which he has given you.">Deuteronomy 16:17</a>; <a href="/context/2_chronicles/25-7.htm" title="But there came a man of God to him, saying, O king, let not the army of Israel go with you; for the LORD is not with Israel, to wit, with all the children of Ephraim.">2Chronicles 25:7-8</a>), or with the performance of vows (<a href="/context/deuteronomy/12-6.htm" title="And thither you shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and heave offerings of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and of your flocks:">Deuteronomy 12:6-12</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-39.htm">Leviticus 23:39</a></div><div class="verse">Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the LORD seven days: on the first day <i>shall be</i> a sabbath, and on the eighth day <i>shall be</i> a sabbath.</div>(39) <span class= "bld">Also in the fifteenth day.</span>—After the list of festivals discussed in this chapter has been summed up in <a href="/context/leviticus/23-37.htm" title="These are the feasts of the LORD, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire to the LORD, a burnt offering, and a meat offering, a sacrifice, and drink offerings, every thing on his day:">Leviticus 23:37-38</a>, the next five verses recur to the feast of Tabernacles. The regulations are supplementary to those given before, and embody a separate enactment.<p><span class= "bld">When ye have gathered in the fruit of the land.</span>—That is, those productions which ripen in the autumnal season, as wheat, barley, oil, wine, &c.<p><span class= "bld">Ye shall keep a feast unto the Lord.</span>—The Israelites are then to keep a festival in which they are to acknowledge the bounties of the Lord and express their gratitude to the Giver of all good things. For this reason this festival is also called “the Feast of Ingathering” (<a href="/exodus/23-16.htm" title="And the feast of harvest, the first fruits of your labors, which you have sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when you have gathered in your labors out of the field.">Exodus 23:16</a>; <a href="/exodus/34-22.htm" title="And you shall observe the feast of weeks, of the first fruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year's end.">Exodus 34:22</a>).<p><span class= "bld">On the first day shall be a sabbath.</span>—Both on the first and last days of this festival there is to be abstention from all servile work. (See <a href="/context/leviticus/23-35.htm" title="On the first day shall be an holy convocation: you shall do no servile work therein.">Leviticus 23:35-36</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-40.htm">Leviticus 23:40</a></div><div class="verse">And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days.</div>(40) <span class= "bld">And ye shall take you on the first day.</span>—The four species of vegetable production here ordered are a distinctive feature of this festival. They have been most minutely defined during the second Temple.<p><span class= "bld">Boughs of goodly trees.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">the fruit of goodly trees, </span>as the margin rightly renders it. As this phrase is too indefinite, and may simply denote the fruit of any choice fruit-tree, there can hardly be any doubt that in this instance, as in many other cases, the lawgiver left it to the administrators of the Law to define its precise kind. Basing it therefore upon one of the significations of the term here translated “goodly,” which is <span class= "ital">to dwell, to rest, </span>the authorities during the second Temple decreed that it means the fruit winch permanently rests upon the tree—<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>the citron, the paradise-apple. If it came from an uncircumcised tree (see <a href="/leviticus/19-23.htm" title="And when you shall come into the land, and shall have planted all manner of trees for food, then you shall count the fruit thereof as uncircumcised: three years shall it be as uncircumcised to you: it shall not be eaten of.">Leviticus 19:23</a>), from an unclean heave-offering (comp. <a href="/context/numbers/18-11.htm" title="And this is yours; the heave offering of their gift, with all the wave offerings of the children of Israel: I have given them to you, and to your sons and to your daughters with you, by a statute for ever: every one that is clean in your house shall eat of it.">Numbers 18:11-12</a>), or exhibited the slightest defect, it was ritually illegal.<p><span class= "bld">Branches of palm trees.</span>—During the second Temple this was defined as the shoot of the palm-tree when budding, before the leaves are spread abroad, and whilst it is yet like a rod. It is technically called <span class= "ital">lulab, </span>which is the expression whereby it is rendered in the ancient Chaldee version. The <span class= "ital">lulab </span>must at least be three hands tall, and must be tied together with its own kind.<p><span class= "bld">The boughs of thick trees.</span>—This, according to the same authorities, denotes <span class= "ital">the myrtle branch, </span>whose leaves thickly cover the wood. To make it ritually legal it must have three or more shoots round the stem, and on the same level with it. If it is in any way damaged it is illegal. This accounts for the ancient Chaldee version rendering it by “myrtle branch.”<p><span class= "bld">Willows of the brook.</span>—That species, the distinguishing marks of which are dark wood and long leaves with smooth margin. The palm, the myrtle, and the willow, when tied together into one bundle, constitute the Lulab. Whilst the psalms are chanted by the Levites during the sacrifices, the pilgrims, who held the Lulabs or palms, shook them thrice, viz., at the singing of <a href="/psalms/118-1.htm" title="O give thanks to the LORD; for he is good: because his mercy endures for ever.">Psalm 118:1</a>, then again at <a href="/leviticus/23-25.htm" title="You shall do no servile work therein: but you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD.">Leviticus 23:25</a>, and at <a href="/leviticus/23-29.htm" title="For whatever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people.">Leviticus 23:29</a>. When the chant was finished, the priests in procession went round the altar once, exclaiming, “Hosanna, O Lord, give us help, O Lord! give prosperity !” (<a href="/psalms/118-25.htm" title="Save now, I beseech you, O LORD: O LORD, I beseech you, send now prosperity.">Psalm 118:25</a>). Whereupon the solemn benediction was pronounced by the priests, and the people dispersed amidst the repeated exclamations, “How beautiful art thou, O altar !” It is this part of the ritual which explains the welcome that the multitude gave Christ when they went to meet Him with palm-branches and shouts of hosanna (<a href="/context/matthew/21-8.htm" title="And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strewed them in the way.">Matthew 21:8-9</a>; <a href="/matthew/21-15.htm" title="And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the son of David; they were sore displeased,">Matthew 21:15</a>; <a href="/context/john/12-12.htm" title="On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem,">John 12:12-13</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-41.htm">Leviticus 23:41</a></div><div class="verse">And ye shall keep it a feast unto the LORD seven days in the year. <i>It shall be</i> a statute for ever in your generations: ye shall celebrate it in the seventh month.</div>(41) <span class= "bld">Seven days in the year.</span>—These seven days denote the feast of Tabernacles proper, whilst the eight days in <a href="/leviticus/23-39.htm" title="Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep a feast to the LORD seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath.">Leviticus 23:39</a> include the concluding festival of the last day. (See <a href="/leviticus/23-36.htm" title="Seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD: on the eighth day shall be an holy convocation to you; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD: it is a solemn assembly; and you shall do no servile work therein.">Leviticus 23:36</a>.)<p><span class= "bld">In your generations.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">throughout your generations, </span>as the Authorised version renders it in <a href="/leviticus/23-14.htm" title="And you shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the selfsame day that you have brought an offering to your God: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.">Leviticus 23:14</a>; <a href="/leviticus/23-21.htm" title="And you shall proclaim on the selfsame day, that it may be an holy convocation to you: you shall do no servile work therein: it shall be a statute for ever in all your dwellings throughout your generations.">Leviticus 23:21</a>; <a href="/leviticus/23-31.htm" title="You shall do no manner of work: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.">Leviticus 23:31</a> of this very chapter. (See <a href="/leviticus/3-17.htm" title="It shall be a perpetual statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that you eat neither fat nor blood.">Leviticus 3:17</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-42.htm">Leviticus 23:42</a></div><div class="verse">Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths:</div>(42) <span class= "bld">Dwell in booths seven days.</span>—Because the eighth day was a separate festival, when the booths were no more used. (See <a href="/leviticus/23-36.htm" title="Seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD: on the eighth day shall be an holy convocation to you; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD: it is a solemn assembly; and you shall do no servile work therein.">Leviticus 23:36</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-43.htm">Leviticus 23:43</a></div><div class="verse">That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I <i>am</i> the LORD your God.</div>(43) <span class= "bld">That your generations may know.</span>—When their posterity are securely occupying the land of Canaan, the temporary dwelling in booths once a year may remind them of the goodness of God vouchsafed to their fathers in delivering them from the land of bondage, and sheltering them in booths in the wilderness.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/leviticus/23-44.htm">Leviticus 23:44</a></div><div class="verse">And Moses declared unto the children of Israel the feasts of the LORD.</div>(44) <span class= "bld">And Moses declared.</span>—In accordance with the command which Moses received (see <a href="/leviticus/23-2.htm" title="Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, Concerning the feasts of the LORD, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts.">Leviticus 23:2</a>), he explained to the children of Israel the number and motive of these festivals. This verse therefore forms an appropriate conclusion to the whole chapter.<p><span class= "bld"><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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