Leviticus 23
23
Religious Festivals
1The Lord told Moses 2to say to the community of Israel:
I have chosen certain times for you to come together and worship me.
3 #
Ex 20.8-10; 23.12; 31.14,15; 34.21; 35.2; Dt 5.12-14. You have six days when you can do your work, but the seventh day of each week is holy because it belongs to me. No matter where you live, you must rest on the Sabbath and come together for worship. This law will never change.
Passover and the Festival of Thin Bread
(Numbers 28.16-25)
The Lord said:
4-5 #
Ex 12.1-13; Dt 16.1,2. Passover is another time when you must come together to worship me, and it must be celebrated on the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month#23.4,5 first month: Abib (also called Nisan), the first month of the Hebrew calendar, from about mid-March to mid-April. of each year.
6 #
Ex 12.14-20; 23.15; 34.18; Dt 16.3-8. The Festival of Thin Bread begins on the fifteenth day of that same month; it lasts seven days, and during this time you must honor me by eating bread made without yeast. 7On the first day of this festival you must rest from your work and come together for worship. 8Each day of this festival you must offer sacrifices. Then on the final day you must once again rest from your work and come together for worship.
Offering the First Part of the Harvest
9The Lord told Moses 10to say to the community of Israel:
After you enter the land I am giving you, the first bundle of wheat from each crop must be given to me. So bring it to a priest 11on the day after the Sabbath. He will lift it up#23.11 lift it up: See the note at 7.29,30. in dedication to me, and I will accept you. 12You must also offer a sacrifice to please me.#23.12 sacrifice to please me: See the note at 1.1-3. So bring the priest a one-year-old lamb that has nothing wrong with it 13and two kilograms of your finest flour mixed with olive oil. Then he will place these on the bronze altar and send them up in smoke with a smell that pleases me. Together with these, you must bring a liter of wine as a drink offering. 14I am your God, and I forbid you to eat any new grain or anything made from it until you have brought these offerings. This law will never change.
The Harvest Festival
(Numbers 28.26-31)
The Lord said:
15 #
Ex 23.16; 34.22; Dt 16.9-12. Seven weeks after you offer this bundle of grain, each family must bring another offering of new grain. 16Do this exactly 50 days later, which is the day following the seventh Sabbath. 17Bring two loaves of bread to be lifted up#23.17 lifted up: See the note at 7.29,30. in dedication to me. Each loaf is to be made with yeast and with two kilograms of the finest flour from the first part of your harvest.
18At this same time, the entire community of Israel must bring seven lambs that are a year old, a young bull, and two rams. These animals must have nothing wrong with them, and they must be offered as a sacrifice to please me.#23.18 sacrifice to please me: See the note at 1.1-3. You must also offer the proper grain and wine sacrifices with each animal.#23.18 proper grain … animal: See Numbers 15.1-16. 19Offer a goat#23.19 goat: See the note at 1.1-3. as a sacrifice for sin, and two rams a year old as a sacrifice to ask my blessing.#23.19 sacrifice to ask my blessing: See the note at 3.1. 20The priest will lift up#23.20 lift up: See the note at 7.29,30. the rams together with the bread in dedication to me. These offerings are holy and are my gift to the priest. 21This is a day of celebration and worship, a time of rest from your work. You and your descendants must obey this law.
22 #
Lv 19.9,10; Dt 24.19-22. When you harvest your grain, always leave some of it standing around the edges of your fields and don't pick up what falls on the ground. Leave it for the poor and for those foreigners who live among you. I am the Lord your God!
The Festival of Trumpets
(Numbers 29.1-6)
23The Lord told Moses 24-25to say to the people of Israel:
The first day of the seventh month#23.24,25 seventh month: See the note at 16.29. must be a day of complete rest. Then at the sound of the trumpets, you will come together to worship and to offer sacrifices on the altar.
The Great Day of Forgiveness
(Numbers 29.7-11)
26 #
Lv 16.29-34. The Lord God said to Moses:
27The tenth day of the seventh month#23.27 seventh month: See the note at 16.29. is the Great Day of Forgiveness.#23.27 Great Day of Forgiveness: See the note at 16.34. It is a solemn day of worship; everyone must go without eating to show sorrow for their sins, and sacrifices must be burned. 28No one is to work on that day—it is the Great Day of Forgiveness, when sacrifices will be offered to me, so that I will forgive your sins. 29I will destroy anyone who refuses to go without eating. 30-31None of my people are ever to do any work on that day—not now or in the future. And I will wipe out those who do! 32This is a time of complete rest just like the Sabbath, and everyone must go without eating from the evening of the ninth to the evening of the tenth.
The Festival of Shelters
(Numbers 29.12-40)
33 #
Dt 16.13-15. The Lord told Moses 34to say to the community of Israel:
Beginning on the fifteenth day of the seventh month,#23.34 seventh month: See the note at 16.29. and continuing for seven days, everyone must celebrate the Festival of Shelters in honor of me. 35No one is to do any work on the first day of the festival—it is a time when everyone must come together for worship. 36For seven days, sacrifices must be offered on the altar. The eighth day is also to be a day of complete rest, as well as a time of offering sacrifices on the altar and of coming together for worship.
37I have chosen these festivals as times when my people must come together for worship and when animals, grain, and wine are to be offered on the proper days. 38These festivals must be celebrated in addition to the Sabbaths and the times when you offer special gifts or sacrifices to keep a promise or as a voluntary offering.
39Remember to begin the Festival of Shelters on the fifteenth day of the seventh month after you have harvested your crops. Celebrate this festival for seven days in honor of me and don't do any work on the first day or on the day following the festival. 40Pick the best fruit from your trees#23.40 best fruit from your trees: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text. and cut leafy branches to use during the time of this joyous celebration in my honor. 41I command you and all of your descendants to celebrate this festival during the seventh month of each year. 42For seven days every Israelite must live in a shelter, 43so future generations will know that I made their ancestors live in shelters when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
44This is how Moses instructed the people of Israel to celebrate the Lord's festivals.
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Leviticus 23: CEV
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Leviticus 23
23
1Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 2“Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘The set feasts of Yahweh, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my set feasts.
3“‘Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation; you shall do no kind of work. It is a Sabbath to Yahweh in all your dwellings.
4“‘These are the set feasts of Yahweh, even holy convocations, which you shall proclaim in their appointed season. 5In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening, is Yahweh’s Passover. 6On the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread to Yahweh. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. 7In the first day you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no regular work. 8But you shall offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh seven days. In the seventh day is a holy convocation. You shall do no regular work.’”
9Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 10“Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘When you have come into the land which I give to you, and shall reap its harvest, then you shall bring the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. 11He shall wave the sheaf before Yahweh, to be accepted for you. On the next day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. 12On the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb without defect a year old for a burnt offering to Yahweh. 13The meal offering with it shall be two tenths of an ephah#23:13 1 ephah is about 22 liters or about 2/3 of a bushel of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to Yahweh for a pleasant aroma; and the drink offering with it shall be of wine, the fourth part of a hin.#23:13 A hin is about 6.5 liters or 1.7 gallons. 14You must not eat bread, or roasted grain, or fresh grain, until this same day, until you have brought the offering of your God. This is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
15“‘You shall count from the next day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed. 16The next day after the seventh Sabbath you shall count fifty days; and you shall offer a new meal offering to Yahweh. 17You shall bring out of your habitations two loaves of bread for a wave offering made of two tenths of an ephah#23:17 1 ephah is about 22 liters or about 2/3 of a bushel of fine flour. They shall be baked with yeast, for first fruits to Yahweh. 18You shall present with the bread seven lambs without defect a year old, one young bull, and two rams. They shall be a burnt offering to Yahweh, with their meal offering and their drink offerings, even an offering made by fire, of a sweet aroma to Yahweh. 19You shall offer one male goat for a sin offering, and two male lambs a year old for a sacrifice of peace offerings. 20The priest shall wave them with the bread of the first fruits for a wave offering before Yahweh, with the two lambs. They shall be holy to Yahweh for the priest. 21You shall make proclamation on the same day that there shall be a holy convocation to you. You shall do no regular work. This is a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations.
22“‘When you reap the harvest of your land, you must not wholly reap into the corners of your field. You must not gather the gleanings of your harvest. You must leave them for the poor and for the foreigner. I am Yahweh your God.’”
23Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 24“Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, there shall be a solemn rest for you, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. 25You shall do no regular work. You shall offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh.’”
26Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 27“However on the tenth day of this seventh month is the day of atonement. It shall be a holy convocation to you. You shall afflict yourselves and you shall offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh. 28You shall do no kind of work in that same day, for it is a day of atonement, to make atonement for you before Yahweh your God. 29For whoever it is who shall not deny himself in that same day shall be cut off from his people. 30Whoever does any kind of work in that same day, I will destroy that person from among his people. 31You shall do no kind of work: it is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. 32It shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for you, and you shall deny yourselves. In the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you shall keep your Sabbath.”
33Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 34“Speak to the children of Israel, and say, ‘On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the feast of booths#23:34 or, feast of tents, or Succoth for seven days to Yahweh. 35On the first day shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no regular work. 36Seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh. On the eighth day shall be a holy convocation to you. You shall offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh. It is a solemn assembly; you shall do no regular work.
37“‘These are the appointed feasts of Yahweh which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh, a burnt offering, a meal offering, a sacrifice, and drink offerings, each on its own day— 38in addition to the Sabbaths of Yahweh, and in addition to your gifts, and in addition to all your vows, and in addition to all your free will offerings, which you give to Yahweh.
39“‘So on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruits of the land, you shall keep the feast of Yahweh seven days. On the first day shall be a solemn rest, and on the eighth day shall be a solemn rest. 40You shall take on the first day the fruit of majestic trees, branches of palm trees, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God seven days. 41You shall keep it as a feast to Yahweh seven days in the year. It is a statute forever throughout your generations. You shall keep it in the seventh month. 42You shall dwell in temporary shelters#23:42 or, booths for seven days. All who are native-born in Israel shall dwell in temporary shelters,#23:42 or, booths 43that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in temporary shelters#23:43 or, booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God.’”
44So Moses declared to the children of Israel the appointed feasts of Yahweh.
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