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Appointed Festivals

The L ord spoke to Moses, saying: ²Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: These are the appointed festivals of the L ord that you shall proclaim as holy convocations, my appointed festivals.

The Sabbath, Passover, and Unleavened Bread

³ Six days shall work be done; but the seventh day is a sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation; you shall do no work: it is a sabbath to the L ord throughout your settlements.

⁴ These are the appointed festivals of the L ord, the holy convocations, which you shall celebrate at the time appointed for them. ⁵In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight, there shall be a passover offering to the L ord, ⁶and on the fifteenth day of the same month is the festival of unleavened bread to the L ord; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. ⁷On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not work at your occupations. ⁸For seven days you shall present the L ord’s offerings by fire; on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation: you shall not work at your occupations.

The Offering of First Fruits

⁹ The L ord spoke to Moses: ¹⁰Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you and you reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. ¹¹He shall raise the sheaf before the L ord, that you may find acceptance; on the day after the sabbath the priest shall raise it. ¹²On the day when you raise the sheaf, you shall offer a lamb a year old, without blemish, as a burnt offering to the L ord. ¹³And the grain offering with it shall be two-tenths of an ephah of choice flour mixed with oil, an offering by fire of pleasing odor to the L ord; and the drink offering with it shall be of wine, one-fourth of a hin. ¹⁴You shall eat no bread or parched grain or fresh ears until that very day, until you have brought the offering of your God: it is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your settlements.

The Festival of Weeks

¹⁵ And from the day after the sabbath, from the day on which you bring the sheaf of the elevation offering, you shall count off seven weeks; they shall be complete. ¹⁶You shall count until the day after the seventh sabbath, fifty days; then you shall present an offering of new grain to the L ord. ¹⁷You shall bring from your settlements two loaves of bread as an elevation offering, each made of two-tenths of an ephah; they shall be of choice flour, baked with leaven, as first fruits to the L ord. ¹⁸You shall present with the bread seven lambs a year old without blemish, one young bull, and two rams; they shall be a burnt offering to the L ord, along with their grain offering and their drink offerings, an offering by fire of pleasing odor to the L ord. ¹⁹You shall also offer one male goat for a sin offering, and two male lambs a year old as a sacrifice of well-being. ²⁰The priest shall raise them with the bread of the first fruits as an elevation offering before the L ord, together with the two lambs; they shall be holy to the L ord for the priest. ²¹On that same day you shall make proclamation; you shall hold a holy convocation; you shall not work at your occupations. This is a statute forever in all your settlements throughout your generations.

²² When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and for the alien: I am the L ord your God.

The Festival of Trumpets

²³ The L ord spoke to Moses, saying: ²⁴Speak to the people of Israel, saying: In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of complete rest, a holy convocation commemorated with trumpet blasts. ²⁵You shall not work at your occupations; and you shall present the L ord’s offering by fire.

The Day of Atonement

²⁶ The L ord spoke to Moses, saying: ²⁷Now, the tenth day of this seventh month is the day of atonement; it shall be a holy convocation for you: you shall deny yourselves and present the L ord’s offering by fire; ²⁸and you shall do no work during that entire day; for it is a day of atonement, to make atonement on your behalf before the L ord your God. ²⁹For anyone who does not practice self-denial during that entire day shall be cut off from the people. ³⁰And anyone who does any work during that entire day, such a one I will destroy from the midst of the people. ³¹You shall do no work: it is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your settlements. ³²It shall be to you a sabbath of complete rest, and you shall deny yourselves; on the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening you shall keep your sabbath.

The Festival of Booths

³³ The L ord spoke to Moses, saying: ³⁴Speak to the people of Israel, saying: On the fifteenth day of this seventh month, and lasting seven days, there shall be the festival of booths to the L ord. ³⁵The first day shall be a holy convocation; you shall not work at your occupations. ³⁶Seven days you shall present the L ord’s offerings by fire; on the eighth day you shall observe a holy convocation and present the L ord’s offerings by fire; it is a solemn assembly; you shall not work at your occupations.

³⁷ These are the appointed festivals of the L ord, which you shall celebrate as times of holy convocation, for presenting to the L ord offerings by fire—burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each on its proper day— ³⁸apart from the sabbaths of the L ord, and apart from your gifts, and apart from all your votive offerings, and apart from all your freewill offerings, which you give to the L ord.

³⁹ Now, the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce of the land, you shall keep the festival of the L ord, lasting seven days; a complete rest on the first day, and a complete rest on the eighth day. ⁴⁰On the first day you shall take the fruit of majestic trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the L ord your God for seven days. ⁴¹You shall keep it as a festival to the L ord seven days in the year; you shall keep it in the seventh month as a statute forever throughout your generations. ⁴²You shall live in booths for seven days; all that are citizens in Israel shall live in booths, ⁴³so that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the L ord your God.

⁴⁴ Thus Moses declared to the people of Israel the appointed festivals of the L ord.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

34. The fifteenth day of this seventh month. It is shewn in the end of the chapter why God instituted the Feast of Tabernacles, viz, that the children of Israel might remember that they dwelt in tents in the desert, when they had no certain dwelling-place, but, as it were, passed a wandering life. The Passover shewed how they were marvellously rescued from immediate death by the hand of God; but by this other day God magnified the continuous and daily flow of His grace; for it would not have been enough to acknowledge His power in their actual departure, and to give Him thanks for their momentary deliverance, unless they reflected altogether on the progress of their perfect deliverance, which they had experienced during forty years. In allusion to this the Prophet Zechariah, when he is speaking of the second redemption, enjoins upon all the nations which should be converted to God’s worship, that they should go up every year to celebrate this day. (Zechariah 14:16.) And why this rather than the other festivals? because their return from Babylon by a long and difficult journey, endangered by the violent assaults of enemies, would be equally memorable with the passage of the people from Egypt into the Promised Land. Hence we gather that, though the ceremony is now abolished, yet its use still exists in spirit and in truth, in order that the incomparable power and mercy of God should be constantly kept before our eyes, when He has delivered us from darkness and from the deep abyss of death, and has translated us into the heavenly life. But it behooved that the ancient people in their ignorance should be thus exercised, that all from youth to old age, going forth from their homes, should be brought, as it were, into the actual circumstances, and in that spectacle should perceive what would have else never sufficiently penetrated their minds; whilst at the same time they were instructed for the time to come, that even in the land of Canaan they were to be sojourners, since this is the condition prescribed to all the pious, and children of God, that they should be strangers on earth, if they desire to be inheritors of heaven. Especially, however, God would stir them up to gratitude, that they might more highly estimate their quiet occupation of the Promised Land, and the comfort of their houses, when they recollected that they were brought hither by His hand out of the desert, and from the most wretched destitution of all things.