Leviticuschapter 23
44 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
Key verse
“Speak to the Israelites and say to them, ‘These are My appointed feasts, the feasts of the LORD that you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.
It stands in The sabbath, first of the appointed times, verses 1 to 3.
The chapter
Chapter summary
The seven appointed feasts. Sabbath weekly; Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month; Unleavened Bread seven days; the wave sheaf of Firstfruits the morrow after the sabbath of Passover week; Pentecost (Weeks) seven weeks after; Trumpets on the first of the seventh month; Atonement on the tenth; Tabernacles seven days from the fifteenth, with the eighth-day holy convocation. ‘These are my feasts.’ The calendar teaches Israel's year to rehearse the story of redemption. Acts 2 is Pentecost; the Firstfruits morrow-after-sabbath pattern is claimed for resurrection in 1 Cor 15:20. The feasts are a rehearsal the gospel will repay.
Context
Law · Moses · Leviticus overview
The world behind this chapter
Leviticus 23The history
The appointed times are announced by God as his own feasts, and verse 2 leaves the people only the proclaiming of them. Verse 44 has Moses declaring them to the nation. The dating follows the book's own setting at Sinai.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
The calendar is written for a country the hearers have not entered. Verse 10 opens with when ye shall come into the land, and the sheaf of firstfruits waits on a barley harvest nobody in the camp has planted. The whole chapter assumes fields, vineyards and a settled year.
A first hearer knew the farming year the dates are hung on. The barley ripened first and its sheaf was waved in the spring. The wheat came in seven weeks later and was brought as two baked loaves. The fruit and olives were gathered in the autumn, before the week in booths.
A first hearer also knew what a memorial of trumpets sounded like across a camp, and knew that a day of affliction meant a fast. The Day of Atonement is the one solemnity in the list that is a fast, and it is called by the same word as the feasts around it.
The week of booths asked a settled family to leave its house and live in a shelter of branches for seven days. Verse 43 gives the reason outright, so that the children of a nation with roofs would ask why their parents were sleeping under leaves.
What it meant to them
For a nation still in tents, this chapter described a future. It handed them the rhythm of a settled year before they had a field to keep it in.
It also set a limit on the harvest. Verse 22 puts the law about the corners of the field inside the feast calendar, so the joy of bringing in a crop came with a rule about who else ate from it.
Sources cited
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
- Alfred Edersheim, The Temple: Its Ministry and Services , 1874
- Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch , 1864 to 1870
- Gordon J. Wenham, The Book of Leviticus (NICOT), 1979
Where the chapter sits
Leviticus 23 falls in The Holiness Code (chapters 17–26). ‘Ye shall be holy; for I the LORD your God am holy.’ Blood, sexual ethics, neighbor-love, feasts, jubilee, blessings and curses.
The feasts of the LORD. Sabbath, Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, Weeks, Trumpets, Atonement, Tabernacles.
Before it: Day of Atonement, chapters 16. After it: Vows and dedications, chapters 27.
The whole shape of Leviticus→The structure of this chapter
People1
Places1
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. The sabbath, first of the appointed timesvv. 1-3
The calendar is announced as God's own before it is Israel's, since verse 2 calls them my feasts and leaves the people only the proclaiming of them. Holy convocation occurs eleven times in Leviticus and every one of those eleven falls in this chapter. The weekly sabbath is set at the head of a list of annual dates, so the first appointed time named is the one that comes round every seventh day.
Leviticus 23:1
“And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... Much about the same time as before; and having delivered to him various laws concerning the holiness of the people of Israel, who were to serve him, and of the holiness of the priests, that were to minister in holy things to him, and of the purity and perfections of their sacrifices, he here appoints various times and seasons, for the more special worship and service of him: saying; as follows.”
Leviticus 23:2
“The specified times for public worship according to the Law were; (1) The daily morning and evening sacrifices, sometimes called “the continual burnt-offering.” (2) The weekly Sabbath. (3) the day of the new moon. (4) the “set feasts” Num 29:39 or appointed times of annual observance, of which there were five, the Passover, the Day of Pentecost, the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles. For each of these occasions special sacrifices were appointed Num. 28; 29.”
2 more voices on this verse
Leviticus 23:2
“While each of these feasts has a historical commemorative role, each also has a prophetic role.”
Chuck Missler· The Fall Feasts of Israel (article) (2013)Calvary Chapel-influenced Independent
Leviticus 23:2
“These are my feasts - The original word מועד moad is properly applied to any solemn anniversary, by which great and important ecclesiastical, political, or providential facts were recorded; see Clarke on Gen 1:14 (note). Anniversaries of this kind were observed in all nations; and some of them, in consequence of scrupulously regular observation, became chronological epochs of the greatest importance in history: the Olympiads, for example.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Leviticus 23:3
“The seventh day had been consecrated as the Sabbath of Yahweh, figuring His own rest; it was the acknowledged sign of the covenant between God and His people. See the Exo 20:1-11 notes. As such it properly held its place at the head of the days of holy convocation.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 23:3
“In all your dwellings - Other feasts, were to be kept before the Lord in Jerusalem only, whither all the males were to come for that end; but the sabbath was to be kept in all places, both in synagogues, and in their private houses.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
B. Passover and seven days without leaven
1. (vv. 4-6)
Leviticus 23:4
“These are the feasts of the Lord - Or rather, the solemnities: (for the day of atonement was a fast:) and so the word is used, Isaiah xxxiii, 20, where Zion is called the city of our solemnities.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 23:4
“Divine wisdom was manifested in fixing them at those periods; in winter, when the days were short and the roads broken up, a long journey was impracticable; while in summer the harvest and vintage gave busy employment in the fields. Besides, another reason for the choice of those seasons probably was to counteract the influence of Egyptian associations and habits.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Leviticus 23:6
“And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the Lord,.... Which was the day the children of Israel went out of Egypt with their dough and leaven, having not time to leaven it; in remembrance of which this feast was appointed: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread; see Exo 12:15.”
Verse 4 begins the list again, and the annual dates open with two observances on consecutive days. The passover is a single evening, the fourteenth day of the first month at even, and the feast of unleavened bread is the week that runs from the fifteenth. Paul takes up the first of them plainly at 1 Corinthians 5:7, where Christ our passover is sacrificed for us, and he tells the Corinthians on that ground to keep the feast.
2. (vv. 7-8)
Leviticus 23:7
“In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation,....”
2 more voices on this verse
Leviticus 23:7
The sabbath was given to the Jews to be observed literally, like other things, as rites symbolically signifying something deeper. A particular kind of vacation, you see, was enjoined on them. Take care to carry out what that vacation signifies. A spiritual vacation, I mean, is tranquility of heart; but tranquility of heart issues from the serenity of a good conscience. So the person who really observes the sabbath is the one who doesn't sin. This, after all, is the way the command was given to those who were commanded to observe the sabbath: "You shall perform no servile work." "Everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin."
Augustine of Hippo· written before 430· SERMON 270patristic
Leviticus 23:7
“They were not idle days spent in sport and recreation (as many that are called Christians spend their holy days), but offerings were made by fire unto the Lord at his altar; and we have reason to think that the people were taught to employ their time in prayer, and praise, and godly meditation.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Leviticus 23:8
“But ye shall offer an offering made by, fire unto the Lord seven days,....”
Leviticus 23:7-9
The week is bracketed by two convocations, the first day and the seventh, with an offering made by fire on all seven days. The chapter holds two grades of rest apart and keeps them apart throughout: no servile work on the feast days at verses 7, 8, 21, 25, 35 and 36, and no work at all on the weekly sabbath at verse 3 and on the day of atonement at verses 28 and 31. John Gill reads the lighter grade as leaving open what a household needs for its food, so the two days of complete rest are the two the chapter guards most closely.
C. The sheaf waved on the morrow after the sabbath
1. (v. 9)
Leviticus 23:9
“And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... At the same time, for what follow are the other feasts and holy convocations before spoken of: saying; as follows.”
2. (vv. 10-11)
Leviticus 23:10
“These verses contain a distinct command regarding the religious services immediately connected with the grain harvest, given by anticipation against the time when the people were to possess the promised land. Lev 23:10 Sheaf - The original word, “omer”, means either a sheaf Deu 24:19; Rth 2:7, or a measure Exo 16:16. Our version is probably right in this place. The offering which was waved Lev 7:30 was most likely a small sheaf of barley, the grain which is first ripe. The first fruits of the wheat harvest were offered seven weeks later in the loaves of Pentecost.”
2 more voices on this verse
Leviticus 23:10
“The word Omer means both. But in this passage the expression "handful" is most appropriate, since it represented in a lively manner the beginning of the harvest; inasmuch as it was not lawful to taste even of parched grain before the offering of the firstfruits.”
John Calvin· Commentaries (1554)reformed
Leviticus 23:10
“The offering of the wave-sheaf sanctified the whole harvest (Ro 11:16). At the same time, this feast had a typical character, and pre-intimated the resurrection of Christ (1Co 15:20), who rose from the dead on the very day the first-fruits were offered.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Leviticus 23:11
“He shalt wave the sheaf - He shall move it to and fro before the people, and thereby call their attention to the work of Divine Providence, and excite their gratitude to God for preserving to them the kindly fruits of the earth. See Clarke’s note on Exo 29:27, and Exodus 7 at end.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
This is the first law in the chapter that cannot be kept where Israel is standing, since it waits on a harvest in a land they have not entered. The date is given by a relation rather than by a number, on the morrow after the sabbath, and which sabbath is meant was argued for centuries. The Sadducees read the weekly sabbath that fell inside the feast week, which puts the sheaf always on a first day; the Pharisees read the first day of unleavened bread, which fixes it to the sixteenth. The Mishnah, the rabbinic law code compiled about 200 AD, records at Menahot 10:3 that the sheaf was cut in public so the Boethusian reading could be seen to be refused.
3. (vv. 12-14)
Leviticus 23:12
“And ye shall offer that day, when ye wave the sheaf,.... Besides the daily sacrifice of the morning and evening, and the additional offerings made on everyone of the seven days of the feast of unleavened bread: an he lamb without blemish of the first year, for a burnt offering unto the Lord; typical of the perfect and immaculate Lamb of God, whose sufferings are fitly signified by a burnt offering; and which were endured at the time he became the firstfruits of his people, and sanctified them.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 23:12
“As the sacrifice of animals was generally attended with meat-offerings, so this sacrifice of corn was attended with a burnt-offering, that bread and flesh might be set together on God's table. They are forbidden to eat of their new corn till this handful was offered to God; for it was fit, if God and Israel feast together, that he should be served first.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Leviticus 23:13
“The reason of which disproportion may be this, that one of the tenth deals was a necessary attendant upon the lamb, and the other was peculiar to this feast, and was an attendant upon that of the corn, and was offered with it in thanksgiving to God for the fruits of the earth.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 23:14
“And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears,.... That is, they were not allowed to make bread of the new corn, as Aben Ezra and Gersom explain it; for they were obliged to eat unleavened bread at this time: but it might not be made of the new corn, until the above offering was made; nay, they were not allowed to parch any of the grains of corn, and eat them; yea, even they might not pluck and eat the green ears, though of ever so small a quantity.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 23:14
“Ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears - It is right that God, the dispenser of every blessing, should be acknowledged as such, and the first-fruits of the field, etc., dedicated to him. Concerning the dedication of the first-fruits, see the note on Exo 22:29. Parched ears of corn and green ears, fried, still constitute a part, and not a disagreeable one, of the food of the Arabs now resident in the Holy Land. See Hasselquist.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
A lamb, fine flour with oil and a fourth part of an hin of wine go up with the sheaf, so the first of the grain is never presented on its own. Nothing of the new crop may be eaten until the offering has gone in, and verse 14 names bread, parched corn and green ears to close every way round it. Paul calls Christ the firstfruits of them that slept at 1 Corinthians 15:20 and repeats it at 15:23, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown observe that he rose on the day the sheaf was waved.
D. Fifty days counted to a new meal offering
1. (vv. 15-16)
Leviticus 23:15
“Ye shall count unto you - seven Sabbaths - That is, from the sixteenth of the first month to the sixth of the third month. These seven weeks, called here Sabbaths, were to be complete, i. e., the forty-nine days must be finished, and the next day, the fiftieth, is what, from the Septuagint, we call pentecost. See the note on Luk 6:1.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Leviticus 23:16
“Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath,....”
This is the one appointed time in the chapter with no date of its own. It is located by counting, seven sabbaths complete and then the morrow, fifty days measured out from the sheaf, so the day arrives only because somebody kept count. Acts 2:1 places the outpouring of the Spirit on the day when this fiftieth day was fully come.
2. (v. 17)
Leviticus 23:17
“Two loaves of bread made from the first fruits of the new harvest were rightly ordered to be offered, for the church gathers those it can consecrate to its Redeemer as a new family from both peoples, the Jews and the Gentiles.”
Bede· written before 735· Homilies on the Gospels 2.17patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 23:17
“The loaves used at the Passover were unleavened; those presented at Pentecost were leavened--a difference which is thus accounted for, that the one was a memorial of the bread hastily prepared at their departure, while the other was a tribute of gratitude to God for their daily food, which was leavened.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Two loaves are brought out of the people's own houses and they shall be baken with leaven. Leaven was put out of every house at the passover four chapters earlier, it is required here fifty days later, and the text gives no reason for the change. Matthew Henry and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown both read these as the ordinary leavened bread of daily food, offered in thanks for the wheat harvest rather than in memory of the haste of Egypt. The verse itself says only that they are the firstfruits unto the LORD.
3. (vv. 18-20)
Leviticus 23:18
“And ye shall offer with the bread seven lambs without blemish, of the first year,....”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 23:18
“And the one may be mentioned there, and the other here, to teach us, that the addition of a new sacrifice did not destroy the former, but both were to be offered, as the extraordinary sacrifices of every feast did not hinder the oblation of the daily sacrifice.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 23:19
“One kid - In chap. iv, 14, the sin-offering for the sin of the people is a bullock, but here a kid; &c. the reason of the difference may be this, because that was for some particular sin of the people, but this only in general for all their sins.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 23:20
“And the priests shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits,.... The two loaves called the two wave loaves, Lev 23:17; with which were waved the two lambs of the peace offerings; and these alive, as Jarchi and Ben Gersom intimate.”
The fiftieth day carries the fullest set of offerings named for any single day in the chapter: burnt, meat, drink, sin and peace offerings all on one date. The two loaves are waved with two live lambs, and loaves and lambs alike end as holy to the LORD for the priest. The bread of the wheat harvest travels from a farmer's house to a priest's table, which is where the offering of verse 17 actually finishes.
4. (vv. 21-22)
Leviticus 23:21
“And ye shall proclaim on the selfsame day, that it may be an holy convocation unto you,....”
Leviticus 23:22
“And it is observable, that though the present business is only concerning the worship of God, yet he makes a kind of excursion to repeat a former law of providing for the poor, to shew that our devotion to God is little esteemed by him if it be not accompanied with acts of charity to men.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 23:21-23
The fiftieth day closes as a convocation and a statute for ever, and then verse 22 sets a farming law in the middle of a calendar. The corners of the field and the gleanings are left for the poor and for the stranger, repeating Leviticus 19:9 and 19:10, and the sentence ends I am the LORD your God, which is the reason this book gives for most of what it commands. Matthew Henry read the joy of harvest as owing something to the poor, and the placing does the arguing here, since a harvest feast is handed a rule about who else eats from that harvest.
E. Trumpets, and the day to afflict the soul
1. (v. 23)
Leviticus 23:23
“And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... At the same time, in a continued discourse, concerning some other days, which were to be observed in a sacred manner: saying; as follows.”
2. (vv. 24-26)
Leviticus 23:24
“A memorial of blowing of trumpets - This is generally called the feast of trumpets; and as it took place on the first day of the seventh month, Tisri, which answers to September, which month was the commencement of what was called the civil year, the feast probably had no other design than to celebrate the commencement of that year, if indeed such a distinction obtained among the ancient Jews. See the note on Exo 12:2. Some think creation began at this time.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 23:24
“It was typical of the preaching of the gospel, by which joyful sound souls were to be called in to serve God and keep a spiritual feast to him. The conversion of the nations to the faith of Christ is said to be by the blowing of a great trumpet, Isa. xxvii. A repetition of the law of the day of atonement, that is, so much of it as concerned the people.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Leviticus 23:25
“Ye shall do no servile work therein,.... Only such as was necessary for dressing food, but not any manual work, such as servants were employed in on other days, as agriculture or any mechanic business: but ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord; a burnt offering, and what that was may be seen in Num 29:1.”
Leviticus 23:26
“And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... This phrase, which is a kind of preface to each precept, seems to be used to distinguish one from another, as the preceding one from the feast of Pentecost; and here, the day of atonement from that of the blowing of the trumpets; and afterwards, the feast of tabernacles from the day of atonement; the reason why it is not used before the feast of Pentecost seems to be, because, as Aben Ezra observes, that depended upon the wave sheaf, and was reckoned from it: saying; as follows.”
The seventh month opens with a memorial of blowing of trumpets, and the text does not say what is being remembered. Every other appointed time here is tied to a harvest, to a rite or to the exodus, and this one is given a sound and a date and nothing further. Adam Clarke connects it to the beginning of the civil year and reports that some read it as the anniversary of creation; the verse settles neither, and the silence is what an honest note hands a reader.
3. (vv. 27-28)
Leviticus 23:28
“Ye shall do no work in that same day,.... No more than on the weekly sabbath: for it is a day of atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God: See Gill on Lev 16:30; Aben Ezra's note is,"for you only,''that is, for the Israelites, and not the Gentiles; but the atonement of Christ, the antitype of this, was not for the sins of the Jews only, but for the sins of the whole world, of all his people in it, 1Jn 2:2.”
Chapter 16 arrives in the calendar as a date. Nothing here repeats the goats, the blood or the linen garments, and what the people are handed instead is a day to afflict their souls and an order to do no work. The one solemnity in the list that is a fast sits among feasts and is called by the same word, which Jamieson, Fausset and Brown render as an appointed time or season of assembling rather than a celebration.
4. (vv. 29-32)
Leviticus 23:29
“For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day,.... That is, as the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem explain it, which can fast and does not fast; for a sick person, and a child under nine years of age, were not obliged to fast on this day (p): he shall be cut off from among his people; by an untimely death, by the hand of God; the Targum of Jonathan says, by the pestilence. (p) Maimon. Hilchot Shebitat Ashur, c. 2. sect. 8, 10.”
Leviticus 23:30
“And whatsoever soul it be that doeth any work in that same day,.... Any sort of work whatever; for, as before observed, it was to be kept as strictly as the weekly sabbath: the same soul will I destroy from among his people; with the pestilence, as the above Targum; it seems to be but another phrase for cutting them off, and to signify the same thing.”
Leviticus 23:31
“Ye shall do no manner of work,.... Which is repeated, that it might be observed, and to show how strictly God required this day should be kept, and how careful men should be of breaking the command in this respect, and how much he should resent it if they did: it shall be a statute for ever, throughout your generations, in all your dwellings; unto the coming of the Messiah, who, by the atoning sacrifice of himself, would answer to this law, and put an end to it.”
Leviticus 23:32
“The Jews are supposed to begin every day, and consequently their sabbaths, at the evening, in remembrance of the creation, as Christians generally begin their days and sabbaths with the morning in memory of Christ's resurrection.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 23:29-33
These are the only penalties attached to anything in the chapter, and there are two of them. A man who is not afflicted on that day is cut off from among his people, and a man who works meets the LORD speaking in the first person, the same soul will I destroy. Verse 32 then times the day from even unto even, beginning on the evening of the ninth, which states the evening-to-evening reckoning more plainly than anywhere else in Leviticus.
F. Booths, branches, and eight days of joy
1. (v. 33)
Leviticus 23:33
“And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... Concerning the feast of tabernacles here repeated and enlarged upon: saying; as follows.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 23:33
“3 Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein : it is the sabbath of the L ORD in all your dwellings.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2. (vv. 34-36)
Leviticus 23:34
“While the solid branches were reserved for the construction of the booths, the lighter branches were carried by men, who marched in triumphal procession, singing psalms and crying "Hosanna!" which signifies, "Save, we beseech thee!" (Ps 118:15, 25, 26). It was a season of great rejoicing.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Leviticus 23:35
“On the first day shall be an holy convocation,....”
Leviticus 23:36
“Seven days ye shall offer an offering made, by fire unto the Lord,.... A burnt offering; what this was, and how many were offered on each day, see at large in Num 29:13, on the eighth day shall be an holy convocation unto you; as on the first day; See Gill on Lev 23:35, and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord; which was different from that on all the other days, being one bullock only, &c. Num 29:35, it is a solemn assembly; of all the people, when they were gathered together before the Lord.”
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 23:36
“An offering made by fire - See Lev 23:8. The succession of sacrifices prescribed in Num. 29:12-38, which forms such a marked feature in the Feast of Tabernacles, tends to show the distinctness of the “solemn assembly” from the festal week.”
Tabernacles runs seven days and then adds an eighth. The eighth day is a convocation and a solemn assembly of its own, standing outside the seven it follows, and the chapter gives it no rite beyond an offering made by fire. John 7:2 sets Jesus at this feast and John 7:37 has him standing and crying on the last day, that great day, with an offer of living water.
3. (vv. 37-38)
Leviticus 23:37
“The meaning appears to be; “these are the yearly appointed times on which ye shall hold holy convocations and offer to Yahweh sacrifices, in addition to the Sabbath offerings Num 28:9-10 and to all your voluntary offerings.” Compare Num 29:39.”
Leviticus 23:38
“God will not have any sabbath-sacrifice diminished because of the addition of others, proper to any other feast. And it is here to be noted, that though other festival days are sometimes called sabbaths, yet these are here called the sabbaths of the Lord, in way of contradistinction, to shew that this was more eminently such than other feast days.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The list closes in the words it opened with, and verse 38 then sets all of it beside the sabbaths, the gifts, the vows and the freewill offerings, so the calendar is a floor under Israel's worship rather than the whole of it. Reading the seven appointed times as a calendar of prophecy, with the spring feasts answered at the first coming and the autumn feasts still ahead, is a tradition taught by Chuck Missler, Troy Brewer, Chuck Pierce and Jonathan Cahn. What the New Testament states is narrower and firmer: 1 Corinthians 5:7 calls Christ our passover, 1 Corinthians 15:20 calls him the firstfruits of them that slept, and Acts 2:1 places the outpouring on the fiftieth day.
4. (vv. 39-41)
Leviticus 23:39
“This is no addition of a new, but only a repetition of the former injunction, with a more particular explication both of the manner and reason of the feast. The fruit - Not the corn, which was gathered long before, but that of the trees, as vines, olives, and other fruit-trees: which compleated the harvest, whence this is called the feast of in-gathering.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Leviticus 23:39
“And the worship of God under the New Testament is prophesied of under the notion of keeping the feast of tabernacles, Zech. xiv. For, [1.] The gospel of Christ teaches us to dwell in tabernacles, to sit loose to this world, as those that have here no continuing city, but by faith, and hope and holy contempt of present things, to go out to Christ without the camp, Heb. xiii.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Leviticus 23:40
“Boughs of goodly trees - The Jews and many critics imagine the citron-tree to be intended, and by boughs of thick tree the myrtle.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Leviticus 23:40
“Of goodly trees - Namely, olive, myrtle and pine, mentioned, Neh. viii, 15, 16, which were most plentiful there, and which would best preserve their greenness.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Leviticus 23:40
“The tradition of the Jews is that they were to express their joy by dancing, and singing hymns of praise to God, with musical instruments: and not the common people only, but the wise men of Israel, and their elders, were to do it in the court of the sanctuary: for (say they) the joy with which a man rejoices in doing a commandment is really a great service.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Leviticus 23:41
“And ye shall keep it a feast unto the Lord seven days in the year,.... Every year it was to be kept for the space of seven days, beginning on the fifteenth and ending on the twenty second of the month Tisri or September: it shall be a statute for ever in your generations; until the Messiah should come and tabernacle among men, the substance of this shadow, on whose coming it was to flee away: ye shall celebrate it in the seventh month; which is repeated for the confirmation of it, and that no mistake might be made.”
The chapter closed its list at verse 37 and then returns to tabernacles to give more. Boughs of goodly trees, palm branches, thick trees and willows of the brook are gathered, and the people are told to rejoice before the LORD their God seven days. The word rejoice occurs once in the whole of Leviticus, here at verse 40, in a book otherwise given to blood, quarantine and penalties.
5. (vv. 42-44)
Leviticus 23:42
“Booths - According to Jewish tradition, what were used at the Feast of Tabernacles were strictly “tabernacula,” structures of boards, with a covering of boughs. The “booth” in which the Israelite kept the Feast, and the “tent” which was his ordinary abode in the wilderness, had this in common - they were temporary places of sojourn, they belonged to camp-life. The seven days of abode in the booths of the festival was thus a fair symbol of the forty years of abode in tents in the wilderness.”
Leviticus 23:43
“That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths,....”
2 more voices on this verse
Leviticus 23:43
“That your generations may know, etc. - By the institution of this feast God had two great objects in view: 1. To perpetuate the wonderful display of his providence and grace in bringing them out of Egypt, and in preserving them in the wilderness. 2. To excite and maintain in them a spirit of gratitude and obedience, by leading them to consider deeply the greatness of the favors which they had received from his most merciful hands. Signal displays of the mercy, kindness, and providential care of God should be particularly remembered.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Leviticus 23:43
“And they would the more sensibly value and be thankful for the comforts and conveniences of their houses when they had been seven days dwelling in booths. It is good for those that have ease and plenty sometimes to learn what it is to endure hardness. (2.) It was a feast of in-gathering, so it is called, Exod. xxiii.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Leviticus 23:44
“And Moses declared unto the children of Israel the feasts of the Lord. The several feasts before recited, the order of them, the manner of observing them, and the time.”
2 more voices on this verse
Leviticus 23:44
“Feasts - Appointed times. See Lev 23:2 note.”
Leviticus 23:44
“We have reason to be thankful that the feasts of the Lord, declared unto us, are not so numerous, nor the observance of them so burdensome and costly, as theirs then were, but more spiritual and significant, and surer sweeter earnests of the everlasting feast, at the last in-gathering, which we hope to be celebrating to eternity.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
This is the one appointed time in the chapter whose reason the text states outright, 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. A settled nation with houses is ordered out of them for a week every year so that its children will ask why. The chapter that is almost entirely God speaking ends with a man speaking, since verse 44 has Moses declaring the feasts of the LORD to the people who will keep them.
This page carries no textual note on Leviticus 23. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Alfred Edersheim, The Temple: Its Ministry and Services; Chuck Missler, Learn the Bible in 24 Hours; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.