Leviticus 23:11
in Leviticus 23And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD so that it may be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
and he shall wave the sheaf before Jehovah, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.
KJV
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.
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This verse in Leviticus 23
Commentary
4 notes on this verseHe 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.
This site's exposition
When ye be come into the land
on Leviticus 23:10-11
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.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
The morrow after the sabbath - After the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, which was a sabbath or day of rest, as appears from ver. 7, or upon the sixteenth day of the month. And this was the first of those fifty days, in the close whereof was the feast of pentecost.
quarantine:anchor (2026-07-29) — cites-ver-7-anchored-11-11
And he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord,....
How the passage was read
On Leviticus 23:1-44On Leviticus 23:1-44
The year Israel keeps
This chapter is the calendar of the whole Jewish year, and every feast in it is still on the calendar today. In order: the weekly Sabbath; Passover and Unleavened Bread in spring (now kept as the seder meal and a week without leavened bread); Firstfruits (the first sheaf of barley waved before God); Weeks, in Hebrew Shavuot, fifty days later (Christians know the Greek name: Pentecost); then in autumn the Day of Trumpets (now Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, announced by the ram's-horn trumpet called a shofar), the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur, the great fast), and Tabernacles, in Hebrew Sukkot, when families still build and eat in leafy backyard booths for a week, remembering the wilderness.
So when the New Testament says Jesus or Paul went up for “the feast,” it means one of these appointments: the same calendar, kept for over three thousand years.
What the Jewish commentators add
ON THE MORROW AFTER ‘HA’SHABBATH’ THE PRIEST SHALL WAVE IT. “That is, the morrow after the first day of the Festival of Passover.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Sources: The Feasts of the LORD (this site's study of all seven) · Mishnah Rosh Hashanah 1:1 (the four new years)
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 5 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
10 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְהֵנִ֧יף | vehenif | and he will wave | H5130 → | 37 times |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| הָעֹ֛מֶר | haomer | the sheaf | H6016 → | 14 times |
| לִפְנֵ֥י | lifnei | <to> before | H6440 → | 2123 times |
| יְהוָ֖ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| לִֽרְצֹנְכֶ֑ם | lirtzonekhem | for acceptance your | H7522 → | 56 times |
| מִֽמָּחֳרַת֙ | mimochorat | from [the] next day of | H4283 → | 32 times |
| הַשַּׁבָּ֔ת | hashabat | the sabbath | H7676 → | 110 times |
| יְנִיפֶ֖נּוּ | yenifenu | he will wave it | H5130 → | 37 times |
| הַכֹּהֵֽן׃ | hakohen | the priest | H3548 → | 750 times |
וְהֵנִ֧יףand he will wave
vehenifH5130 →37 times
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
הָעֹ֛מֶרthe sheaf
haomerH6016 →14 times
לִפְנֵ֥י<to> before
lifneiH6440 →2123 times
יְהוָ֖הYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
לִֽרְצֹנְכֶ֑םfor acceptance your
lirtzonekhemH7522 →56 times
מִֽמָּחֳרַת֙from [the] next day of
mimochoratH4283 →32 times
הַשַּׁבָּ֔תthe sabbath
hashabatH7676 →110 times
יְנִיפֶ֖נּוּhe will wave it
yenifenuH5130 →37 times
הַכֹּהֵֽן׃the priest
hakohenH3548 →750 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Leviticus 10:14And you and your sons and daughters may eat the breast of the wave offering and the thigh of the contribution in a ceremonially clean place, because these portions have been assigned to you…
it leads to
- Numbers 18:11
And this is yours as well: the offering of their gifts, along with all the wave offerings of the Israelites. I have given this to you and your sons and daughters as a permanent…
- Leviticus 9:21
but he waved the breasts and the right thigh as a wave offering before the LORD, as Moses had commanded.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- John 4:34
Jesus explained, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work.
- Exodus 29:24–28
Put all these in the hands of Aaron and his sons and wave them before the LORD as a wave offering.
- Leviticus 7:29–34
“Speak to the Israelites and say, ‘Anyone who presents a peace offering to the LORD must bring it as his sacrifice to the LORD.
- Numbers 18:11
Through
Leviticus 9:21but he waved the breasts and the right thigh as a wave offering before the LORD, as Moses had commanded.
it leads to
- Leviticus 7:30–34
With his own hands he is to bring the offerings made by fire to the LORD; he shall bring the fat, together with the breast, and wave the breast as a wave offering before…
- Leviticus 7:30–34
Through
Exodus 29:24Put all these in the hands of Aaron and his sons and wave them before the LORD as a wave offering.
it leads to
- Leviticus 7:30
With his own hands he is to bring the offerings made by fire to the LORD; he shall bring the fat, together with the breast, and wave the breast as a wave offering before…
- Leviticus 8:27
He put all these in the hands of Aaron and his sons and waved them before the LORD as a wave offering.
- Leviticus 7:30
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies10
About Leviticus
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Alfred Edersheim, The Temple: Its Ministry and Services; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch.