Leviticus 23

Leviticus 23 is part of the holiness regulations in the latter part of the book. The preceding chapter, Leviticus 22, deals with how priests are to handle holy things and with the requirements for offerings. Chapter 23 then brings together in one place the dates and manner of the feasts that the whole people are to observe each year.

Outline

• Verses 1–3 The people are to work six days and keep the seventh day as the Sabbath, a day of rest. It is a day of holy convocation, that is, a sacred assembly.
• Verses 4–8 The evening of the fourteenth day of the first month is the Passover. The Feast of Unleavened Bread begins on the fifteenth and lasts seven days, during which bread without leaven is eaten. The first and seventh days are holy convocations, and offerings made by fire are presented throughout the seven days.
• Verses 9–14 When the people enter the land and reap its harvest, they are to bring a sheaf of the firstfruits to the priest. The priest waves the sheaf before the LORD on the day after the Sabbath (a wave offering). On the same day a male lamb of the first year without blemish is offered as a burnt offering, together with two tenth deals of fine flour as a meat (grain) offering and the fourth part of an hin of wine as a drink offering. No new grain may be eaten until this offering has been brought.
• Verses 15–21 Counting fifty days from that day, the people present a new meat offering. They offer two loaves baked with leaven, along with seven lambs, one young bullock, and two rams as burnt offerings. One kid of the goats is offered as a sin offering, and two lambs as peace offerings. This feast is commonly called the Feast of Weeks.
• Verse 22 When reaping the harvest, the people are to leave the corners of the field and the gleanings for the poor and the stranger (the sojourner).
• Verses 23–25 The first day of the seventh month is a memorial marked by the blowing of trumpets, and it is a holy convocation.
• Verses 26–32 The tenth day of the seventh month is the Day of Atonement. The people are to afflict their souls and do no work at all. The Sabbath rest is kept from the evening of the ninth day until the following evening.
• Verses 33–36 The Feast of Tabernacles is kept for seven days beginning on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, and the eighth day is also a holy convocation.
• Verses 37–38 These verses summarize the feasts and state that their offerings are in addition to the Sabbath offerings and to vows and freewill offerings.
• Verses 39–43 After the harvest has been gathered, at the Feast of Tabernacles the people take the fruit of trees, palm branches, and other boughs, rejoice for seven days, and dwell in booths. This is so that future generations will know that God made Israel dwell in booths at the time of the Exodus.
• Verse 44 Moses declares the feasts to the people.

Key Verses

• Leviticus 23:2 "Concerning the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts." — This verse serves as a heading for the entire chapter.
• Leviticus 23:22 "Thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger." — A law of care for one's neighbor placed in the middle of the festival regulations; it also provides background for the gleaning in the Book of Ruth.
• Leviticus 23:43 "I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt." — This verse shows that the feasts serve as a means of remembering the history of salvation.

People and Places

• Moses — Receives the regulations for the feasts from God and delivers them to the children of Israel.
• Priests — Wave the firstfruits sheaf and the loaves before the LORD and receive those holy portions.
• Egypt — The starting point of the Exodus, which the Feast of Tabernacles commemorates.

Points for Reflection

• Whether "the morrow after the sabbath" in verses 11 and 15 refers to the day after the weekly Sabbath or the day after the first day of Unleavened Bread is reported to have been disputed even within ancient Judaism.
• Christian tradition has read these feasts in connection with Christ. Paul calls Christ our Passover (1 Corinthians 5:7) and the firstfruits (1 Corinthians 15:20). The feast on the fiftieth day is linked to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost in Acts 2. In John 7, Jesus teaches in the temple during the Feast of Tabernacles.
• Most denominations hold that these feasts have been fulfilled in Christ and do not observe their dates as such. By contrast, some groups, such as the World Mission Society Church of God, teach that the feasts of this chapter must still be kept today.

In the Korean Church

The chapter is frequently cited as the scriptural basis for the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles in sermons for Wheat Harvest Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving. Verse 22 is used in sermons on almsgiving and love of neighbor.