Leviticus 23:1-25:23

New King James Version

Feasts of the Lord

23 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²“Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘The feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be ^(A)holy convocations, these are My feasts.

The Sabbath

³^(B)‘Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it; it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings.

The Passover and Unleavened Bread^(C)

⁴^(D)‘These are the feasts of the Lord, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. ⁵^(E)On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the Lord’s Passover. ⁶And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; seven days you must eat unleavened bread. ⁷^(F)On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no ^[a]customary work on it. ⁸But you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord for seven days. The seventh day shall be a holy convocation; you shall do no customary work on it.’ ”

The Feast of Firstfruits

⁹And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁰“Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ^(G)‘When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of ^(H)the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest. ¹¹He shall ^(I)wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. ¹²And you shall offer on that day, when you wave the sheaf, a male lamb of the first year, without blemish, as a burnt offering to the Lord. ¹³Its grain offering shall be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to the Lord, for a ^[b]sweet aroma; and its drink offering shall be of wine, one-fourth of a hin. ¹⁴You shall eat neither bread nor parched grain nor fresh grain until the same day that you have brought an offering to your God; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.

The Feast of Weeks^(J)

¹⁵‘And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed. ¹⁶Count ^(K)fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer ^(L)a new grain offering to the Lord. ¹⁷You shall bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of two-tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven. They are ^(M)the firstfruits to the Lord. ¹⁸And you shall offer with the bread seven lambs of the first year, without blemish, one young bull, and two rams. They shall be as a burnt offering to the Lord, with their grain offering and their drink offerings, an offering made by fire for a sweet aroma to the Lord. ¹⁹Then you shall sacrifice ^(N)one kid of the goats as a sin offering, and two male lambs of the first year as a sacrifice of a ^(O)peace offering. ²⁰The priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits as a wave offering before the Lord, with the two lambs. ^(P)They shall be holy to the Lord for the priest. ²¹And you shall proclaim on the same day that it is a holy convocation to you. You shall do no customary work on it. It shall be a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations.

²²^(Q)‘When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field when you reap, nor shall you gather any gleaning from your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger: I am the Lord your God.’ ”

The Feast of Trumpets^(R)

²³Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²⁴“Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘In the ^(S)seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a sabbath-rest, ^(T)a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. ²⁵You shall do no customary work on it; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord.’ ”

The Day of Atonement^(U)

²⁶And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ²⁷^(V)“Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. ²⁸And you shall do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, ^(W)to make atonement for you before the Lord your God. ²⁹For any person who is not ^(X)afflicted in soul on that same day ^(Y)shall be cut off from his people. ³⁰And any person who does any work on that same day, ^(Z)that person I will destroy from among his people. ³¹You shall do no manner of work; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. ³²It shall be to you a sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall ^[c]afflict your souls; on the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you shall ^[d]celebrate your sabbath.”

The Feast of Tabernacles^(AA)

³³Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ³⁴“Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ^(AB)‘The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the Lord. ³⁵On the first day there shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it. ³⁶For seven days you shall offer an ^(AC)offering made by fire to the Lord. ^(AD)On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. It is a ^(AE)sacred^[e] assembly, and you shall do no customary work on it.

³⁷^(AF)‘These are the feasts of the Lord which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire to the Lord, a burnt offering and a grain offering, a sacrifice and drink offerings, everything on its day— ³⁸^(AG)besides the Sabbaths of the Lord, besides your gifts, besides all your vows, and besides all your freewill offerings which you give to the Lord.

³⁹‘Also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have ^(AH)gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep the feast of the Lord for seven days; on the first day there shall be a sabbath-rest, and on the eighth day a sabbath-rest. ⁴⁰And ^(AI)you shall take for yourselves on the first day the ^[f]fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; ^(AJ)and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. ⁴¹^(AK)You shall keep it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It shall be a statute forever in your generations. You shall celebrate it in the seventh month. ⁴²^(AL)You shall dwell in ^[g]booths for seven days. ^(AM)All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths, ⁴³^(AN)that your generations may ^(AO)know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when ^(AP)I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.’ ”

⁴⁴So Moses ^(AQ)declared to the children of Israel the feasts of the Lord.

Care of the Tabernacle Lamps^(AR)

24 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ²^(AS)“Command the children of Israel that they bring to you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to make the lamps burn continually. ³Outside the veil of the Testimony, in the tabernacle of meeting, Aaron shall be in charge of it from evening until morning before the Lord continually; it shall be a statute forever in your generations. ⁴He shall ^[h]be in charge of the lamps on ^(AT)the pure gold lampstand before the Lord continually.

The Bread of the Tabernacle

⁵“And you shall take fine flour and bake twelve ^(AU)cakes with it. Two-tenths of an ephah shall be in each cake. ⁶You shall set them in two rows, six in a row, ^(AV)on the pure gold table before the Lord. ⁷And you shall put pure frankincense on each row, that it may be on the bread for a ^(AW)memorial, an offering made by fire to the Lord. ⁸^(AX)Every Sabbath he shall set it in order before the Lord continually, being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant. ⁹And ^(AY)it shall be for Aaron and his sons, ^(AZ)and they shall eat it in a holy place; for it is most holy to him from the offerings of the Lord made by fire, by a perpetual statute.”

The Penalty for Blasphemy

¹⁰Now the son of an Israelite woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel; and this Israelite woman’s son and a man of Israel fought each other in the camp. ¹¹And the Israelite woman’s son ^(BA)blasphemed the name of the Lord and ^(BB)cursed; and so they ^(BC)brought him to Moses. (His mother’s name was Shelomith the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.) ¹²Then they ^(BD)put him ^[i]in custody, ^(BE)that ^[j]the mind of the Lord might be shown to them.

¹³And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁴“Take outside the camp him who has cursed; then let all who heard him ^(BF)lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him.

¹⁵“Then you shall speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘Whoever curses his God ^(BG)shall ^[k]bear his sin. ¹⁶And whoever ^(BH)blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall certainly stone him, the stranger as well as him who is born in the land. When he blasphemes the name of the Lord, he shall be put to death.

¹⁷^(BI)‘Whoever kills any man shall surely be put to death. ¹⁸^(BJ)Whoever kills an animal shall make it good, animal for animal.

¹⁹‘If a man causes disfigurement of his neighbor, as ^(BK)he has done, so shall it be done to him— ²⁰fracture for ^(BL)fracture, ^(BM)eye for eye, tooth for tooth; as he has caused disfigurement of a man, so shall it be done to him. ²¹And whoever kills an animal shall restore it; but whoever kills a man shall be put to death. ²²You shall have ^(BN)the^[l] same law for the stranger and for one from your own country; for I am the Lord your God.’ ”

²³Then Moses spoke to the children of Israel; and they took outside the camp him who had cursed, and stoned him with stones. So the children of Israel did as the Lord commanded Moses.

The Sabbath of the Seventh Year^(BO)

25 And the Lord spoke to Moses on Mount ^(BP)Sinai, saying, ²“Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall ^(BQ)keep a sabbath to the Lord. ³Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather its fruit; ⁴but in the ^(BR)seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn ^(BS)rest for the land, a sabbath to the Lord. You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard. ⁵^(BT)What grows of its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine, for it is a year of rest for the land. ⁶And the sabbath produce of the land shall be food for you: for you, your male and female servants, your hired man, and the stranger who dwells with you, ⁷for your livestock and the beasts that are in your land—all its produce shall be for food.

The Year of Jubilee

⁸‘And you shall count seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years; and the time of the seven sabbaths of years shall be to you forty-nine years. ⁹Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; ^(BU)on the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land. ¹⁰And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and ^(BV)proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you; ^(BW)and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family. ¹¹That fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee to you; in it ^(BX)you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of its own accord, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine. ¹²For it is the Jubilee; it shall be holy to you; ^(BY)you shall eat its produce from the field.

¹³^(BZ)‘In this Year of Jubilee, each of you shall return to his possession. ¹⁴And if you sell anything to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor’s hand, you shall not ^(CA)oppress one another. ¹⁵^(CB)According to the number of years after the Jubilee you shall buy from your neighbor, and according to the number of years of crops he shall sell to you. ¹⁶According to the multitude of years you shall increase its price, and according to the fewer number of years you shall diminish its price; for he sells to you according to the number of the years of the crops. ¹⁷Therefore ^(CC)you shall not ^[m]oppress one another, ^(CD)but you shall fear your God; for I am the Lord your God.

Provisions for the Seventh Year

¹⁸^(CE)‘So you shall observe My statutes and keep My judgments, and perform them; ^(CF)and you will dwell in the land in safety. ¹⁹Then the land will yield its fruit, and ^(CG)you will eat your fill, and dwell there in safety.

²⁰‘And if you say, ^(CH)“What shall we eat in the seventh year, since ^(CI)we shall not sow nor gather in our produce?” ²¹Then I will ^(CJ)command My blessing on you in the ^(CK)sixth year, and it will bring forth produce enough for three years. ²²^(CL)And you shall sow in the eighth year, and eat ^(CM)old produce until the ninth year; until its produce comes in, you shall eat of the old harvest.