Leviticus 23
Names of God Bible
The Day of Worship
23 Yahweh spoke to Moses, 2 “Tell the Israelites: These are the appointed festivals with Yahweh, which you must announce as holy assemblies. 3 You may work for six days. But the seventh day is a day of worship, a day when you don’t work, a holy assembly. Don’t do any work. It is Yahweh’s day of worship wherever you live.
4 “The following are Yahweh’s appointed festivals with holy assemblies, which you must announce at their appointed times.
The Spring Festivals
5 “The fourteenth day of the first month, in the evening, is Yahweh’s Passover. 6 The fifteenth day of this same month is Yahweh’s Festival of Unleavened Bread. For seven days you must eat unleavened bread. 7 On the first day there will be a holy assembly. Don’t do any regular work. 8 Bring Yahweh a sacrifice by fire for seven days. On the seventh day there will be a holy assembly. Don’t do any regular work.”
9 Yahweh spoke to Moses, 10 “Tell the Israelites: When you come to the land I am going to give you and you harvest grain, bring the priest a bundle of the first grain you harvest. 11 He will present it to Yahweh so that you will be accepted. He will present it on the day after Passover. 12 On the day you present the bundle, you must sacrifice a one-year-old male lamb that has no defects as a burnt offering to Yahweh. 13 Bring a grain offering of four quarts of flour mixed with olive oil with it. This will be a sacrifice by fire made to Yahweh, a soothing aroma. Use one quart of wine for the wine offering. 14 Don’t eat bread, roasted grain, or fresh grain until this same day, when you bring the offering to your Elohim. It is a permanent law for generations to come wherever you live.
15 “Count seven full weeks from the day after Passover (the day you bring the bundle of grain as an offering presented to the Lord) 16 until the day after the seventh week. This is a total of fifty days. Then bring a new grain offering to Yahweh. 17 Bring two loaves of bread from your homes to present to the Lord. Bake them with four quarts of flour. They are the first harvested grain for Yahweh. 18 With the bread bring seven one-year-old lambs that have no defects, one bull, and two rams. They will be a burnt offering to Yahweh. With these offerings also bring grain and wine offerings. They will be a sacrifice by fire, a soothing aroma to Yahweh. 19 Also sacrifice one male goat as an offering for sin and two one-year-old lambs as a fellowship offering. 20 The priest must present them along with the bread of the first harvested grain as an offering to Yahweh. All this, along with the two lambs, will be holy and will belong to Yahweh’s priests. 21 Make an announcement that there will be a holy assembly on that same day. Don’t do any regular work. It is a permanent law for generations to come wherever you live.
22 “When you harvest the grain in your land, don’t harvest the grain in the corners of your fields or gather what is left after you’re finished. Leave it for poor people and foreigners. I am Yahweh your Elohim.”
The Fall Festivals
23 Yahweh spoke to Moses, 24 “Tell the Israelites: On the first day of the seventh month hold a worship festival. It will be a memorial day, a holy assembly announced by the blowing of rams’ horns. 25 Don’t do any regular work. Bring a sacrifice by fire to Yahweh.”
26 Yahweh spoke to Moses, 27 “In addition, the tenth day of this seventh month is a special day for the payment for sins. There will be a holy assembly. Humble yourselves, and bring Yahweh a sacrifice by fire. 28 Don’t do any work that day. It is a special day for the payment for sins. It is a time when you make peace with Yahweh your Elohim. 29 Those who do not humble themselves on that day will be excluded from the people. 30 I will kill those who do any work on that day. 31 Don’t do any work. It is a permanent law for generations to come wherever you live. 32 It is a day of worship, a day when you don’t work. Humble yourselves starting on the evening of the ninth day of the month. From that evening to the next, observe the day of worship.”
33 Yahweh spoke to Moses, 34 “Tell the Israelites: The fifteenth day of this seventh month is the Festival of Booths to Yahweh. It will last seven days. 35 On the first day there will be a holy assembly. Don’t do any regular work. 36 For seven consecutive days bring a sacrifice by fire to Yahweh. On the eighth day there will be a holy assembly. Bring Yahweh a sacrifice by fire. This is the last festival of the year. Don’t do any regular work.
37 “These are Yahweh’s appointed festivals. Announce them as holy assemblies for bringing sacrifices by fire to Yahweh. Bring burnt offerings, grain offerings, other sacrifices, and wine offerings—each one on its special day. 38 This is in addition to Yahweh’s days of worship, your gifts, all your vows, and your freewill offerings to Yahweh.
39 “However, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered what the land produces, celebrate Yahweh’s festival for seven days. The first and the eighth days will be worship festivals. 40 On the first day take the best fruits, palm branches, the branches of leafy trees and poplars, and celebrate in the presence of Yahweh your Elohim for seven days. 41 It is Yahweh’s festival. Celebrate it for seven days each year. This is a permanent law for generations to come. Celebrate this festival in the seventh month. 42 Live in booths for seven days. Everyone born in Israel must live in booths 43 so that generations to come may learn how I made the people of Israel live in booths when I brought them out of Egypt. I am Yahweh your Elohim.”
44 So Moses told the Israelites about Yahweh’s appointed festivals.
Leviticus 23
Living Bible
23 1-2 The Lord said to Moses, “Announce to the people of Israel that they are to celebrate several annual festivals of the Lord—times when all Israel will assemble and worship me. 3 (These are in addition to your Sabbaths[a]—the seventh day of every week—which are always days of rest in every home, times for assembling to worship, and for resting from the normal business of the week.) 4 These are the holy festivals which are to be observed each year:
5 “The Passover of the Lord: This is to be celebrated on the first day of April,[b] beginning at sundown.
6 “The Festival of Unleavened Bread: This is to be celebrated beginning the day following the Passover, and for seven days you must not eat any bread made with yeast. 7 On the first day of this festival, you shall gather the people for worship, and all ordinary work shall cease.[c] 8 You shall do the same on the seventh day of the festival. On each of the intervening days you shall make an offering by fire to the Lord.
9-11 “The Festival of First Fruits: When you arrive in the land I will give you and you reap your first harvest, bring the first sheaf of the harvest to the priest on the day after the Sabbath. He shall wave it before the Lord in a gesture of offering, and it will be accepted by the Lord as your gift. 12 That same day you shall sacrifice to the Lord a male yearling lamb without defect as a burnt offering. 13 A grain offering shall accompany it, consisting of a fifth of a bushel of finely ground flour mixed with olive oil, to be offered by fire to the Lord; this will be very pleasant to him. Also offer a drink offering consisting of three pints of wine. 14 Until this is done you must not eat any of the harvest for yourselves—neither fresh kernels nor bread nor parched grain. This is a permanent law throughout your nation.
15-16 “The Harvest Festival (Festival of Pentecost): Fifty days later you shall bring to the Lord an offering of a sample of the new grain of your later crops. 17 This shall consist of two loaves of bread from your homes to be waved before the Lord in a gesture of offering. Bake this bread from a fifth of a bushel of fine flour containing yeast. It is an offering to the Lord of the first sampling of your later crops.[d] 18 Along with the bread and the wine, you shall sacrifice as burnt offerings to the Lord seven yearling lambs without defects, one young bull, and two rams. All are fire offerings, very acceptable to Jehovah.[e] 19 And you shall offer one male goat for a sin offering and two male yearling lambs for a peace offering.
20 “The priests shall wave these offerings before the Lord along with the loaves representing the first sampling of your later crops. They are holy to the Lord and will be given to the priests as food. 21 That day shall be announced as a time of sacred convocation of all the people; don’t do any work that day. This is a law to be honored from generation to generation. 22 (When you reap your harvests, you must not thoroughly reap all the corners of the fields, nor pick up the fallen grain; leave it for the poor and for foreigners living among you who have no land of their own; I am Jehovah your God!)
23-24 “The Festival of Trumpets: Mid-September[f] is a time for all the people to meet together for worship; it is a time of remembrance, and is to be announced by loud blowing of trumpets. 25 Don’t do any hard work on that day, but offer a sacrifice by fire to the Lord.
26-27 “The Day of Atonement follows nine days later:[g] All the people are to come together before the Lord, saddened by their sin; and they shall offer sacrifices by fire to the Lord. 28 Don’t do any work that day, for it is a special day for making atonement before the Lord your God. 29 Anyone who does not spend the day in repentance and sorrow for sin shall be excommunicated from his people. 30-31 And I will put to death anyone who does any kind of work that day. This is a law of Israel from generation to generation. 32 For this is a Sabbath of rest, and in it you shall go without food and be filled with sorrow; this time for atonement begins in the evening and continues through the next day.
33-34 “The Festival of Shelters: Five days later, on the last day of September,[h] is the Festival of Shelters to be celebrated before the Lord for seven days. 35 On the first day there will be a sacred assembly of all the people; don’t do any hard work that day. 36 On each of the seven days of the festival you are to sacrifice an offering by fire to the Lord. The eighth day requires another sacred convocation of all the people, at which time there will again be an offering by fire to the Lord. It is the closing assembly, and no regular work is permitted.
37 “(These, then, are the regular annual festivals—sacred convocations of all people—when offerings to the Lord are to be made by fire. 38 These annual festivals are in addition to your regular Sabbaths—the weekly days of holy rest. The sacrifices made during the festivals are to be in addition to your regular giving and normal fulfillment of your vows.)
39 “This last day of September, at the end of your harvesting, is the time to begin to celebrate this seven-day festival before the Lord. Remember that the first and last days of the festival are special days of rest. 40 On the first day, take boughs of fruit trees laden with fruit, and palm fronds, and the boughs of leafy trees—such as willows that grow by the brooks—and build shelters with them,[i] rejoicing before the Lord your God for seven days. 41 This seven-day annual feast is a law from generation to generation. 42 During those seven days, all of you who are native Israelites are to live in these shelters. 43 The purpose of this is to remind the people of Israel, generation after generation, that I rescued you from Egypt, and caused you to live in shelters. I am Jehovah your God.”
44 So Moses announced these annual festivals of the Lord to the people of Israel.
Footnotes
- Leviticus 23:3 your Sabbaths, implied.
- Leviticus 23:5 This is to be celebrated on the first day of April, literally, “on the fourteenth day of the first month” (of the Hebrew calendar). This corresponds approximately to our April first.
- Leviticus 23:7 all ordinary work shall cease, literally, “you shall do no hard work.”
- Leviticus 23:17 of the first sampling of your later crops, literally, “as first fruits to the Lord.”
- Leviticus 23:18 very acceptable to Jehovah, literally, “of a sweet odor to the Lord.”
- Leviticus 23:23 Mid-September, literally, “the first day of the seventh month” (of the Hebrew calendar).
- Leviticus 23:26 nine days later, literally, “on the tenth day of the seventh month” (of the Hebrew calendar).
- Leviticus 23:33 on the last day of September, literally, “on the fifteenth day of the seventh month” (of the Hebrew calendar). Festival of Shelters, literally, “Feast of Tabernacles.”
- Leviticus 23:40 build shelters with them, implied.
The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.