Bible Commentaries
Leviticus 23

Verses 1-44

The Sacred Seasons

These are the Sabbath (Leviticus 23:3), Passover and Unleavened Bread (Leviticus 23:5-14), Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost (Leviticus 23:15-22), Feast of Trumpets (Leviticus 23:23-25), Day of Atonement (Leviticus 23:26-32), and Feast of Booths or Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:33-43).

3. The sabbath] see on Exodus 20:8-11.

5-8. Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread. Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles were the three great annual festivals which followed the seasons of the year and the operations of agriculture. For the institution of the Passover see Exodus 12:1-14, and for the sacrifices proper to the Feast of Unleavened Bread see Numbers 28:16-25. These two parts of the double festival were quite distinct. The Passover was celebrated on the fourteenth day of Nisan beginning at sunset, and was followed by the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which lasted for seven days. Hence the name of the feast of unleavened bread is sometimes used to include both festivals, as in Luke 22:1.

9-14. The beginning of the grain harvest was celebrated during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when a sheaf of new corn was waved before the Lord, as an acknowledgment of His bounty, and a consecration of the harvest to Him.

11. Wave the sheaf] see on Exodus 29:24

13. Tenth deals.. him] see on Leviticus 14:10; Leviticus 19:36.

15-21. Feast of Weeks. Fifty days or seven weeks after the last festival, the Feast of Weeks, called in Gk. ’Pentecost’ from the word for ’fifty,’ began with the presentation of two loaves made of the new wheat and leavened in the ordinary way, signifying that harvest was completed. Hence this feast, which lasted only a single day, is called also the Feast of Harvest in Exodus 23:16. For the sacrifices offered see Leviticus 23:18-19 Numbers 28:26-31.

22. See on Leviticus 19:9.

23-25. Feast of Trumpets. This was celebrated on the first day of the seventh month (Tishri), which was New Year’s Day according to the civil reckoning: see on Exodus 12:2. For the special ritual of this Feast see Numbers 29:1-6.

26-32. Day of Atonement: see Leviticus 16.

33-43. Feast of Booths or Tabernacles. This feast, called also the Feast of Ingathering (Exodus 23:16), was observed from the 15th to the 22nd Tishri (in October), and marked the end of the agricultural year, when the combined produce of the whole year, the vintage as well as the grain harvest, had been secured: cp. Deuteronomy 16:13. It was celebrated with great rejoicing (Leviticus 23:40) as the national ’harvest home,’ the people camping out in booths constructed of branches upon the roofs of their houses and in the streets during the seven days, in commemoration of the sojourn in the wilderness, Leviticus 23:43: see on Exodus 23:15, and cp. Hosea 12:9.