Special Holidays

23 The Lord said to Moses, ² “Tell the ·people [^Lsons; children] of Israel: ‘You will announce the Lord’s appointed ·feasts [festivals] as holy ·meetings [convocations]. These are my special ·feasts [festivals].

The Sabbath

³ “‘There are six days for you to work, but the seventh day will be a special day of rest. It is a day for a holy ·meeting [convocation]; you must not do any work. It is a Sabbath to the Lord in all your homes [Ex. 20:8–11; 31:12–17; 35:1–3; Num. 28:9–10; Deut. 5:12–15].

The Passover and Unleavened Bread

⁴ “‘These are the Lord’s appointed ·feasts [festivals], the holy ·meetings [convocations], which you will announce at the times set for them. ⁵ The Lord’s Passover is on the fourteenth day of the first month, beginning at twilight. ⁶ The ·Feast [Festival] of Unleavened Bread begins on the fifteenth day of the same month. You will eat bread made without ·yeast [leaven] for seven days. ⁷ On the first day of this ·feast [festival] you will have a holy ·meeting [convocation], and you must not do any work. ⁸ For seven days you will bring an offering made by fire to the Lord. There will be a holy ·meeting [convocation] on the seventh day, and on that day you must not do any regular work [Ex. 12:1–13, 21–27; 23:15; Num. 28:16–25; Deut. 16:1–8].’”

The First of the Harvest

⁹ The Lord said to Moses, ¹⁰ “Tell the ·people [^Lsons; children] of Israel: ‘You will enter the land I will give you and gather its harvest. At that time you must bring the first bundle of grain from your harvest to the priest. ¹¹ The priest will ·present [wave] the bundle before the Lord, and it will be accepted for you; he will ·present [wave] the bundle on the day after the Sabbath.

¹² “‘On the day when you ·present [wave; 23:15] the bundle of grain, offer a male lamb, one year old, that ·has nothing wrong with it [is perfect], as a burnt offering [1:1–17] to the Lord. ¹³ You must also offer a ·grain [^Lgift; tribute] offering [2:1]—·four quarts [^Ltwo tenths of an ephah] of ·fine [choice] flour mixed with olive oil as an offering made by fire to the Lord; its smell will be pleasing to him. You must also offer ·a quart [^Lone-fourth of a hin] of wine as a drink offering. ¹⁴ Until the day you bring your offering to your God, do not eat any new grain, roasted grain, or bread made from new grain. This ·law [statute; ordinance; requirement] will always continue ·for people from now on [^Lthroughout your generations], wherever you live [Ex. 23:16; Num. 28:26–31; Deut. 16:9–12].

The Feast of Weeks

¹⁵ “‘Count seven full weeks from the morning after the Sabbath. (This is the Sabbath that you bring the bundle of grain to ·present [wave] as an offering [^Ca ritual whereby the offerer symbolically waves the offering before God but then uses it].) ¹⁶ On the fiftieth day, the first day after the seventh week, you will bring a new grain offering to the Lord. ¹⁷ On that day bring two loaves of bread from your homes to be ·presented [waved] as an offering. Use yeast and ·four quarts [^Ltwo-tenths of an ephah] of flour to make those loaves of bread; they will be your gift to the Lord from the first wheat of your harvest.

¹⁸ “‘Offer with the bread one young bull, two male sheep, and seven male lambs that are one year old and have ·nothing wrong with them [no blemish]. Offer them with their ·grain [^Lgift; tribute] offerings [2:1] and drink offerings, as a burnt offering [1:1–17] to the Lord. They will be an offering made by fire, and the smell will be pleasing to the Lord. ¹⁹ You must also offer one male goat for a ·sin [or purification; 4:3] offering and two male, one-year-old lambs as a ·fellowship [or peace; well-being] offering [3:1].

²⁰ “‘The priest will ·present [wave; 23:15] the two lambs as an offering before the Lord, along with the bread from the first wheat of the harvest. They are holy to the Lord, and they will belong to the priest. ²¹ On that same day you will call a holy ·meeting [convocation]; you must not do any work that day. This ·law [statute; ordinance; requirement] will continue for you ·from now on [^Lthroughout your generations], wherever you live.

²² “‘When you harvest your crops on your land, do not harvest all the way to the corners of your field. If grain falls onto the ground, don’t gather it up. Leave it for poor people and ·foreigners in your country [resident aliens; 19:9–10; Deut. 24:19–22; Ruth 2]. I am the Lord your God.’”

The Feast of Trumpets

²³ Again the Lord said to Moses, ²⁴ “Tell the ·people [^Lsons] of Israel: ‘On the first day of the seventh month you must have a special day of rest, a holy ·meeting [convocation], when you blow the trumpet for a special time of remembering. ²⁵ Do not do any work, and bring an offering made by fire to the Lord [Num. 29:1–6].’”

The Day of Cleansing

²⁶ The Lord said to Moses, ²⁷ “The Day of ·Cleansing [Atonement] will be on the tenth day of the seventh month. There will be a holy ·meeting [convocation], and you will deny yourselves and bring an offering made by fire to the Lord. ²⁸ Do not do any work on that day, because it is the Day of ·Cleansing [Atonement]. On that day the priests will go before the Lord and ·perform the acts to make you clean from sin so you will belong to the Lord [make atonement for you].

²⁹ “Anyone who ·refuses to give up food [or does not deny himself] on this day must be cut off from the people. ³⁰ If anyone works on this day, I will destroy that person from among the people. ³¹ You must not do any work at all; this ·law [statute; ordinance; requirement] will continue ·for people from now on [^Lthroughout your generations] wherever you live. ³² It will be a special day of rest for you, and you must ·deny yourselves [or fast]. You will start this special day of rest on the evening after the ninth day of the month, and it will continue from that evening until the next evening [ch. 16; Num. 9:7–11].”

The Feast of Shelters

³³ Again the Lord said to Moses, ³⁴ “Tell the ·people [^Lsons; children] of Israel: ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month is the ·Feast [Festival] of ·Shelters [Booths]. This ·feast [festival] to the Lord will continue for seven days. ³⁵ There will be a holy ·meeting [convocation] on the first day; do not do any work. ³⁶ You will bring an offering made by fire to the Lord each day for seven days. On the eighth day you will have another holy ·meeting [convocation], and you will bring an offering made by fire to the Lord. This will be a holy ·meeting [convocation]; do not do any work.

³⁷ (“‘These are the Lord’s special ·feasts [festivals], when there will be holy ·meetings [convocations] and when you bring offerings made by fire to the Lord. You will bring whole burnt offerings [1:1–17], ·grain [^Lgift; tribute] offerings [2:1], sacrifices, and drink offerings—each at the right time. ³⁸ These offerings are in addition to those for the Lord’s Sabbath days, in addition to offerings you give as payment for ·special promises [vows], and in addition to ·special offerings you want to give to the Lord [freewill offerings].)

³⁹ “‘So on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, after you have gathered in the crops of the land, celebrate the Lord’s ·festival [feast] for seven days. You must rest on the first day and the eighth day. ⁴⁰ On the first day you will take good fruit from the fruit trees, as well as branches from palm trees, poplars, and other leafy trees. You will celebrate before the Lord your God for seven days. ⁴¹ Celebrate this ·festival [feast] to the Lord for seven days each year. This ·law [statute; ordinance; requirement] will continue ·from now on [^Lthroughout your generations]; you will celebrate it in the seventh month. ⁴² Live in ·shelters [booths] for seven days. All the people born in Israel must live in ·shelters [booths] ⁴³ so that all your descendants will know I made Israel live in ·shelters [booths] during the time I brought them out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God [Ex. 23:16–17; Num. 29:12–39; Deut. 16:13–15; 31:9–13].’”

⁴⁴ So Moses told the people of Israel about all of the Lord’s appointed ·feast [festival] days.