Add parallel Print Page Options

Pentecost. 15 Beginning with the day after the sabbath, the day on which you bring the sheaf for elevation, you shall count seven full weeks;(A) 16 you shall count to the day after the seventh week, fifty days.[a](B) Then you shall present a new grain offering to the Lord. 17 For the elevated offering of your first-ripened fruits to the Lord, you shall bring with you from wherever you live two loaves of bread made of two tenths of an ephah of bran flour and baked with leaven. 18 Besides the bread, you shall offer to the Lord a burnt offering of seven unblemished yearling lambs, one bull of the herd, and two rams, along with their grain offering and libations, as a sweet-smelling oblation to the Lord. 19 One male goat shall be sacrificed as a purification offering, and two yearling lambs as a communion sacrifice. 20 The priest shall elevate them—that is, the two lambs—with the bread of the first-ripened fruits as an elevated offering before the Lord; these shall be sacred to the Lord and belong to the priest. 21 On this same day you shall make a proclamation: there shall be a declared holy day for you; no heavy work may be done. This shall be a perpetual statute through all your generations wherever you dwell.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 23:16–21 Fifty days: Pentecost. This festival occurs on a single day, fifty days after the feast of Unleavened Bread, elsewhere called the “feast of the Harvest” (Ex 23:16), “Day of First Fruits” (Nm 28:26), and “feast of Weeks” (Ex 34:22; Dt 16:10, 16). The name Pentecost comes from the later Greek term for the holy day (cf. Acts 2:1; 20:16; 1 Cor 16:8), referring to the fiftieth day. This is the occasion for bringing the first fruits of the wheat harvest.

The Festival of Weeks(A)

15 “‘From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. 16 Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath,(B) and then present an offering of new grain to the Lord. 17 From wherever you live, bring two loaves made of two-tenths of an ephah(C) of the finest flour, baked with yeast, as a wave offering of firstfruits(D) to the Lord. 18 Present with this bread seven male lambs, each a year old and without defect, one young bull and two rams. They will be a burnt offering to the Lord, together with their grain offerings and drink offerings(E)—a food offering, an aroma pleasing to the Lord. 19 Then sacrifice one male goat for a sin offering[a] and two lambs, each a year old, for a fellowship offering. 20 The priest is to wave the two lambs before the Lord as a wave offering,(F) together with the bread of the firstfruits. They are a sacred offering to the Lord for the priest. 21 On that same day you are to proclaim a sacred assembly(G) and do no regular work.(H) This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Leviticus 23:19 Or purification offering

Feast of Weeks. (A)You shall count off seven weeks; begin to count the seven weeks from the day when the sickle is first put to the standing grain. 10 You shall then keep the feast of Weeks[a] for the Lord, your God, and the measure of your own voluntary offering which you will give shall be in proportion to the blessing the Lord, your God, has given you. 11 You shall rejoice in the presence of the Lord, your God, together with your son and daughter, your male and female slave, and the Levite within your gates, as well as the resident alien, the orphan, and the widow among you, in the place which the Lord, your God, will choose as the dwelling place of his name.(B)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 16:10 Feast of Weeks: a celebration of the grain harvest, later known as “Pentecost”; cf. Acts 2:1.

The Festival of Weeks(A)

Count off seven weeks(B) from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain.(C) 10 Then celebrate the Festival of Weeks to the Lord your God by giving a freewill offering in proportion to the blessings the Lord your God has given you. 11 And rejoice(D) before the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name(E)—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites(F) in your towns, and the foreigners,(G) the fatherless and the widows living among you.(H)

Read full chapter