The Festival of Weeks^(A)

²⁶ “‘On the day of firstfruits,^(B) when you present to the Lord an offering of new grain during the Festival of Weeks,^(C) hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work.^(D)

²² “Celebrate the Festival of Weeks with the firstfruits^(A) of the wheat harvest, and the Festival of Ingathering^(B) at the turn of the year.^[a]

¹⁶ “Celebrate the Festival of Harvest^(A) with the firstfruits^(B) of the crops you sow in your field.

“Celebrate the Festival of Ingathering^(C) at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field.^(D)

¹⁰ “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you^(A) and you reap its harvest,^(B) bring to the priest a sheaf^(C) of the first grain you harvest.^(D)

²⁰ But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead,^(A) the firstfruits^(B) of those who have fallen asleep.^(C)

The Festival of Weeks^(A)

⁹ 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)

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.

¹⁸ He chose to give us birth^(A) through the word of truth,^(B) that we might be a kind of firstfruits^(C) of all he created.

The Holy Spirit Comes at Pentecost

2 When the day of Pentecost^(A) came, they were all together^(B) in one place. ² Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.^{(C) 3} They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. ⁴ All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit^(D) and began to speak in other tongues^[a](E) as the Spirit enabled them.

⁵ Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing^(F) Jews from every nation under heaven. ⁶ When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. ⁷ Utterly amazed,^(G) they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans?^{(H) 8} Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? ⁹ Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia,^(I) Pontus^(J) and Asia,^{[b](K) 10} Phrygia^(L) and Pamphylia,^(M) Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene;^(N) visitors from Rome ¹¹ (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” ¹² Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”

¹³ Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”^(O)