Lê-vi Ký 23

The Sabbath

¹The LORD spoke to Moses. He said, ²“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: ‘You are to announce the appointed festivals of the LORD as holy assemblies. These are my appointed festivals: ³Work may be done for six days, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of complete rest, a holy assembly. Do no work of any kind. In all your homes it is to be kept as a Sabbath for the LORD.

Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread

⁴Here are the LORD’s appointed festivals, holy assemblies that you must announce when the time for each one comes. ⁵In the first month, on its fourteenth day, as evening comes on, the Passover is kept for the LORD.^{a 6}The fifteenth day of this month is the Festival of Unleavened Bread, held for the LORD. Eat bread made without yeast for seven days. ⁷The first day is to be a holy assembly for you, when you do none of your ordinary work. ⁸Each of the seven days, bring the LORD a food offering. On the seventh day there is again a holy assembly, with no ordinary work.’”

The sheaf of firstfruits

⁹The LORD spoke to Moses. He said, ¹⁰“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: ‘When you have entered the land I am giving you and are reaping its harvest, bring the priest a sheaf from the first of your crop. ¹¹On the day after the Sabbath the priest is to lift up the sheaf and wave it before the LORD, so that you will be accepted.^{b 12}On the day the sheaf is waved, offer a year-old male lamb without defect as a burnt offering to the LORD. ¹³Its grain offering is to be about 4 quarts of fine flour mixed with oil, a food offering to the LORD, a soothing aroma. Its drink offering is to be about a quart of wine. ¹⁴Until the day you bring this offering to your God, eat nothing from the new crop: no bread, no roasted grain, no fresh heads of grain. This is a permanent rule for all your generations, wherever you live.

Seven weeks to the fiftieth day

¹⁵Then begin counting on the day after the Sabbath, when you brought the sheaf as a wave offering. Count seven whole weeks. ¹⁶The day after the seventh Sabbath will be the fiftieth day. On it bring the LORD a grain offering from the new crop. ¹⁷Bring two loaves from your homes to be waved as firstfruits for the LORD. Bake them with yeast, using about 4 quarts of fine flour for each. ¹⁸With the bread, bring seven year-old male lambs without defect, a young bull from the herd, and two rams, all as a burnt offering to the LORD. Their grain and drink offerings go with them. It is a food offering and a soothing aroma for the LORD. ¹⁹Offer also one male goat for a sin offering and two year-old male lambs for a peace offering. ²⁰The priest is to take the bread of the firstfruits and the two lambs and wave them before the LORD as a wave offering. They are holy to the LORD, and they are for the priest. ²¹Announce a holy assembly on that very day, a day when none of your ordinary work is done. It is a permanent rule, wherever you live, for all your generations. ²²At harvest time, leave the edges of your field uncut, and do not go back for the grain the harvesters leave behind. These are for the poor and the outsider. I am the LORD your God.’”

The day of loud blasts

²³The LORD spoke to Moses. He said, ²⁴“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: ‘In the seventh month, the first day of the month is for you a day of Sabbath rest. Loud blasts are to be sounded as a reminder, and there is to be a holy assembly.^{c 25}None of your ordinary work is to be done that day, and you are to bring the LORD a food offering.’”

The Day of Atonement

²⁶The LORD spoke to Moses. He said, ²⁷“Mark the tenth day of this seventh month: it is the Day of Atonement. On it you are to hold a holy assembly, humble yourselves by fasting, and bring the LORD a food offering. ²⁸On that very day no work of any kind is to be done. It is a day of atonement, set for making atonement for you in the presence of the LORD your God. ²⁹If anyone does not humble themselves by fasting on that day, that person must be cut off from the people. ³⁰Anyone who does any work on that day I will wipe out from among the people. ³¹You must not work at all. It is a permanent rule for all your generations, wherever you live. ³²For you it is a Sabbath of complete rest, and you must humble yourselves by fasting. Keep this Sabbath from evening to evening, beginning on the evening of the ninth day of the month.”

The Festival of Booths

³³The LORD spoke to Moses. He said, ³⁴“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: ‘The fifteenth day of this seventh month begins the Festival of Booths, kept for the LORD seven days. ³⁵The first day is a holy assembly; none of your ordinary work is to be done. ³⁶Each of the seven days you are to bring the LORD a food offering. The eighth day is also a holy assembly for you, with a food offering for the LORD. It is a solemn assembly that closes the festival, and none of your ordinary work is to be done. ³⁷These, then, are the LORD’s appointed festivals. Announce them as holy assemblies, at which food offerings are brought to the LORD: burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, what each day requires on that day, ³⁸over and above the LORD’s Sabbaths and over and above your gifts, all your vows and all your freewill offerings that you give to the LORD. ³⁹But when you have brought in what the land has produced, keep the LORD’s festival for seven days, starting on the fifteenth day of the seventh month. On both the first day and the eighth there is to be a day of Sabbath rest. ⁴⁰On the first day gather the fruit of fine trees, fronds from palm trees, branches from trees thick with leaves, and willows that grow by the streams. Then celebrate before the LORD your God for seven days.^{d 41}Each year you are to keep this seven-day festival for the LORD. It is a permanent rule for all your generations that you keep it in the seventh month. ⁴²For seven days you are to stay in booths. Everyone born an Israelite must live in booths, ⁴³so that every generation of yours may know this: when I brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt, I made them live in booths. I am the LORD your God.’” ⁴⁴In this way Moses made known the appointed festivals of the LORD to the Israelites.