- 1And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
- 2Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts.
- 3Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings.
- 4 These are the feasts of the LORD, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons.
- 5In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD’s passover.
- 6And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.
- 7In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.
- 8But ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD seven days: in the seventh day is an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.
- 9 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
- 10Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest:
- 11And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.
- 12And ye shall offer that day when ye wave the sheaf an he lamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt offering unto the LORD.
- 13And the meat offering thereof shall be two tenth deals of fine flour mingled with oil, an offering made by fire unto the LORD for a sweet savour: and the drink offering thereof shall be of wine, the fourth part of an hin.
- 14And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the selfsame day that ye have brought an offering unto your God: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
- 15 And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete:
- 16Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD.
- 17Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the LORD.
- 18And ye shall offer with the bread seven lambs without blemish of the first year, and one young bullock, and two rams: they shall be for a burnt offering unto the LORD, with their meat offering, and their drink offerings, even an offering made by fire, of sweet savour unto the LORD.
- 19Then ye shall sacrifice one kid of the goats for a sin offering, and two lambs of the first year for a sacrifice of peace offerings.
- 20And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits for a wave offering before the LORD, with the two lambs: they shall be holy to the LORD for the priest.
- 21And ye shall proclaim on the selfsame day, that it may be an holy convocation unto you: ye shall do no servile work therein: it shall be a statute for ever in all your dwellings throughout your generations.
- 22 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the LORD your God.
- 23 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
- 24Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation.
- 25Ye shall do no servile work therein: but ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD.
- 26 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
- 27Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD.
- 28And ye shall do no work in that same day: for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the LORD your God.
- 29For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people.
- 30And whatsoever soul it be that doeth any work in that same day, the same soul will I destroy from among his people.
- 31Ye shall do no manner of work: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
- 32It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath.
- 33 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
- 34Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the LORD.
- 35On the first day shall be an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.
- 36Seven days ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD: on the eighth day shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD: it is a solemn assembly; and ye shall do no servile work therein.
- 37These are the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD, a burnt offering, and a meat offering, a sacrifice, and drink offerings, every thing upon his day:
- 38Beside the sabbaths of the LORD, and beside your gifts, and beside all your vows, and beside all your freewill offerings, which ye give unto the LORD.
- 39Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the LORD seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath.
- 40And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days.
- 41And ye shall keep it a feast unto the LORD seven days in the year. It shall be a statute for ever in your generations: ye shall celebrate it in the seventh month.
- 42Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths:
- 43That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
- 44And Moses declared unto the children of Israel the feasts of the LORD.
KING JAMES VERSION
LEVITICUS 23
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CHAPTER VISUAL
Leviticus 23 — Sabbath and the appointed feasts order Israel’s year through remembrance, firstfruits, harvest, atonement, rest, and rejoicing before the LORD.
About this illustration
The annual observances are intentionally combined as a legible seasonal panorama rather than one simultaneous event. Gleaning left for the poor appears at the field edge, and no later festival tradition is imported.
Scripture basis: Leviticus 23:1–44King James Version · Standardized 1769 text with Strong’s numbering · Public domain outside the United Kingdom
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Related Watchman 33 Resources
Archaeological Evidence
ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCEInscription
Commonly dated to the tenth century BC
The Gezer Calendar
A palm-sized limestone tablet from Gezer arranges an agricultural year into short lines about gathering, sowing, tending, and harvest, preserving early alphabetic writing and rural vocabulary while leaving its language, date, and purpose open to debate.
Exodus 23:14–17 · Leviticus 23:9–22 · Ruth 1:22
ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCEManuscript
419 BC
Elephantine Passover Letter
A securely excavated Aramaic letter dated 419 BC regulates a seven-day spring observance for Elephantine’s Judean garrison, but damage makes the familiar label “Passover Letter” more confident than the surviving words.
Exodus 12:1–20 · Leviticus 23:4–8 · Deuteronomy 16:1–8
ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCEManuscript
Late second to first century BC copy; composition may be earlier
The Temple Scroll (11Q19)
The longest Qumran scroll rewrites Torah in the divine first person to prescribe an ideal temple, concentric courts, festivals, purity zones, civil laws, and a law for the king.
Deuteronomy 12:1–14 · Deuteronomy 17:14–20 · Leviticus 23:1–44
ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCEManuscript
Hasmonean to Herodian copies
Qumran Calendrical Texts and Priestly Courses
The Cave 4 mishmarot manuscripts coordinate a schematic 364-day year, festivals, lunar phenomena, and the twenty-four priestly rotations of 1 Chronicles 24, revealing a sophisticated Second Temple contest over sacred time without proving that this calendar ever governed Jerusalem's temple.
1 Chronicles 24:1–19 · Leviticus 23:1–44
ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCEArtifact
AD 66–70
Coinage of the First Jewish Revolt
Silver and bronze coins dated by revolt years turned Temple imagery, festival plants, archaizing Hebrew, Jerusalem, Zion, freedom, and redemption into portable declarations during the war of AD 66-70.
Luke 21:20–24 · Matthew 24:1–2 · 1 Kings 7:18–22
ARCHAEOLOGY EVIDENCEManuscript
Hasmonean period, approximately second century BC
4QLeviticus–Numbersᵃ (4Q23): One Torah Scroll Across Two Books
A substantial Cave 4 Torah manuscript preserves material from Leviticus and Numbers, demonstrating that both books occupied one continuous scroll.
Leviticus 23:1–44 · Leviticus 27:1–34 · Numbers 1:1–19
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Sermons
The Shadow Huggers
Dean Odle calls Old Covenant feasts, Sabbaths, food laws, sacrifices, and priesthood a prophetic shadow fulfilled in Jesus Christ. He argues that Christians who make those observances requirements for righteousness are “hugging the shadow” instead of receiving the substance of Passover, Firstfruits, Pentecost, atonement, rest, and tabernacling in Christ.
Christ AloneDoctrine and DiscernmentScripture AloneHoly Spirit and Spiritual Gifts
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