231 God spoke to Moses: 2 "Tell the People of Israel, These are my appointed feasts, the appointed feasts of God which you are to decree as sacred assemblies. 3 "Work six days. The seventh day is a Sabbath, a day of total and complete rest, a sacred assembly. Don't do any work. Wherever you live, it is a Sabbath to God.
4 "These are the appointed feasts of God, the sacred assemblies which you are to announce at the times set for them 5 "God's Passover, beginning at sundown on the fourteenth day of the first month. 6 "God's Feast of Unraised Bread, on the fifteenth day of this same month. You are to eat unraised bread for seven days. 7 Hold a sacred assembly on the first day; don't do any regular work. 8 Offer Fire-Gifts to God for seven days. On the seventh day hold a sacred assembly; don't do any regular work." 9 God spoke to Moses: 10 "Tell the People of Israel, When you arrive at the land that I am giving you and reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain that you harvest. 11 He will wave the sheaf before God for acceptance on your behalf; on the morning after Sabbath, the priest will wave it. 12 On the same day that you wave the sheaf, offer a year-old male lamb without defect for a Whole-Burnt-Offering to God 13 and with it the Grain-Offering of four quarts of fine flour mixed with oil - a Fire-Gift to God, a pleasing fragrance - and also a Drink-Offering of a quart of wine. 14 Don't eat any bread or roasted or fresh grain until you have presented this offering to your God. This is a perpetual decree for all your generations to come, wherever you live
15 "Count seven full weeks from the morning after the Sabbath when you brought the sheaf as a Wave-Offering, 16 fifty days until the morning of the seventh Sabbath. Then present a new Grain-Offering to God. 17 Bring from wherever you are living two loaves of bread made from four quarts of fine flour and baked with yeast as a Wave-Offering of the first ripe grain to God. 18 In addition to the bread, offer seven yearling male lambs without defect, plus one bull and two rams. They will be a Whole-Burnt-Offering to God together with their Grain-Offerings and Drink-Offerings - offered as Fire-Gifts, a pleasing fragrance to God. 19 Offer one male goat for an Absolution-Offering and two yearling lambs for a Peace-Offering 20 The priest will wave the two lambs before God as a Wave-Offering, together with the bread of the first ripe grain. They are sacred offerings to God for the priest. 21 Proclaim the day as a sacred assembly. Don't do any ordinary work. It is a perpetual decree wherever you live down through your generations 22 "When you reap the harvest of your land, don't reap the corners of your field or gather the gleanings. Leave them for the poor and the foreigners. I am God, your God."
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Leviticus 23:1-22
Commentary on Leviticus 23:1-3
(Read Leviticus 23:1-3)
In this chapter we have the institution of holy times; many of which have been mentioned before. Though the yearly feasts were made more remarkable by general attendance at the sanctuary, yet these must not be observed more than the sabbath. On that day they must withdraw from all business of the world. It is a sabbath of rest, typifying spiritual rest from sin, and rest in God. God's sabbaths are to be religiously observed in every private house, by every family apart, as well as by families together, in holy assemblies. The sabbath of the Lord in our dwellings will be their beauty, strength, and safety; it will sanctify, build up, and glorify them.
Commentary on Leviticus 23:4-14
(Read Leviticus 23:4-14)
The feast of the Passover was to continue seven days; not idle days, spent in sport, as many that are called Christians spend their holy-days. Offerings were made to the Lord at his altar; and the people were taught to employ their time in prayer, and praise, and godly meditation. The sheaf of first-fruits was typical of the Lord Jesus, who is risen from the dead as the First-fruits of them that slept. Our Lord Jesus rose from the dead on the very day that the first-fruits were offered. We are taught by this law to honour the Lord with our substance, and with the first-fruits of all our increase, Proverbs 3:9. They were not to eat of their new corn, till God's part was offered to him out of it; and we must always begin with God: begin every day with him, begin every meal with him, begin every affair and business with him; seek first the kingdom of God.
Commentary on Leviticus 23:15-22
(Read Leviticus 23:15-22)
The feast of Weeks was held in remembrance of the giving of the law, fifty days after the departure from Egypt; and looked forward to the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, fifty days after Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. On that day the apostles presented the first-fruits of the Christian church to God. To the institution of the feast of Pentecost, is added a repetition of that law, by which they were required to leave the gleanings of their fields. Those who are truly sensible of the mercy they received from God, will show mercy to the poor without grudging.