Leviticus 23
1 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
Yahweh said to Moses/me,
2 Speak to the children of Israel, and you shall say to them, The feasts of the Lord which you shall call holy assemblies, these are my feasts.
“Tell the Israeli people about the festivals that I have chosen, the days when you all must gather together [to worship me].”
3 Six days shall you do works, but on the seventh day is the sabbath; a rest, a holy convocation to the Lord: you shall not do any work, it is a sabbath to the Lord in all your dwellings.
“You may work for six days [each week], but on the seventh day you must not do any work. You must rest. It is a sacred/holy day when you must gather together [to worship me]. Wherever you live, you must rest on that day.”
4 These [are] the feasts to the Lord, holy convocations, which you shall call in their seasons.
“There are festivals that I have established for you. Those will also be sacred/holy days when you must gather together [to worship me].
5 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, between the evening times is the Lord's passover.
[The first festival is] (the Passover/when you remember that I spared your ancestors when I killed all the firstborn Egyptian sons). That festival will begin at twilight/dusk/sunset on the chosen day (each spring/in March or April each year), [and end on the following day].
6 And on the fifteenth day of this month is the feast of unleavened bread to the Lord; seven days shall you eat unleavened bread.
The next day, the Festival of Eating Bread That Has No Yeast will begin. That festival will continue for seven days. During that time, the bread that you eat must be made without yeast.
7 And the first day shall be a holy convocation to you: you shall do no servile work.
On the first day of that festival, you all must stop your regular work and you must gather together [to worship me].
8 And you shall offer whole burnt offerings to the Lord seven days; and the seventh day shall be a holy convocation to you: you shall do no servile work.
On each of the seven days, you must present to me [several animals to be] an offering/sacrifice to be completely burned [on the altar]. On the seventh day, you all must again stop your regular work and gather to worship me.”
9 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
Yahweh also told Moses/me
10 Speak to the children of Israel, and you shall say to them, When you shall enter into the land which I give you, and reap the harvest of it, then shall you bring a sheaf, the first fruits of your harvest, to the priest;
to tell the Israeli people [about other festivals]. He said, “When you arrive in the land which I am giving to you, and you harvest your crops [for the first time] there, bring to the priest some of the first grain that you harvest.
11 and he shall lift up the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted for you. On the morrow of the first day the priest shall lift it up.
On the day after the [next] Sabbath/rest day, the priest will lift it up [high to dedicate it] to me, in order that I will accept it as your [gift].
12 And you shall offer on the day on which you bring the sheaf, a lamb without blemish of a year old for a whole burnt offering to the Lord.
That same day, you must sacrifice to me a one-year-old male lamb that has no defects. You must burn it [on the altar].
13 And its meat-offering two tenth portions of fine flour mingled with oil: it is a sacrifice to the Lord, a smell of sweet savour to the Lord, and its drink-offering the fourth part of a hin of wine.
You must also burn an offering of grain. That offering must consist of (three quarts/3.5 liters) of good flour mixed with [olive] oil. The smell [of those things burning] will be very pleasing to me. Along with that, you must also offer one quart/liter of wine, which will be a liquid offering.
14 And you shall not eat bread, or the new parched corn, until this same day, until you offer the sacrifices to your God: [it is] a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
Do not eat any bread or any roasted grain or unroasted grain on that day until after you have brought those offerings to me, your God. You must always obey [LIT] those commands, wherever you live.”
15 And you shall number to yourselves from the day after the sabbath, from the day on which you shall offer the sheaf of the heave-offering, seven full weeks:
“Seven weeks after the priest offers that grain to me,
16 until the morrow after the last week you shall number fifty days, and shall bring a new meat-offering to the Lord.
on the next/50th day after he offers it, [each family] must bring to me an offering from the new crop of grain.
17 You shall bring from your dwelling loaves, as a heave-offering, two loaves: they shall be of two tenth portions of fine flour, they shall be baked with leaven of the first fruits to the Lord.
From your homes, bring two loaves of bread [to the priest]. He will lift them up [high to dedicate them] as an offering to me. Those loaves must be baked from three quarts/liters of good flour that has yeast mixed with it. That bread will be an offering to me from the first wheat that you harvest [each year].
18 And you shall bring with the loaves seven unblemished lambs of a year old, and one calf of the herd, and two rams without blemish, and they shall be a whole burnt offering to the Lord: and their meat-offerings and their drink-offerings [shall be] a sacrifice, a smell of sweet savour to the Lord.
Along with this bread, you must present to me seven one-year-old lambs with no defects, one young bull, and two rams. They must all be completely burned [on the altar]. All those offerings, with the grain offering and the wine offering, will be burned, and the smell [of all those things burning] will be very pleasing to me.
19 And they shall sacrifice one kid of the goats for a sin-offering, and two lambs of a year old for a peace-offering, with the loaves of the first fruits.
Then you must also kill one male goat to be an offering/sacrifice for your sins, and two one-year-old male lambs to be an offering to enable you to maintain fellowship with me.
20 And the priest shall place them with the loaves of the first fruits an offering before the Lord with the two lambs, they shall be holy to the Lord; they shall belong to the priest that brings them.
The priest will lift up these offerings [high to dedicate them] to me. He will also offer the loaves of bread that were baked from the first wheat that you harvest. Those offerings are sacred to me, but they are for the priests [to eat].
21 And you shall call this day a convocation: it shall be holy to you; you shall do no servile work on it: it is a perpetual ordinance throughout your generations in all your habitations.
On that day, you must stop your regular work and gather to worship me. You must always obey those instructions/commands, and you must obey them wherever you live.
22 And when you shall reap the harvest of your land, you shall not fully reap the remainder of the harvest of your field when you reap, and you shall not gather that which falls from your reaping; you shall leave it for the poor and the stranger: I [am] the Lord your God.
“When you harvest the grain in your fields, do not harvest the grain along the edges of the fields, and do not pick up the grain that the harvesters drop. Leave that grain for the poor people and for the foreigners who are living among you. [Do not forget that it is] I, Yahweh your God, [who am commanding those things]!”
23 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
Yahweh also told Moses/me
24 Speak to the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a rest, a memorial of trumpets: it shall be to you a holy convocation.
to give these instructions/commands to the Israeli people: “[Each year] in September, on the day that I have chosen, you all must celebrate it by completely resting. You must not do any work on that day. When [the priests] blow their trumpets loudly, you all must gather together to worship me.
25 You shall do no servile work, and you shall offer a whole burnt offering to the Lord.
All of you must not do your regular work on that day. Instead, you must present offerings to me that will be burned [on the altar].”
26 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
Yahweh also said to Moses/me,
27 Also on the tenth day of this seventh month is a day of atonement: it shall be a holy convocation to you; and you shall humble your souls, and offer a whole burnt offering to the Lord.
“You must celebrate a day [on which you request that I] forgive you for the sins that you have committed. That day will be nine days after the festival [when the priests blow] the trumpets. On that day you must (fast/abstain from eating food). You must gather together to worship me and present offerings to me that will be burned [on the altar].
28 You shall do no work on this self-same day: for this is a day of atonement for you, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God.
You must not do any work on that day, because it is the day when the priests will offer sacrifices to me to (atone for/ask me to forgive) your sins.
29 Every soul that shall not be humbled in that day, shall be cut off from amongst its people.
You must expel from your group anyone who does not (fast/abstain from eating food) on that day.
30 And every soul which shall do work on that day, that soul shall be destroyed from amongst its people.
I will get rid of anyone who does any kind of work on that day.
31 You shall do no manner of work: it is a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your habitations.
You must not work at all! You must always obey those instructions/commands, and you must obey them wherever you live.
32 It shall be a holy sabbath to you; and you shall humble your souls, from the ninth day of the month: from evening to evening you shall keep your sabbaths.
That day will be a day of complete rest for all of you, and on that day you must (fast/abstain from eating food) [to show that you are sorry for having sinned]. That day of rest and (fasting/abstaining from eating food) will begin on the evening before the day in which you ask me to forgive you for your sins, and it will end on the evening of the following day.”
33 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
Yahweh also said to Moses/me,
34 Speak to the children of Israel, saying, On the fifteenth day of this seventh month, there shall be a feast of tabernacles seven days to the Lord.
“Tell the Israeli people that [each year] they must also celebrate a festival of living in temporary shelters. That festival will begin five days after the day in which they request me to forgive them for their sins. It will last for seven days.
35 And on the first day shall be a holy convocation; you shall do no servile work.
On the first day of that festival, the people must gather together to worship me, and they must not do any regular work on that day.
36 Seven days shall you offer whole burnt offerings to the Lord, and the eighth-day shall be a holy convocation to you; and you shall offer whole burnt offerings to the Lord: it is a time of release, you shall do no servile work.
On each of the seven days of the festival, they must present to me an offering [of animals] that will be burned [on the altar]. On the next day, they must gather again to worship me and present to me another animal that will be burned [on the altar]. That also will be a sacred gathering, and they must not work on that day, either.
37 These [are] the feasts to the Lord, which you shall call holy convocations, to offer burnt offerings to the Lord, whole burnt offerings and their meat-offerings, and their drink-offerings, that for each day on its day:
“[To summarize], those are the festivals that I have appointed. Celebrate those sacred festivals by gathering together to present to me all the various offerings that will be burned [on the altar]—animals that will be burned completely, and offerings of grain, and offerings to enable the Israeli people to maintain fellowship with me, and offerings of wine. Each offering must be brought on the day that I have indicated.
38 besides the sabbaths of the Lord, and besides your gifts, and besides all your vows, and besides your free will offerings, which you shall give to the Lord.
(Those festivals must be celebrated/You must celebrate those festivals) in addition to [worshiping on] the (Sabbath days/days of rest). And all those offerings must be given in addition to the offerings that people personally decide to give, and in addition to the offerings that people make to accompany the solemn promises that they have made, or offerings that people make (voluntarily/because they themselves want to).
39 And on the fifteenth day of this seventh month, when you shall have completely gathered in the fruits of the earth, you shall keep a feast to the Lord seven days; on the first day there shall be a rest, and on the eighth day a rest.
“[Returning to my instructions about] the Festival of Living in Temporary Shelters, you must celebrate this festival after you have harvested all the crops. On the first day and on the last day of that festival, you must rest completely.
40 And on the first day you shall take goodly fruit of trees, and branches of palm trees, and thick boughs of trees, and willows, and branches of osiers from the brook, to rejoice before the Lord your God seven days in the year.
But on the first day, you are permitted to pick fruit from trees. Cut palm fronds/branches and other leafy branches from trees or from bushes that grow by the streams, [and make shelters/huts to live in for that week]. Then rejoice in my presence for those seven days.
41 [It is] a perpetual statute for your generations: in the seventh month you shall keep it.
You must celebrate this festival for seven days every year. You must never stop obeying my commands/instructions for that festival. You must celebrate it in September.
42 Seven days you shall dwell in tabernacles: every native in Israel shall dwell in tents,
During the seven days of that festival, all of you people who have been Israelis your entire lives must live in shelters/huts.
43 that your posterity may see, that I made the children of Israel to dwell in tents, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I [am] the Lord your God.
That will remind your descendants that their ancestors lived in shelters [for many years] after I rescued them from Egypt. [Do not forget that] I, Yahweh your God, [am the one who is commanding this].”
44 And Moses recounted the feasts of the Lord to the children of Israel.
So Moses/I gave to the Israeli people all those instructions concerning the festivals that Yahweh [wanted them to celebrate] each year.
