Leviticus 23

1 And YHWH speaks to Moses, saying,

Yahweh said to Moses/me,

2 “Speak to the sons of Israel, and you have said to them: Appointed times of YHWH, which you proclaim [as] holy convocations, these [are] My appointed times.

“Tell the Israeli people about the festivals that I have chosen, the days when you all must gather together [to worship me].”

3 [For] six days work is done, and in the seventh day [is] a Sabbath of rest, a holy convocation; you do no work; it [is] a Sabbath to YHWH 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] appointed times of YHWH, holy convocations, which you proclaim in their appointed times:

“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 of the month, between the evenings, [is] the Passover to YHWH;

[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 Celebration of Unleavened Things to YHWH; [for] seven days you eat unleavened things;

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 on the first day you have a holy convocation, you 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 have brought a fire-offering near to YHWH [for] seven days; in the seventh day [is] a holy convocation; you 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 YHWH speaks to Moses, saying,

Yahweh also told Moses/me

10 “Speak to the sons of Israel, and you have said to them: When you come into the land which I am giving to you, and have reaped its harvest, and have brought in the sheaf, the beginning 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 then he has waved the sheaf before YHWH for your acceptance; on the next day of the Sabbath the priest waves it.

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 have prepared a lamb, a perfect one, a son of a year, in the day of your waving the sheaf for a burnt-offering to YHWH,

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 present [is] two-tenth parts of flour mixed with oil, a fire-offering to YHWH, a refreshing fragrance, and its drink-offering [is] a fourth of the 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 do not eat bread and roasted grain and full ears until this very day, until your bringing in the offering of your God—a continuous 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 have numbered for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day of your bringing in the sheaf of the wave-offering: they are seven perfect Sabbaths;

“Seven weeks after the priest offers that grain to me,

16 you number fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and you have brought a new present near to YHWH;

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 bring in two [loaves] of bread out of your dwellings [for] a wave-offering; they are of two-tenth parts of flour; they are baked [with] yeast—first-[fruits] to YHWH.

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 have brought near, besides the bread, seven lambs, perfect ones, sons of a year, and one bullock, a son of the herd, and two rams; they are a burnt-offering to YHWH, with their present and their drink-offerings, a fire-offering of refreshing fragrance to YHWH.

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 you have prepared one kid of the goats for a sin-offering, and two lambs, sons of a year, for a sacrifice of peace-offerings,

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 has waved them, besides the bread of the first-[fruits], [as] a wave-offering before YHWH, besides the two lambs; they are holy to YHWH for the priest;

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 have proclaimed in this very day [that] it is a holy convocation for yourselves, you do no servile work—a continuous statute in all your dwellings, throughout your generations.

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 in your reaping the harvest of your land you do not complete the corner of your field in your reaping, and you do not gather the gleaning of your harvest, you leave them for the poor and for the sojourner; I [am] your God YHWH.”

“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 YHWH speaks to Moses, saying,

Yahweh also told Moses/me

24 “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, on the first of the month, you have a Sabbath, a memorial of shouting, 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 do no servile work, and you have brought a fire-offering near to YHWH.”

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 YHWH speaks to Moses, saying,

Yahweh also said to Moses/me,

27 “Only—on the tenth of this seventh month is the Day of Atonements; you have a holy convocation, and you have humbled yourselves, and have brought a fire-offering near to YHWH;

“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 and you do no work in this very day, for it is a day of atonements, to make atonement for you, before your God YHWH.

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 For any person who is not humbled in this very day has even been cut off from his people;

You must expel from your group anyone who does not (fast/abstain from eating food) on that day.

30 and any person who does any work in this very day, I have even destroyed that person from the midst of his people;

I will get rid of anyone who does any kind of work on that day.

31 you do no work—a continuous statute throughout your generations in all your dwellings.

You must not work at all! You must always obey those instructions/commands, and you must obey them wherever you live.

32 It [is] a Sabbath of rest for yourselves, and you have humbled yourselves in the ninth of the month at evening; you keep your Sabbath from evening until evening.”

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 YHWH speaks to Moses, saying,

Yahweh also said to Moses/me,

34 “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, In the fifteenth day of this seventh month [is the] Celebration of Shelters [for] seven days to YHWH;

“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 the first day [is] a holy convocation, you 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 [for] seven days you bring a fire-offering near to YHWH, on the eighth day you have a holy convocation, and you have brought a fire-offering near to YHWH; it [is] a restraint, you 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] appointed times of YHWH, which you proclaim [as] holy convocations, to bring a fire-offering near to YHWH, a burnt-offering, and a present, a sacrifice, and drink-offerings, a thing of a day in 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 apart from the Sabbaths of YHWH, and apart from your gifts, and apart from all your vows, and apart from all your willing-offerings, which you give to YHWH.

(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 Only—on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, in your gathering the increase of the land, you keep the celebration of YHWH [for] seven days; on the first day [is] a Sabbath, and on the eighth day a Sabbath;

“[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 you have taken for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palms, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of a brook, and have rejoiced before your God YHWH [for] seven days.

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 And you have kept it [as] a celebration to YHWH, seven days in a year—a continuous statute throughout your generations; in the seventh month you keep it [as] a celebration.

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 You dwell in shelters [for] seven days; all who are natives in Israel dwell in shelters,

During the seven days of that festival, all of you people who have been Israelis your entire lives must live in shelters/huts.

43 so that your generations know that I caused the sons of Israel to dwell in shelters in My bringing them out of the land of Egypt; I [am] your God YHWH.”

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 speaks to the sons of Israel [concerning] the appointed times of YHWH.

So Moses/I gave to the Israeli people all those instructions concerning the festivals that Yahweh [wanted them to celebrate] each year.