Leviticus 23
1 Yahweh said to Moses/me,
The Lord told Moses,
2 “Tell the Israeli people about the festivals that I have chosen, the days when you all must gather together [to worship me].”
“Tell the Israelites that these are my religious festivals, the festivals of the Lord that you are to call as the holy times when we meet together.
3 “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.”
You have six days to work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of complete rest, a holy day of meeting together. Don't do any work. It is the Lord's Sabbath everywhere you live.
4 “There are festivals that I have established for you. Those will also be sacred/holy days when you must gather together [to worship me].
These are the Lord's religious festivals, the holy meetings that you ate to announce at their specific times.
5 [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].
The Lord's Passover starts on the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month.
6 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.
The Lord's Festival of Unleavened Bread begins on the fifteenth day of the first month. For seven days the bread you eat must be made without yeast.
7 On the first day of that festival, you all must stop your regular work and you must gather together [to worship me].
On the first day you are hold a holy meeting. You must not do any of your usual work.
8 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.”
For seven days you shall present food offerings to the Lord. There is to be a holy meeting on the seventh day. You must not do any of your usual work.”
9 Yahweh also told Moses/me
The Lord told Moses,
10 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.
“Tell the Israelites that when you enter the land that I'm giving you and you harvest your crops, take a stack of grain from the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest.
11 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].
He will wave the stack of grain before the Lord so that it may be accepted on your behalf. The priest is to do this the day following the Sabbath.
12 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].
When you wave the stack of grain, you are to present a one-year-old lamb without defects as a burnt offering to the Lord,
13 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.
together with its grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of best flour mixed with olive oil (a food offering to the Lord to be accepted by him) and its drink offering of a quarter of a hin of wine.
14 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.”
Don't eat any bread, roasted grain, or new grain until the time you bring this offering to your God. This regulation is for all time and for future generations everywhere you live.
15 “Seven weeks after the priest offers that grain to me,
Count seven full weeks from the day after the Sabbath—the day you brought the stack of grain as a wave offering.
16 on the next/50th day after he offers it, [each family] must bring to me an offering from the new crop of grain.
Count fifty days until the day after the seventh Sabbath, and on that day present an offering of new grain to the Lord.
17 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].
Bring two loaves of bread from your homes as a wave offering. Make them from two-tenths of an ephah of best flour, baked with yeast, as the firstfruits to the Lord.
18 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.
As well as the bread, present seven one-year-old male lambs a year old without defects, one young bull, and two rams. They will be a burnt offering to the Lord, as well as their grain offerings and drink offerings, a food offering to the Lord to be accepted by him.
19 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.
Present one male goat as a sin offering and two one-year-old male lambs a year old as a peace offering.
20 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].
The priest will wave the lambs as a wave offering before the Lord, along with the bread of the firstfruits. The bread and the two lambs are holy to the Lord and belong to the priest.
21 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.
That same day you are to announce a holy meeting, and you must not to do any of your usual work. This regulation is for all time and for future generations everywhere you live.
22 “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]!”
When you harvest the crops grown on your land, don't harvest right up to the edges of your field, or collect what has been missed. Leave them for the poor people and foreigners. I am the Lord your God.”
23 Yahweh also told Moses/me
The Lord told Moses,
24 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.
“Tell the Israelites that on the first day of the seventh month you are to have a special Sabbath of complete rest, a holy meeting that is announced by the sound of trumpets.
25 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].”
Don't do any of your usual work; instead you are to present a food offering to the Lord.”
26 Yahweh also said to Moses/me,
The Lord told Moses,
27 “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].
“The Day of Atonement is on the tenth day of this seventh month. You are to have a holy meeting, deny yourselves, and present a food offering to the Lord
28 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.
On this day you must not do any of your usual work because it is the Day of Atonement, when things are made right for you before the Lord your God.
29 You must expel from your group anyone who does not (fast/abstain from eating food) on that day.
Anyone who does not practice self-denial on this day must be expelled from their people.
30 I will get rid of anyone who does any kind of work on that day.
I will destroy anyone of you who does any work on this day.
31 You must not work at all! You must always obey those instructions/commands, and you must obey them wherever you live.
Don't do any kind of work at all. This regulation is for all time and for future generations everywhere you live.
32 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.”
It is to be a Sabbath of complete rest for you, and you shall practice self-denial. You are to observe your Sabbath from the evening of the ninth day of the month until evening the next day.”
33 Yahweh also said to Moses/me,
The Lord told Moses,
34 “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.
“Tell the Israelites that the Feast of Tabernacles to honor the Lord begins on the fifteenth day of the seventh month and lasts for seven days.
35 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.
On the first day have a holy meeting. You must not do any of your usual work.
36 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.
For seven days you shall present food offerings to the Lord. On the eighth day you are to have another holy meeting and present a food offering to the Lord. It is a meeting for worship. You must not do any of your usual work.
37 “[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.
(These are the Lord's holy festivals, which you are to announce as holy meetings for presenting food offerings to the Lord. These include burnt offerings, grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each according to the specific day.
38 (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).
All of these offerings are in addition to those for the Lord's Sabbaths. They are also in addition to your gifts, to all your offerings to fulfill promises, and to all the freewill offerings you present to the Lord.)
39 “[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.
You shall celebrate a feast to honor the Lord for seven days on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, once you have harvested your crops. The first day and the eighth day are Sabbaths of complete rest.
40 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.
On the first day you are to gather branches from large trees, from palm trees, from leafy trees and of river willows, and celebrate before the Lord your God for seven days.
41 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.
You are to hold this festival to honor the Lord for seven days every year. This regulation is for all time and for all future generations.
42 During the seven days of that festival, all of you people who have been Israelis your entire lives must live in shelters/huts.
You are to live in temporary shelters for seven days. Every Israelite born in the country must live in shelters,
43 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].”
so that your descendants will remember that I made the Israelites live in shelters when I led them out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”
44 So Moses/I gave to the Israeli people all those instructions concerning the festivals that Yahweh [wanted them to celebrate] each year.
So Moses told the Israelites all about the Lord's festivals.
