Leviticus 23:15-22

Context

The Festival of Weeks

23:15 “‘You must count for yourselves seven weeks from the day after the Sabbath, from the day you bring the wave offering sheaf; they must be complete weeks.¹ 23:16 You must count fifty days – until the day after the seventh Sabbath – and then² you must present a new grain offering to the Lord. 23:17 From the places where you live you must bring two loaves of³ bread for a wave offering; they must be made from two tenths of an ephah of fine wheat flour, baked with yeast,⁴ as first fruits to the Lord. 23:18 Along with the loaves of bread,⁵ you must also present seven flawless yearling lambs,⁶ one young bull,⁷ and two rams.⁸ They are to be a burnt offering to the Lord along with their grain offering⁹ and drink offerings, a gift of a soothing aroma to the Lord.¹⁰ 23:19 You must also offer¹¹ one male goat¹² for a sin offering and two yearling lambs for a peace offering sacrifice, 23:20 and the priest is to wave them – the two lambs¹³ – along with the bread of the first fruits, as a wave offering before the Lord; they will be holy to the Lord for the priest.

23:21 “‘On this very day you must proclaim an assembly; it is to be a holy assembly for you.¹⁴ You must not do any regular work. This is a perpetual statute in all the places where you live throughout your generations.¹⁵ 23:22 When you gather in the harvest¹⁶ of your land, you must not completely harvest the corner of your field,¹⁷ and you must not gather up the gleanings of your harvest. You must leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God.’”¹⁸

[23:15] ¹tn Heb “seven Sabbaths, they shall be complete.” The disjunctive accent under “Sabbaths” precludes the translation “seven complete Sabbaths” (as NASB, NIV; cf. NAB, NRSV, NLT). The text is somewhat awkward, which may explain why the LXX tradition is confused here, either adding “you shall count” again at the end of the verse, or leaving out “they shall be,” or keeping “they shall be” and adding “to you.”

[23:16] ²tn Heb “and.” In the translation “then” is supplied to clarify the sequence.

[23:17] ³tc Smr, LXX, Syriac, Tg. Onq., and Tg. Ps.-J. insert the word חַלּוֹת (khallot, “loaves”; cf. Lev 2:4 and the note there). Even though “loaves” is not explicit in the MT, the number “two” suggests that these are discrete units, not just a measure of flour, so “loaves” should be assumed even in the MT.

[23:17] ⁴tn Heb “with leaven.” The noun “leaven” is traditional in English versions (cf. KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV), but “yeast” is more commonly used today.

[23:18] ⁵tn Heb “And you shall present on the bread.”

[23:18] ⁶tn Heb “seven flawless lambs, sons of a year.”

[23:18] ⁷tn Heb “and one bull, a son of a herd.”

[23:18] ⁸tc Smr and LXX add “flawless.”

[23:18] ⁹tn Heb “and their grain offering.”

[23:18] ¹⁰sn See the note on Lev 1:9.

[23:19] ¹¹tn Heb “And you shall make.”

[23:19] ¹²tn Heb “a he-goat of goats.”

[23:20] ¹³tn Smr and LXX have the Hebrew article on “lambs.” The syntax of this verse is difficult. The object of the verb (two lambs) is far removed from the verb itself (shall wave) in the MT, and the preposition עַל (’al, “upon”), rendered “along with” in this verse, is also added to the far removed subject (literally, “upon [the] two lambs”; see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 159). It is clear, however, that the two lambs and the loaves (along with their associated grain and drink offerings) constituted the “wave offering,” which served as the prebend “for the priest.” Burnt and sin offerings (vv. 18-19a) were not included in this (see Lev 7:11-14, 28-36).

[23:21] ¹⁴tn Heb “And you shall proclaim [an assembly] in the bone of this day; a holy assembly it shall be to you” (see the remarks in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 160, and the remarks on the LXX rendering in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 367).

[23:21] ¹⁵tn Heb “for your generations.”

[23:22] ¹⁶tn Heb “And when you harvest the harvest.”

[23:22] ¹⁷tn Heb “you shall not complete the corner of your field in your harvest.”

[23:22] ¹⁸sn Compare Lev 19:9-10.