The Sabbath, and the Set Feasts
1 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘The set feasts of Yahweh, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my set feasts. 3 “‘Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation; you shall do no kind of work. It is a Sabbath to Yahweh in all your dwellings. 4 “‘These are the set feasts of Yahweh, even holy convocations, which you shall proclaim in their appointed season. 5 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening, is Yahweh’s Passover. 6 On the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread to Yahweh. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. 7 In the first day you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no regular work. 8 But you shall offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh seven days. In the seventh day is a holy convocation. You shall do no regular work.’” 9 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 10 “Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘When you have come into the land which I give to you, and shall reap its harvest, then you shall bring the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. 11 He shall wave the sheaf before Yahweh, to be accepted for you. On the next day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. 12 On the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb without defect a year old for a burnt offering to Yahweh. 13 The meal offering with it shall be two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to Yahweh for a pleasant aroma; and the drink offering with it shall be of wine, the fourth part of a hin. 14 You must not eat bread, or roasted grain, or fresh grain, until this same day, until you have brought the offering of your God. This is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
The weekly day is announced first and kept at home, and then the annual list restarts, which is how the chapter distinguishes them.
The chapter announces its subject: the set feasts of Yahweh, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations Leviticus 23:2.
Then, before any of them is named, comes something that is not annual.
“‘Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation; you shall do no kind of work. It is a Sabbath to Yahweh in all your dwellings.
And then the list starts over: these are the set feasts of Yahweh, even holy convocations, which you shall proclaim in their appointed season Leviticus 23:4.
The restart is the chapter's way of marking a distinction. The weekly day is set out first and separately; everything after verse 4 is dated to a month and a day.
Two differences follow from the arrangement. The seventh day is kept in all your dwellings — at home, wherever a family is, requiring no journey and no sanctuary. And the summary at the end of the chapter names the annual feasts as observed in addition to the Sabbaths of Yahweh Leviticus 23:38, distinguishing them in so many words.
The two also rest on different ground elsewhere. The seventh day was blessed and set apart at the close of creation, before any Israel existed to be told about it Genesis 2:3, and the commandment gives that as its reason Exodus 20:11. The annual days are dated to events in this nation's history.
The annual cycle then begins. Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month; unleavened bread from the fifteenth, seven days Leviticus 23:5–6.
And the sheaf of firstfruits, which has a rule attached that would test any farmer: you must not eat bread, or roasted grain, or fresh grain, until this same day, until you have brought the offering of your God Leviticus 23:14.
After a winter of stored food, with the new barley standing ripe in the field, nobody eats any of it until the first sheaf has been waved. The first of the harvest is given before any of it is enjoyed, and the timing makes that a real restraint rather than a formality.
held with reason What this mark means