Leviticus 23

Lev. 23 1 AND the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and 2 say unto them, The set feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my set feasts.

4. These are the set feasts of the LORD, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their appointed season.

Ex. 23 14 Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year. The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep : seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, at the time appointed in the month Abib (for in it thou camest out from Egypt) ; and 16 none shall appear before me empty : and the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou sowest in the field : and the feast of ingathering, at the end of the year, when 17 thou gatherest in thy labours out of the field. Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord God.

De. 16 16 Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose ; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and 17 in the feast of tabernacles : and they shall not appear before the LORD empty : every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee.

We pass from the sacred rites to the sacred times, the fourth and last division of the main body of ceremonial laws, or those pertaining directly to public worship. The place, the ministry, and the media (sacrifices) of worship have been considered. The appointed times and feasts will occupy Sections 138 to 143, inclusive.

Then will follow certain adjuncts to the ceremonial legislation. B.

Scheme of the Sacred Seasons, Complete and Symmetrical.

The passages relating to the annual feasts are the following : Ex. 12 : 13 : Narrative of the original institution of the Passover and of the feast of Unleavened Bread, and the regulations respecting them given before leaving Egypt. Ex. 23 : 14-19 : Summary account of the three annual feasts, in which pilgrimages were required, as prescribed in the book of the covenant ratified at Mount Sinai. Ex. 34 : 18-26 : Substantial repetition of the preceding upon the renewal of the covenant after the sin of the golden calf. Lev. 23 : Enumeration of the feasts and holy convocations to be observed in the course of the year, with the special ceremonies connected with them. De. 16 : 1-17 : Admonition to observe the three annual feasts and to celebrate them at the sanctuary about to be divinely chosen.

The scheme of the sacred seasons set forth in these laws is consistent and complete. It is based on the primitive institution of the weekly Sabbath. This patriarchal institution was in the Mosaic Law expanded into a Sabbatical system by applying the septenary division in succession to every denomination of time. The seventh month was a sacred month, marked by an accumulation of holy days, its first day being observed as a Sabbath, including which there were four festive Sabbaths and six additional feast days in the month. The seventh year was a Sabbatical year, during which the land was to rest and lie untilled. The fiftieth year, or the year succeeding seven times seven years, was the year of jubilee, which gave release from the burdens of impoverishment and servitude; in it the Israelite who had sold himself for debt was set free, and property that had been alienated reverted to its original owners; and all was thus restored to its primitive status. The sense of obligation to the Creator, and rest from worldly toil, were thus provided for. Gratitude for the gifts which he bestows, both individual and national, and the expression of thankful joy in them was next to be added. This was the specific purpose of the feasts, which were accordingly appointed at those seasons when God’s bounty is so richly manifested in the productions of the earth—viz., at the harvest and the vintage. These feasts were linked with the Sabbatical series by being governed throughout by the number seven.

The sacred seasons form thus a complete and symmetrical scheme, giving proper and balanced expression to the leading ideas of Israel’s religion, and especially adjusted to their relation to God as their Creator, Benefactor, and Sanctifier. It is not a body of laws and usages aggregated in the course of time under varying and contingent circumstances. It is just the consistent unfolding of one definite scheme of thought, and as such bears the stamp of one reflecting and constructive mind, by which it has been carefully elaborated and adjusted into correspondence with certain dominant ideas. Ewald only referred to Moses “such of the ancient institutions of the Hebrews as are of so unusual and remarkable a character that they must have proceeded from the exalted genius of one man.” But this test of itself convinced him that the sacred seasons of the Jews originated with Moses. “You behold,” he says, “a structure simple, lofty, perfect. All proceeds as it were from one spirit, and represents one idea, and is carried into effect by what resembles counters exactly matched strung upon one cord. And while other ancient nations have a multitude of festivals with no obvious connection, these are few, but linked together, illumined with one light, and relating to one supreme end (every one a Sabbath of Jehovah). Whoever has a thorough knowledge of these festivals will be persuaded that they have not arisen by slow degrees from the blind impulse of external nature, nor from the history of the people, but are the product of a lofty genius.” W. H. G.

FEASTS—HOLY CONVOCATIONS (Lev. 23:1, 2, 4).

The specified times for public worship according to the Law were: (1) The daily morning and evening sacrifices, sometimes called “the continual burnt-offering.” (2) The weekly Sabbath. (3) The day of the New Moon. (4) The “set feasts” or appointed times of annual observance, of which there were five, the Passover, the Day of Pentecost, the feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the feast of Tabernacles. For each of these occasions special sacrifices were appointed. The weekly Sabbaths, and certain days in the appointed times of annual observance, were distinguished as “days of holy convocation.” Clask.—The various holy days of the Jewish calendar were opportunities specially arranged for a more regular and continuous attendance upon the means of grace provided by the tabernacle and its services. This very chapter (Lev. 23), which details the various Sabbaths and feast-days, again and again reiterates that these festal days were “holy convocations.” Cave.

Lev. 23:2. Ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations. The Hebrew may be rendered more literally, “which ye shall call (as) callings of holiness”—i.e., assemblages of the people which should be convened for holy or sacred purposes at set times by public proclamation, and generally by the sound of a trumpet (Nu. 10:8-10) These are my feasts. The term feasts is apt to suggest mistaken ideas. It is the common rendering of two Hebrew words which differ considerably in regard to their exact shade and compass of meaning. The one is hag, the root meaning of which is to move in a circle, or dance, and was doubtless applied to certain of the greater solemnities on account of the joyful processional movements with which they were celebrated. The word is very rarely applied except to the Passover and feast of Tabernacles, which were both occasions for special manifestations of gladness; and in later times the term became almost appropriated to the feast of Tabernacles, which was called emphatically the hag, on account of the greater hilarity attending its processions and services. The name which is employed to denote the entire series of the stated solemnities connected with particular seasons, in the passage (Lev. 23) which treats of these in order, is moadeem. While the word undoubtedly sometimes bears the sense of places of meeting, the manner in which it is used in this passage points distinctly to the meetings themselves. In verse 2 it is said, “The moadeem of Jehovah, on which ye shall call holy convocations, these are the moadeem.” Their prominent characteristic is here plainly declared to be one that should express itself in convocations or meetings for holy purposes. P. F.—The people were not simply to meet as among themselves, but with Jehovah, and to present themselves before him as one body. The meeting together was in its very nature a binding of themselves in fellowship with Jehovah; so that it was not politics and commerce that had here to do, but the soul of the Mosaic dispensation, the foundation of the religious and political existence of Israel, the covenant of Jehovah. To keep the people’s consciousness alive to this; to revive, strengthen, and perpetuate it, nothing could be so well adapted as such meetings together. Bahr.

In Lev. 23:2, 3, we read: “Concerning the feasts of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts.

Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest.” The Sabbath, then, was a feast day. The first object was rest. “That the stranger may be refreshed,” is the way the Law of Moses looked at it. The idea that is prominent is rest and refreshment. Then there is the additional idea of holiness: “remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” To crown all, there is the thought of joy, which appears all through the Old Testament references to the Sabbath. Rest, refreshment, holiness, joy—these are the ideas which are connected with the Sabbath. The Lord’s intention was to fill the week, the month, the year, with joy. It was for this purpose that all the feasts were appointed, and specially the first and most frequently recurring, and therefore the most blessed of all, the holy, joyous Sabbath. J. M. G.

The weekly Sabbath, which is the basis of the whole system, was symbolical of rest, rest from labor, rest from suffering, rest from sin. As a historical symbol, it commemorated God’s rest after the creation and Israel’s rest after the Egyptian bondage. As a prophetic symbol, it prefigured rest in the promised land, the rest of the soul in Christ and God, the rest of the Church in the new dispensation, and the rest both of the Church and individuals in heaven. The Sabbatical year symbolized besides the rest of the land from cultivation and the rest of the debtor from his creditor’s exactions. The great Sabbath of the Jubilee suggested the ideas both of rest and restoration: the restoration of the land to its former possessors and the restoration of the slave to freedom. J. A. A.

Lev. 23:3. A holy convocation. The Sabbath was a set day of meeting together for social worship. This was its chief distinction for the people. Speaking to the congregation and addressing God were the essential constituents of this simple worship. The former branched into reading the Book of Revelation and adding the word of instruction and exhortation; the latter into the song of praise and the voice of prayer. Ye shall do no work. In truth, the prohibition of work is only subsidiary to the positive idea of joyful rest and recreation, in communion with Jehovah, who himself “rested and was refreshed.” A consideration of the spirit of the Law and of Christ’s comments on it will show that it is work for worldly gain that was to be suspended; and hence the restrictive clause is prefaced with the positive command: “Six days shall thou labor, and do all thy work;” for so only could the Sabbatic rest be fairly earned. Hence, too, the stress constantly laid on permitting the servant and beast of burden to share the rest, which selfishness would grudge to them. Thus the spirit of the Sabbath was joy, refreshment, and mercy, arising from remembrance of God’s goodness as the Creator, and as the Deliverer from bondage. Joy was the key-note of their service. Moses declared: “Ye shall rejoice, ye and your households.” The Psalmists echo back the same spirit: “This is the day which Jehovah hath made; we will rejoice, and be glad in it.” P. S.

Nu. 28:9, 10. The special services appointed for the Sabbath at the sanctuary consisted first in the doubling of the daily burnt-offering—two lambs instead of one, with a corresponding increase in the meal-offering—stamping the Sabbath, to use the expression of Bähr, as the day of days, the most important of all the days of the week in its bearing on the people’s calling to dedicate themselves, soul and body, to the Lord’s service. The other service, which consisted in presenting the fresh loaves of shew-bread on the Lord’s table, was of quite similar import; for this bread, like the meal-offering generally, was a symbol of the fruitful and holy lives which the members of the covenant were to be ever rendering to the Lord. And that the Sabbath should have been chosen as the day for the perpetual renewal of this offering, clearly indicated the place it was intended to hold then, and which the Lord’s day must hold still, in disposing and enabling the people to abound in such fruitfulness. It virtually declared, that “while diligence in good works should pervade the whole life, yet this would soon flag did it not receive fresh invigoration on the day of rest and meeting together before the Lord. Such also is the instruction conveyed on the subject by that psalm which is entitled a Psalm-song for the Sabbath day, the main theme of which is the characteristic of the true Israelite as called to the meditation of God’s work, and finding therein an incitement to perseverance in the duties of an upright and godly life. P. F.

Ex. 31:17. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever. Then in Ezek. 20:12: “Moreover I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them.” Again in the twentieth verse: “And hallow my Sabbaths, and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.” Here it is distinctly asserted that the Sabbath was given, not as the seal of any special covenant that He had made with them, but simply as a sign that He it was who had sanctified or delivered them from Egypt, and who was the Lord their God; and the observance of it would on their part be an open recognition of the same. Stacy.

In the fourth command God does not say, “I appoint each seventh day for a sign between me and thee and a memorial of your national deliverance from Egyptian bondage,” as many have maintained—to make out that the Sabbath was nothing but a Jewish institution. These points, a “sign” between the Lord and Israel and a memorial of deliverance from Egypt, came in fitly afterward as a supplement or appendix to this fourth command in its special relations to the children of Israel. But these special and superadded relations of the Sabbath to the Hebrews cannot possibly in reason diminish the obligation of the original Sabbath ordained for man as a race in Eden. H. C.

The institution of the Sabbath was declared to be a sign between God and the Israelites, that they might know that he was the Lord who sanctified them. He wished them simply to regard it as one of the chosen means by which he intended them to become not only a well-conditioned and blessed, but also an holy nation. There can be no question that holiness in heart and conduct was the grand sign of their being his chosen people. And the proper observance of the Sabbatical rest being so specially designated a sign in this respect, was a proof of its singular importance to the interests of religion and morality. These, it was virtually said, would thrive and flourish if the Sabbath was duly observed, but would languish and die if it fell into desuetude. P. F.—And is not the same sign as decisive as ever? Tell me how a Christian spends the first day of the week, and I will tell you what kind of a Christian he is. If any man really remembers God’s day to keep it holy, he is not likely to forget the need of the altar, the priest, and the sacrifice, or any of the important elements of a Christian life. But if you disregard the Lord’s day and allow its sacred opportunities to pass without improvement, it is too evident that you are letting all these things slip from you. The keeping of the Lord’s day is a sign between you and Him. J. M. G.

The Sabbath a Jewish Institution.

An entire cessation from all the affairs of life on each seventh day is a Jewish institution, and is not prescribed by the laws of any other people. To the ancient Polytheists, nothing seemed so joyless as the austerity of a Jewish Sabbath. It was a strange abandonment of all the avocations of life. They saw the fields of the Hebrew forsaken by the laborer; the ass unsaddled; the osr laid by in the boat; they marked a dead stillness pervading the habitation of the Israelite; the fire extinguished, the meat unprepared, the man-servant and the maiden leave their work, and the trafficker, at least one day of the week, refusing the offered coin. D’Israeli.

Everything else pertaining to their national administration corresponded to something which the heathen had as well as they. Sacrifices, priesthood, oracles of some kind, were found everywhere. They shared blood and language with other tribes. But their Sabbath, the weekly day of rest enforced by public authority, was their very own. Nothing like it, nothing to compare with it, was to be found anywhere else. It embodied their national separateness and their national unity. Returning so frequently with its rigid absoluteness and its grave sanctions, it brought the executive authority of their Divine King to their perception more impressively and more continuously than the rule of an ordinary king could be brought home to his subjects. Grey.

Other more extended references to the Sabbath may be found in Sections 107 and 145. B.

The month of Tisri, being the seventh of the ecclesiastical year, had a kind of Sabbatic character. The calendar was so arranged that its first day fell on a Sabbath (that, no doubt, next after the new moon), and this was ushered in by the blowing of trumpets, and was called the feast of Trumpets. It was a holy convocation; and it had its special sacrifices, in addition to those of other new moons—namely, for the burnt-offering, a young bullock, a ram, and seven lambs, with a meal and drink offering, and a young goat for a sin-offering. This month was also marked by the great Day of Atonement on the tenth, and the feast of Tabernacles, the greatest of the whole year, which lasted from the fifteenth to the twenty-second of the month. Thus it completed the Sabbatic cycle of seven months, in which all the great festivals were kept. P. S.—The culmination and crown of the sacred year was in the seventh month. There were three great occasions in this month. The first was the feast of Trumpets. The blowing of the trumpets summoned the people to a holy convocation, which ushered in the special joy of the specially sacred month. But the highest joy which is possible to man on earth can be reached only through the pathway of penitential sorrow. Hence on the tenth day of the month there were the solemnities of the great Atonement Day. But after the short season of humiliation was over, the crowning joy of all the year was ushered in. The day of fasting, occurring on the tenth, was followed by a four days’ pause, to give its solemn impressions time to be graven deeply on the people’s souls, and then, on the fifteenth day of the month, the nation was summoned to the festivities and rejoicings of the great feast of Tabernacles. J. M. G.

Lev. 23 : 24. In this verse and in Nu. 29 : 1, the only places in the Old Testament where the festival is named, the word rendered “blowing of trumpets,” means literally shouting. There is no mention of trumpets in the Hebrew text of the Law in connection with the day. We know from Nu. 10 : 10, that the silver trumpets of the sanctuary were blown at all the festivals, including the new moons, and, as a matter of course, on this occasion, which was the chief festival of the new moon. There is, however, no reason to doubt the tradition that the day was distinguished by a general blowing of trumpets throughout the land. Clark.

The entire series of uses ordained (Nu. 10 : 1-10) in connection with the silver trumpets, together with the emphatic promises in verses 9 and 10, “they shall be to you for a memorial before your God, and ye shall be remembered before the Lord your God, and ye shall be saved from your enemies,” indicate clearly the purpose and significance of this singular ordinance. On the part of Israel it served as a reminder of great events and obligations, and so added stimulus and encouragement to their thoughtfulness and fidelity. On the part of Jehovah, it conveyed a frequently repeated assurance of his Presence, with all the needed guidance, help, and blessing that such Presence would bring. B.

The feast of Trumpets was a day of rest and holy convocation, and its peculiar and distinctive characteristic was the blowing of trumpets. The feast so characterized took place about the latter end of September; and though the people were not required to appear at the tent of meeting, yet in token of the importance of the day additional offerings were presented, beside those appointed for the new moons in general. There can be no doubt that the sacred use of the trumpet had its reason in the loud and stirring noise it emits. Hence it is described as a cry in Lev. 25 : 9, which was to be heard throughout the whole land. On this account the sound of the trumpet is very commonly employed in Scripture as an image of the voice or Word of God. The voice of God, and the voice of the trumpet on Mount Sinai, were heard together; first the trumpet-sound as the symbol, then the reality. So John heard the voice of the Lord as that of a trumpet; and the sound of the trumpet is once and again spoken of as the harbinger of the Son of Man, when coming in power and great glory, to utter the almighty word which shall quicken the dead to life, and make all things new. The sound of the trumpet, then, was a symbol of the majestic, omnipotent voice or Word of God; but of course only in those things in which it was employed in respect to what God had to say to men. In this case, it would be a call to a greater degree of alacrity and excitement in regard to the work and service of God. And such, probably, was the more peculiar design of the blowing of trumpets at the festivals generally, and especially at the festival of Trumpets on the first day of the seventh month. P. F.

NU. 29 12 AND on the fifteenth day of the seventh month ye shall have an holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work, and ye shall keep a feast unto the LORD seven days: and ye shall offer a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD; thirteen young bullocks, two rams, fourteen he-lambs of the first year; they shall be without blemish: and their meal offering, fine flour mingled with oil, three tenth parts for every bullock of the thirteen bullocks, two tenth parts for each ram of the two rams, and a several tenth part for every lamb of the fourteen lambs: and one he-goat for a sin offering; beside the continual burnt offering, the meal offering thereof, and the drink offering thereof.

[Verses 17-34. The offerings of the succeeding six days are identical with the first, except in the diminution of the number of bullocks by one each day.]

35. On the eighth day ye shall have a solemn assembly: ye shall do no servile work: but ye shall offer a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD: one bullock, one ram, seven he-lambs of the first year without blemish: their meal offering and their drink offerings for the bullock, for the ram, and for the lambs, shall be according to their number, after the ordinance: and one he-goat for a sin offering; beside the continual burnt offering, and the meal offering thereof, and the drink offering thereof.

39. These ye shall offer unto the LORD in your set feasts, beside your vows, and your freewill offerings, for your burnt offerings, and for your meal offerings, and for your drink offerings, and for your peace offerings. And Moses told the children of Israel according to all that the LORD commanded Moses.

Lev. 23 33 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the LORD. On the first day shall be an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work. Seven days ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD: on the eighth day shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD: it is a solemn assembly: ye shall do no servile work.

37. These are the set feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD, a burnt offering, and a meal offering, a sacrifice, and drink offerings, each on its own day: beside the sabbaths of the LORD, and beside your gifts, and beside all your vows, and beside all your freewill offerings, which ye give unto the LORD.

39. Howbeit on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruits of the land, ye shall keep the feast of the LORD seven days : on the first day shall be a solemn rest, and on the eighth day shall be a solemn rest. And ye shall take you on the first day the fruit of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook ; and ye shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days. And ye shall keep it a feast unto the LORD seven days in the year : it is a statute for ever in your generations : ye shall keep it in the seventh month. Ye shall dwell in booths seven days ; all that are home-born in Israel shall dwell in booths : that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt : I am the LORD your God. And Moses declared unto the children of Israel the set feasts of the LORD. De. 16 13 Thou shalt keep the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that thou hast gathered in from thy threshing-floor and from thy winepress : and thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates. Seven days shalt thou keep a feast unto the LORD thy God in the place which the LORD shall choose : because the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all thine increase, and in all the work of thine hands, and thou shalt be altogether joyful.

The last of the three great feasts is, in Ex. 23 : 16 ; 34 : 22, denominated the feast of Ingathering, and elsewhere the feast of Tabernacles. This had special though not exclusive relation to the ingathering of fruits from olive-yards and vineyards. Coming after the latest products of the year, it fitly commemorated God’s goodness in the whole. Although the feast of Weeks was specially appointed to express the grateful joy of harvest, both the harvest and the vintage are joined together as giving occasion for the feast of Tabernacles that followed. Thus their occasions of exuberant joy and worldly gain and patriotic fervor were their sacred times, when they gathered at the sanctuary of God and poured out their thankful praise before him. Their secular life became thus a consecrated life ; their secular joy a joy before the LORD.

Tabernacles, as it was the concluding, was likewise the culminating festival of the entire series. It occurred at the crown of the year, in the seventh or sacred month, with its accumulation of festivals ; and it was itself the climax of all that preceded. It was hence appropriately marked by the most elaborate and profuse sacrificial ritual of all the festivals. And while the feast of Weeks lasted but a single day, and while at the Passover pilgrims were permitted to return home after partaking of the paschal meal with which it began, at Tabernacles they remained not only through the full term of seven days, but an eighth day was added at the end, which in later times at least was reckoned “the great day of the feast” (John 7 : 37). W. H. G.

This festival commemorated the time when, after leaving Egypt behind them, the children of Israel gathered in their first camp of freedom at Succoth, where they had built themselves booths or leafy huts, whence the name. Hence the use of palm branches and boughs of goodly trees (verse 40), and the dwelling in booths during the celebration. This feast, like the others, was associated with the labors of the husbandmen. It was “the harvest home” of Israel, known therefore as the feast of Ingathering. J. M. G.

The feast of Tabernacles took place in autumn, at the end of the vintage, in all southern climates the great time of rejoicing and merriment. If more exquisite music and more graceful dances accompanied the gathering in of the grapes on the banks of the Cephisus ; the tabret, the viol, and the harp, which sounded among the vineyards of Heshbon and Eleale, were not wanting in sweetness and gayety ; and instead of the frantic riot of satyrs and bacchanals, the rejoicing was chastened by the solemn religious recollections with which it was associated. The branches of trees were woven together in rude imitation of the tents in which the Israelites dwelt in the desert, and within these green bowers the whole people passed the week of festivity. Milman.—The customs of this festival were especially joyous, and in later times there were constant additions to them. The tabernacles were in after times erected on the flat roofs, in courts, streets, and squares. Boughs of beautiful trees, palm-trees, and especially branches of the leafy willow, were taken for the purpose. In later times the customs of drawing water and of lighting lamps were naturally and significantly added to the rest—all emblems of the grace and goodness which the people enjoyed under the guidance of the Lord, and at the same time as festive rites, pledges of the continuance of his guidance and blessing of the people on the way to the promised rest, of which Canaan was only the type. In no other festival were the natural and historical relations so closely allied. Gerl.

Lev. 23:40. Ye shall take the fruit of goodly trees, branches of palm, boughs, and willows; and ye shall rejoice before the Lord. It is no doubt in connection with the joy that was to characterize the feast, and as symbolical of it, that branches of palms and other trees were to be taken. They were to “rejoice before the Lord”—the joy having respect immediately to the gathered produce of the year, and remotely to the abundance of Canaan, as contrasted with the barrenness of the desert. The palm-tree was specially selected, probably from having the richest foliage and thus presenting the fittest symbol of joy. The history of our Lord shows how naturally the people associated the palm-leaf with joy.

42,43. Ye shall dwell in booths seven days. The appellation of this feast should rather be of booths, because during its continuance the people were to dwell in booths. A booth is not precisely the same as a tent or tabernacle, though the names are frequently interchanged. It properly means a slight, temporary dwelling, easily run up, and as easily taken down again. The reason assigned for the ordinance is “that their generations might know that the Lord made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.” It was the connecting link between their house of bondage and their inheritance of blessing. Then especially did the Lord come near and reveal himself to them, pitching his own tabernacle in the midst of theirs, communicating to them his Law and testimony, and setting up the entire polity which was to continue unimpaired through succeeding ages. Hence the annual celebration of the feast of Tabernacles was like a perpetual renewing of their religious youth; recalling and re-enforcing upon their minds the views and feelings proper to that formative period of their history. On this account we have no doubt it was that the feast of Tabernacles was the time chosen, every seventh year, for reading the whole Law to the people.

No. 29:13-38. In regard to the mode of celebrating the feast, beside the dwelling in booths there was a great peculiarity in the offerings to be presented. The sin-offering was the same as on the other feast-days, a single goat; but for the burnt-offering the rams and lambs were double the usual number, two and fourteen instead of one and seven; while, in place of the two young bullocks of other days, there were to be in all, during the seven days of the feast, seventy, and these so divided, that on the last day there were to be seven, eight on the day preceding, and so on up to thirteen, the number offered on the first day of the feast. The eighth day did not properly belong to the feast, but was rather a solemn winding-up of the whole feast-season: the offerings for it, therefore, were much of the usual description. The greater number of the offerings may be accounted for by the occasion of the feast, as intended to mark the grateful sense of the people for the Lord’s goodness. But the gradual diminution till seven is reached remains a sacred enigma. P. F.

De. 16:13-15. Israel is taught the following truths: After the corn and wine have been gathered in, they are expected to look up gratefully to God as the Author of all. With the gladsome rest there is to be associated a thankful memory of past guidance and help in the wilderness life. In this rejoicing and thankfulness master and servant are alike to share, as both equal in the sight of God. By Israel’s gladness the sorrows of the poor, the sad, the lonely, are to be relieved, and the solitary ones are to be made conscious of a kindly care encompassing them. C. C.

The spiritual import of the feast is to be realized in the case of all genuine believers. And on this account the Prophet Zechariah (14:16), when speaking of what is to take place after the final overthrow of the Church’s enemies, represents all her members as going up to Jerusalem to keep the feast of Tabernacles. She shall then rejoice in the fulness of her purchased and redeemed inheritance, and have her experiences of heavenly enjoyment heightened and enhanced by the remembrance of the past tribulation and conflict. Now she is passing through the wilderness; it is her period of trial and probation; she must be sifted and prepared for her final destiny by constant alternations of fear and hope, of danger and deliverance, of difficulties and conquests. By these she must be reminded of her own weakness and insufficiency, her proneness to be overcome of evil, and the dependence necessary to be maintained on the word and promises of God; the dross must be gradually purged out and the pure gold of the Divine life refined and polished for the kingdom of glory. Then shall she ever hold with her Divine Head a feast of Tabernacles, rejoicing in his presence, satisfied with his fulness; and so far from grudging on account of the trials and difficulties of the way, rather reflecting on them with thankfulness because seeing in them the course of discipline that was needed for the fulfilment of her final destiny. The blessed company in Rev. 7, clothed in white robes and with palms in their hands, representatives of a redeemed and triumphant Church, are the final antitypes of the Israelites keeping the feast of Tabernacles. P. F.

Lev. 23 : 37. 38. We have here the summary and conclusion of these institutions. God appointed these feasts, Beside the Sabbaths and your free-will offerings. This teaches us that calls to extraordinary services will not excuse us from our constant stated performances. Within the days of the feast of Tabernacles there must fall at least one Sabbath, which must be as strictly observed as any other. We have reason to be thankful that the feasts of the Lord declared unto us are not so numerous, nor the observance of them so burdensome and costly, as theirs then were, but more spiritual and significant and surer, sweeter earnest of the everlasting feast at the last ingathering which we hope to be celebrating to eternity. H.

With the close of the feast of Tabernacles the climax of the doctrinal teaching by symbol had been reached, and the year was brought to a close by the common series of daily, weekly, and monthly sacrificings. Cave.