Leviticus 23

Chap. XXIII. Ver. 1-22. Weekly sabbath, &c.—We should not overlook the admonition of observing “the sabbath of the Lord,” not only in public, “but in all our dwellings;” both ourselves, and in our families: allowing our domestics to cease from labour, and teaching them, by precept and example, to improve their leisure; in order that their souls may now find rest in Christ, and at length enjoy “the rest reserved for the people of God.”—We should also learn to consider the time employed in the service of God as profitably spent; and to esteem his ordinances as holy feasts, relished more by the heaven-born soul than all other pleasures, which it willingly renounces for the sake of them. A day, thus set apart for the business of religion, will have so much and so important work belonging to it, that all other employment must be postponed to make way for it.—Let us never forget “to honour the Lord with our substance, and with the first-fruits of all our increase; so shall our barns be filled with plenty, and our presses burst out with new wine.”

And “when we give alms of such things as we have, behold all things are clean unto us.” Nor will the husbandman ever have cause to complain, that he has less profit or comfort from his crop; because, zealously leaving good gleanings, he hath made a little harvest for the poor widow and the labouring man with a large family, who have no land or crop of their own.—In all these solemnities we should look unto Jesus, as the great Sacrifice for sin, the true Paschal Lamb, the First-fruits unto God, our Forerunner to glory, the provision for our souls, and the Fountain of grace; from whose fulness the Holy Spirit flows to all his people, as the Source of all joy, and heavenly hope, and victory over the world and every enemy.—T’.

Scott. Ver. 23-44. The feast of trumpets—the day of atonement—and the feast of tabernacles.—We may remark, that the term used ce | hk in the original, is of more extensive import than the English word by which it is rendered, and includes all the public solemnities, whether feasts or fasts; the great day of atonement being decidedly of the latter class. Scott properly remarks another distinction in these days. “On the weekly sabbath, and on the great day of atonement, they were to do no manner of work,” (works of mercy and necessity excepted:) but should do on the other solemnities it was only required that they, (says the “same commentator,) that many things of a domestic nature on the other solemnities which must not might be performed on the day of atonement.”

The feast of trumpets is now mentioned. It seems to have been to proclaim the commencement of what is called the Civil Year, which began about the middle of our September. This feast is called a sabbath, though not a weekly sabbath, because it was a day of rest, though not of the strictest kind; only from servile work, that is, from their usual daily kind. Of the solemn services of the great day of atonement, we have had a full account in the 16th chapter of this book. This followed ten days after the feast of trumpets, and five days before the feast of tabernacles, so that these three solemnities all came within about half a month. The fast of the atonement was kept with very great strictness, and on penalty of death.

The whole religious worship and sacrifices. The day was spent in “afflicting their souls,” and abstaining from food during the whole of the time, that is, from evening to evening. All these services (as already observed,) had an especial view to Him who was to take away sin by the sacrifice of himself, and who ((Isaiah 53:7-8).) “sufficed his soul” unto death on our account. (Philippians 2)Five days after this (as above noted) followed the feast of tabernacles, when the grief was changed into joy, and the fast of atonement for the sacrifices of thanksgiving. This feast was enjoined, Exodus xxiii. 16., and is there called “the feast of gathering, and of harvest.” For seven days the Jews were ordered to dwell in tabernacles, tents, or bowers, in memory of their fathers, who lived in tents in the land of Canaan, and afterwards in the wilderness; and to remind them that they also were pilgrims and strangers in the earth, “as all their fathers were.”

((Hebrews 11:9-14).)

Notes on the verses

Chap. XXIII. Ver. 2. The feasts “of the Lord.”—The word Moedim, is reverenced solemnities, (Isaiah 33:20)., and includes all the days of holy convocation. Ver. 3. The seventh day is the sabbath.—For the appointment of the sabbath, see (Genesis 2:2-3). (Exodus 20:8, 11). Ver. 5. The Lord’s passover.—See Exod. ch. xii. and xiii. Ver. 10. Ye shall bring a sheaf—The Hebrew is an omer, which the margin explains to be, “a handful.”—(This offering was a public acknowledgment of the bounty and goodness of God for the kindly fruits of the earth. From the practice of the people of God, the heathen borrowed a similar one, founded on the same reason. The following passage from Censorinus, is worthy of the deepest attention: “Our ancestors, who held their food, their country, the light, and all that they possessed, from the bounty of the gods, consecrated to them a part of all their property, rather as a token of their gratitude, than from a conviction that the gods needed any thing.

Therefore, as soon as the harvest was shown in, before they had tasted the fruits, they appointed libations to be made to the gods. And, as they held their fields and cities as gifts from their gods, they consecrated a certain part in the temples and shrines where they worshipped.” Pliny is express on the same point, and attests that, the Romans never tasted either their new corn or wine, till the priests had offered the first-fruits to the gods. See (Exodus 22:29). and xxiii. 18, 19.]—Bagster. Ver. 14. Seven sabbaths shall be complete.—This is the feast of Pentecost, already enjoined, (Exodus 34:22). and which was reckoned from the 16th of the first to the 6th of the third month, forty complete days, and the fiftieth was called Pentecost, which Greek word so means.

Ver. 24. Trumpets.—Horns, doubtless, of rams, or other animals.—Zichron teruah, here rendered “a memorial of blowing the trumpets,” properly signifies a memorial of triumph or shouting for joy. This festival is generally called the feast of trumpets; and, though they have not expressly declared the reason of its celebration, yet, as it fell in the seventh month of the sacred year, which was the first of the civil year, that is, the month Tisri, answering to our September, the opinion very generally embraced by both Jews and Christians is, that it was a memorial of the creation shouted for joy,” ((Job 38:7).) which is supposed, not altogether without reason, to have been at this season of the year.

The month Tisri was not only anciently, but still is, reckoned by the Jews the first month of the year; and the feast of tabernacles, kept in this month, was said to be, as it is correctly rendered in the margin, ‘at the revolution of the years ((Exodus 34:22).) importing, that at this season the year was beginning anew. So that this feast was the new year’s day, on which the rest had revolved, and the rejoiced in a grateful remembrance of God’s benefits, and implored his blessing for the future year.—Bagster. Ver. 34. Feast of Tabernacles.—(This feast was celebrated in commemoration of dwelling in tents in the wilderness for forty years; and was kept with greater jollity than any of the other festivals. Hence, in the Talmud it is called chag, the feast, and by Philo, the greatest of the feasts; and by the heathen than any other.

It is probable, that Cecrops borrowed from it the law which he made in Athens, “that the master of every family should after harvest make a feast for his neighbours.”—Bagster. Ver. 40. Boughs of goodly trees.—Literally, “Of the fruit of beauty;” meaning, the citron tree. So the Targum he a oh ices eet that to this day the Jews in London send for citrons for this purpose.—Crit. (Revelation 5)See also Parkhurst’ Heb. (Leviticus 10): p