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Leviticus 23:1-2. In this chapter Moses, by divine appointment, gives more particular directions about the observation of those solemnities which were before instituted. These, in our translation, are termed feasts; but the word מועדי, mognadee, here used, rather means solemn seasons, or meetings, and as the day of atonement was comprehended in them, which was not a feast, but a fast, they certainly are improperly termed feasts. The literal translation of the words is, solemnities of Jehovah, which ye shall proclaim for holy convocations, these are the solemnities. They are termed holy convocations, because on these days they were called together and assembled to hear the law, to offer sacrifices, and to address prayers and thanksgivings to God.

Leviticus 23:3. The seventh day is first named as a holy convocation — A day to be kept holy by every Israelite, in all places wheresoever they dwelt, as well as while they lived in the wilderness; and as a day of rest, in which they were to do no work — A similar prohibition is declared Leviticus 23:28, concerning the day of expiation, excluding all works about earthly employments, whether of profit or of pleasure; but upon other feast-days he forbids only servile works, as Leviticus 23:7; Leviticus 23:21; Leviticus 23:36; for surely this manifest difference in the expressions used by the wise God, must needs imply a difference in the things. In all your dwellings — Other feasts were to be kept before the Lord in Jerusalem only, whither all the males were to come for that end; but the sabbath was to be kept in all places, both in synagogues, and in their private houses.

Leviticus 23:4. These are the feasts of the Lord — The solemnities, as the same word is rendered, Isaiah 33:20, where Zion is called the city of our solemnities.

Leviticus 23:5. In the fourteenth day — See Exodus 12:18. At even — For all the Jewish festivals were kept from evening to evening, their day beginning in the evening. Is the Lord’s passover — Exodus 12:11. Though Moses had often before mentioned this, and several other of their solemnities, he here sets them down all together, according to the order of time in which they were kept, that this chapter might serve the Jews for a general table of all their religious festivals.

Leviticus 23:8. Ye shall offer — unto the Lord seven days — Every day of the seven was to have a sacrifice offered upon it, about which there are particular directions, Numbers 28:10-25; and the first and last days of the week’s festival were to be days of universal assembly for religious duties at the place of public worship.

Leviticus 23:10. When ye come into the land, &c. — In the wilderness they sowed no corn, and therefore could not be obliged by this precept till they came into Canaan. And shall reap the harvest — Begin to reap, as the sense shows, and is explained Deuteronomy 16:9. Then ye shall bring a sheaf — Or handful, as the margin has it; but in the Hebrew it is omer.

And they did not offer this corn in the ear, or by a sheaf, or handful, but, as Josephus affirms, and may be gathered from Leviticus 2:14-16, purged from the chaff, dried, and beaten out.

Leviticus 23:11. He shall wave the sheaf — Or omer, rather. In the name of the whole congregation, it was lifted up toward heaven, as an acknowledgment to God for his goodness, and with prayer for his blessing upon all their ensuing harvest, which it, as it were, sanctified to them, and of which it gave them a comfortable use. For then we may eat our bread with joy, when God hath accepted our works. And thus should we always begin with God; begin our lives with him, begin every day with him, begin every work and business with him: Seek ye first the kingdom of God — Reader, dost thou do this? The morrow after the sabbath — After the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, which was a sabbath, or day of rest, as appears from Leviticus 23:7; or upon the sixteenth day of the month. And this was the first of those fifty days, in the close whereof was the feast of pentecost.

Leviticus 23:13. Two tenth-deals — Or parts, of an ephah; that is, two omers; whereas in other sacrifices of lambs there was but one tenth-deal prescribed. The reason of which disproportion may be this; that one of the tenth-deals was a necessary attendant upon the lamb, and the other was peculiar to this feast, and was an attendant upon the oblation of the corn, and was offered with it in thanksgiving to God for the fruits of the earth.