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Leviticus

About this book
Chapter 23

1 The Lord spoke to Moses: 2 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘These are the Lord’s appointed times which you must proclaim as holy assemblies—my appointed times.⁠ 3 “‘Six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there must be a Sabbath of complete rest, a holy assembly. You must not do any work; it is a Sabbath to the Lord in all the places where you live. 4 “‘These are the Lord’s appointed times, holy assemblies, which you must proclaim at their appointed time. 5 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight, is a Passover offering to the Lord.⁠ 6 Then on the fifteenth day of the same month will be the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; seven days you must eat unleavened bread. 7 On the first day there will be a holy assembly for you; you must not do any regular work. 8 You must present a gift to the Lord for seven days, and the seventh day is a holy assembly; you must not do any regular work.’” 9 The Lord spoke to Moses: 10 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘When you enter the land that I am about to give to you and you gather in its harvest, then you must bring the sheaf of the first portion of your harvest to the priest, 11 and he must wave the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted for your benefit—on the day after the Sabbath⁠ the priest is to wave it.⁠ 12 On the day you wave the sheaf you must also offer a flawless yearling lamb for a burnt offering to the Lord, 13 along with its grain offering, two-tenths of an ephah of choice wheat flour mixed with olive oil, as a gift to the Lord, a soothing aroma, and its drink offering, one-fourth of a hin of wine. 14 You must not eat bread, roasted grain, or fresh grain until this very day, until you bring the offering to your God. This is a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all the places where you live. 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. 16 You must count 50 days—until the day after the seventh Sabbath—and then you must present a new grain offering to the Lord. 17 From the places where you live you must bring two loaves of bread for a wave offering; they must be made from two-tenths of an ephah of fine wheat flour, baked with yeast, as firstfruits to the Lord. 18 Along with the loaves of bread, you must also present seven flawless yearling lambs, one young bull, and two rams. They are to be a burnt offering to the Lord along with their grain offering and drink offerings, a gift of a soothing aroma to the Lord. 19 You must also offer one male goat for a sin offering and two yearling lambs for a peace-offering sacrifice, 20 and the priest is to wave them—the two lambs—along with the bread of the firstfruits, as a wave offering before the Lord; they will be holy to the Lord for the priest. 21 “‘On this very day you must proclaim an assembly; it is to be a holy assembly for you. You must not do any regular work. This is a perpetual statute in all the places where you live throughout your generations. 22 When you gather in the harvest of your land, you must not completely harvest the corner of your field, and you must not gather up the gleanings of your harvest. You must leave them for the poor and the resident foreigner.⁠ I am the Lord your God.’” 23 The Lord spoke to Moses: 24 “Tell the Israelites, ‘In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you must have a complete rest, a memorial announced by loud horn blasts, a holy assembly.⁠ 25 You must not do any regular work, but you must present a gift to the Lord.’” 26 The Lord spoke to Moses: 27 “The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. It is to be a holy assembly for you, and you must humble yourselves and present a gift to the Lord. 28 You must not do any work on this particular day, because it is a day of atonement to make atonement for yourselves before the Lord your God. 29 Indeed, any person who does not behave with humility on this particular day will be cut off from his people. 30 As for any person who does any work on this particular day, I will exterminate that person from the midst of his people—⁠ 31 you must not do any work! This is a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all the places where you live. 32 It is a Sabbath of complete rest for you, and you must humble yourselves on the ninth day of the month in the evening, from evening until evening you must observe your Sabbath.” 33 The Lord spoke to Moses: 34 “Tell the Israelites, ‘On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the Feast of Shelters for seven days to the Lord.⁠ 35 On the first day is a holy assembly; you must do no regular work. 36 For seven days you must present a gift to the Lord. On the eighth day there is to be a holy assembly for you, and you must present a gift to the Lord. It is a solemn assembly day; you must not do any regular work. 37 “‘These are the appointed times of the Lord that you must proclaim as holy assemblies to present a gift to the Lord—burnt offering, grain offering, sacrifice, and drink offerings, each day according to its regulation, 38 besides the Sabbaths of the Lord and all your gifts, votive offerings, and freewill offerings which you must give to the Lord. 39 “‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you gather in the produce of the land, you must celebrate a pilgrim festival of the Lord for seven days. On the first day is a complete rest and on the eighth day is complete rest. 40 On the first day you must take for yourselves branches from majestic trees—palm branches, branches of leafy trees, and willows of the brook—and you must rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. 41 You must celebrate it as a pilgrim festival to the Lord for seven days in the year. This is a perpetual statute throughout your generations;⁠ you must celebrate it in the seventh month. 42 You must live in temporary shelters for seven days; every native citizen in Israel must live in shelters,⁠ 43 so that your future generations may know that I made the Israelites live in shelters⁠ when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.’” 44 So Moses spoke to the Israelites about the appointed times of the Lord.

Texts in conversation

Compare Leviticus 23:42 and Nehemiah 8:15

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Leviticus commands keeping the festival of booths by living in shelters to remember the exodus. Nehemiah describes its revival but adds instructions not found in the Torah, like gathering specific branches, while presenting them as Torah commands.

Passages

Leviticus 23:42

Hebrew Bible
40 On the first day you must take for yourselves branches from majestic trees—palm branches, branches of leafy trees, and willows of the brook—and you must rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. 41 You must celebrate it as a pilgrim festival to the Lord for seven days in the year. This is a perpetual statute throughout your generations; you must celebrate it in the seventh month. 42 You must live in temporary shelters for seven days; every native citizen in Israel must live in shelters, 43 so that your future generations may know that I made the Israelites live in shelters when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.’” 44 So Moses spoke to the Israelites about the appointed times of the Lord.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Leviticus

Nehemiah 8:15

Hebrew Bible
13 On the second day of the month the family leaders met with Ezra the scribe, together with all the people, the priests, and the Levites, to consider the words of the law. 14 They discovered written in the law that the Lord had commanded through Moses that the Israelites should live in temporary shelters during the festival of the seventh month, 15 and that they should make a proclamation and disseminate this message in all their cities and in Jerusalem: “Go to the hill country and bring back olive branches and branches of wild olive trees, myrtle trees, date palms, and other leafy trees to construct temporary shelters, as it is written.” 16 So the people went out and brought these things back and constructed temporary shelters for themselves, each on his roof and in his courtyard and in the courtyards of the temple of God and in the plaza of the Water Gate and the plaza of the Ephraim Gate. 17 So all the assembly which had returned from the exile constructed temporary shelters and lived in them. The Israelites had not done so from the days of Joshua son of Nun until that day. Everyone experienced very great joy.
400–301 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Nehemiah

References

"... In Nehemiah 8:8, in the first episode, it is stated that the Levites read from the book of Elohim ‘with interpretation. They gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading’ ... Reading out the text explicitly to make its traditional sense readily comprehensible and expounding the recited text, lead to the study of the words of the law on the next day (Nehemiah 8:13-18). They found it written in the law that the people of Israel should live in booths during the festival of the seventh month. In this process the Levitical instructors did not only clarify the plain sense of the laws stated in Leviticus 23:39-42, but also made a harmonistic blend of this Levitical text with Deuteronomy 16:13-15. Engaged in legal exegesis the citation in Nehemiah 8:14 (to dwell in booths) is expounded in the proclamation of Nehemiah 8:15 to build booths out of local tree species. They used etymological exegesis of the noun ‘booths’ to interpret the Torah command to dwell in booths as entailing that one must live in a branched shelter during the festival. What is striking here for Fishbane is that the cited text that states that they are to dwell (8:14) in booths and the interpreted implementation that they are to build (8:15) booths are described in these verses as ‘written’ in the Torah. The interpreters apparently felt their exegesis to be implied in the written Scriptural passage read on the second day of the seventh month. It was in this way that they ‘made (exegetical) sense’ of it. In Nehemiah 8:13-16, in the second episode, ‘formal lemmatic exegesis’ is found. In this lectionary-plus-interpretative mode the text is read and then only a portion of it held to be necessary is explained. It is not an explanation or reinterpretation of the entire passage, but only of the section that requires exegetical comment. This then becomes part of the text. Fishbane refers to this procedure as ‘an atomization of its content’ ..."
Pieter M. Venter, “Canon, Intertextuality and History in Nehemiah 7:72b–10:40,” HvTSt 65.1 (2009): 1–8.
"... The list of holidays appears in this chapter in verses 4-36 and concludes that “These are YHWH’s appointed times”. But then this passage (verses 39-43) comes as a strange addition, going back to discussing the Festival of Booths, which had already been covered in the list (verses 33-36) ... This curious addition is explained by a passage in the book of Nehemiah (8:13-18) ... it has a notation of bringing species of plants similar to those in the passage here in Leviticus. And the passage in Nehemiah states that this commandment had never been followed in Israel’s history in the land. This indicates that the commandment about booths was not established together with the other laws of the holidays and that this passage was composed separately and then added to the list ..."
Richard Elliott Friedman, The Bible with Sources Revealed: A New View into the Five Books of Moses (New York: HarperOne, 2005), 228–229.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Leviticus 23:42 and Nehemiah 8:15

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