Religious Festivals
1 The Lord told Moses 2 to say to the community of Israel:
I have chosen certain times for you to come together and worship me.
3 You have six days when you can do your work, but the seventh day of each week is holy because it belongs to me. No matter where you live, you must rest on the Sabbath and come together for worship. This law will never change.
Passover and the Festival of Thin Bread
(Numbers 28.16-25)The Lord said:
4-5 Passover is another time when you must come together to worship me, and it must be celebrated on the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month of each year.
6 The Festival of Thin Bread begins on the fifteenth day of that same month; it lasts seven days, and during this time you must honor me by eating bread made without yeast. 7 On the first day of this festival you must rest from your work and come together for worship. 8 Each day of this festival you must offer sacrifices. Then on the final day you must once again rest from your work and come together for worship.
Offering the First Part of the Harvest
9 The Lord told Moses 10 to say to the community of Israel:
After you enter the land I am giving you, the first bundle of wheat from each crop must be given to me. So bring it to a priest 11 on the day after the Sabbath. He will lift it up in dedication to me, and I will accept you. 12 You must also offer a sacrifice to please me. So bring the priest a one-year-old lamb that has nothing wrong with it 13 and two kilograms of your finest flour mixed with olive oil. Then he will place these on the bronze altar and send them up in smoke with a smell that pleases me. Together with these, you must bring a liter of wine as a drink offering. 14 I am your God, and I forbid you to eat any new grain or anything made from it until you have brought these offerings. This law will never change.
The Harvest Festival
(Numbers 28.26-31)The Lord said:
15 Seven weeks after you offer this bundle of grain, each family must bring another offering of new grain. 16 Do this exactly 50 days later, which is the day following the seventh Sabbath. 17 Bring two loaves of bread to be lifted up in dedication to me. Each loaf is to be made with yeast and with two kilograms of the finest flour from the first part of your harvest.
18 At this same time, the entire community of Israel must bring seven lambs that are a year old, a young bull, and two rams. These animals must have nothing wrong with them, and they must be offered as a sacrifice to please me. You must also offer the proper grain and wine sacrifices with each animal. 19 Offer a goat as a sacrifice for sin, and two rams a year old as a sacrifice to ask my blessing. 20 The priest will lift up the rams together with the bread in dedication to me. These offerings are holy and are my gift to the priest. 21 This is a day of celebration and worship, a time of rest from your work. You and your descendants must obey this law.
22 When you harvest your grain, always leave some of it standing around the edges of your fields and don't pick up what falls on the ground. Leave it for the poor and for those foreigners who live among you. I am the Lord your God!
The Festival of Trumpets
(Numbers 29.1-6)23 The Lord told Moses 24-25 to say to the people of Israel:
The first day of the seventh month must be a day of complete rest. Then at the sound of the trumpets, you will come together to worship and to offer sacrifices on the altar.
The Great Day of Forgiveness
(Numbers 29.7-11)26 The Lord God said to Moses:
27 The tenth day of the seventh month is the Great Day of Forgiveness. It is a solemn day of worship; everyone must go without eating to show sorrow for their sins, and sacrifices must be burned. 28 No one is to work on that day—it is the Great Day of Forgiveness, when sacrifices will be offered to me, so that I will forgive your sins. 29 I will destroy anyone who refuses to go without eating. 30-31 None of my people are ever to do any work on that day—not now or in the future. And I will wipe out those who do! 32 This is a time of complete rest just like the Sabbath, and everyone must go without eating from the evening of the ninth to the evening of the tenth.
The Festival of Shelters
(Numbers 29.12-40)33 The Lord told Moses 34 to say to the community of Israel:
Beginning on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, and continuing for seven days, everyone must celebrate the Festival of Shelters in honor of me. 35 No one is to do any work on the first day of the festival—it is a time when everyone must come together for worship. 36 For seven days, sacrifices must be offered on the altar. The eighth day is also to be a day of complete rest, as well as a time of offering sacrifices on the altar and of coming together for worship.
37 I have chosen these festivals as times when my people must come together for worship and when animals, grain, and wine are to be offered on the proper days. 38 These festivals must be celebrated in addition to the Sabbaths and the times when you offer special gifts or sacrifices to keep a promise or as a voluntary offering.
39 Remember to begin the Festival of Shelters on the fifteenth day of the seventh month after you have harvested your crops. Celebrate this festival for seven days in honor of me and don't do any work on the first day or on the day following the festival. 40 Pick the best fruit from your trees and cut leafy branches to use during the time of this joyous celebration in my honor. 41 I command you and all of your descendants to celebrate this festival during the seventh month of each year. 42 For seven days every Israelite must live in a shelter, 43 so future generations will know that I made their ancestors live in shelters when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
44 This is how Moses instructed the people of Israel to celebrate the Lord's festivals.
1 And the Lord spake vnto Moses, saying, 2 Speake vnto the children of Israel, and say vnto them, The feastes of ye Lord which yee shall call ye holie assemblies, euen these are my feasts. 3 Six daies shall worke be done, but in the seuenth day shalbe the Sabbath of rest, an holie conuocation: ye shall do no worke therein, it is the Sabbath of the Lord, in all your dwellings. 4 These are the feastes of the Lord, and holie conuocations, which yee shall proclaime in their seasons. 5 In the first moneth, and in the fourteenth day of the moneth at euening shalbe ye Passeouer of the Lord. 6 And on the fifteenth day of this moneth shalbe the feast of vnleauened bread vnto the Lord: seuen dayes ye shall eate vnleauened bread. 7 In the first day yee shall haue an holy conuocation: ye shall do no seruile worke therein. 8 Also ye shall offer sacrifice made by fire vnto the Lord seuen daies, and in the seuenth day shalbe an holie conuocation: ye shall do no seruile worke therein. 9 And the Lord spake vnto Moses, saying, 10 Speake vnto the children of Israel, and say vnto them, When ye be come into ye land which I giue vnto you, and reape the haruest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheafe of the first fruites of your haruest vnto the Priest, 11 And hee shall shake the sheafe before the Lord, that it may be acceptable for you: the morowe after the Sabbath, the Priest shall shake it. 12 And that day when yee shake the sheafe, shall yee prepare a lambe without blemish of a yeere olde, for a burnt offring vnto the Lord: 13 And the meate offring thereof shalbe two tenth deales of fine floure mingled with oyle, for a sacrifice made by fire vnto ye Lord of sweete sauour. and the drinke offring thereof the fourth part of an Hin of wine. 14 And ye shall eat neither bread nor parched corne, nor greene eares vntill the selfe same day that ye haue brought an offring vnto your God: this shalbe a lawe for euer in your generations and in all your dwellings. 15 Ye shall count also to you from the morowe after the Sabbath, euen from the day that yee shall bring the sheafe of the shake offring, seuen Sabbaths, they shalbe complete. 16 Vnto ye morow after the seuenth Sabbath shall ye nomber fiftie dayes: then yee shall bring a newe meate offring vnto the Lord. 17 Ye shall bring out of your habitations bread for the shake offring: they shalbe two loaues of two tenth deales of fine floure, which shalbe baken with leauen for first fruites vnto the Lord. 18 Also yee shall offer with the bread seuen lambes without blemish of one yeere olde, and a yong bullocke and two rams: they shalbe for a burnt offring vnto the Lord, with their meate offrings and their drinke offrings, for a sacrifice made by fire of a sweete sauour vnto the Lord. 19 Then ye shall prepare an hee goate for a sinne offring, and two lambes of one yeere olde for peace offrings. 20 And the Priest shall shake them to and from with the bread of the first fruits before the Lord, and with the two lambes: they shalbe holy to the Lord, for the Priest. 21 So ye shall proclayme the same day, that it may be an holie conuocation vnto you: ye shall doe no seruile worke therein: it shalbe an ordinance for euer in al your dwellinges, throughout your generations. 22 And when you reape the haruest of your land, thou shalt not rid cleane the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou make any aftergathering of thy haruest, but shalt leaue them vnto the poore and to the stranger: I am the Lord your God. 23 And the Lord spake vnto Moses, saying, 24 Speake vnto the children of Israel, and say, In the seuenth moneth, and in the first day of the moneth shall ye haue a Sabbath, for the remembrance of blowing the trumpets, an holy conuocation. 25 Ye shall do no seruile worke therein, but offer sacrifice made by fire vnto the Lord. 26 And the Lord spake vnto Moses, saying, 27 The tenth also of this seuenth moneth shalbe a day of reconciliation: it shalbe an holie conuocation vnto you, and yee shall humble your soules, and offer sacrifice made by fire vnto the Lord. 28 And ye shall doe no worke that same day: for it is a day of reconciliation, to make an atonement for you before the Lord your God. 29 For euery person that humbleth not himselfe that same day, shall euen be cut off from his people. 30 And euery person that shall doe any work that same day, the same person also will I destroy from among his people. 31 Ye shall do no maner worke therefore: this shalbe a law for euer in your generations, throughout all your dwellings. 32 This shalbe vnto you a Sabbath of rest, and ye shall humble your soules: in the ninth day of the moneth at euen, from euen to euen shall ye celebrate your Sabbath. 33 And the Lord spake vnto Moses, saying, 34 Speake vnto the children of Israel, and say, In the fifteenth day of this seueth moneth shalbe for seuen dayes the feast of Tabernacles vnto the Lord. 35 In the first day shalbe an holie conuocation: ye shall do no seruile worke therein. 36 Seuen daies ye shall offer sacrifice made by fire vnto the Lord, and in the eight day shalbe an holy conuocation vnto you, and ye shall offer sacrifices made by fire vnto the Lord: it is the solemne assemblie, yee shall doe no seruile worke therein. 37 These are the feastes of the Lord (which ye shall call holie conuocations) to offer sacrifice made by fire vnto the Lord, as burnt offring, and meate offring, sacrifice, and drinke offrings, euery one vpon his day, 38 Beside the Sabbaths of the Lord, and beside your giftes, and beside al your vowes, and beside all your free offrings, which ye shall giue vnto the Lord. 39 But in the fifteenth day of the seueth moneth, when ye haue gathered in the fruite of the land, ye shall keepe an holie feast vnto the Lord seuen daies: in the first day shalbe a Sabbath: likewise in the eight day shalbe a Sabbath. 40 And yee shall take you in the first day the fruite of goodly trees, branches of palme trees, and the boughes of thicke trees, and willowes of the brooke, and shall reioyce before the Lord your God seuen daies. 41 So ye shall keepe this feast vnto the Lord seuen daies in the yere, by a perpetuall ordinance through your generations: in the seuenth moneth shall you keepe it. 42 Ye shall dwell in boothes seuen daies: all that are Israelites borne, shall dwel in boothes, 43 That your posterity may know that I haue made the children of Israel to dwell in boothes, when I brought them out of the lande of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. 44 So Moses declared vnto the children of Israel the feastes of the Lord.