The Bible

 

Leviticus 23

Study

   

1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts.

3 Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings.

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

5 In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD's passover.

6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.

7 In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.

8 But ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD seven days: in the seventh day is an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.

9 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

10 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest:

11 And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.

12 And ye shall offer that day when ye wave the sheaf an he lamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt offering unto the LORD.

13 And the meat offering thereof shall be two tenth deals of fine flour mingled with oil, an offering made by fire unto the LORD for a sweet savour: and the drink offering thereof shall be of wine, the fourth part of an hin.

14 And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the selfsame day that ye have brought an offering unto your God: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.

15 And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete:

16 Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD.

17 Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the LORD.

18 And ye shall offer with the bread seven lambs without blemish of the first year, and one young bullock, and two rams: they shall be for a burnt offering unto the LORD, with their meat offering, and their drink offerings, even an offering made by fire, of sweet savour unto the LORD.

19 Then ye shall sacrifice one kid of the goats for a sin offering, and two lambs of the first year for a sacrifice of peace offerings.

20 And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits for a wave offering before the LORD, with the two lambs: they shall be holy to the LORD for the priest.

21 And ye shall proclaim on the selfsame day, that it may be an holy convocation unto you: ye shall do no servile work therein: it shall be a statute for ever in all your dwellings throughout your generations.

22 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the LORD your God.

23 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

24 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation.

25 Ye shall do no servile work therein: but ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD.

26 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

27 Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD.

28 And ye shall do no work in that same day: for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the LORD your God.

29 For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people.

30 And whatsoever soul it be that doeth any work in that same day, the same soul will I destroy from among his people.

31 Ye shall do no manner of work: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.

32 It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath.

33 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

34 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the LORD.

35 On the first day shall be an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.

36 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; and ye shall do no servile work therein.

37 These are the 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 meat offering, a sacrifice, and drink offerings, every thing upon his day:

38 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 Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the LORD seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath.

40 And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days.

41 And ye shall keep it a feast unto the LORD seven days in the year. It shall be a statute for ever in your generations: ye shall celebrate it in the seventh month.

42 Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths:

43 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.

44 And Moses declared unto the children of Israel the feasts of the LORD.

   

Commentary

 

Explanation of Leviticus 23

By Henry MacLagan

On the successive states of the regenerate life in general, involving states of conflict against evil succeeded by states of rest.

The first subordinate state is one of deliverance from evil, involving the interior reception of truth conjoined with good, purification, and the arrangement of truths under good. Verses 4-8.

The second subordinate state is that of the implantation of truth in good. Verses 9-22.

Concerning revelation in consequence. Verses 23-25.

Also concerning the plenary removal of evil in consequence. Verses 26-32.

The third subordinate state is that of the implantation of good, involving gladness and joy of heart in all completeness and holiness, with states of peace and rest from the lowest principles to the highest, which are perpetually renewed. Verses 33-34.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #2341

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

2341. 'And he made a feast for them' means dwelling together. This is clear from the meaning of 'a feast'. 'Feasts' are mentioned in various places in the Word, and in those places they mean in the internal sense dwelling together, as in Jeremiah,

The word of Jehovah came to him, You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and to drink. Jeremiah 16:8.

In that chapter the prophet is told many things by which he was to represent the necessity for good to have no connection with evil, nor truth to have any with falsity. Among other things he was required 'not to go into the house of feasting', which meant that good and truth were not to dwell together with evil and falsity.

[2] In Isaiah,

Jehovah Zebaoth will make on this mountain a feast of fat things for all peoples, a feast of sweet wines, of fat things full of marrow, of wines well-refined. Isaiah 25:6.

Here 'mountain' stands for love to the Lord, 795, 1430. People with whom that love exists dwell together with the Lord in good and truth, which are meant by 'a feast'. 'Fat things' and those 'full of marrow' are goods, 353, 'sweet and well-refined wines' are truths deriving from goods, 1071.

[3] The feasts made from the consecrated elements when sacrifices were offered represented in the Jewish Church nothing else than the Lord's dwelling together with man within the holy things of love meant by sacrifices, 2187. The same was at a later time meant by the Holy Supper, which the Primitive Church called a feast.

[4] Chapter 21 below refers to Abraham making a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned, in verse 8. This feast represented and therefore meant the dwelling together and initial conjunction of the Lord's Divine itself with His Human Rational. 'Feasts' have the same meaning in the internal sense in other places, as may also be deduced from the fact that feasts are occasions involving a number of people who are all simultaneously filled with love and charity, who are opening their minds to one another, and who are enjoying together the glad feelings that are the expressions of love and charity.

  
/ 10837  
  

Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.