Imamat 23:9-21

The Presentation of First Fruits

23:9 The Lord spoke to Moses: 23:10 “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, ¹  then you must bring the sheaf of the first portion of your harvest ²  to the priest, 23:11 and he must wave the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted for your benefit ³  – on the day after the Sabbath the priest is to wave it. ⁴  23:12 On the day you wave the sheaf you must also offer ⁵  a flawless yearling lamb ⁶  for a burnt offering to the Lord, 23:13 along with its grain offering, two tenths of an ephah of ⁷  choice wheat flour ⁸  mixed with olive oil, as a gift to the Lord, a soothing aroma, ⁹  and its drink offering, one fourth of a hin of wine. ¹⁰  23:14 You must not eat bread, roasted grain, or fresh grain until this very day, ¹¹  until you bring the offering of your God. This is a perpetual statute throughout your generations ¹²  in all the places where you live.

The Festival of Weeks

23:15 “‘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. ¹³  23:16 You must count fifty days – until the day after the seventh Sabbath – and then ¹⁴  you must present a new grain offering to the Lord. 23:17 From the places where you live you must bring two loaves of ¹⁵  bread for a wave offering; they must be made from two tenths of an ephah of fine wheat flour, baked with yeast, ¹⁶  as first fruits to the Lord. 23:18 Along with the loaves of bread, ¹⁷  you must also present seven flawless yearling lambs, ¹⁸  one young bull, ¹⁹  and two rams. ²⁰  They are to be a burnt offering to the Lord along with their grain offering ²¹  and drink offerings, a gift of a soothing aroma to the Lord. ²²  23:19 You must also offer ²³  one male goat ²⁴  for a sin offering and two yearling lambs for a peace offering sacrifice, 23:20 and the priest is to wave them – the two lambs ²⁵  – along with the bread of the first fruits, as a wave offering before the Lord; they will be holy to the Lord for the priest.

23:21 “‘On this very day you must proclaim an assembly; it is to be a holy assembly for you. ²⁶  You must not do any regular work. This is a perpetual statute in all the places where you live throughout your generations. ²⁷ 

[23:10]  ¹ tn Heb “and you harvest its harvest.”

[23:10]  ² tn Heb “the sheaf of the first of your harvest.”

[23:11]  ³ tn Heb “for your acceptance.”

[23:11]  ⁴ sn See Lev 7:30 for a note on the “waving” of a “wave offering.”

[23:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “And you shall make in the day of your waving the sheaf.”

[23:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “a flawless lamb, a son of its year”; KJV “of the first year”; NLT “a year-old male lamb.”

[23:13]  ⁷ sn See the note on Lev 5:11.

[23:13]  ⁸ sn See the note on Lev 2:1.

[23:13]  ⁹ sn See the note on Lev 1:9.

[23:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “wine, one fourth of the hin.” A pre-exilic hin is about 3.6 liters (= ca. 1 quart), so one fourth of a hin would be about one cup.

[23:14]  ¹¹ tn Heb “until the bone of this day.”

[23:14]  ¹² tn Heb “for your generations.”

[23:15]  ¹³ tn Heb “seven Sabbaths, they shall be complete.” The disjunctive accent under “Sabbaths” precludes the translation “seven complete Sabbaths” (as NASB, NIV; cf. NAB, NRSV, NLT). The text is somewhat awkward, which may explain why the LXX tradition is confused here, either adding “you shall count” again at the end of the verse, or leaving out “they shall be,” or keeping “they shall be” and adding “to you.”

[23:16]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and.” In the translation “then” is supplied to clarify the sequence.

[23:17]  ¹⁵ tc Smr, LXX, Syriac, Tg. Onq., and Tg. Ps.-J. insert the word חַלּוֹת (khallot, “loaves”; cf. Lev 2:4 and the note there). Even though “loaves” is not explicit in the MT, the number “two” suggests that these are discrete units, not just a measure of flour, so “loaves” should be assumed even in the MT.

[23:17]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “with leaven.” The noun “leaven” is traditional in English versions (cf. KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV), but “yeast” is more commonly used today.

[23:18]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “And you shall present on the bread.”

[23:18]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “seven flawless lambs, sons of a year.”

[23:18]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and one bull, a son of a herd.”

[23:18]  ²⁰ tc Smr and LXX add “flawless.”

[23:18]  ²¹ tn Heb “and their grain offering.”

[23:18]  ²² sn See the note on Lev 1:9.

[23:19]  ²³ tn Heb “And you shall make.”

[23:19]  ²⁴ tn Heb “a he-goat of goats.”

[23:20]  ²⁵ tn Smr and LXX have the Hebrew article on “lambs.” The syntax of this verse is difficult. The object of the verb (two lambs) is far removed from the verb itself (shall wave) in the MT, and the preposition עַל (’al, “upon”), rendered “along with” in this verse, is also added to the far removed subject (literally, “upon [the] two lambs”; see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 159). It is clear, however, that the two lambs and the loaves (along with their associated grain and drink offerings) constituted the “wave offering,” which served as the prebend “for the priest.” Burnt and sin offerings (vv. 18-19a) were not included in this (see Lev 7:11-14, 28-36).

[23:21]  ²⁶ tn Heb “And you shall proclaim [an assembly] in the bone of this day; a holy assembly it shall be to you” (see the remarks in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 160, and the remarks on the LXX rendering in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 367).

[23:21]  ²⁷ tn Heb “for your generations.”