Chapter 23:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 Exodus Numbers
Leviticus 23
Directions concerning the sabbath, ver. 1-3. The passover,
ver. 4-8. The first fruits, ver. 9-14. The feast of pentecost, ver. 15-22. Of trumpets, ver. 23-25. Of atonement, ver. 26-32. Of tabernacles, ver. 33-44.
Verse 2. Ye shall proclaim - Cause to be proclaimed, by the priests.
Holy convocations - Days for your assembling together to my
worship in a special manner.
Verse 3. Ye shall do no work therein - So it runs in the general for the
sabbath day, and for the day of expiation, ver. 28, excluding all
works about earthly employments whether of profit or of pleasure;
but upon other feast days he forbids only servile works, as ver. 7,
21, 36, for surely this manifest difference in the expressions used
by the wife 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.
Verse 4. These are the feasts of the Lord - Or rather, the solemnities: (for
the day of atonement was a fast:) and so the word is used, Isaiah
xxxiii, 20, where Zion is called the city of our solemnities.
Verse 10. An omer - They did not offer this corn in the ear, or by a sheaf
or handful, but, as Josephus, 3. 10 affirms, and may be gathered
from chap. ii, 14, 15, 16, purged from the chaff, and dryed, and
beaten out.
Verse 11. He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord - In the name of the
whole congregation, which as it were sanctified to them the whole
harvest, and gave them a comfortable use of all the rest. 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. 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 ver. 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.
Verse 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
that of the corn, and was offered with it in thanksgiving to God
for the fruits of the earth.
Verse 14. Bread - Made of new wheat. Nor green ears - Which were
usual, not only for offerings to God, but also for man's food.
Verse 15. From the morrow - From the sixteenth day of the month, and
the second day of the feast of unleavened bread inclusively.
Verse 16. A new meal-offering - Of new corn made into loaves.
Verse 18. One bullock and two rams - In Num. xxviii, 11, 19, it is two
young bullocks and one ram. Either therefore it was left to their
liberty to chuse which they would offer, or one of the bullocks
there, and one of the rams here, were the peculiar sacrifices of the
feast day, and the other were attendants upon the two loaves,
which were the proper offering at this time. And the one may be
mentioned there, and the other here, to teach us, that the addition
of a new sacrifice did not destroy the former, but both were to be
offered, as the extraordinary sacrifices of every feast did not
hinder the oblation of the daily sacrifice.
Verse 19. One kid - In chap. iv, 14, the sin-offering for the sin of the
people is a bullock, but here a kid; &c. the reason of the
difference may be this, because that was for some particular sin of
the people, but this only in general for all their sins.
Verse 20. Wave them - Some part of them in the name of the whole; and
so for the two lambs, otherwise they had been too big and too
heavy, to be waved. For the priests - Who had to themselves not
only the breast and shoulder as in others, which belonged to the
priest, but also the rest which belonged to the offerer; because the
whole congregation being the offerer here, it could neither be
distributed to them all, nor given to some without offense to the
rest.
Verse 21. An holy convocation - A sabbath or day of rest, called
pentecost; which was instituted, partly in remembrance of the
consummation of their deliverance out of Egypt by bringing them
thence to the mount of God, or Sinai, as God had promised, and of
that admirable blessing of giving the law to them on the 50th day,
and forming them into a commonwealth under his own immediate
government; and partly in gratitude for the farther progress of
their harvest, as in the passover they offered a thank-offering to
God for the beginning of their harvest. The perfection of this
feast, was the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles on
this very day, in which the law of faith was given, fifty days after
Christ our passover was sacrificed for us. And on that day the
apostles, having themselves received the first-fruits of the spirit,
begat three thousand souls thro' the word of truth, as the first-
fruits of the Christian church.
Verse 22. When ye reap, thou - From the plural, ye, he comes to the
singular, thou, because he would press this duty upon every
person who hath an harvest to reap, that none might plead
exemption from it. And it is observable, that though the present
business is only concerning the worship of God, yet he makes a
kind of excursion to repeat a former law of providing for the poor,
to shew that our devotion to God is little esteemed by him if it be
not accompanied with acts of charity to men.
Verse 24. A sabbath - Solemnized with the blowing of trumpets by the
priests, not in a common way, as they did every first day of every
month, but in an extraordinary manner, not only in Jerusalem, but
in all the cities of Israel. They began to blow at sun-rise, and
continued blowing till sun-set. This seems to have been instituted,
1. To solemnize the beginning of the new year, whereof as to civil
matters and particularly as to the Jubilee, this was the first day;
concerning which it was fit the people should be admonished,
both to excite their thankfulness for God's blessings in the last
year, and to direct them in the management of their civil affairs.
2. To put a special honour upon this month. For as the seventh day
was the sabbath, and the seventh year was a sabbatical year, so
God would have the seventh month to be a kind of sabbatical
month, for the many sabbaths and solemn feasts which were
observed in this more than in any other month. And by this
sounding of the trumpets in its beginning, God would quicken and
prepare them for the following sabbaths, as well as that of
atonement and humiliation for their sins, as those of thanksgiving
for God's mercies.
Verse 27. Afflict your souls - With fasting, and bitter repentance for all,
especially their national sins, among which no doubt God would
have them remember their sin of the golden calf. For as God had
threatened to remember it in after times to punish them for it, so
there was great reason why they should remember it to humble
themselves for it.
Verse 28. Whatsoever soul - Either of the Jewish nation, or religion.
Hereby God would signify the absolute necessity which every
man had of repentance and forgiveness of sin, and the desperate
condition of all impenitent persons.
Verse 32. From even to even - The day of atonement began at the
evening of the ninth day, and continued till the evening of the
tenth day. Ye shall celebrate your sabbath - This particular
sabbath is called your sabbath, possibly to note the difference
between this and other sabbaths: for the weekly sabbath is oft
called the sabbath of the Lord. The Jews are supposed to begin
every day, and consequently their sabbaths, at the evening, in
remembrance of the creation, as Christians generally begin their
days and sabbaths with the morning in memory of Christ's
resurrection.
Verse 34. Of tabernacles - Of tents or booths or arbours. This feast was
appointed to remind them of that time when they had no other
dwellings in the wilderness, and to stir them up to bless God, as
well for the gracious protection then afforded them, as for the
more commodious habitations now given them; and to excite
them to gratitude for all the fruits of the year newly ended, which
were now compleatly brought in.
Verse 36. Ye shall offer - A several-offering each day. The eighth day -
Which though it was not one of the days of this feast strictly
taken. Yet in a larger sense it belonged to this feast, and is called
the great day of the feast, John vii, 37. And so indeed it was, as
for other reasons, so because, by their removal from the
tabernacles into fixed habitations, it represented that happy time
wherein their 40 years tedious march in the wilderness was ended
with their settlement in the land of Canaan, which it was most fit
they should acknowledge with such a solemn day of thanksgiving
as this was.
Verse 37. A sacrifice - A sin-offering, called by the general name, a
sacrifice, because it was designed for that which was the principal
end of all sacrifices, the expiation of sin.
Verse 38. Beside the sabbaths - The offerings of the weekly sabbaths.
God will not have any sabbath-sacrifice diminished because of the
addition of others, proper to any other feast. And it is here to be
noted, that though other festival days are sometimes called
sabbaths, yet these are here called the sabbaths of the Lord, in
way of contradistinction, to shew that this was more eminently
such than other feast-days. Your gifts - Which being here
distinguished from the free-will-offerings made to the Lord, may
note what they freely gave to the priests over and above their first-
fruits and tithes or other things which they were enjoined to give.
Verse 39. This is no addition of a new, but only a repetition of the
former injunction, with a more particular explication both of the
manner and reason of the feast. The fruit - Not the corn, which
was gathered long before, but that of the trees, as vines, olives,
and other fruit-trees: which compleated the harvest, whence this is
called the feast of in-gathering.
Verse 40. Of goodly trees - Namely, olive, myrtle and pine, mentioned,
Neh. viii, 15, 16, which were most plentiful there, and which
would best preserve their greenness. Thick trees - Fit for shade
and shelter. And willows - To mix with the other, and in some sort
bind them together. And as they made their booths of these
materials, so they carried some of these boughs in their hands, as
is affirmed by Jewish and other ancient writers.
Verse 42. In booths - Which were erected in their cities or towns, either
in their streets, or gardens, or the tops of their houses. These were
made flat, and therefore were fit for the use.
Verse 44. The feasts of the Lord - We have reason to be thankful, that
the feasts of the Lord, now are not so numerous, nor the
observance of them so burdensome and costly; but more spiritual
and significant, and surer and sweeter earnests of the everlasting
feast, at the last in-gathering, which we hope to be celebrating to
eternity.
Chapter 23:
| Darby
| Geneva
| Gill
| Jamieson Faussett Brown
| Matthew Henry
| Matthew Henry Concise
| Wesley
| Index
| Bible Gateway |
Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 Exodus Numbers
This version of Wesley's Notes on the Bible is a derivative of an electronic version, Copyright 1997, by Sulu D. Kelley. All rights reserved. Used by permission. It may not be modified or used commercially without permission of Wesleyan Heritage Publishing and Sulu Kelley. A special thanks to Mr. Kelley and Wesleyan Heritage Publishing for permission to create and post this version of Wesley's Notes on the Bible.
Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
Joshua
Judges
Ruth
1 Samuel
2 Samuel
1 Kings
2 Kings
1 Chronicles
2 Chronicles
Ezra
Nehemiah
Esther
Job
Psalm
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of Solomon
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Lamentations
Ezekiel
Daniel
Hosea
Joel
Amos
Obadiah
Jonah
Micah
Nahum
Habakkuk
Zephaniah
Haggai
Zechariah
Malachi
Matthew
Mark
Luke
John
Acts
Romans
1 Corinthians
2 Corinthians
Galatians
Ephesians
Philippians
Colossians
1 Thessalonians
2 Thessalonians
1 Timothy
2 Timothy
Titus
Philemon
Hebrews
James
1 Peter
2 Peter
1 John
2 John
3 John
Jude
Revelation
