The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible
The Feast of Weeks
Leviticus 23:15–22 — The Feast of Weeks. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.
15From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, you are to count off seven full weeks.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
mim·mā·ḥo·raṯ haš·šab·bāṯ mî·yō·wm hă·ḇî·’ă·ḵem ’eṯ- ‘ō·mer hat·tə·nū·p̄āh ū·sə·p̄ar·tem lā·ḵem še·ḇa‘ tə·mî·mōṯ tih·ye·nāh šab·bā·ṯō·wṯ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
From-the-morrow-after the-Sabbath, from-the-day you-brought the sheaf of-the-wave-offering, you-shall-count for-yourselves seven complete weeks shall-they-be.
Where the English smooths the original
Seven sabbaths shall be complete. —Better, seven weeks shall be complete. That is, seven entire weeks, making forty-nine days.Ellicott corrects the rendering and gives the arithmetic: seven entire weeks = forty-nine days.
is evident from the predicate תּמימת, "complete," which would be quite unsuitable if Sabbath-days were intended, as a long period might be reckoned by half weeks instead of whole, but certainly not by half Sabbath-days.Keil's grammatical argument that the count is by weeks, hinging on tâmîym, "complete" — you cannot reckon by half a Sabbath-day.
seven sabbaths shall be complete; or seven weeks, that is, forty nine days; and hence, Jarchi says, we learn that the count began from the evening, or otherwise the weeks would not be complete; and Gersom thinks the day in which the sheaf was offered is included in the days counted; for the count began from the day after the first of the passover, and lo, seven days are seven weeks of days, which make forty nine days.
the Jews to the present day begin to count the forty-nine days at the conclusion of the evening service on the second day of Passover, and pronounce the following blessing every evening of the forty-nine days: “Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who hast sanctified us with thy commandments, and hast enjoined us to count the omer. This is the first day of the omer.Ellicott on the living practice: the synagogue's nightly counting of the omer, blessing and all.
That is, the seventh day after the first sabbath of the Passover.The Geneva gloss takes "the sabbath" as the festival rest-day of Passover week.
16You shall count off fifty days until the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the LORD.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
tis·pə·rū ḥă·miš·šîm yō·wm ‘aḏ mim·mā·ḥo·raṯ haš·šə·ḇî·‘iṯ haš·šab·bāṯ wə·hiq·raḇ·tem ḥă·ḏā·šāh min·ḥāh Yah·weh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Until the-morrow-after the-seventh Sabbath you-shall-count fifty days, and-you-shall-present an-offering of-new [grain] to-Yahweh.
Where the English smooths the original
That is, the day after the seven complete weeks, or the fiftieth day. Hence its name, “Pentecost, or fiftieth-day” feast in the New Testament ( Acts 2:1 ; Acts 20:16 ; 1Corinthians 16:8 ), and “feast of weeks” in the Old Testament ( Exodus 34:12 ; Deuteronomy 16:10 ; Deuteronomy 16:16 ; 2Chronicles 8:13 ).Ellicott collects the feast's many names across both Testaments — Pentecost in the NT, "feast of weeks" in the OT.
The forty-ninth day after the presentation of the first-fruits, or the fiftieth, including it, was the feast of Pentecost.JFB notes the inclusive-vs-exclusive reckoning that yields the fiftieth day.
The word "Pentecost" used in the heading of this chapter in English Bibles is found only in the Apocrypha and the New Testament, Tobit 2:1; 2 Macc. 12:32; Acts 2:1 ; Acts 20:16 ; 1 Corinthians 16:8 .Barnes traces the term "Pentecost" itself: a later, Greek name absent from the Hebrew Bible.
and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the Lord; that is, of new corn, as the Targum of Jonathan and Jarchi explain it, and this was of wheat; for it was the offering for the wheat harvest, which was offered on the fiftieth day from the offering of the sheaf or omer of the barley harvest.Gill: the "new" offering is wheat — the second harvest's firstfruit, fifty days after the barley omer.
17Bring two loaves of bread from your dwellings as a wave offering, each made from two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour, baked with leaven, as the firstfruits to the LORD.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
tā·ḇî’·’ū šə·ta·yim le·ḥem mim·mō·wō·šə·ḇō·ṯê·ḵem tə·nū·p̄āh šə·nê ‘eś·rō·nîm sō·leṯ tih·ye·nāh tê·’ā·p̄e·nāh ḥā·mêṣ bik·kū·rîm Yah·weh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
From-your-dwellings you-shall-bring two loaves [as] a-wave-offering — two-tenths of-fine-flour shall-they-be, leavened shall-they-be-baked — [as] firstfruits to-Yahweh.
Where the English smooths the original
The loaves appear to be distinctively called "the first fruits for Yahweh," and references to them are found in Romans 11:16 ; 1 Corinthians 15:20 , 1 Corinthians 15:23 ; James 1:18 ; Revelation 14:4 , etc. As these loaves offered before Yahweh sanctified the harvest of the year, so has "Christ the firstfruits" sanctified the Church, which, in its union with Him as the firstfruits, becomes also the Sanctifier of the world. See the services for Whitsuntide.Barnes draws the firstfruits-loaves straight into the NT: "Christ the firstfruits" sanctifying the Church.
Baken with leaven — Contrary to the established law in other bread or flower offerings, Leviticus 2:11-12 . The reason may be, that these first-fruits were a symbol of the leavened bread which the Israelites commonly used.Benson on the leaven: a deliberate departure, symbolizing the people's ordinary bread.
As the wave-sheaf gave the signal for the commencement, the two loaves solemnized the termination of the harvest season. They were the first-fruits of that season, being offered unto the Lord by the priest in name of the whole nation. (See Ex 34:22). The loaves used at the Passover were unleavened; those presented at Pentecost were leavened—a difference which is thus accounted for, that the one was a memorial of the bread hastily prepared at their departure, while the other was a tribute of gratitude to God for their daily food, which was leavened.JFB frames the two loaves as the harvest's bookend, and explains the leaven as a tribute of daily food.
The injunction "out of your habitations" is not to be understood, as Calvin and others suppose, as signifying that every householder was to present two such loaves; it simply expresses the idea, that they were to be loaves made for the daily food of a household, and not prepared expressly for holy purposes.Keil's reading of "out of your habitations": ordinary household bread, against Calvin.
18Along with the bread you are to present seven unblemished male lambs a year old, one young bull, and two rams. They will be a burnt offering to the LORD, together with their grain offerings and drink offerings—a food offering, a pleasing aroma to the LORD.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
‘al- hal·le·ḥem wə·hiq·raḇ·tem šiḇ·‘aṯ tə·mî·mim kə·ḇā·śîm bə·nê šā·nāh ’e·ḥāḏ ū·p̄ar ben- bā·qār šə·nā·yim wə·’ê·lim yih·yū ‘ō·lāh Yah·weh ū·min·ḥā·ṯām wə·nis·kê·hem ’iš·šêh nî·ḥō·aḥ rê·aḥ- Yah·weh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-you-shall-present with the-bread seven unblemished lambs sons-of-a-year, and-one bull son-of-the-herd, and-two rams — they-shall-be a-burnt-offering to-Yahweh, with-their-grain-offerings and-their-drink-offerings, a-fire-offering of-a-pleasing aroma to-Yahweh.
Where the English smooths the original
The additional sacrifices for the feast day consisted of two bullocks, one ram, and seven lambs, which were a burnt offering, and of a goat as a sin offering ( Numbers 28:26-27 ; Numbers 28:30 ). Besides these, however, the new meat offering of the two loaves mentioned in the text before us is to be brought, and with it are to be offered one bullock, two rams, and seven lambs, all for burnt offerings.Ellicott distinguishes two sets of sacrifices — the festal offerings of Numbers 28 and the loaf-accompanying offerings here.
In Numbers 28:11 ; Numbers 28:19 , it is two young bullocks and one ram. Either therefore it was left to their liberty to choose 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 others 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.Benson works the numerical tension with Numbers, proposing the two lists are distinct offerings, both kept.
More properly, seven sheep of a year old (to be distinguished from the lamb in Leviticus 23:12 ), and a young bull which might be from one to three years old.Barnes refines the animals: "sheep" of a year, and a young bull up to three years.
In addition to the loaves, they were to offer seven yearling lambs, one young bullock, and two rams, as burnt-offerings, together with their (the appropriate) meat and drink-offerings, one he-goat as a sin-offering, and two yearling lambs as peace-offerings.Keil's compact inventory of the full Pentecost offering — burnt, sin, and peace offerings together.
Seeing that in Leviticus one young bullock and two rams are commanded, and in Numbers "two young bullocks and one ram," it is reasonable to suppose that a copyist's error has found its way into one or the other text.A third option for the Numbers 28 discrepancy, distinct from Benson's and Ellicott's harmonizations: the Pulpit Commentary judges it a scribal slip in one text or the other — an honest minority view, from its running note on the feast (Lev 23:15–21).
19You shall also prepare one male goat as a sin offering and two male lambs a year old as a peace offering.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wa·‘ă·śî·ṯem ’e·ḥāḏ śə·‘îr- ‘iz·zîm lə·ḥaṭ·ṭāṯ ū·šə·nê ḵə·ḇā·śîm bə·nê šā·nāh šə·lā·mîm lə·ze·ḇaḥ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-you-shall-prepare one he-goat of-the-goats for-a-sin-offering, and-two lambs sons-of-a-year for-a-sacrifice of-peace-offerings.
Where the English smooths the original
Which was for the sin of the whole congregation, typical of Christ, whose soul was made an offering for sin; in virtue of which all other sacrifices become acceptable to God, and believers enjoy the fruits and blessings of divine grace:Gill reads the single congregational sin-offering goat as a type of Christ.
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. If it be said, then this should have been the better sacrifice, as being for far more, and possibly greater, offences; it may be replied, that this is not the only instance wherein the greater sins are expiated by smaller sacrifices, and the smaller sins by greater sacrifices, which was to instruct us, that sins were not expiated by the sacrifices for any worth in them, but only in respect of Christ, and that, though all sins are not equal, yet they are all expiated by one and the same price, even by the blood of Christ.Poole on why a kid here vs. a bullock in Leviticus 4 — and the deeper point that no sacrifice has worth except "in respect of Christ."
Properly, a shaggy he-goat Leviticus 4:23 and two sheep of a year old.Barnes on the animals' names: the "shaggy" goat and the yearling sheep.
The one before us speaks of the sacrifices which are to accompany the wave loaves, whilst the order in Numbers refers to the properly appointed sacrifices for the festival. Those prescribed in Numbers were offered in the wilderness, whilst those prescribed here were only to be offered when the Israelites entered the Promised Land.Ellicott distinguishes the loaf-sacrifices (here) from the festival's standing sacrifices (Numbers 28).
20The priest is to wave the lambs as a wave offering before the LORD, together with the bread of the firstfruits. The bread and the two lambs shall be holy to the LORD for the priest.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
hak·kō·hên wə·hê·nîp̄ ’ō·ṯām tə·nū·p̄āh lip̄·nê Yah·weh ‘al le·ḥem hab·bik·kū·rîm ‘al- šə·nê kə·ḇā·śîm yih·yū qō·ḏeš Yah·weh lak·kō·hên
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-the-priest shall-wave them [as] a-wave-offering before Yahweh, with the-bread of-the-firstfruits; with the-two lambs they-shall-be holy to-Yahweh for-the-priest.
Where the English smooths the original
The two lambs were brought into the Temple, and waved together or separately by the priest while yet alive. Whereupon they were slain, and the priest took the breast and shoulder of each one (see Leviticus 7:30-32 ), laid them down by the side of the two loaves, put both his hands under them, and waved them all together or separately towards the east side forwards and backwards, up and down.Ellicott reconstructs the Second-Temple wave-rite in physical detail — living lambs and loaves moved every direction.
When living creatures were "waved" Leviticus 7:30 before Yahweh, it is said that they were led to and fro before the tabernacle according to an established form.Barnes on the mechanics of "waving" a live animal — led to and fro by a fixed rite.
being waved this way and that way, upwards and downwards, and towards the several quarters of the world, showing that the fruits of the earth were owing to the providential goodness of God everywhere:Gill reads the four-directional waving as confessing God's providence over all the earth.
The sin-offering was to excite the feeling and consciousness of sin on the part of the congregation of Israel, that whilst eating their daily leavened bread they might not serve the leaven of their old nature, but seek and implore from the Lord their God the forgiveness and cleansing away of their sin.Keil's theology of the day's offerings: even amid harvest-thanksgiving, the leavened bread and sin-offering keep sin in view.
The twentieth verse, which is somewhat obscure in the Authorized Version, should be punctuated as follows. And the priest shall wave them (the two lambs) with the bread of the firstfruits (the two loaves) for a wave offering before the Lord; with the two lambs they (the loaves) shall be holy to the Lord for the priest.The Pulpit Commentary untangles this notoriously obscure verse: it is the lambs that are waved with the loaves, and the loaves (not the lambs) that the closing clause makes "holy… for the priest." Drawn from the Pulpit's running note on the whole feast (Lev 23:15–21).
21On that same day you are to proclaim a sacred assembly, and you must not do any regular work. This is to be a permanent statute wherever you live for the generations to come.
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
haz·zeh bə·‘e·ṣem hay·yō·wm ū·qə·rā·ṯem yih·yeh qō·ḏeš miq·rā- lā·ḵem lō ṯa·‘ă·śū kāl- mə·le·ḵeṯ ‘ă·ḇō·ḏāh ‘ō·w·lām ḥuq·qaṯ bə·ḵāl mō·wō·šə·ḇō·ṯê·ḵem lə·ḏō·rō·ṯê·ḵem
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-you-shall-proclaim on this same day — a-holy convocation it-shall-be for-you; no regular work shall-you-do — a-perpetual statute in-all-your-dwellings throughout-your-generations.
Where the English smooths the original
. And ye shall proclaim on the selfsame day. —This proclamation was made to the people by the priest with trumpet blasts.Ellicott on the manner of proclamation: trumpet-blasts summoning the people.
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 at that time, and forming them into a commonwealth under his own immediate government; and partly in gratitude for the further progress of their harvest, as in the passover they offered a thank-offering to God for the beginning of their harvest.Poole gives the feast's double meaning — Sinai-deliverance commemorated, harvest gratitude expressed.
and it is remarkable, that on this same day the Word of the Lord went out of Zion, and the law or doctrine of the Lord, even the everlasting Gospel, went out of Jerusalem, published by the apostles of Christ to the people of all nations, Acts 2:14 ;Gill draws the line from Pentecost-the-feast to Pentecost-the-outpouring (Acts 2).
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 through the word of truth, as the first-fruits of the Christian Church.Benson: the feast's "perfection" is Acts 2 — the Spirit poured out, three thousand the firstfruits of the Church.
22When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap all the way to the edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the foreign resident. I am the LORD your God.’”
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Hebrew — tap a word ↓
ū·ḇə·quṣ·rə·ḵem ’eṯ- qə·ṣîr ’ar·ṣə·ḵem lō- bə·quṣ·re·ḵā ṯə·ḵal·leh pə·’aṯ śā·ḏə·ḵā ṯə·laq·qêṭ wə·le·qeṭ qə·ṣî·rə·ḵā lō ta·‘ă·zōḇ ’ō·ṯām le·‘ā·nî wə·lag·gêr ’ă·nî Yah·weh ’ĕ·lō·hê·ḵem
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And-when-you-reap the-harvest of-your-land, you-shall-not finish [reaping] the-edge of-your-field in-your-reaping, and-the-gleaning of-your-harvest you-shall-not gather; for-the-poor and-for-the-foreigner you-shall-leave them. I am Yahweh your God.
Where the English smooths the original
In the midst of rejoicing and thankfulness to God for a bountiful harvest, the Lawgiver again inculcates the duty of remembering the poor, and reminds the proprietors of the land that the needy have legally a share in the produce, as has been enacted in Leviticus 19:9 .Ellicott: in the heart of harvest-thanksgiving, the poor's legal share is re-asserted.
he makes a kind of excursion to repeat a former law of providing for the poor, to show that our devotion to God is little esteemed by him if it be not accompanied with acts of charity to men.Benson states the unit's moral hinge: worship without mercy to men is little esteemed by God.
Probably inserted here from Leviticus 19:9 (also H), with which it is verbally identical.Cambridge names the verbal identity with Leviticus 19:9 — the recorded basis for the thread below.
Those who are truly sensible of the mercy they received from God, will show mercy to the poor without grudging.Henry's plain application across the whole unit: received mercy makes merciful givers.
The legislator pauses in his enunciation of the festivals to add the rule of charity, already laid down in the nineteenth chapter, as to leaving the gleanings unto the poor, and to the stranger.The Pulpit Commentary names the literary move precisely: a deliberate pause in the festal calendar to re-insert the charity-rule of Leviticus 19.
The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.
AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.
The unit is, at heart, an instruction to count. The verb sâphar (H5608) — "to score with a mark as a tally" — governs both opening verses: count seven complete weeks (v. 15), count fifty days (v. 16). Ellicott corrects the old rendering and gives the arithmetic plainly: "seven weeks shall be complete… seven entire weeks, making forty-nine days." Keil presses the grammar one step further, resting his whole reading on a single word: the weeks are tâmîm, "complete," which "would be quite unsuitable if Sabbath-days were intended, as a long period might be reckoned by half weeks instead of whole, but certainly not by half Sabbath-days." The fiftieth day is what gives the feast its Greek name; Barnes notes that "Pentecost" itself "is found only in the Apocrypha and the New Testament," while the Hebrew Bible calls it "the feast of weeks" and "the day of the first fruits." The count is not abstract: Ellicott records that "the Jews to the present day begin to count the forty-nine days," blessing God each evening — "This is the first day of the omer."
At the count's end stand two loaves, and they break a standing law. Ordinary meal-offerings were unleavened (Leviticus 2:11); these are commanded ḥāmēṣ (H2557), "leavened." Benson flags the oddity precisely — "Baken with leaven — Contrary to the established law in other bread or flower offerings" — and reads it as a sign that "these first-fruits were a symbol of the leavened bread which the Israelites commonly used." JFB frames the loaves as the harvest's bookend: "As the wave-sheaf gave the signal for the commencement, the two loaves solemnized the termination of the harvest season," the leaven "a tribute of gratitude to God for their daily food." Keil settles the puzzling phrase "out of your habitations": not that every householder brought loaves, but that they were household bread, "not prepared expressly for holy purposes." The word for these loaves, bikkûrîm (H1061, "firstfruits"), is the seam to the New Testament — Barnes traces it straight to "Christ the firstfruits" sanctifying the Church (1 Corinthians 15:20).
The loaves do not come alone. With them rise a burnt-offering (‘ōlāh, "that which ascends"), a sin-offering goat, and two peace-offering lambs. The lists in Leviticus and Numbers 28 differ — one bull and two rams here, two bulls and one ram there — and the voices labor honestly over it: Benson proposes the two are distinct offerings both retained, while Ellicott distinguishes "the sacrifices which are to accompany the wave loaves" from "the properly appointed sacrifices for the festival." Keil reads the whole array theologically: "The sin-offering was to excite the feeling and consciousness of sin on the part of the congregation of Israel, that whilst eating their daily leavened bread they might not serve the leaven of their old nature." The priest waves the lambs and loaves nûp (H5130) — and Gill hears in the four-directional motion a confession that "the fruits of the earth were owing to the providential goodness of God everywhere." What is waved becomes qōdeš, holy, and passes to the priest.
The day is proclaimed (qârâ, H7121) a miqrā-qōdesh, a "holy convocation" — Ellicott notes the proclamation came "by the priest with trumpet blasts" — and laborious work ceases. Poole gathers the feast's double freight: instituted "partly in remembrance of the consummation of their deliverance out of Egypt" and "partly in gratitude for the further progress of their harvest." Then, abruptly, the calendar pauses for a law of mercy. Benson catches why: the Lawgiver "makes a kind of excursion to repeat a former law of providing for the poor, to show that our devotion to God is little esteemed by him if it be not accompanied with acts of charity to men." Verse 22 is, as Cambridge observes, "verbally identical" with Leviticus 19:9 — the field-corner (pêʼâh) and the gleaning (leqeṭ, a word found in only two verses of Scripture) belong by law to the poor and the sojourner. Harvest-thanksgiving without harvest-charity is, in this text, no thanksgiving at all.
Read under the rule that Scripture is its own best interpreter, three things stand out across this unit — offered as a reading to be tested, not a verdict to be trusted:
The feast is measured, not merely felt. Pentecost is the one festival Israel reaches by counting — fifty days tallied from a sheaf. Its date is not fixed to a number on a calendar but derived from another offering, binding the close of harvest to its beginning. Worship here is deliberate, dated, dependent: the firstfruits of barley and the firstfruits of wheat are held together by an act of patient reckoning.
The leaven is the tell. Every other meal-offering is unleavened; these loaves alone are commanded leavened, and they are never burned on the altar (v. 20) — they are waved, then eaten. The text is offering God the people's ordinary daily bread, fermented and all. Benson and JFB both see it: this is the staple of the common table lifted up in thanks. The most everyday thing becomes the holiest thing, precisely as it is.
The poor are written into the liturgy. The unit does not end with the priest's portion; it ends in the field, with the corner left unreaped for the ʻānî and the gêr. That a charity-law is stitched into a feast-calendar — and sealed "I am the LORD your God" — says that thanksgiving to God and justice to the neighbor are one fabric, not two. The harvest that is brought near to God is the same harvest from which a corner is left for the stranger.
Pentecost is the feast you have to count your way to — fifty days from a waved sheaf of barley to a loaf of leavened wheat — and the New Testament lets the count keep running, from that loaf to the upper room. (⚙ a fallible reading, not Scripture.)
AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.
The charity-law tucked into the feast-calendar is lifted, almost word for word, from Leviticus 19:9. Cambridge states it flatly — "probably inserted here from Leviticus 19:9… with which it is verbally identical" — and the Verifier confirms the fingerprint: the very rare leqeṭ ("gleaning," H3951) occurs in only two verses of the whole Bible, this one and 19:9, joined by the cognate verb lâqaṭ (H3950, "to glean") and the reaping-words qâtsar / qâtsîyr. A shared lexeme this scarce is the strongest kind of verbal link.
Leviticus 23:22 · Leviticus 19:9
basis: rare shared lexeme H3951 leqeṭ (only 2 vv in all Scripture) + cognate H3950 lâqaṭ (34 vv), with H7114 qâtsar (46 vv) and H7105 qâtsîyr (49 vv) — Verifier-computed for Lev 23:22 ↔ Lev 19:9; Cambridge calls the verse "verbally identical"
The whole fifty-day reckoning is dated from a single act: the waving of the barley sheaf in v. 11. Verse 15 names it again — "from the day that ye brought the sheaf (‘ōmer) of the wave offering" — and the Verifier ties the two verses by three shared terms, including the rare ‘ōmer (H6016, 14 vv) and mochŏrâth ("the morrow," H4283), alongside shabbâth (H7676). This is not one text quoting another but a single law-section's internal back-reference: the feast of Weeks has no calendar-date of its own; it is structurally fastened to the sheaf-day of vv. 9–11. Held honestly: down-tiered from "verbal" — v. 15 recalls, rather than cites, the act of v. 11.
Leviticus 23:15 · Leviticus 23:11 · Leviticus 23:12
basis: shared lexemes H6016 ʻômer (rare, 14 vv) + H4283 mochŏrâth (32 vv) + H7676 shabbâth (89 vv) — Verifier-computed for Lev 23:15 ↔ Lev 23:11. The Verifier auto-flags this 'verbal' on lexeme overlap, but the two verses sit in one continuous law-section (vv. 9–22): v. 15 makes an internal back-reference to the sheaf-rite of v. 11, not a quotation of a distinct text — so the honest basis is the structural fastening of the count to the sheaf-day, and the tier is down-graded to structural
Deuteronomy's parallel command makes explicit what Leviticus implies: it replaces Leviticus' ambiguous shabbāthôth with the plain word for "weeks" (shâbu'ôth) — "seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee." Ellicott, Barnes, and Keil all cite this substitution as the decisive proof that the seven units here are weeks, not Sabbath-days. The Verifier finds the shared verb çâphar ("to count," H5608) and shebaʻ ("seven"); these are common words, so the link is the shared command-structure of the count, not a quotation.
Leviticus 23:15 · Deuteronomy 16:9 · Deuteronomy 16:10
basis: shared lexemes H5608 çâphar (152 vv) + H7651 shebaʻ (343 vv) — Verifier-computed for Lev 23:15 ↔ Deut 16:9; both common words, so the basis is the shared seven-fold counting command (the commentators' own cross-reference: Deut substitutes "weeks" for "sabbaths"), not a verbal quotation
Numbers 28:26 gives the feast its other name and the same offering: "in the day of the firstfruits, when ye bring a new meal-offering unto the LORD." Keil and the others read the two texts together. The Verifier links them by châdâsh ("new," H2319), minḥāh ("meal-offering," H4503), and qârab ("bring near," H7126). These are recurring cultic words rather than a rare quotation, so the basis is the shared festal prescription — the same "new meal-offering" on the same day.
Leviticus 23:16 · Numbers 28:26
basis: shared lexemes H2319 châdâsh (48 vv) + H4503 minchâh (194 vv) + H7126 qârab (260 vv) — Verifier-computed for Lev 23:16 ↔ Num 28:26; common cultic terms, so the basis is the shared 'new meal-offering on the day of firstfruits' prescription, not a quotation
The two festal pillars in the older covenant code name this same feast: "the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours" (Exodus 23:16) and "the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest" (Exodus 34:22). Keil reads Leviticus 23 as the priestly elaboration of exactly this Exodus law. The Verifier's link is the rare word bikkûr ("firstfruits," H1061, only 15 vv), but the three passages are in different law-codes describing one feast — a structural/thematic identity rather than one text quoting another.
Leviticus 23:17 · Exodus 23:16 · Exodus 34:22
basis: shared rare lexeme H1061 bikkûwr (15 vv) + harvest words (H7704 sâdeh / H7105 qâtsîyr) — Verifier-computed for Lev 23:17 ↔ Exod 23:16 and ↔ Exod 34:22; same feast across the codes, so the basis is the shared 'firstfruits / feast of harvest' institution, not a quotation
The rite of "waving" (tᵉnûphâh / nûp) is defined back in the peace-offering law: "his own hands shall bring the offerings of the LORD made by fire… that the breast may be waved" (Leviticus 7:30). Barnes appeals to this very verse to explain how a live creature was "waved"; Ellicott reconstructs the priest laying "the breast and shoulder" of the lambs "by the side of the two loaves" and waving them all "forwards and backwards, up and down." The Verifier ties the two by the wave-rite's technical vocabulary: tᵉnûphâh (H8573, the wave-offering, 28 vv) with its cognate verb nûp (H5130, 35 vv) and the common pânîym ("before [the LORD]," 1892 vv). Held honestly: this is shared cultic terminology, not a rare quotation — the Pentecost rite applies the established gesture defined in the fellowship-offering law, so the tier is down-graded from "verbal" to structural.
Leviticus 23:20 · Leviticus 7:30
basis: shared lexeme cluster H8573 tᵉnûwphâh (28 vv) + cognate verb H5130 nûwph (35 vv) + H6440 pânîym (1892 vv, common) — Verifier-computed for Lev 23:20 ↔ Lev 7:30. The Verifier auto-flags this 'verbal,' but tᵉnûphâh/nûp are the standard technical terms for the wave-rite (28/35 vv, not rare-enough to be a quotation marker) and Lev 23:20 is not citing 7:30 — it re-uses the defined gesture. Honest tier: structural — shared ritual vocabulary, not a verbal quotation
Jewish and Christian readers alike have heard this feast reach forward to Acts 2, where the Spirit falls "when the day of Pentecost was fully come" — the fiftieth day named in vv. 15–16. Gill draws the line in his own words: "on this same day… the everlasting Gospel went out of Jerusalem, published by the apostles of Christ to the people of all nations, Acts 2:14"; Benson calls Acts 2 "the perfection of this feast." Held honestly: this is a Greek-text → Hebrew-text connection (Luke's Greek Pentēkostē takes its meaning from the Hebrew count), so it cannot rest on a shared Strong's number and is not a verbal quotation; it is the typological/structural fulfillment of the day itself — confirmed in Christian tradition but tiered here as structural-thematic, not lexical.
Leviticus 23:15 · Leviticus 23:16 · Leviticus 23:21 · Acts 2:1
basis: cross-Testament (Greek NT ↔ Hebrew OT): no shared Strong's number is possible. The basis is the calendar identity — Acts 2:1's Πεντηκοστή ("Fiftieth") IS the fiftieth day counted in Lev 23:16, named in Greek; the link is the realized day, not a verbal citation. Attested widely-held (Gill, Benson cite Acts 2 by name); marked typological because the loaf-feast prefigures the Spirit's harvest of "three thousand" firstfruit souls
AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.
The feast's defining word, bikkûrîm ("firstfruits," v. 17), becomes one of the New Testament's names for the risen Christ and His people. Barnes draws the line in this unit's own commentary: "As these loaves offered before Yahweh sanctified the harvest of the year, so has 'Christ the firstfruits' sanctified the Church." Paul's "Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's" (1 Corinthians 15:20, 23) makes the wave-loaves a figure of resurrection: the first sheaf consecrates the whole field, the first-raised guarantees the rest. This reading is ancient and widely held, though the cross-Testament tie is thematic, not a shared Hebrew/Greek lexeme.
Leviticus 23:17 · 1 Corinthians 15:20 · 1 Corinthians 15:23 · James 1:18
Matthew Henry states the typology the whole unit invites: the feast "looked forward to the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, fifty days after Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. On that day the apostles presented the first-fruits of the Christian church to God." As the barley sheaf was waved the morrow after the Passover Sabbath and the loaves fifty days later, so Christ rose as firstfruits at Passover and the Spirit was poured out at Pentecost — and the three thousand of Acts 2 are, in Benson's phrase, "the first-fruits of the Christian Church." The pattern is figural and beloved in the tradition; the link runs through the shared calendar, not a shared word.
Leviticus 23:15 · Leviticus 23:21 · Acts 2:1 · 1 Corinthians 5:7
Amid the harvest-joy the law sets one goat "for a sin offering" (v. 19). Gill reads it as a type: "for the sin of the whole congregation, typical of Christ, whose soul was made an offering for sin; in virtue of which all other sacrifices become acceptable to God." Poole presses the same point — no sacrifice ever had worth "for any worth in them, but only in respect of Christ… all expiated by one and the same price, even by the blood of Christ." The thanksgiving feast cannot proceed without atonement first; the firstfruits are accepted only over a sin-offering, as the Church's praise is accepted only in the Lamb.
Leviticus 23:19 · Leviticus 23:20 · 2 Corinthians 5:21 · Hebrews 10:12
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.
Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). The named voices are quoted verbatim from public-domain commentaries on Leviticus 23:15–22, attributed in place: Charles Ellicott (Commentary for English Readers, 1878), Joseph Benson (1810s), Matthew Henry (Concise Commentary, 1706), Albert Barnes (Notes, 1834), Jamieson–Fausset–Brown (1871), Matthew Poole (1685), John Gill (1746–63), the Geneva Study Bible (1599), the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (1880s), the Pulpit Commentary (1880s), and Keil & Delitzsch (1860s). Each excerpt is a contiguous, unaltered substring of its source.
The Hebrew is the Masoretic tradition; transliterations, parsings, literal renderings, and the "where the English smooths the Hebrew" notes are this tool's own work (⚙) — careful but fallible; check them against BDB/HALOT and a standard grammar. Two readings are flagged in the divergences as defensible modernizations the reader should weigh both ways: ’iššêh (v. 18) as "food offering" (BSB) vs. the older "offering made by fire," and mᵉlâʼkâh ʻăḇōdâh (v. 21) as "regular work" (BSB) vs. "servile work."
On the cross-references: the one truly verbal link in the unit — Leviticus 23:22 ↔ 19:9 — rests on the rare leqeṭ ("gleaning"), a word found in only two verses of the entire Bible, which is why it alone is tiered "verbal — confirmed." Two intra-Pentateuch links the Verifier auto-flagged "verbal" have been honestly down-tiered to structural: Leviticus 23:15 ↔ 23:11 (the ‘ōmer-count) is one law-section's internal back-reference, not a quotation; and Leviticus 23:20 ↔ 7:30 (the wave-rite) shares the standard cultic vocabulary tᵉnûphâh / nûp, which is the gesture's technical name, not a quotation marker. The forward links to Acts 2 and to Paul's "firstfruits" are likewise down-tiered: they cross from a Hebrew text to a Greek one, where no shared Strong's number is even possible, so they are marked typological / structural — confirmed as widely-held in the tradition (Gill and Benson cite Acts 2 by name in this very unit) but never asserted as a verbal quotation. ⚙ = machine-generated synthesis, to be verified. "Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so." (Acts 17:11)
✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)