Leviticus 23:33-44 - The Feast of Ingathering & Concluding Notes

"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." —  Leviticus 23:33-44 KJV.

THE FEAST OF INGATHERING, 33-44.

34. The fifteenth day of this seventh month — This was the seventh month of the ecclesiastical, and the first of the civil, year. It corresponds to a part of our September and a part of October. This feast was at the full moon next the autumnal equinox. The feast of tabernacles — Its name indicates its historical significance, impressively setting forth the fact that Israel dwelt in temporary abodes in the wilderness forty years. It is probable that in the first part of the wilderness sojourn, before tents could be provided, the people lodged in booths. But their abodes are called tents when they are referred to. Leviticus 14:8. From its agricultural reference this feast was called the feast of the ingathering, or thanksgiving for the garnered harvest. Deuteronomy 16:13-15. The sacrifices pertaining to this festival are enumerated in Leviticus 29:12-38. In the sabbatical year the public reading of the law by the priests was enjoined as a part of this festival. Deuteronomy 31:9-13. The last reference shows that women and children were expected to be present, and not the males only. Huts or booths formed of boards, and covered with the boughs of trees tied with willows, were afterward constructed on the annual return of this feast in every nook and corner of Jerusalem, in the courts and on the roofs of houses, in the court of the temple, in the street of the Water Gate, and in the street of the Gate of Ephraim, other streets being left open for the convenience of the public. The entire suburbs must have been one vast camp of joyful sojourners. The occasion was adapted to a cultivation of the social nature, to strengthen the bond of national unity, and to quicken the devotional feelings. Though Christianity requires no such vast assemblies of believers, yet it is found that a wonderful spiritual momentum comes from the massing together of a great multitude for several days of continuous religious worship.

36. The eighth day — Since this feast was to continue seven days, and since no mention is made of an eighth day in Deuteronomy 16:13-15, we conclude that it formed no part of the festival, but was a day of rest, as is declared in verse 37. Ye shall offer an offering — The number of public sacrifices offered on the first day exceeded those of any other day of the year, while private peace offerings were also more abundant. There is ground for the opinion that the number of sacrifices equalled the total number of victims offered at all the other festivals.

37. Burnt offering — See notes on chap. 1. Meat offering — See notes on chap. 2. A sacrifice — This stands here for the peace offering. See notes on chap. 3. Drink offerings — See note on verse 13.

38. Gifts — Sacrificial gifts, especially heave offerings for the priests, are intended. See note on Leviticus 7:14. Vows… freewill offerings — The second and third kinds of peace offerings. See notes on Leviticus 7:11, 16.

39. The first… and… eighth day a sabbath — This is a day of rest, not necessarily the creation or decalogue sabbath on the seventh day. There was no need of a special command to hallow this day of the feast. There might be three days of rest in the eight days, two by special enactment and one by the primal sabbatic law. When the latter coincided with one of the former there were but two.

40. The boughs of goodly trees — Here the Authorized Version is incorrect, but the marginal reading of fruit, usually citron, instead of boughs, is a proper translation of the Hebrew. Branches of palm trees — This tree was very abundant in the Holy Land. It is remarkable for its fruitfulness and the perpetual greenness of its foliage, making it an appropriate symbol of victory and peace. John 12:13; Revelation 7:9. The modern Jews probably reflect the custom of their ancestors in the time of Christ, in marching in procession around the reading desk in their synagogues, bearing palm branches and intoning the Hosanna: —

“For thy sake, O our Creator, Hosanna, (save now.)
For thy sake, O our Redeemer, Hosanna,
For thy sake, O our Seeker, Hosanna.”

This chant, like the priests’ threefold blessing, (Numbers 6:22-27,) is strikingly suggestive of the work of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in human redemption. Willows — It was customary for each man to bring a sprig for the adorning of the altar. Ye shall rejoice — Rejoicing was to continue seven days, while affliction of soul was required during only one day in the year, the day of atonement. Judaism, though a dispensation in which the law was predominant, was by no means destitute of grace. How much more joyful should Christians be who, though under the law as the rule of life, are not under it as the ground of salvation, nor as the motive to obedience, but under the delightful constraint of love to the Lawgiver, awakened in their hearts by the Holy Ghost. Romans 5:5 and 14:17. The Israelite was commanded to rejoice seven days; the believer in Jesus Christ is commanded to “rejoice evermore.” A sad servant betokens a severe master.

42. Ye shall dwell in booths — This command excludes a cloth or skin covering, according to the decisions of Jewish expounders, and every thing pertaining to the animal and mineral kingdoms. Every thing withered, or faded, or of ill savour, or unclean, was also prohibited. The booths must be fresh and fragrant, in correspondence with the gladness of their tenants. The first part of October, when this feast was celebrated, the weather in Palestine is neither hot nor cold, nor subject to storms, but admirably adapted to outdoor life. All… Israelites… shall dwell — The word “shall” is here altogether too strong a translation of the Hebrew future, which is often rendered by may or can. “To insist on the absolute universality is to become a bond-slave to the letter.”

CONCLUDING NOTES.

(1.) In the celebration of three of these festivals, called the great feasts, all the males were to appear before the Lord at the tabernacle or in Jerusalem. Deuteronomy 16:16. This requirement, together with the prohibition of sacrifices, except in the one place chosen by Jehovah, is a key to the whole dispensation of Judaism. It shows that it was designed to be a purely local religion, confined to limits so narrow that its adherents could easily perform the great offices of the worship in person in the holy city thrice every year. Hence the system must be strictly conservative, and not aggressive and all conquering. In perfect accord with this is the absence, in the Old Testament, of all commands of a missionary character, like the great commission given by Jesus Christ to disciple all nations. The conservative character of Judaism would not of itself, if Jehovah were a mere national divinity, betoken that it was a preparation for a future world-wide system. But when we find Him styling himself “the Most High,” who hath divided to the nations their inheritance, (Deuteronomy 32:8,) and solemnly affirming that there is no respect of persons with him, (2 Chronicles 19:7,) we have sufficient ground for the expectation that a universal scheme of religion will, in due time, spring up from the germ of the Jewish Church, affording to the whole human family the opportunity of acceptable worship, not in Jerusalem only, but everywhere, where men “worship the Father in spirit and in truth.” John 4:23.

(2.) The great difficulty which arises from interpreting the sabbath in verse 11 to signify the decalogue sabbath is this — it requires the year to begin invariably on the seventh day of the week in order to make the fifteenth and twenty-first of the first month fall on the sabbath. But since three hundred and sixty-five is not an exact multiple of seven, we have an odd day to dispose of. There are only two ways out of this difficulty, either to make one week contain eight days, in violation of the decalogue and of the deep-seated respect for the seventh day in the bosom of every pious Jew, or the year must begin one day earlier every year, which in a century would carry the harvest month back to the month of seed-time, and completely confound and destroy the agricultural significance of the festivals, and their appropriateness as anniversaries of historical events. Hence the great majority of writers consider the beginnings of the festivals as movable, so that pentecost would one year in seven fall on Sunday, as it probably did in the year of the ascension of our Lord Jesus. See Alford on Acts 2:1.

(3.) Besides their religious purpose, the great festivals must have had an important bearing on the maintenance of a feeling of national unity. This may be traced in the apprehensions of Jeroboam, (1 Kings 12:26, 27,) and in the attempt at reformation by Hezekiah, (2 Chronicles 30:1,) as well as in the necessity which, in later times, was felt by the Roman government of mustering a considerable military force at Jerusalem during the festivals. (Josephus, Antiquities, 17:9, 3; 17:10, 2. Compare Matthew 26:5; Luke 13:1.) Another effect of these festivals Michaelis has found in the furtherance of internal commerce. They would give rise to something resembling our modern fairs. Among the Mohammedans similar festivals have had this effect.