Leviticus 23:10-17

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.

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¹ tn Heb “and you harvest its harvest.”

² tn Heb “the sheaf of the first of your harvest.”

³ tn Heb “for your acceptance.”

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

⁵ tn Heb “And you shall make in the day of your waving the sheaf.”

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

⁷ sn See the note on Lev 5:11.

⁸ sn See the note on Lev 2:1.

⁹ sn See the note on Lev 1:9.

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.

¹¹ tn Heb “until the bone of this day.”

¹² tn Heb “for your generations.”

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.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “and.” In the translation “then” is supplied to clarify the sequence.

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.

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.