Feasts of the Lord

(Exodus 23:14-19)

1And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2Speak to the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them: These are the feasts of the Lord, which you shall call holy.

3Six days shall ye do work: the seventh day, because it is the rest of the sabbath, shall be called holy. You shall do no work on that day: it is the sabbath of the Lord in all your habitations.

The Passover Feast

(Exodus 12:14-28; Numbers 28:16-25; Deuteronomy 16:1-8)

4These also are the holy days of the Lord, which you must celebrate in their seasons. 5The first month, the fourteenth day of the month at evening, is the phase of the Lord. 6And the fifteenth day of the same month is the solemnity of the unleavened bread of the Lord. Seven days shall you eat unleavened bread. 7The first day shall be most solemn unto you, and holy: you shall do no servile work therein. 8But you shall offer sacrifice in fire to the Lord seven days. And the seventh day shall be more solemn, and more holy: and you shall do no servile work therein.

The Feast of Firstfruits

9And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 10Speak to the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them: When you shall have entered into the land which I will give you, and shall reap your corn, you shall bring sheaves of ears, the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest. 11Who shall lift up the sheaf before the Lord, the next day after the sabbath, that it may be acceptable for you, and shall sanctify it. 12And on the same day that the sheaf is consecrated, a lamb without blemish of the first year shall be killed for a holocaust of the Lord. 13And the libations shall be offered with it: two tenths of flour tempered with oil, for a burnt offering of the Lord, and a most sweet odour. Libations also of wine, the fourth part of a hin. 14You shall not eat either bread, or parched corn, or frumenty or the harvest, until the day that you shall offer thereof to your God. It is a precept for ever throughout your generations, and all your dwellings.

The Feast of Pentecost

15You shall count therefore from the morrow after the sabbath, wherein you offered the sheaf of firstfruits, seven full weeks. 16Even unto the morrow after the seventh week be expired, that is to say, fifty days: and so you shall offer a new sacrifice to the Lord. 17Out of all your dwellings, two loaves of the firstfruits, of two tenths of flour leavened, which you shall bake for the firstfruits of the Lord. 18And you shall offer with the loaves seven lambs without blemish of the first year, and one calf from the herd, and they shall be for a holocaust with their two rams: and they shall be for a holocaust with their libations for a most sweet odour to the Lord. 19You shall offer also a buck goat for sin, and two lambs of the first year for sacrifices of peace offerings. 20And when the priest hath lifted them up with the loaves of the firstfruits before the Lord, they shall fall to his use. 21And you shall call this day most solemn, and most holy. You shall do no servile work therein. It shall be an everlasting ordinance in all your dwellings and generations.

22And when you reap the corn of your land, you shall not cut it to the very ground: neither shall you gather the ears that remain. But you shall leave them for the poor and for the strangers. I am the Lord your God.

The Feast of Trumpets

(Numbers 29:1-6)

23And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 24Say to the children of Israel: The seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall keep a sabbath, a memorial, with the sound of trumpets, and it shall be called holy. 25You shall do no servile work therein, and you shall offer a holocaust to the Lord.

The Day of Atonement

(Numbers 29:7-11)

26And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 27Upon the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the day of atonement. It shall be most solemn, and shall be called holy: and you shall await your souls on that day, and shall offer a holocaust to the Lord. 28You shall do no servile work in the time of this day: because it is a day of propitiation, that the Lord your God may be merciful unto you. 29Every soul that is not afflicted on this day, shall perish from among his people. 30And every soul that shall do any work, the same will I destroy from among his people. 31You shall do no work therefore on that day: it shall be an everlasting ordinance unto you in all your generations, and dwellings. 32It is a sabbath of rest, and you shall afflict your souls beginning on the ninth day of the month. From evening until evening you shall celebrate your sabbaths.

The Feast of Booths

(Nehemiah 8:13-18)

33And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 34Say to the children of Israel: From the fifteenth day of this same seventh month, shall be kept the feast of tabernacles, seven days to the Lord. 35The first day shall be called most solemn and most holy: you shall do no servile work therein. And seven days you shall offer holocausts to the Lord. 36The eighth day also shall be most solemn and most holy: and you shall offer holocausts to the Lord. For it is the day of assembly and congregation. You shall do no servile work therein.

37These are the feasts of the Lord which you shall call most solemn and most holy, and shall offer on them oblations to the Lord: holocausts and libations according to the rite of every day. 38Besides the sabbaths of the Lord, and your gifts, and those things that you offer by vow, or which you shall give to the Lord voluntarily.

39So from the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you shall have gathered in all the fruits of your land, you shall celebrate the feast of the Lord seven days. On the first day and the eighth shall be a sabbath: that is a day of rest. 40And you shall take to you on the first day the fruits of the fairest tree, and branches of palm trees, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook: And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God. 41And you shall keep the solemnity thereof seven days in the year. It shall be an everlasting ordinance in your generations. In the seventh month shall you celebrate this feast. 42And you shall dwell in bowers seven days. Every one that is of the race of Israel, shall dwell in tabernacles: 43That your posterity may know, that I made the children of Israel to dwell in tabernacles, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. 44And Moses spoke concerning the feasts of the Lord to the children of Israel.