Exodus 23:16

16 Also [observe] the Festival of Harvest^[a] with the firstfruits of your produce from what you sow in the field, and [observe] the Festival of Ingathering^[b] at the end of the year, when you gather your produce^[c] from the field.

Exodus 23:16 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 23:16

And the feast of harvest
This is the second feast, the feast of wheat harvest, between which and barley harvest were fifty days; or between the firstfruits of the one and the first fruits of the other were seven weeks, as Aben Ezra observes, and was sometimes called the feast of weeks; at which feast were to be brought,

the first fruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field;
the two wave loaves or cakes, made of the first new wheat, which was the effect of their labour in tilling the field, and sowing it with wheat, and reaping it:

and the feast of ingathering, [which is] in the end of the year, when
thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field;
this is the third feast in the year to be kept, and was kept at the close of the year, at the revolution of it, when a new year began that is, according to the old account, which made Tisri the month in which this feast was kept, the first month of the year; whereas, according to the new count, it was the seventh month from the month Abib, now made the first of the months upon the Israelites coming out of Egypt in that month: this is the same feast with the feast of tabernacles, but here called the feast of ingathering, because at this time of the year all the fruits of the earth were gathered in; the corn, and wine, and oil, and all other fruits, on account of which there was great rejoicing, as there ought to be.

Exodus 23:16 In-Context

14 "Celebrate a festival in My honor three times a year

15 Observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread. As I commanded you, you are to eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, because you came out of Egypt in that month. No one is to appear before Me empty-handed.

16 Also [observe] the Festival of Harvest with the firstfruits of your produce from what you sow in the field, and [observe] the Festival of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather your produce from the field.

17 Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord God .

18 "You must not offer the blood of My sacrifices with anything leavened. The fat of My festival offering must not remain until morning.

Footnotes

• [a]. The Festival of Harvest is called Festival of Weeks elsewhere in the OT; Ex 34:22. In the NT it is called Pentecost; Ac 2:1.
• [b]. The Festival of Ingathering is called Festival of Booths elsewhere; Lv 23:34-36.
• [c]. Lit labors