Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Deuteronomy 16:9-12
The Feast of Sevens or Harvest or Day of The Firstfruits (Deuteronomy 16:9).
‘ Seven sevens shall you number to you, from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain shall you begin to number seven sevens.'
This count of seven sevens was to commence the day after the sabbath when the sheaf of the waveoffering, the first result of the putting in of the sickle to the standing grain, was brought at the feast of unleavened bread (Leviticus 23:15). The seven sevens (forty nine days) hopefully gave time for the harvesting of first the barley, and then the wheat, to be completed. Then after the markedly divine period (seven sevens) the feast could be held on the fiftieth day (thus in Greek ‘Pente-cost'). But if in some years it was not, all could be fitted in around the one day feast. The so-called Gezer calendar (10th century BC), possibly a schoolboy's record of the agricultural months of the year in view of its rough nature, mentions a month for barley harvesting and a month for harvesting ‘everything else'.
‘ And you shall keep the feast of sevens to Yahweh your God with a tribute of a freewill-offering of your hand, which you shall give, according as Yahweh your God blesses you,'
No ritual detail is here given of the feast, but rather emphasis is laid on the bringing of tribute, a freewill offering which they were to bring according to how Yahweh had blessed them. He is concerned with the people's part in it. The harvest having been mainly gathered they would know exactly how far they had been blessed, at least as far as the harvests were concerned. It was a gift of gratitude and an act of submission. But there is no detailed legislation concerning the feast. For information about the priest's part in it see, for example, Numbers 28:26; Leviticus 23:15.
‘ And you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your man-servant, and your maid-servant, and the Levite that is within your gates, and the resident alien, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are in the midst of you, in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there.'
It was anticipated that many in each household would come to this feast, and there before Yahweh they would rejoice together, along with the Levite, the resident alien who had chosen to dwell among them, and the bereft. These last were never to be forgotten in the celebrations. Levites were spread throughout the land for the purpose of their fulfilling of their responsibilities. Levitical priests on the other hand would live fairly conveniently to the Tabernacle.
None were to be excluded from the celebrations. It was a time for rejoicing by all, including bondsmen and bondswomen. And the fatherless and widows must be given full consideration. It was to be a compassionate society, not regulated from the top except by these Laws, but from the heart.
This one day feast of rejoicing would connect their minds back to the seventh day of Unleavened Bread which had been their previous holy-day of rejoicing and feasting and resting (Deuteronomy 16:8).
‘ And you shall remember that you were a bondsman in Egypt, and you shall observe and do these statutes.'
Remembering that they had been bondsmen in Egypt was to affect most of their thinking, but especially at their feasts and when dealing with their own bondsmen and with the poor. It would increase their rejoicing, and increase their consideration for their servants and for the needy.