Leviticus 23:33-44

THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES 23:33-44
TEXT 23:33-44

33

And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying,

34

Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto Jehovah.

35

On the first day shall be a holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work.

36

Seven days ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto Jehovah: on the eighth day shall be a holy convocation unto you; and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto Jehovah: it is a solemn assembly; ye shall do no servile work.

37

These are the set feasts of Jehovah, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire unto Jehovah, a burnt-offering, and a meal-offering, a sacrifice, and drink-offerings, each on its own day;

38

besides the sabbaths of Jehovah, and besides your gifts, and besides all your vows, and besides all your freewill-offerings, which ye give unto Jehovah.

39

Howbeit on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruits of the land, ye shall keep the feast of Jehovah seven days: on the first day shall be a solemn rest, and on the eighth day shall be a solemn rest.

40

And ye shall take you on the first day the fruit of goodly trees, branches of palm-trees, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before Jehovah your God seven days.

41

And ye shall keep it a feast unto Jehovah seven days in the year: it is a statute for ever throughout your generations; ye shall keep it in the seventh month.

42

Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are home-born in Israel 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 Jehovah your God.

44

And Moses declared unto the children of Israel the set feasts of Jehovah.

THOUGHT QUESTIONS 23:33-44

555.

Review again on the chart the feasts in the seventh month. Name them in order. Where does the feast of Jubilee fit?

556.

When we read of an offering made by fire of what do we think?

557.

God is trying to teach us something in the absorption of so much of the time of Israel by the many sacrifices. What is it?

558.

Does Leviticus 23:39 begin a description of another feast or is this a continuation of the feast of tabernacles?

559.

What is the fruit of the trees as mentioned in Leviticus 23:40?

560.

Just what form did these booths take? i.e. what did they look like?

561.

What was the purpose of such strange dwellings?

PARAPHRASE 23:33-44

The Festival of Tabernacles: Five days later, on the last day of September, is the Festival of Shelters to be celebrated before the Lord for seven days. On the first day there will be a sacred assembly of all the people; don-'t do any hard work that day. On each of the seven days of the festival you are to sacrifice an offering by fire to the Lord. The eighth day requires another sacred convocation of all the people, at which time there will again be an offering by fire to the Lord. It is a joyous celebration, and no heavy work is permitted. (These, then, are the regular annual festivalssacred convocations of all peoplewhen offerings to the Lord are to be made by fire. These annual festivals are in addition to your regular giving and normal fulfillment of your vows.) This last day of September, at the end of your harvesting, is the time to celebrate this seven-day festival before the Lord. Remember that the first and last days of the festival are days of solemn rest. On the first day, take boughs of fruit trees laden with fruit, and palm fronds, and the boughs of leafy treessuch as willows that grow by the brooksand (build shelters with them), rejoicing before the Lord your God for seven days. This seven-day annual feast is a law from generation to generation. During those seven days, all of you who are native Israelites are to live in these shelters. The purpose of this is to remind the people of Israel, generation after generation, that I rescued you from Egypt, and caused you to live in shelters. I am Jehovah your God. So Moses announced these annual festivals of the Lord to the people of Israel.

COMMENT 23:33-44

Among the several accounts we have read on this feast, we have found the following of superior worth. We gladly share it with our readers:

How and where these tabernacles are to be erected the law here gives no directions. The details, as in many other enactments, are left to the administrators of the Law. From the account of the first celebration of this festival after the return from Babylon, the Jews, according to the command of Ezra, made themselves booths upon the roofs of houses, in the courts of their dwellings, and of their sanctuary, in the streets of the Water-gate and the gate of Ephraim. These tabernacles they made of olive branches, pine branches, myrtle branches, palm branches, and branches of thick trees (Nehemiah 8:15-18). The construction of these temporary abodes, however, was more minutely defined by Ezra's successors. It was ordained during the second Temple that the interior of each tabernacle must not be higher than twenty cubits, and not lower than ten palms, it must at least have three walls, with a thatched roof partially open so as to admit a view of the sky and the stars. It must not be under a tree, nor must it be covered with a cloth, or with any material which contracts defilement. Only branches of shrubs which grow out of the ground are to be used for the covering. These booths the Israelites began to erect on the morrow after the Day of Atonement. On the fourteenth, which was the day of preparation, the pilgrims came up to Jerusalem, and on the even of this day the priests proclaimed the approach of the holy convocation by the blasts of trumpets. As on the feasts of Passover and Pentecost, the altar of burnt-offering was cleansed in the first night watch, and the gates of the Temple, as well as those of the inner court, were opened immediately after midnight, for the convenience of the priests who resided in the city, and for the people, who filled the court before the cock crew, to have their sacrifices duly examined by the priests.

On the first day shall be an holy convocation. At daybreak of this day one of the priests, accompanied by a jubilant procession and a band of music, went with a golden pitcher to the pool of Siloam, and having filled it with water, returned with it to the Temple in time to join his brother-priests in the morning sacrifices. He entered from the south through the water-gate, when he was welcomed by three blasts of the trumpets. He then ascended the steps of the altar with another priest, who carried a pitcher of wine for the drink offering. The two priests turned to the left of the altar, where two silver basins were fixed with holes at the bottom, and simultaneously poured into their respective basins the water and the wine in such a manner that both were emptied at the same time upon the base of the altar. This ceremony of drawing the water was repeated every morning during the seven days of the festival. Another jubilant multitude, who went outside Jerusalem at the same time to gather willows, now returned. With great rejoicings and amidst blasts of trumpets they carried the willows into the Temple, and placed them at the altar in such a manner that their tops overhung and formed a kind of canopy.

Seven days ye shall offer. The special sacrifices for this day consisted of a burnt offering of thirteen bullocks, two rams, and fourteen lambs, with an appropriate meat and drink offering, and a goat for a sin offering (Numbers 29:12-38). Whereupon were offered the peace offerings, the vows and the free-will offerings which constituted the repasts of the people. Whilst these sacrifices were being offered up the Levites chanted the festive Hallel, as on the feasts of Passover and Pentecost. This was repeated every day during the seven days of the festival, only that the number of animals offered as sacrifices diminished daily during the middle days of the festival, according to the prescription in Numbers 29:12-38. On the eve of the second day, or what is called the lesser festival, and on each of the five succeeding nights, was celebrated the Rejoicing of the water-drawing in the court of the Temple. Four huge golden candelabra were lighted in the centre of the court, and the light emanating from them was visible to the whole city. Around these lights pious men danced before the people with lighted flambeaux in their hands, singing hymns and songs of praise, whilst the Levites, who were stationed on the fifteen steps which led into the women's court, and which corresponded to the fifteen psalms of degrees, i.e., steps (Psalms 120:1-7; Psalms 121:1-8; Psalms 122:1-9; Psalms 123:1-4; Psalms 124:1-8; Psalms 125:1-5; Psalms 126:1-6; Psalms 127:1-5; Psalms 128:1-6; Psalms 129:1-8; Psalms 130:1-8; Psalms 131:1-3; Psalms 132:1-18; Psalms 133:1-3; Psalms 134:1-3), accompanied the songs with instrumental music. It is supposed that on the last evening of the festival, when the splendid light of this grand illumination was to cease, Christ called attention to himself, I am the light of the world (John 8:12), which is to shine for ever, and illuminate not only the Temple and the holy city, but all the world.

On the eighth day shall be an holy convocation. That is, like the first day, since no servile work is to be done on it. As it is not only the finishing of the feast of Tabernacles, but the conclusion of the whole cycle of festivals, the dwelling in tabernacles is to cease on it.

Ye shall offer. For this reason the sacrifices offered on this day are to be distinct, and unlike the sacrifices of the preceding days. The burnt sacrifice is to consist of one bullock, one ram, and seven lambs, with the appropriate meat and drink offerings, and one goat for a sin offering. (Numbers 29:36-38.) Being, however, attached to the feast of Tabernacles, the two festivals are often joined together, and spoken of as one festival of eight days.

These are the feasts of the Lord. That is, the above named six festivals, viz.(1) the Passover (Leviticus 23:4-14), (2) Pentecost (Leviticus 23:15-22), (3) New Year (Leviticus 23:23-25), (4) Day of Atonement (Leviticus 23:26-32), (5) Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:33-36 a), and (6) the concluding festival (Leviticus 23:36 b). Thus the list of these festivals concludes with the formula by which they were introduced in Leviticus 23:4.

To offer an offering. On these festivals sacrifices are to be offered as prescribed in Numbers 28:1-31; Numbers 29:1-40.

Beside the sabbaths. By a figure of speech called metonymy, which is frequently used both in the Old and New Testaments, the expression sabbaths stands here for the sacrifices of the sabbaths, just as in chapter Leviticus 25:6 sabbath of the land denotes the produce of the sabbath of the land, or of the sabbatic year, and as the phrase it is written in the prophets (Mark 1:2) is used for it is written in the writings of the prophets. (Comp. also Matthew 5:17; Matthew 7:12; Matthew 22:40, etc.) The meaning, therefore, of the passage before us is that the sacrifices ordered for each of these festivals are to be in addition to the sacrifices appointed to each weekly sabbath in the year; so that when one of these festivals falls on a sabbath, the sacrifices due to the latter are not set aside by the former. Both must be offered in their proper order.

Beside your gifts. Nor are they to interfere with the voluntary offerings which each individual brought privately (Deuteronomy 16:10; Deuteronomy 16:17, 2 Chronicles 25:7-8), or with the performance of vows (Deuteronomy 12:6-12).

Also in the fifteenth day. After the list of festivals discussed in this chapter has been summed up in Leviticus 23:37-38, the next five verses recur to the feast of Tabernacles. The regulations are supplementary to those given before, and embody a separate enactment.

When ye have gathered in the fruit of the land. That is, those productions which ripen in the autumnal season, as wheat, barley, oil, wine, etc.

Ye shall keep a feast unto the Lord. The Israelites are then to keep a festival in which they are to acknowledge the bounties of the Lord and express their gratitude to the Giver of all good things. For this reason this festival is also called the Feast of Ingathering (Exodus 23:16, Exodus 23:22).

On the first day shall be a sabbath. Both on the first and last days of this festival there is to be abstention from all servile work. (See Leviticus 23:35-36.)

And ye shall take you on the first day. The four species of vegetable production here ordered are a distinctive feature of this festival. They have been most minutely defined during the second Temple.

Boughs of goodly trees. Better, the fruit of goodly trees, as the margin rightly renders it. As this phrase is too indefinite, and may simply denote the fruit of any choice fruit-tree, there can hardly be any doubt that in this instance, as in many other cases, the lawgiver left it to the administrators of the Law to define its precise kind. Basing it therefore upon one of the significations of the term here translated goodly, which is to dwell, to rest, the authorities during the second Temple decreed that it means the fruit which permanently rests upon the tree, i.e. the citron, the paradise-apple. If it came from an uncircumcised tree (see chap. Leviticus 19:23), from an unclean heave-offering (comp. Numbers 18:11-12), or exhibited the slightest defect, it was ritually illegal.

Branches of palm trees. During the second Temple this was defined as the shoot of the palm-tree when budding, before the leaves are spread abroad, and whilst it is yet like a rod. It is technically called lulab, which is the expression whereby it is rendered in the ancient Chaldee version. The lulab must at least be three hands tall, and must be tied together with its own kind.

The boughs of thick trees. This, according to the same authorities, denotes the myrtle branch, whose leaves thickly cover the wood. To make it ritually legal it must have three or more shoots round the stem, and on the same level with it. If it is in any way damaged it is illegal. This accounts for the ancient Chaldee version rendering it by myrtle branch.

Willows of the brook. That species, the distinguishing marks of which are dark wood and long leaves with smooth margin. The palm, the myrtle, and the willow, when tied together into one bundle, constitute the Lulab. Whilst the psalms are chanted by the Levites during the sacrifices, the pilgrims, who held the Lulabs or palms, shook them thrice, viz., at the singing of Psalms 118:1, then again at Leviticus 23:25, and at Leviticus 23:29. When the chant was finished, the priests in procession went round the altar once, exclaiming, Hosanna, O Lord, give us help, O Lord! Give prosperity! (Psalms 118:25). Whereupon the solemn benediction was pronounced by the priests, and the people dispersed amidst the repeated exclamations, How beautiful art thou, O altar! It is this part of the ritual which explains the welcome that the multitude gave Christ when they went to meet Him with palm branches and shouts of hosanna (Matthew 21:8-9; Matthew 21:15; John 12:12-13).

Seven days in the year. These seven days denote the feast of Tabernacles proper, whilst the eight days in Leviticus 23:39 include the concluding festival of the last day. (See Leviticus 23:36.)

In your generations. Better, throughout your generations, as the Authorized version renders it in Leviticus 23:14; Leviticus 23:21; Leviticus 23:31 of this very chapter. (See chap. Leviticus 3:17.)

Dwell in booths seven days. Because the eighth day was a separate festival, when the booths were no more used. (See Leviticus 23:36.)

That your generations may know. When their posterity are securely occupying the land of Canaan, the temporary dwelling in booths once a year may remind them of the goodness of God vouch-safed to their fathers in delivering them from the land of bondage, and sheltering them in booths in the wilderness.

And Moses declared. In accordance with the command which Moses received (see Leviticus 23:2), he explained to the children of Israel the number and motive of these festivals. This verse therefore forms an appropriate conclusion to the whole chapter.

FACT QUESTIONS 23:33-44

568.

How and where were these tabernacles to be built?

569.

When did the Israelites begin to erect these booths?

570.

When were the gates of the Temple opened for the beginning of the day?

571.

Tell in your own words of the ceremony of the golden pitcher.

572.

There were four huge golden candelabra used. Where and when?

573.

Show how this ceremony related to our Lord and the New Testament.

574.

What was the feast of the ingatherings?

575.

The fruit of some trees was acceptable and some was not. Which was which?

576.

Mention three trees whose branches were used for the booths.