Deuteronomy 16:9

Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee: begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

Deuteronomy 16:9-12. THE FEAST OF WEEKS, OR PENTECOST.

See also Exodus 23:16; Exodus 34:18-23; Leviticus 23:15-22; Numbers 28:26-31. The feast itself is ordained in Exodus; the time is given in Leviticus; and the sacrifices in Numbers.

(9) From such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn.—The word for sickle only occurs here and in Deuteronomy 23:25. In Leviticus the weeks are ordered to be reckoned from the offering of the wave sheaf on the sixteenth day of the first month, two days after the Passover. This sheaf was of barley, the first ripe corn. A different view is sometimes taken of the word “Sabbath “in Leviticus 23:11; but the view given here is correct according to the Talmud.

(10) A tribute.—This word (missah) occurs nowhere else in the Bible. The marginal rendering, “sufficiency,” is its Aramaic or Chaldæan sense. The idea seems to be “a proportionate offering “—i.e., a free will offering, proportioned to a man’s means and prosperity. In Exodus 34:20; Exodus 23:15, we read, “None shall appear before me empty.” The command is made general for all the three feasts in Deuteronomy 16:16-17 further on.

(11) Thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God.—This aspect of the feast of weeks is specially insisted upon in Deuteronomy. Its relation to the poor appears also in the command connected with this feast in Leviticus 23:22, to leave the corners of the fields un-reaped for them.

Benson Commentary

Deuteronomy 16:9-10. Thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn — To reap the first-fruits of the barley-harvest, the wave sheaf in particular, which was offered to the Lord on the sixteenth day of that month. Thou shalt keep the feast of weeks — So called, because it was seven weeks after the bringing the sheaf at the passover, that is, fifty days, whence it was termed pentecost: see on Leviticus 23:16. It was also called the feast of first- fruits, Numbers 28:26. With a tribute of free-will-offering — Over and besides the sacrifice for the day, and the two loaves and sacrifices with them, Numbers 28:27-31; Leviticus 23:17-20. God here directs that they should make some voluntary oblation.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

16:1-17 The laws for the three yearly feasts are here repeated; that of the Passover, that of the Pentecost, that of Tabernacles; and the general law concerning the people's attendance. Never should a believer forget his low estate of guilt and misery, his deliverance, and the price it cost the Redeemer; that gratitude and joy in the Lord may be mingled with sorrow for sin, and patience under the tribulations in his way to the kingdom of heaven. They must rejoice in their receivings from God, and in their returns of service and sacrifice to him; our duty must be our delight, as well as our enjoyment. If those who were under the law must rejoice before God, much more we that are under the grace of the gospel; which makes it our duty to rejoice evermore, to rejoice in the Lord always. When we rejoice in God ourselves, we should do what we can to assist others also to rejoice in him, by comforting the mourners, and supplying those who are in want. All who make God their joy, may rejoice in hope, for He is faithful that has promised.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Feast of Weeks; and Deuteronomy 16:13-17, Feast of Tabernacles. Nothing is here added to the rules given in Leviticus and Numbers except the clauses so often recurring in Deuteronomy and so characteristic of it, which restrict the public celebration of the festivals to the sanctuary, and enjoin that the enjoyments of them should be extended to the Levites, widows, orphans, etc.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

9-12. Seven weeks shalt thou number—The feast of weeks, or a WEEK OF WEEKS: the feast of pentecost (see on [146]Le 23:10; also see Ex 34:22; Ac 2:1). As on the second day of the passover a sheaf of new barley, reaped on purpose, was offered, so on the second day of pentecost a sheaf of new wheat was presented as first-fruits (Ex 23:16; Nu 28:26), a freewill, spontaneous tribute of gratitude to God for His temporal bounties. This feast was instituted in memory of the giving of the law, that spiritual food by which man's soul is nourished (De 8:3).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Seven weeks; of which see on Exodus 34:22 Leviticus 23:10,15.

To put the sickle to the corn, i.e. to reap thy corn, thy barley, when the first-fruits were offered, Leviticus 23:10,11.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Seven weeks then shalt thou number unto thee,.... And then another feast was to take place, called from hence the feast of weeks, and sometimes Pentecost, from its being the fiftieth day:

begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn; for the sheaf of the wave offering, as the first fruits of barley harvest, which was done on the morrow after the sabbath in the passover week, and from thence seven weeks or fifty days were reckoned, and the fiftieth day was the feast here ordered to be kept; so the Targum of Jonathan,"after the reaping of the sheaf ye shall begin to number seven weeks;''see Leviticus 23:15.

Geneva Study Bible

Seven weeks shalt thou {f} number unto thee: begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn.

(f) Beginning the next morning after the Passover, Le 23:15, Ex 13:4.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

9. Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee] Hence the name of the Feast, Weeks, Shabu‘ôth, Deuteronomy 16:10; Deuteronomy 16:16, also in J, Exodus 34:22. H, Leviticus 23:16, prescribes fifty days from the sabbath after the presentation before the Altar of the first sheaf of the harvest; hence the Hellenistic name Pentecost, ‘the fiftieth’ (day) or the day after the conclusion of the seven weeks. The name given by E, Exodus 23:16, Harvest, implies that the harvest was by that time concluded. In the warmest parts of Palestine barley ripens in April, wheat later; but in colder districts the harvest is not finished for at least seven weeks more. The present writer has seen wheat reaped in Ḥauran as late as the second half of June.

from the time thou beginnest, etc.] Lit. from the start of the sickle (only here and Deuteronomy 23:25) on the standing corn, a variable date; so H, Leviticus 23:15 f., Lev 23:50 days from the sabbath after the presentation of the first sheaf. It is significant that while D’s date starts from Maṣṣoth, he says nothing to date Weeks from the Passover: another indication that when the original code of D was drawn up the Passover and Maṣṣoth were not yet amalgamated. See introd. to Deuteronomy 16:1-8.

9–12. The Feast of Weeks

To be joyfully celebrated after seven weeks from the beginning of harvest, with free-will offering, by each Israelite, along with his household and the local Levites and other poor at the One Altar (Deuteronomy 16:9-11). Whether Deuteronomy 16:12 is original is doubtful; see below. For corresponding laws in other codes see introd. to Deuteronomy 16:1-17. This is the only feast not associated in the O. T. with a memorable event in Israel’s history. Later Judaism assigned to it the giving of the Law on Sinai.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 9-12. - The Feast of Weeks (cf. Exodus 23:16). Verse 9. - From such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn; i.e. from the commencement of the corn harvest. The seven weeks were to be counted from this terminus; and as the corn harvest began by the presentation of the sheaf of the firstfruits on the second day of the Passover, this regulation as to time coincides with that in Leviticus 23:15. Deuteronomy 16:9

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

With regard to the Feast of Weeks (see at Exodus 23:16), it is stated that the time for its observance was to be reckoned from the Passover. Seven weeks shall they count "from the beginning of the sickle to the corn," i.e., from the time when the sickle began to be applied to the corn, or from the commencement of the corn-harvest. As the corn-harvest was opened with the presentation of the sheaf of first-fruits on the second day of the Passover, this regulation as to time coincides with the rule laid down in Leviticus 23:15. "Thou shalt keep the feast to the Lord thy God according to the measure of the free gift of thy hand, which thou givest as Jehovah thy God blesseth thee." The ἁπ. λεγ. מסּת is the standing rendering in the Chaldee for דּי, sufficiency, need; it probably signifies abundance, from מסס equals מסה, to flow, to overflow, to derive. The idea is this: Israel was to keep this feast with sacrificial gifts, which every one was able to bring, according to the extent to which the Lord had blessed him, and (Deuteronomy 16:11) to rejoice before the Lord at the place where His name dwelt with sacrificial meals, to which the needy were to be invited (cf. Deuteronomy 14:29), in remembrance of the fact that they also were bondmen in Egypt (cf. Deuteronomy 15:15). The "free-will offering of the hand," which the Israelites were to bring with them to this feast, and with which they were to rejoice before the Lord, belonged to the free-will gifts of burnt-offerings, meat-offerings, drink-offerings, and thank-offerings, which might be offered, according to Numbers 29:39 (cf. Leviticus 23:38), at every feast, along with the festal sacrifices enjoined upon the congregation. The latter were binding upon the priests and congregation, and are fully described in Numbers 28 and 29, so that there was no necessity for Moses to say anything further with reference to them.