Feast of Weeks

The Feast of Weeks marks the culmination of a count from the first-fruits offering and turns the grain harvest into an act of worship and shared rejoicing. Its observance joins a precise calendar, offerings of new produce, a sacred assembly, and care for the poor and the resident stranger.

Calendar and Harvest Rites

The observance begins with the waving of the first harvested sheaf before the LORD, on the day after the Sabbath. Until that offering is brought, the people are not to eat bread, parched grain, or fresh ears from the harvest. The sheaf is accompanied by a year-old, unblemished lamb as a burnt-offering, fine flour mixed with oil, and a wine libation, making the first produce a consecrated threshold to the season’s food.

From the day the sheaf is presented, Israel counts seven complete weeks, numbering fifty days through the day after the seventh week. The Feast of Weeks then brings a new meal-offering: two leavened loaves baked from fine flour and presented as first-fruits. Seven unblemished year-old lambs, a young bull, and two rams are offered as burnt-offerings with their grain and drink offerings; a male goat is offered as a sin-offering, and two lambs as peace-offerings. The priest waves the loaves with the two lambs before the LORD; these become holy and belong to the priest.

Assembly and Shared Rejoicing

The day is proclaimed a holy convocation, and servile work is prohibited. The harvest celebration is not confined to the sanctuary: Israel is also commanded to leave the corners of its fields unreaped and the gleanings ungathered, so that the poor and the resident stranger may share in the land’s produce. The festival’s first-fruits offerings thus accompany a practical provision for those without secure access to the harvest.

Deuteronomy’s Communal Celebration

In Moses’ instructions, the Feast of Weeks begins when the sickle is first put to the standing grain: Israel counts seven weeks and brings a freewill offering in proportion to the blessing received. The celebration takes place at the chosen place of worship, with sons and daughters, servants, Levites, resident strangers, orphans, and widows sharing in the rejoicing. Remembering that the people were once enslaved in Egypt grounds this harvest festival in both gratitude and an inclusive obligation to the vulnerable.