You shall count for yourselves seven weeks. From the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain you shall begin to count seven weeks.
Parallel translations
- KJV 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.
- BSB You are to count off seven weeks from the time you first put the sickle to the standing grain.
- NKJV “You shall count seven weeks for yourself; begin to count the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the grain.
- NASB “You shall count seven weeks for yourself; you shall begin to count seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain.
- NLT “Count off seven weeks from when you first begin to cut the grain at the time of harvest.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Israel was to count seven weeks from the start of the grain harvest. God built anticipation toward the Feast of Weeks into the harvest season.
Overview
Beginning when the sickle was first put to the standing grain, Israel counted seven weeks to the next festival. This linked worship to the agricultural year and to dependence on God's provision. The counting of weeks culminates in Pentecost, the day God later poured out his Spirit, inaugurating the great spiritual harvest of the gospel.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Exod 34:22“You shall observe the feast of weeks with the first fruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of harvest at the year’s end.
- Exod 23:16And the feast of harvest, the first fruits of your labors, which you sow in the field; and the feast of ingathering, at the end of the year, when you gather in your labors out of the field.
- Acts 2:1Now when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all with one accord in one place.
- Deut 16:16Three times in a year all of your males shall appear before Yahweh your God in the place which he chooses: in the feast of unleavened bread, in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tents. They shall not appear before Yahweh empty.
- 2 Chr 8:13even as the duty of every day required, offering according to the commandment of Moses, on the Sabbaths, on the new moons, and on the set feasts, three times per year, during the feast of unleavened bread, during the feast of weeks, and during the feast of tents.
- Num 28:26–30“‘Also in the day of the first fruits, when you offer a new meal offering to Yahweh in your feast of weeks, you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no regular work;
- Deut 16:10You shall keep the feast of weeks 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.
- Lev 23:15–16“‘You shall count from the next day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven Sabbaths shall be completed:
- Heb 2:1Therefore we ought to pay greater attention to the things that were heard, lest perhaps we drift away.
- 1 Cor 16:8But I will stay at Ephesus until Pentecost,
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Christ at the center
Moses promised a Prophet like himself to whom Israel must listen (18:15); Jesus is that Prophet, the one who keeps the covenant we broke and becomes the curse for us by hanging on a tree (Gal 3:13).
How Deuteronomy 16:9 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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