You are to count off seven weeks from the time you first put the sickle to the standing grain.
Parallel translations
- WEB 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.
- 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.
- 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 34:22And you are to celebrate the Feast of Weeks with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year.
- Exod 23:16You are also to keep the Feast of Harvest with the firstfruits of the produce from what you sow in the field. And keep the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather your produce from the field.
- Acts 2:1When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.
- Deut 16:16Three times a year all your men are to appear before the LORD your God in the place He will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles. No one should appear before the LORD empty-handed.
- 2 Chr 8:13He observed the daily requirement for offerings according to the commandment of Moses for Sabbaths, New Moons, and the three annual appointed feasts—the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles.
- Num 28:26–30On the day of firstfruits, when you present an offering of new grain to the LORD during the Feast of Weeks, you are to hold a sacred assembly; you must not do any regular work.
- Deut 16:10And you shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God with a freewill offering that you give in proportion to how the LORD your God has blessed you,
- Lev 23:15–16From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, you are to count off seven full weeks.
- Heb 2:1We must pay closer attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.
- 1 Cor 16:8But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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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