The priest is to wave the lambs as a wave offering before the LORD, together with the bread of the firstfruits. The bread and the two lambs shall be holy to the LORD for the priest.
Parallel translations
- WEB The priest shall wave them with the bread of the first fruits for a wave offering before Yahweh, with the two lambs. They shall be holy to Yahweh for the priest.
- KJV And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits for a wave offering before the LORD, with the two lambs: they shall be holy to the LORD for the priest.
- NKJV The priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits as a wave offering before the Lord, with the two lambs. They shall be holy to the Lord for the priest.
- NASB The priest shall then wave them with the bread of the first fruits as a wave offering with two lambs before the Lord; they are to be holy to the Lord for the priest.
- NLT “The priest will lift up the two lambs as a special offering to the Lord, together with the loaves representing the first of your crops. These offerings, which are holy to the Lord, belong to the priests.
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
The priest waves the loaves and the two lambs before Yahweh as holy offerings, belonging to the priest.
Overview
The firstfruit bread and accompanying lambs were presented to God and then assigned to the priest as his holy portion. God provided for His ministers through the people's worship. As with earlier rules, this care for the priesthood reflects God's design that those who serve at the altar share in its offerings (1 Corinthians 9:13).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Deut 18:4You are to give them the firstfruits of your grain, new wine, and oil, and the first wool sheared from your flock.
- Lev 23:17Bring two loaves of bread from your dwellings as a wave offering, each made from two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour, baked with leaven, as the firstfruits to the LORD.
- 1 Cor 9:11If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much for us to reap a material harvest from you?
- Exod 29:24Put all these in the hands of Aaron and his sons and wave them before the LORD as a wave offering.
- Lev 7:29–34“Speak to the Israelites and say, ‘Anyone who presents a peace offering to the LORD must bring it as his sacrifice to the LORD.
- Num 18:8–12Then the LORD said to Aaron, “Behold, I have put you in charge of My offerings. As for all the sacred offerings of the Israelites, I have given them to you and your sons as a portion and a permanent statute.
- Eph 2:14For He Himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has torn down the dividing wall of hostility
- Luke 2:14“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests!”
- Lev 10:14–15And you and your sons and daughters may eat the breast of the wave offering and the thigh of the contribution in a ceremonially clean place, because these portions have been assigned to you and your children from the peace offerings of the sons of Israel.
- Lev 8:29He also took the breast—Moses’ portion of the ram of ordination—and waved it before the LORD as a wave offering, as the LORD had commanded him.
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Christ at the center
Every sacrifice, every priest, and every day of atonement points beyond itself to the one perfect offering and the great High Priest who, by his own blood, makes the unclean holy once for all.
How Leviticus 23:20 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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