Leviticus 23:2

Summary

Leviticus 23:2 opens a divine instruction to Moses, commanding him to speak to the Israelites about the mo'adei YHWH ("appointed feasts of Yehovah") and to establish that these are to be proclaimed as miqra'ei qodesh ("convocations of holiness"). The verse closes by affirming these belong to God: "these are my appointed feasts."

Key words

• da.Ber ("speak", H1696G) — Piel imperative, an intensive command form directed to Moses ("you", m.).
• mo.'a.Dei ("appointed feasts of", H4150H) — masculine plural construct, grammatically bound to YHWH, meaning these feasts belong to or are fixed by Yehovah.
• tik.re.'U ("you will proclaim", H7121I) — Qal imperfect, second person plural, indicating an ongoing or repeated future action performed by the Israelites collectively.
• mik.ra.'Ei ("convocations of", H4744) — masculine plural construct joined to qodesh ("holiness", H6944G), forming the phrase "convocations of holiness."
• 'E.leh ("these", H0428) — demonstrative particle pointing back to the mo'adim just named, followed by hem ("they", H1992) reinforcing identification.

What the text says

The verse is structured as a command chain: da.Ber ("speak") is followed by 'a.mar.Ta ("you will say"), a sequential perfect that continues the action begun by the imperative — a common construction linking "speak" and "say" as two stages of the same instruction. The content of the speech begins with mo.'a.Dei YHWH ("appointed feasts of Yehovah"), placed in construct form at the head of the sentence before the relative clause 'a.Sher-tik.re.'U 'o.Tam ("which you will proclaim them") describes what Israel is to do with them.

The double construct chain — mo'adei YHWH ("appointed feasts of Yehovah") and miqra'ei qodesh ("convocations of holiness") — ties the feasts both to their divine origin and to the sacred character of their public proclamation. The verse ends with a pronominal shift: 'Elleh hem mo'adai ("these are my appointed feasts"), where the first-person suffix -ai ("my") on mo'adim recontextualizes the entire list as belonging specifically to the speaker (Yehovah), not merely as a general calendar term.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders bene Yisra'el ("sons/people of Israel") simply as τοῖς υἱοῖς ("to the sons"), omitting the name "Israel" in the Swete text given here. The Vulgate renders miqra'ei qodesh ("convocations of holiness") as "sanctas" ("holy [things]"), omitting a separate word for "convocations" that is present in the Hebrew and in the LXX's κλητὰς ἁγίας ("holy callings"). The Hebrew's closing clause 'Elleh hem mo'adai ("these are my appointed feasts") appears in the LXX as αὗταί εἰσιν ἑορταί μου ("these are my feasts"), but the Vulgate places a similar phrase ("hae sunt feriae Domini") near the beginning of the verse rather than at the end, differing in sentence order from the Hebrew structure.