Deuteronomy 16:9-12. THE FEAST OF WEEKS, OR PENTECOST.

See also Exodus 23:16; Exodus 34:18-23; Leviticus 23:15-22; Numbers 28:26-31. The feast itself is ordained in Exodus; the time is given in Leviticus; and the sacrifices in Numbers.

(9) From such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn.--The word for sickle only occurs here and in Deuteronomy 23:25. In Leviticus the weeks are ordered to be reckoned from the offering of the wave sheaf on the sixteenth day of the first month, two days after the Passover. This sheaf was of barley, the first ripe corn. A different view is sometimes taken of the word "Sabbath "in Leviticus 23:11; but the view given here is correct according to the Talmud.

(10) A tribute.--This word (missah) occurs nowhere else in the Bible. The marginal rendering, "sufficiency," is its Aramaic or Chaldaean sense. The idea seems to be "a proportionate offering "--i.e., a free will offering, proportioned to a man's means and prosperity. In Exodus 34:20; Exodus 23:15, we read, "None shall appear before me empty." The command is made general for all the three feasts in Deuteronomy 16:16-17 further on.

(11) Thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God.--This aspect of the feast of weeks is specially insisted upon in Deuteronomy. Its relation to the poor appears also in the command connected with this feast in Leviticus 23:22, to leave the corners of the fields un-reaped for them.

Verses 9-12. - The Feast of Weeks (cf. Exodus 23:16). Verse 9. - From such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn; i.e. from the commencement of the corn harvest. The seven weeks were to be counted from this terminus; and as the corn harvest began by the presentation of the sheaf of the firstfruits on the second day of the Passover, this regulation as to time coincides with that in Leviticus 23:15.

16:1-17 The laws for the three yearly feasts are here repeated; that of the Passover, that of the Pentecost, that of Tabernacles; and the general law concerning the people's attendance. Never should a believer forget his low estate of guilt and misery, his deliverance, and the price it cost the Redeemer; that gratitude and joy in the Lord may be mingled with sorrow for sin, and patience under the tribulations in his way to the kingdom of heaven. They must rejoice in their receivings from God, and in their returns of service and sacrifice to him; our duty must be our delight, as well as our enjoyment. If those who were under the law must rejoice before God, much more we that are under the grace of the gospel; which makes it our duty to rejoice evermore, to rejoice in the Lord always. When we rejoice in God ourselves, we should do what we can to assist others also to rejoice in him, by comforting the mourners, and supplying those who are in want. All who make God their joy, may rejoice in hope, for He is faithful that has promised.Seven weeks then shalt thou number unto thee,.... And then another feast was to take place, called from hence the feast of weeks, and sometimes Pentecost, from its being the fiftieth day:

begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn; for the sheaf of the wave offering, as the first fruits of barley harvest, which was done on the morrow after the sabbath in the passover week, and from thence seven weeks or fifty days were reckoned, and the fiftieth day was the feast here ordered to be kept; so the Targum of Jonathan,"after the reaping of the sheaf ye shall begin to number seven weeks;''see Leviticus 23:15.