You shall count therefore from the morrow after the sabbath, wherein you offered the sheaf of the firstfruits, seven full weeks.

“AND YE SHALL COUNT ‘LACHEM’ (UNTO YOU). The meaning thereof is similar to the expression And ye shall take ‘lachem,’ thus establishing that the counting [of the forty-nine days of the omer] and the taking [of the lulav, ethrog etc. on the Festival of Tabernacles] be done by each and every person. Thus the counting must be done by word of mouth, and he should mention the number, just as our Rabbis have received it by tradition..” This is unlike the expressions and he shall count ‘lo’ (to himself) seven days for his cleansing; then she shall number ‘lah’ (to herself) seven days, Verse 28. [referring to a man or woman who suffered a flux, in which case the counting of the clean days does not have to be uttered by word of mouth], because if they so wish, they may remain in their impurity; they must only beware not to forget their impurity [and enter the Sanctuary or eat holy food in a state of defilement, which Scripture strongly forbids]. or zavah] is under no obligation to proceed with the purification. Hence “the counting” of the seven clean days which the Torah mentioned that they must do could not be in the nature of a positive act — counting by word of mouth — but merely a warning that they should not forget their state of impurity. However, in the case of the counting of the omer, this reasoning is inapplicable, since the observance of Shevuoth on the fiftieth day is not a matter of choice, hence “the counting” must mean by word of mouth. Similarly, And thou shall number ‘lecha’ (unto thee) seven Sabbaths of years etc. of the Jubilee, means [only] that you shall be heedful of the number so that you should not forget [when the Jubilee year falls, but the actual counting of the years does not have to be by word of mouth]. But in the Torath Kohanim I have found it said: 2:1. “And thou shalt number unto thee — in the court.” Now I do not know if the intention is to state that the Great Court [of seventy-one judges] is obliged [actually] to count the years and the Sabbatical cycles at the beginning of every year, and to recite a benediction before the counting as we do at the counting [of the forty-nine days] of the omer; or it may be that the intention [of the Torath Kohanim] is to state that the court should be careful in the counting of the years, and sanctify the fiftieth year., p. 144. Thus the number of days from the day of the waving of the omer until the day of the holy convocation [i.e., the Festival of Weeks], is identical to the number of years of the [seven] Sabbatical cycles until the Jubilee, and the reason for them is the same. Therefore ye shall number fifty days which means that one is to count seven weeks [comprising] forty-nine days, and sanctify the fiftieth day which he has counted [and make it a holy convocation], just as He said with respect to the Jubilee. This is the meaning of the word t’mimoth (complete) — [seven weeks shall there be ‘complete’], meaning that they be exactly that number, no less and no more, just as is the meaning of the expression: they shall be perfect, for anything additional or missing makes a thing imperfect. Thus the explanation of this section is that we are to begin counting the days in the beginning of the barley harvest, and bring of the first fruits of the harvest, of the fresh ears, a meal-offering unto the Eternal, and also to offer up with it an offering,. and to finish the counting of the days in the beginning of the corn harvest, as a shock of grain cometh up in its season, and bring of it a meal-offering of fine corn flour unto the Eternal, and to offer with it also an offering. This is the reason why He mentioned these offerings in this section, because they are brought on account of the meal-offerings which are the main [commandment] of these festivals, but He did not mention the Additional Offerings brought on these festivals [which are enumerated in the Book of Numbers], even as He did not mention those of the rest of the festivals.”

“Here is the institution of the feast of pentecost, or weeks, as it is called (Deu 16:9), because it was observed fifty days, or seven weeks, after the passover. It is also called the feast of harvest, Exo 23:16. For as the presenting of the sheaf of first-fruits was an introduction to the harvest, and gave them liberty to put in the sickle, so they solemnized the finishing of their corn-harvest at this feast. 1. Then they offered a handful of ears of barley, now they offered two loaves of wheaten bread, Lev 23:17. This was leavened. At the passover they ate unleavened bread, because it was in remembrance of the bread they ate when they came out of Egypt, which was unleavened; but now at pentecost it was leavened, because it was an acknowledgment of God's goodness to them in their ordinary food, which was leavened. 2. With that sheaf of first-fruits they offered only one lamb for a burnt-offering, but with these loaves of first-fruits they offered seven lambs, two rams, and one bullock, all for a burnt-offering, so giving glory to God, as the Lord of their land and the Lord of their harvest, by whose favour they lived and to whose praise they ought to live. They offered likewise a kid for a sin-offering, so taking shame to themselves as unworthy of the bread they ate, and imploring pardon for their sins, by which they had forfeited their harvest-mercies, and which they had been guilty of in the receiving of them. And lastly, two lambs for a sacrifice of peace-offerings, to beg a blessing upon the corn they had gathered in, which would be neither sure nor sweet to them without that blessing, Hag 1:9. These were the only peace-offerings that were offered on the behalf of the whole congregation, and they were reckoned most holy offerings, whereas other peace-offerings were but holy. All these offerings are here appointed, Lev 23:18-20. 3. That one day was to be kept with a holy convocation, Lev 23:21. It was one of the days on which all Israel was to meet God and one another, at the place which the Lord should choose. Some suggest that whereas seven days were to make up the feast of unleavened bread there was only one day appointed for the feast of pentecost, because this was a busy time of the year with them, and God allowed them speedily to return to their work in the country. This annual feast was instituted in remembrance of the giving of the law upon mount Sinai, the fiftieth day after they came out of Egypt. That was the feast which they were told in Egypt must be observed to God in the wilderness, as a memorial of which ever after they kept this feast. But the period and perfection of this feast was the pouring out of the Spirit upon the apostles on the day of this feast (Act 2:1), in which the law of faith was given, fifty days after Christ our passover was sacrificed for us. And on that day (as bishop Patrick well expresses it) the apostles, having themselves received the first-fruits of the Spirit, begat three thousand souls, through the word of truth, and presented them, as the first-fruits of the Christian church, to God and the Lamb. To the institution of the feast of pentecost is annexed a repetition of that law which we had before (Lev 19:9), by which they were required to leave the gleanings of their fields, and the corn that grew on the ends of the butts, for the poor, Lev 23:22. Probably it comes in here as a thing which the priests must take occasion to remind the people of, when they brought their first-fruits, intimating to them that to obey even in this small matter was better than sacrifice, and that, unless they were obedient, their offerings should not be accepted. It also taught them that the joy of harvest should express itself in charity to the poor, who must have their due out of what we have, as well as God his. Those that are truly sensible of the mercy they receive from God will without grudging show mercy to the poor.”

“And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath,.... Not the seventh day sabbath in the passover week, nor the whole feast of unleavened bread, but the first day of it, which was an holy convocation, a sabbath in which no servile work was to be done, Lev 23:7; and it was from the day after this, even the sixteenth of Nisan, that the following count was to be made; so the Targum of Jonathan, after the first feast day of the passover: and Josephus (s) is very clear in it, that Pentecost, or the feast of weeks, was the fiftieth day from the sixteenth of Nisan, when the above offerings were made: from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; which plainly points out the express day from whence the count was to begin, even on the day when the sheaf of the firstfruits of the barley harvest was offered: seven sabbaths shall be complete; or seven weeks, that is, forty nine days; and hence, Jarchi says, we learn that the count began from the evening, or otherwise the weeks would not be complete; and Gersom thinks the day in which the sheaf was offered is included in the days counted; for the count began from the day after the first of the passover, and lo, seven days are seven weeks of days, which make forty nine days. (s) Antiqu. l. 3. c. 10. sect. 6.”

“Ye shall count unto you - seven Sabbaths - That is, from the sixteenth of the first month to the sixth of the third month. These seven weeks, called here Sabbaths, were to be complete, i. e., the forty-nine days must be finished, and the next day, the fiftieth, is what, from the Septuagint, we call pentecost. See the note on Luk 6:1.”

“Sabbath. Not the ninth day of the week, but the first day of the Passover; from the morrow of which seven weeks or 49 days were reckoned; and the next day was Pentecost. (Menochius) — They began, therefore, to count on the 16th of Nisan, and end on the 6th of the third month Sivan. All the intermediate days took their denomination from this second day of the Passover; so that the next Saturday was called the first sabbath after the second day; in Greek Deuteroproton, the second-first; (Luke vi. 1,) a term which had puzzled all the interpreters until Jos. Scaliger made this discovery. (Emend. vi.) The Samaritans count from the day after that sabbath which follows the Passover; so that if the festival fall on Monday, they celebrate Pentecost later than the Jews. See their Letter to Huntington. (Calmet)”

“The law for the special observance of the feast of Harvest (Exo 23:16) is added here without any fresh introductory formula, to show at the very outset the close connection between the two feasts. Seven whole weeks, or fifty days, were to be reckoned from the day of the offering of the sheaf, and then the day of first-fruits (Num 28:26) or feast of Weeks (Exo 34:22; Deu 16:10) was to be celebrated. From this reckoning the feast received the name of Pentecost (ἡ πεντηκοστή, Act 2:1). That שׁבּתות (Lev 23:15) signifies weeks, like שׁבעות in Deu 16:9, and τὰ σάββατα in the Gospels (e.g., Mat 28:1), is evident from the predicate תּמימת, "complete," which would be quite unsuitable if Sabbath-days were intended, as a long period might be reckoned by half weeks instead of whole, but certainly not by half Sabbath-days. Consequently "the morrow after the seventh Sabbath" (Lev 23:16) is the day after the seventh week, not after the seventh Sabbath. On this day, i.e., fifty days after the first day of Mazzoth, Israel was to offer a new meat-offering to the Lord, i.e., made of the fruit of the new harvest (Lev 26:10), "wave-loaves" from its dwellings, two of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour baked leavened, like the bread which served for their daily food, "as first-fruits unto the Lord," and of the wheat-harvest (Exo 34:22), which fell in the second half of May and the first weeks of June (Robinson, Palestine), and therefore was finished as a whole by the feast of Weeks. The loaves differed from all the other meat-offerings, being made of leavened dough, because in them their daily bread was offered to the Lord, who had blessed the harvest, as a thank-offering for His blessing. They were therefore only given to the Lord symbolically by waving, and were then to belong to the priests (Lev 23:20). The injunction "out of your habitations" is not to be understood, as Calvin and others suppose, as signifying that every householder was to present two such loaves; it simply expresses the idea, that they were to be loaves made for the daily food of a household, and not prepared expressly for holy purposes.”