Bible Strands
Leviticus 23:5
The Passover to the LORD begins at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Leviticus 23:5 is part of a divine declaration to Israel listing the sacred assemblies. It appears immediately after the general introduction to the appointed feasts and directly before the instructions for the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
The words — The Hebrew text highlights בֵּין הָעַרְבַּיִם (bein ha'arbayim), literally "between the evenings," and פֶּסַח (pesach), meaning "a passover." These terms specify the exact temporal window and the identity of the feast.
The thread — The calendar placement is echoed in Deuteronomy 16:1 and Joshua 5:10, while Exodus 12:2 designates the same month as the first of the year.
Why it lands — The text fixes the Passover on a precise chronological marker, requiring observers to track the lunar calendar and prepare accordingly. It demands immediate recognition of the appointed time before any ritual action begins.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the Lord’s passover.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 16:1 Observe the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover to the LORD your God, because in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night.
- Joshua 5:10 On the evening of the fourteenth day of the month, while the Israelites were camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, they kept the Passover.
- Exodus 12:2 “This month is the beginning of months for you; it shall be the first month of your year.
- Exodus 12:18 In the first month you are to eat unleavened bread, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day.
- Exodus 13:3 So Moses told the people, “Remember this day, the day you came out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; for the LORD brought you out of it by the strength of His hand. And nothing leavened shall be eaten.
- Numbers 28:16 The fourteenth day of the first month is the LORD’s Passover.
- Exodus 23:15 You are to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread as I commanded you: At the appointed time in the month of Abib you are to eat unleavened bread for seven days, because that was the month you came out of Egypt. No one may appear before Me empty-handed.
- 2 Chronicles 35:18 No such Passover had been observed in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet. None of the kings of Israel ever observed a Passover like the one that Josiah observed with the priests, the Levites, all Judah, the Israelites who were present, and the people of Jerusalem.
- Matthew 26:17 On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?”
- 1 Corinthians 5:7 Get rid of the old leaven, that you may be a new unleavened batch, as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.