Leviticus 23:40
And you shall take to you on the first day the fruits of the fairest tree, and branches of palm trees, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God.
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The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Sumetisque vobis die primo fructus arboris pulcherrimæ, spatulasque palmarum, et ramos ligni densarum frondium, et salices de torrente, et lætabimini coram Domino Deo vestro.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ λήμψεσθε τῇ πρώτῃ καρπὸν ξύλου ὡραῖον καὶ κάλλυνθρα φοινίκων καὶ κλάδους ξύλου δασεῖς καὶ ἰτέας καὶ ἄγνου κλάδους ἐκ χειμάρρου, εὐφρανθῆναι ἔναντι Κυρίου τοῦ θεοῦ ὑμῶν ἑπτὰ ἡμέρας τοῦ ἐνιαυτοῦ·
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וּלְקַחְתֶּ֨ם לָכֶ֜ם בַּיּ֣וֹם הָרִאשׁ֗וֹן פְּרִ֨י עֵ֤ץ הָדָר֙ כַּפֹּ֣ת תְּמָרִ֔ים וַעֲנַ֥ף עֵץ עָבֹ֖ת וְעַרְבֵי נָ֑חַל וּשְׂמַחְתֶּ֗ם לִפְנֵ֛י יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶ֖ם שִׁבְעַ֥ת יָמִֽים
Haydock's commentary
Fairest tree, branches of the orange or citron tree, laden with blossoms and fruit. (Tirinus)
Josephus ([Antiquities?] iii. 10,) says, they took branches of myrtle, willows, and palm trees, on which they fixed oranges. This is the fruit which the Hebrews generally understand to be hereby designated. In the same sense the Arabic and Syriac translate "golden apples."
Thick trees, of any species; though Josephus, &c., restrain it to the myrtle, which was certainly used on this occasion, 2 Esdras viii. 12.
Willows. Septuagint adds also, "branches of agnus from the torrent." Perhaps Moses only meant, that these branches should be used in forming the tents; but the Jews hold them in their hands, while they go in solemn procession round the pulpit in their synagogues, during every day of the octave, before breakfast, crying out Ana hosiah na, &c., "Save us we beseech thee, O Lord; we beseech thee, grant us good success." They gave the title of hosannah to those branches; in allusion to which, the children sung in honour of Jesus Christ, Hosanna to the Son of David.
Rejoice; dancing and singing before the altar of holocausts, 2 Kings vi. 14. The wisdom of God shines forth, in thus attaching to his worship a carnal people, by intermingling with the most solemn ceremonies some relaxation and pleasure. By calling them together so often in the year, they became also better acquainted with one another, and more in love with their religion and country. The ancient lawgivers entertained the like sentiments. (Seneca, Strabo x.) But the pagans generally carried these diversions to excess. (Calmet)
Read on
In this chapter we find six festivals specified: 1. sabbath; 2. Passover; 3. Pentecost; 4. trumpets; 5. expiation; 6. tabernacles, lasting till the octave day of assembly and collection. These three last were celebrated in the 7th month, the 1st of the civil year. There was also a feast on all the new moons, Numbers xxviii. 11. (Haydock)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Methodius The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity, Chapter I
God, when He appointed to the true Israelites the legal rite of the true feast of the tabernacles, directed, in Leviticus, how they should keep and do honour to the feast; above all things, saying that each one should adorn his tabernacle with chastity. I will add the words themselves of Scripture, from which, without any doubt, it will be shown how agreeable to God, and acceptable to Him, is this ordinance of virginity: “In the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the Lord seven days: on the first day shall be a Sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a Sabbath. And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm-trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days. …
St Methodius The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity, Chapter III
“And ye shall take you,” He says, “on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm-trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows (and the tree of chastity) of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God.” The Jews, uncircumcised in heart, think that the most beautiful fruit of wood is the citron wood, on account of its size; nor are they ashamed to say that God is worshipped with cedar, to whom not all the quadrupeds of the earth would suffice as a burnt-offering or as incense for burning. And moreover, O hard breasts, if the citron appear beautiful to you, why not the pomegranate, and other fruits of trees, and amongst them apples, which much surpass the citron? Indeed, in the Song of Songs, Solomon having made mention of all these fruits, passes over in silence the citron only. …
St Methodius The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity, Chapter IV
“And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm-trees.” This signifies the exercise of divine discipline, by which the mind that subdues the passions is cleansed and adorned by the sweeping out and ejection from it of sins. For it is necessary to come cleansed and adorned to the feast, arrayed, as by a decorator, in the discipline and exercise of virtue. For the mind being cleansed by laborious exercises from the distracting thoughts which darken it, quickly perceives the truth; as the widow in the Gospels found the piece of money after she had swept the house and cast out the dirt, that is, the passions which obscure and cloud the mind, which increase in us from our luxuriousness and carelessness.
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Nepotian
10. Many build churches nowadays; their walls and pillars of glowing marble, their ceilings glittering with gold, their altars studded with jewels. Yet to the choice of Christ’s ministers no heed is paid. And let no one allege against me the wealth of the temple in Judæa, its table, its lamps, its censers, its dishes, its cups, its spoons, and the rest of its golden vessels. If these were approved by the Lord it was at a time when the priests had to offer victims and when the blood of sheep was the redemption of sins. They were figures typifying things still future and were “written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come.” But now our Lord by His poverty has consecrated the poverty of His house. Let us, therefore, think of His cross and count riches to be but dirt. …
The Fathers are given as they wrote. Where a passage lays the Passion on the Jewish people, the Church teaches that it cannot be charged against all the Jews then living, nor against the Jews of today, and that all sinners were its authors (CCC 597, 598).