What Does Leviticus 23:4 Mean in the King James?
These are the feasts of the LORD, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Hebrew word rendered “feasts” returns as “seasons,” revealing holy gatherings as appointments woven into time.
THE MEANING
Your time is not an undifferentiated stream here: certain moments are appointed for gathering before the LORD. Proclamation gives those moments a shared shape, so the call is both an announcement and a convocation.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that sacred time is only what a person happens to feel as sacred: these times are appointed, then proclaimed for gathering.
THE ROOT
מוֹעֲדֵי
mo'adei
GROWS FROM
יעד
y-ʿ-d
To appoint or designate; by extension, to set a time or place for meeting.
“feasts” in this verse is mo'adei. The same Hebrew word appears again in “their seasons,” though English renders it differently. The verse presents these gatherings as appointments embedded in time, not merely as a festival label.
ALSO GROWS
ya'ad: To appoint or designate.
יָעַד
This root gives the appointed gathering its sense of a time deliberately set aside.
mo'ed: An appointed time, meeting, or meeting place.
מוֹעֵד
This is the seed word behind both “feasts” and “seasons” in the verse, joining sacred gathering to sacred time.
מִקְרָאֵי
miqra'ey
GROWS FROM
קרא
q-r-ʾ
To call, summon, or proclaim.
The word for “convocations” and the verb “proclaim” share the root קרא. English separates the assembly from its announcement, while Hebrew places both under the same act of calling.
ALSO GROWS
qara: To call or proclaim.
קָרָא
This is the root of “ye shall proclaim,” the act that announces the appointed time.
miqra: A convocation or calling together; also a reading or recitation.
מִקְרָא
The gathering itself is a “calling,” linking the announced time to the assembled people.
THE PATTERN
Recurring appointed times call people into gathered presence.
And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:Let the children of Israel also keep the passover at his appointed season.And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.THE THREAD
And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:Genesis uses the same word, מוֹעֲדִים (mo’adim), for the “seasons” marked by the lights. Leviticus uses it for the LORD’s appointed gatherings: the calendar’s marked times become convocations.
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