Introduction
     Because of the teachings of Rabbi Hillel II, postponements were made to prevent back-to-back Sabbaths. At times, you’ll see Pentecost (also called Feast of Weeks or Shavuot in the Hebrew language) falling within the middle of some weeks on Jewish calendars. Many will count from the 1st High Sabbath of Unleavened Bread (H7677 shabbathown, not H7676 the weekly shabbat). They’ll point to the 6th day in the third month (sivan), even though it’s not Scripturally correct.
    Adding to the complexity, some observe the count to Pentecost from the new moon next succeeding the Days of Unleavened Bread, considering it the ‘beginning of weeks.’ However, this approach can lead to a week that is 2 or 3 days long, making it impossible to count the days to 50 while maintaining the 7 complete weeks. Consequently, they either conclude a count that falls short of the commanded 50 days, or if they include 7 complete (as in 7-day) weeks along with one week that is only a couple days, they exceed the 50-day count which is not what Yahweh commanded.
    The correct method of counting Pentecost is to observe ‘seven complete sabbaths’ (7x7) and then add ‘the day after the seventh sabbath’ (+1), which equals 50 days. This pattern is similar to what we see in the Sabbatical and Jubilee years. Following this method, you can ensure that you count Pentecost correctly according to Yahweh’s law.
    We preface, therefore, what follows with a Scripture:
    Trust in Yahweh with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight, Proverbs 3:5-6. (New American Standard Bible used throughout.) These verses order our acknowledging His instructions.

Calendar Views … the Law Says
     All the aforementioned dates are for the North American Region. (For all other regions, see our YAIY Regional Calendars online.)
    In some years, like in 2022, Passover occurred on the Sabbath, with the first day of Unleavened Bread commencing the next day, Sunday and concluding on the weekly, as we see in the accompanying 2022 calendar for the North America region.
    Using the weekly Sabbath occurring within the Days of Unleavened Bread as the marker, the count to Pentecost begins from the Sunday following this weekly Sabbath that falls within the Days of Unleavened Bread (Lev. 23:15-16). And when this is consistently done from year to year, Pentecost always falls on a Sunday, the 50th day.
    The wave sheaf of new barley is offered to Yahweh so that the rest of the harvest is blessed. It is the best of the best when the barley harvest is ready. Though the barley harvest may follow the Days of Unleavened Bread, the wave sheaf is always offered at its appointed time – on the morrow after the weekly Sabbath occurring during the Feast of Unleavened Bread –
    He (the priest) shall wave the sheaf before Yahweh for you to be accepted; on the day after the Sabbath (H7676) the priest shall wave it, Leviticus 23:11.
    Unleavened bread, during the Days of Unleavened Bread, may be consumed either from old or new grain, though new grain cannot be eaten – even if harvested early – until the wave sheaf of new barley is offered at its appointed time.
    (Incidentally, Yahshua’s first ascension symbolizes the wave sheaf offering. He presented Himself to the Father as an Acceptable Wave sheaf Offering just as the first day of the week was coming in.)
    Though the timing of Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread changes from year to year, the accompanying calendar year 2030 perfectly marks the time coincident with Yahshua’s Passover-death; 3-day interment in the heart of the earth; resurrection and first ascension (presentation before His Father as an Acceptable Wave sheaf Offering).
    In some years, while the temple was yet standing, the priests would have offered a wave sheaf at the end of the Days of Unleavened Bread. (See the accompanying calendar year 2018)
    In that year, the wave sheaf fell on the last High Day of Unleavened Bread. It is anticipated, this will also occur this year, in 2025.
    What does the Law say? Again, the Law of Yahweh clearly states that the weekly Sabbath is the marker to identify the following day (Sunday) from which to begin the count to Pentecost.
    The day on which the wave sheaf is offered, however, is not a Holy Day – an annual Sabbath like the 15th or 21st of the Days of Unleavened Bread, or Pentecost – but an appointed time in which servile work may be done including harvest of the barley crop, if it is ready. These latter days are clearly declared in the Scriptures as Holy Convocations (Lev. 23:6-8, 21) in which servile work is prohibited.
    However, when the wave sheaf offering should occur on the 7th Day of Unleavened Bread – the 21st day of the first Scriptural month – then it would be reckoned a Holy Day of Convocation.
    Following, are Scriptures that govern our observance:
    Then on the fifteenth day of the same month there is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to Yahweh; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, Leviticus 23:6.
    “… fifteenth day … Feast of Unleavened Bread … for seven days you shall eat …” – clearly seven days, not eight days. We have further details given in verses 15 and 16.
    You shall also count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath (H7676), from the day when you brought in the sheaf of the wave offering; there shall be seven complete Sabbaths (H7676). You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath (H7676); then you shall present a new grain (wheat) offering to Yahweh.
    From the day after the (weekly) Sabbath occurring during the Week of Unleavened Bread and on which the wave sheaf is offered, we begin the count of fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath (H7676). As we have seen, there will be some years (2018, 2025) when the wave sheaf offering occurs on the last (7th) Day of Unleavened Bread, a Holy Day.

Old Grains
     While the sons of Israel camped at Gilgal they observed the Passover on the evening of the fourteenth day of the month on the desert plains of Jericho. On the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate some of the produce (H5669) of the land, unleavened cakes and parched [grain]. The manna ceased on the day after they had eaten some of the produce (H5669) of the land, so that the sons of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate some of the yield of the land of Canaan during that year, Joshua 5:10-12.
    Israel “ate of the produce” (H5669 abur, old grain). Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, H3759 karmel, and not H5669 abur, is used to describe “new growth.” Karmel is a stage past abib (green ears) in which the grain can be ground into flour.
    “Produce” is defined in Strong’s as “old grains.” Manna ended and the Israelites ate the produce of the land. As someone pointed out to us recently, “The end of the manna was not contingent on eating new grain, but on eating the grain of the land of Canaan.” That grain was the old growth of the land, which they ate that year. It would have been conveniently taken as booty. When the people of Canaan, having heard how that Yahweh had dried up the Jordan for Israel to pass over, there was no spirit in them to protest Israel taking what they would.
    Moreover, the Scripture doesn’t read “the produce of the land” was barley. Unleavened cakes are made from dry flour. Parched grain is dry roasted. Both can be stored because they are dry.

Stored Grains, etc.
     For Yahweh your Elohim is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; a land where you will eat food without scarcity, in which you will not lack anything; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper, Deuteronomy 8:7-9. (emphasis, ours)
    Though scarcely worthy of comparison with Israel’s mandate from Yahweh to vanquish Canaan and His promise to them that once there, they would lack nothing, Russian troops’ current invasion and occupation of Ukraine has netted provision for their consumption, grains and other processed packaged foods kept in store from previous harvests.
    Agricultural societies have ways of storing grains and other foods from previous years through processes of drying and canning produce.
    Recently, while my wife and I were itinerating in Kerala, India, we were astonished that there was so much food. Nearly every home we visited, there were avocado, banana, coconut, guava, mango, papaya, jackfruit, pineapple, breadfruit, and passion fruit – stored or otherwise – a land flowing with milk and honey. We lacked nothing. A neighbor brought us milk from her cow for our morning coffee. We saw large honey bee hives up in the trees at a natural wildlife preserve. We even saw a cashew nut tree. One does not have this much and not learn how to store them for later consumption.
    While David was in exile during Absalom’s usurpation of his realm, we read that he and his company were provided with “beds, basins, pottery, wheat, barley, flour, parched grain, beans, lentils, parched seeds, honey, curds, sheep, and cheese of the herd” (2 Sam. 17:28-29) because it was observed, that “The people are hungry and weary and thirsty in the wilderness” (2 Sam.17:29).
    This was all stored food, but note “the parched grain” and “parched seeds.” Grain and seeds that have been roasted and salted, taste better than raw.
    The pottery served as storage containers used for the dried wheat, barley, flour, parched grain, beans, lentils, and parched seeds.

Specifically, When and What to Do
     Yahweh left detailed instructions for the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when they went into the land to possess it:
    Then it shall be, when you enter the land which Yahweh your Elohim gives you as an inheritance, AND you possess it and live in it, that [it will be at that specific time] you shall take some of the first of all the produce of the ground which you bring in from your land that Yahweh your Elohim gives you, AND you shall put [it] in a basket and go to the place where Yahweh your Elohim chooses to establish His Name. You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, “I declare this day to Yahweh your Elohim that I have [now fully] entered the land which Yahweh swore to our fathers to give us.” Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of Yahweh your Elohim. You shall answer and say before Yahweh your Elohim, “My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down to Egypt and sojourned there, few in number; but there he became a great, mighty and populous nation. And the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, and imposed hard labor on us. Then we cried to Yahweh, the Elohim of our fathers, and Yahweh heard our voice and saw our affliction and our toil and our oppression; and Yahweh brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with great terror and with signs and wonders; and He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. Now behold, I have brought the first of the produce of the ground which You, O Yahweh have given me. And you shall set it down before Yahweh your Elohim, and worship before Yahweh your Elohim; and you and the Levite and the alien who is among you shall rejoice in all the good which Yahweh your Elohim has given you and your household,” Deuteronomy 26:1-11.
    Israel went into the land flowing with milk and honey and lacked nothing. However, because “the produce of the land” (Josh. 5:11) – H5669 abur, old grain – was not their own planting, and because they hadn’t yet fully “possessed” the land, they didn’t need to concern themselves with eating the prohibited new harvested grains of the land until a wave sheaf was offered.
    Only when they had fully come into the land, possessed it, and grown their own crops, must they then obey the commandment to offer of their own harvest, the “new growth” H3759 karmel, wave sheaf offering.
    Hence I have said to you, “You are to possess their land, and I Myself will give it to you to possess it, a land flowing with milk and honey.” I am Yahweh your Elohim, Who has separated you from the peoples, Leviticus 20:24.
    Thus, this particular year of which Deuteronomy 26:1-11 speaks, would have been subsequent to the year in which they entered the land, because they would have experienced many battles before they should have peace sufficient to be able to begin and conclude an agricultural enterprise.
    This is the time identified with a new agricultural year and count to a Sabbatical and it was emphasized by the following instructions given immediately after the other wave sheaf instructions speaking of their own planting.
    When you reap the harvest of your land, moreover, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field nor gather the gleaning of your harvest; you are to leave them for the needy and the alien. I am Yahweh your Elohim, Leviticus 23:22.
    When you have finished paying all the tithe of your increase in the third year, the year of tithing, then you shall give it to the Levite, to the stranger, to the orphan and to the widow, that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied. You shall say before Yahweh your Elohim, “I have removed the sacred [portion] from [my] house, and also have given it to the Levite and the alien, the orphan and the widow, according to all Your commandments which You have commanded me; I have not transgressed or forgotten any of Your commandments. I have not eaten of it while mourning, nor have I removed any of it while I was unclean, nor offered any of it to the dead. I have listened to the voice of Yahweh my Elohim; I have done according to all that You have commanded me. Look down from Your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel, and the ground which You have given us, a land flowing with milk and honey, as You swore to our fathers,” Deuteronomy 26:12-15.
    Very likely, Israel continued to eat of the store which the peoples of Canaan had put away while Israel was about the business of conquering the land which, during this time, was reserved to its sabbath. We come to this conclusion because of the Law’s provision of a tithe, made for the Levite, the stranger, the orphan and the widow (Deut. 26:12) during the third year – presumably, the third year from the sabbatical year. Hence, instructions given for preparation of the year of tithing and the allowance for gleaning of the fields, freely eating of whatever grows of itself.
    Considering the specific instructions in the book of Deuteronomy that was read to the people before entering the land, there are also other Scriptures alluding to “their land,” in which the plantings and the offerings thereof would then be observed:
    “You shall bring the very first of the first fruits of your soil into the house of Yahweh your Elohim” (Exod. 34:26a).
    Also [you shall observe] the Feast of the Harvest [of] the first fruits of your labors from what you sow in the field; also the Feast of the Ingathering at the end of the year when you gather in [the fruit of] your labors from the field, Exodus 23:16.
    “You shall bring the choice first fruits of your soil into the house of Yahweh your Elohim” (Exod. 23:19a).
    Of the first of your dough you shall lift up a cake as an offering; as the offering of the threshing floor, so you shall lift it up. From the first of your dough you shall give to Yahweh an offering throughout your generations, Number 15:20-21.
    “… the harvest of your land … of your soil … of your labors, from what you sow … the fruit of your labors from the field … the choice first fruits of your soil …the first of your dough …”

The Main Points
    • The weekly Sabbath within the seven days of Unleavened Bread is key to knowing when the count to Pentecost begins.
    • The people were to possess and live in the land, and from their own planted, crops of barley, they were to give a wave sheaf.
    These two points, or, if you will, these two witnesses, are the specific instructions Yahweh gave to Israel – “… on the evidence of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed” (Deut.19:15) quoted in 2 Corinthians 13:1b, says, “every fact is to be confirmed by the testimony of two or three witnesses.”
    So, what do we do? Do we pay heed to what Yahweh says and emphasizes, or do we appropriate a Sovereignly-ordained exception-to-the-rule … using Joshua 5:10-12 as a proof text to negate Yahweh’s instructions? The answer is clear: as for us and our house, we will serve Yahweh (Josh. 24:15) without making any private interpretation of the Scripture (2 Pet. 1:20).

Yahshua, the Firstfruit
     Now, let’s look at the New Testament concerning the count to Pentecost.
    Now on the first [day] of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw the stone [already] taken away from the tomb, John 20:1.
    Messiah had risen Saturday night (after the Sabbath had past). Mary then saw Him and thought He was a gardener, but then He made Himself known to her.
    Yahshua said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” (which means, Teacher). Yahshua said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My Elohim and your Elohim.’” Mary Magdalene came, announcing to the disciples, “I have seen the Master,” and that He had said these things to her, John 20:16-18.
    Yahshua ascended to Yahweh, offered up as an Acceptable Wave Sheaf.
    But now is Messiah risen from the dead, and become the First-Fruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man [came] also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Messiah shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Messiah the First-Fruits; afterward they that are Messiah’s at His coming, 1 Corinthians 15:20-23.
    Other Scriptures testify of Yahshua’s resurrection as a type of Wave Sheaf Offering:
    “He would be the Firstborn among many brethren” (Rom. 8:29).
    “He is the Firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything” (Col. 1:18)
    Afterward, upon His return from having presented Himself as That Acceptable Wave Sheaf Offering, He allowed His disciples to freely touch Him.
    And He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have, Luke 24:38-39.
    Then He said to Thomas, “Reach here your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and be not unbelieving, but believing,” John 20:27.
    Paul also gives testimony of the timing of Yahshua when He was raised from the tomb and after his ascension and return to the earth for a time seeing and being seen by many.
    For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Messiah died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also, 1 Corinthians 15:3-8.

Words Matter
     In all of this we should look at one Scripture that is often overlooked and misinterpreted since many do not care about the count to Pentecost. It’s in John 20:19.
    When therefore it was evening on that day, the first [day] of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Yahshua came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you,” John 20:19.
    The second “day” is supplied by the translators. Likely, “the first day” was the first of the weeks, that is, the count to Pentecost, which is 7 complete weeks.
    The word for week is Strong’s G.4521 sabbaton which is a word that can mean Sabbath or Week. The morphology, provided by an Interlinear, shows this word is a “noun, genitive, plural, neuter.” The part that stands out is the plural.
    So when it was evening on that day, the first of the weeks, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Yahshua came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” John 20:19.
    Rather than saying “the first day of the week” it may as well be rendered “the first of the weeks,” as in counting to Pentecost.
    The evening would be just after sunset from the 7th day, which would Biblically be the start of the 1st day, or in this case, the morrow after the Sabbath and the beginning of the count to the 50th-day Pentecost.

Traditions of Men
    The tradition among most first-day churches, is that Yahshua was raised Sunday morning, but we know He was raised from the dead before sunset – having been interred in the tomb, exactly three days and three nights – and, according to the command of the wave sheaf, ascended or was lifted up as The Offering.
    The Scriptures provide no waiver that would allow for ‘inclusive reckoning’ … that is, compressing 72 hours into an abbreviated time of 36 hours. It would be like trying to force a square peg into a round hole. It just doesn’t work.
    The Apostles would have kept Pentecost accurately and evidently, the Day of Pentecost was being kept at the appropriate time, being 50 days after the weekly Sabbath within the Days of Unleavened Bread.
    Note well the Record:
    The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Yahshua began to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen. To these He also presented Himself alive His suffering, by many infallible proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of Elohim. And fathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, “Which,” He said, you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now … you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Juda and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” … And when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance. Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven, Acts 1:1-5, 8, 2:1-4.
    “… until the day when He was taken up … appearing to them over a period of forty days … wait for what the Father had promised … you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now … you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you … And when the day of Pentecost had come …”

In Closing
     Pentecost was a time when the Law was given in the Old Testament and the Spirit was given in the New Testament. Both are needed today by Yahweh’s people (John 4:24) as we work out our own salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12).
    We’ll close with the Scripture with which we opened this inquiry:
    Trust in Yahweh with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.
    This includes having a Lawful Pentecost Count. May Yahweh bless you this Feast of Weeks.