The enumeration of “feast days, new moons, sabbaths” can also be found
in the LXX of Ezek 45:17 and Hos 2:13 (cf. 1QM II:4) and in a different order
in the LXX 1 Chr 23:31; 2 Chr 2:3; 31:3. It serves as a summary of all feasts
that Israel was to celebrate according to the prescriptions of the law. Heortē thus designates the yearly
feasts, neomēnia, as the name already
indicates, the feast at the beginning of the month and sabbata the weekly holy day. Ezekiel especially emphasizes the
significance of the feast for Israel and places their ritual requirements next
to warnings not to pollute itself through worship of idols (cf. Ezek 20:18–20;
22:8, 9, 26; 23:3, ff.). These feasts, according to this exilic prophet,
preserve the identity of this nation in a special way as the people of God and
they demonstrate that Yahweh is the God of this nation. (Markus
Barth and Helmut Blanke, Colossians: A New
Translation with Introduction and Commentary [trans. Astrid B. Beck; AYB 34B;
New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008], 339)
