Deuteronomy 16
Evangelical Heritage Version
The Festivals
The Passover
16 Observe the month of Abib[a] and keep the Passover for the Lord your God, because it was in the month of Abib that the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt at night.
2 As a Passover sacrifice to the Lord your God, slaughter an animal from the flock or herd at the place where the Lord will choose to establish his name. 3 Do not eat leavened bread with it. For seven days eat unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, because you went out of the land of Egypt in a hurry. Do this so that you may remember the day that you went out from the land of Egypt for all the days of your life.
4 No yeast or leaven is to be found among you for seven days, and none of the meat that you sacrifice on the evening of the first day is to be left until morning.
5 You are not allowed to sacrifice the Passover inside the gates of any of the cities that the Lord your God is giving you. 6 Rather, it is at the place where the Lord your God will choose to establish his name that you are to sacrifice the Passover, in the evening at the setting of the sun, the time of day that you went out of Egypt.
7 Cook it and eat it at the place that the Lord your God will choose. In the morning return to your tents.
8 Six days you are to eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there is to be a special convocation to the Lord your God. Do not do any regular work.
The Festival of Weeks
9 Count off seven weeks. As the starting point of the seven weeks, mark the time that the sickle first strikes the standing grain.
10 Then observe the Festival of Weeks[b] for the Lord your God and give a voluntary offering of as much as you can afford, in keeping with how much the Lord has blessed you.
11 Rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within the gates of your city, and the alien and the fatherless and the widow who are among you. Do this in the place where the Lord your God will choose to establish his name.
12 Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, so you are to be careful to carry out these statutes.
The Festival of Shelters
13 After you have gathered in the produce from your threshing floor and your winepress, celebrate the Festival of Shelters[c] for seven days.
14 Rejoice in your festival, you and your son and your daughter, and your male servant and your female servant, and the alien and the orphan and the widow within your gates.
15 For seven days celebrate to the Lord your God in the place that the Lord will choose, because the Lord your God will bless you in all of your crops and in all the work of your hands, and you will most certainly be joyful.
16 Three times a year all of your males are to present themselves before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, at the Festival of Weeks, and at the Festival of Shelters. They are not to present themselves before the Lord empty-handed, 17 but each person is to have in his hand a gift that is in keeping with the blessing that the Lord your God has given you.
Judges
18 Appoint judges and officers for your tribes to serve at the gates of all the cities that the Lord your God is giving you. They are to judge the people with righteous judgment.
19 Do not distort justice. Do not show partiality. Do not take a bribe, because a bribe blinds the eyes of wise people and twists the actions of righteous people.
20 Justice! You are to pursue justice, so that you may live and possess the land that the Lord your God is giving you!
The Penalty for Idolatry
21 Do not set up any kind of wooden Asherah pole beside the altar of the Lord your God that you have made for yourself. 22 Do not set up for yourself a sacred memorial stone, which is something that the Lord your God hates.
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 16:1 Abib corresponds to March/April. It was the month the grain harvest began.
- Deuteronomy 16:10 Also called Pentecost or Reaping
- Deuteronomy 16:13 Also called Tabernacles or Ingathering
Deuteronomy 16
Lexham English Bible
16 “Observe the month of Abib, and you shall keep the Passover to Yahweh your God, for in the month of Abib Yahweh your God brought you out from Egypt by night. 2 And you shall offer the Passover sacrifice to Yahweh your God from among your flock and herd at the place that Yahweh will choose, to let his name dwell there. 3 You shall not eat with it[a] anything leavened; seven days you shall eat with it[b] unleavened bread of affliction, because in haste you went out from the land of Egypt, so that you will remember the day of your going out from the land of Egypt all the days of your life. 4 And leaven shall not be seen with[c] you in any of your territory[d] for seven days, and none of the meat that you will slaughter on the evening on the first day shall remain overnight until morning. 5 You are not allowed to offer the Passover sacrifice in one of your towns[e] that Yahweh your God is giving to you, 6 but only at the place that Yahweh your God will choose, to let his name dwell there; you shall offer the Passover sacrifice in the evening at sunset,[f] at the designated time[g] of your going out from Egypt. 7 And you shall cook, and you shall eat it at the place that Yahweh your God will choose; and you may turn in the morning and go to your tents. 8 Six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be an assembly for Yahweh your God; you shall not do work.
9 “You shall count off seven weeks for you; from the time you begin to harvest the standing grain[h] you shall begin to count seven weeks. 10 And then you shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks for Yahweh your God with the measure of the freewill offering of your hand that you shall give just as Yahweh your God has blessed you. 11 And you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God, you and your son and your daughter and your slave and your slave woman and the Levite that is in your towns[i] and the alien and the orphan and the widow who are in your midst in the place that Yahweh your God will choose to let his name dwell there. 12 And you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and so you shall diligently observe[j] these rules.
13 “You shall celebrate the Feast of Booths for yourselves[k] seven days at the gathering in of the produce[l] from your threshing floor and from your press; 14 and you shall rejoice at your feast, you and your son and your daughter and your slave and your slave woman and the Levite and the orphan and the widow that are in your towns.[m] 15 Seven days you shall celebrate your feast to Yahweh your God at the place Yahweh will choose, for Yahweh your God shall bless you in all of your produce[n] and in all of the work of your hand, and you shall surely be rejoicing.[o] 16 Three times in the year all of your males shall appear before [p] Yahweh your God at the place that he will choose, at the Feast of Unleavened Bread and at the Feast of Weeks and at the Feast of Booths, and they shall not appear before Yahweh[q] empty-handed. 17 Each person shall give as he is able,[r] that is, according to the blessing of Yahweh your God that he has given to you.
18 “You shall appoint judges and officials for you in all your towns[s] that Yahweh your God is giving to you throughout your tribes, and you shall render for the people righteous judgments.[t] 19 You shall not subvert[u] justice; you shall not show partiality;[v] and you shall not take a bribe, for the bribe makes blind the eyes of the wise and misrepresents the words of the righteous. 20 Justice, only justice[w] you shall pursue, so that you may live, and you shall take possession of the land that Yahweh your God is giving to you. 21 You shall not plant for yourselves[x] an Asherah pole[y] beside the altar of Yahweh your God that you make for yourselves.[z] 22 And you shall not set up for yourselves a stone pillar, a thing that Yahweh your God hates.
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 16:3 Literally “in addition to” or “upon it”
- Deuteronomy 16:3 Literally “in addition to” or “upon it”
- Deuteronomy 16:4 Or “for”
- Deuteronomy 16:4 Or “all of” your territory
- Deuteronomy 16:5 Literally “gates”
- Deuteronomy 16:6 Literally “in the evening as the sun goes/sets”
- Deuteronomy 16:6 The Hebrew word here indicates the specific time that God had chosen to bring Israel out of Egypt
- Deuteronomy 16:9 Literally “from the beginning of the sickle against the standing grain”
- Deuteronomy 16:11 Literally “gates”
- Deuteronomy 16:12 Literally “you shall observe and do”
- Deuteronomy 16:13 Hebrew “for you”
- Deuteronomy 16:13 Literally “at your gathering of the produce”
- Deuteronomy 16:14 Literally “gates”
- Deuteronomy 16:15 Or “increase”
- Deuteronomy 16:15 Or “joyful”
- Deuteronomy 16:16 Literally “with the face of”
- Deuteronomy 16:16 Literally “with the face of Yahweh”
- Deuteronomy 16:17 Literally “according to the gift of his hand”
- Deuteronomy 16:18 Literally “gates”
- Deuteronomy 16:18 Literally “a judgment based on righteousness”
- Deuteronomy 16:19 Or “distort/pervert”
- Deuteronomy 16:19 Literally “recognize faces”
- Deuteronomy 16:20 Literally “justice justice”
- Deuteronomy 16:21 Hebrew “for/to you” but with collective meaning
- Deuteronomy 16:21 Literally “an Asherah of any wood/tree”
- Deuteronomy 16:21 Hebrew “for/to you” but with collective meaning
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