Deuteronomy 16

New Life Version

The Passover

16 “Remember the month of Abib and keep the Passover to the Lord your God. For the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt during the night in the month of Abib. ² Give the Passover gift to the Lord your God from the flock and the cattle, in the place where the Lord chooses to put His name. ³ Do not eat bread made with yeast. For seven days eat bread made without yeast, the bread of sorrow, because you came out of the land of Egypt in a hurry. So all the days of your life you will remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt. ⁴ For seven days there is to be no yeast around in all your land. And none of the flesh you give in worship on the evening of the first day will be kept through the night until morning. ⁵ You are not allowed to give the Passover gift in any of your towns the Lord your God gives you. ⁶ But give it at the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His name. You must kill the Passover gift in the evening when the sun goes down, at the time that you came out of Egypt. ⁷ Make it ready and eat it in the place the Lord your God chooses. Then return to your tents in the morning. ⁸ For six days eat bread made without yeast. On the seventh day there will be a holy meeting to the Lord your God. Do no work on this day.

The Supper of Weeks

⁹ “Number seven weeks. Begin to number seven weeks from the time you begin to cut the standing grain. ¹⁰ Then keep the Special Supper of Weeks to the Lord your God by giving a free-will gift. Give as the Lord your God has given to you. ¹¹ Be full of joy before the Lord your God, you and your son and daughter, your men and women servants, the Levite who is in your town, the stranger, the child whose parents have died, and the woman whose husband has died. Be full of joy in the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His name. ¹² Remember that you were servants in Egypt. And be careful to obey these Laws.

¹³ “Keep the Special Supper of Tents seven days after you have gathered your grain and wine. ¹⁴ Be full of joy during your special supper, you and your son and daughter, your men and women servants, the Levite, the stranger, the child whose parents have died, and the woman whose husband has died, who are in your towns. ¹⁵ Seven days you will have a special supper to the Lord your God in the place which the Lord chooses. You will be full of joy because the Lord your God will bring good to you in all the food you grow and in all the work you do. ¹⁶ All your males must show themselves before the Lord your God three times a year in the place He chooses, at the Special Supper of Bread Without Yeast, the Special Supper of the First Fruits of the Land, and the Special Supper of Tents. They must not show themselves before the Lord with nothing in their hands. ¹⁷ Every man should give as he is able, as the Lord your God has given to you.

Those Who Judge

¹⁸ “Choose judges and other leaders for all your towns the Lord your God is giving you, among each of your family groups. They must be wise in judging the people. ¹⁹ Be fair and do not show favor. Do not take pay in secret for doing wrong. Such pay blinds the eyes of the wise and causes them to change the words of a good man. ²⁰ Follow what is right, and only what is right. Then you will live and receive the land the Lord your God is giving you.

²¹ “When you make an altar for the Lord your God, do not put beside it a wooden god like the false goddess Asherah. ²² Do not set up for yourself a pillar for worship that the Lord your God hates.