¹⁶ “Second, celebrate the Festival of Harvest,^[a] when you bring me the first crops of your harvest.

“Finally, celebrate the Festival of the Final Harvest^[b] at the end of the harvest season, when you have harvested all the crops from your fields.

²² “You must celebrate the Festival of Harvest^[a] with the first crop of the wheat harvest, and celebrate the Festival of the Final Harvest^[b] at the end of the harvest season.

³⁴ “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. Begin celebrating the Festival of Shelters^[a] on the fifteenth day of the appointed month—five days after the Day of Atonement.^[b] This festival to the Lord will last for seven days. ³⁵ On the first day of the festival you must proclaim an official day for holy assembly, when you do no ordinary work. ³⁶ For seven days you must present special gifts to the Lord. The eighth day is another holy day on which you present your special gifts to the Lord. This will be a solemn occasion, and no ordinary work may be done that day.

³⁷ (“These are the Lord’s appointed festivals. Celebrate them each year as official days for holy assembly by presenting special gifts to the Lord—burnt offerings, grain offerings, sacrifices, and liquid offerings—each on its proper day. ³⁸ These festivals must be observed in addition to the Lord’s regular Sabbath days, and the offerings are in addition to your personal gifts, the offerings you give to fulfill your vows, and the voluntary offerings you present to the Lord.)

³⁹ “Remember that this seven-day festival to the Lord—the Festival of Shelters—begins on the fifteenth day of the appointed month,^[c] after you have harvested all the produce of the land. The first day and the eighth day of the festival will be days of complete rest. ⁴⁰ On the first day gather branches from magnificent trees^[d]—palm fronds, boughs from leafy trees, and willows that grow by the streams. Then celebrate with joy before the Lord your God for seven days. ⁴¹ You must observe this festival to the Lord for seven days every year. This is a permanent law for you, and it must be observed in the appointed month^[e] from generation to generation. ⁴² For seven days you must live outside in little shelters. All native-born Israelites must live in shelters. ⁴³ This will remind each new generation of Israelites that I made their ancestors live in shelters when I rescued them from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”

⁴⁴ So Moses gave the Israelites these instructions regarding the annual festivals of the Lord.

Celebration of First Harvest

⁹ Then the Lord said to Moses, ¹⁰ “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. When you enter the land I am giving you and you harvest its first crops, bring the priest a bundle of grain from the first cutting of your grain harvest. ¹¹ On the day after the Sabbath, the priest will lift it up before the Lord so it may be accepted on your behalf. ¹² On that same day you must sacrifice a one-year-old male lamb with no defects as a burnt offering to the Lord. ¹³ With it you must present a grain offering consisting of four quarts^[a] of choice flour moistened with olive oil. It will be a special gift, a pleasing aroma to the Lord. You must also offer one quart^[b] of wine as a liquid offering. ¹⁴ Do not eat any bread or roasted grain or fresh kernels on that day until you bring this offering to your God. This is a permanent law for you, and it must be observed from generation to generation wherever you live.

The Festival of Harvest

¹⁵ “From the day after the Sabbath—the day you bring the bundle of grain to be lifted up as a special offering—count off seven full weeks. ¹⁶ Keep counting until the day after the seventh Sabbath, fifty days later. Then present an offering of new grain to the Lord. ¹⁷ From wherever you live, bring two loaves of bread to be lifted up before the Lord as a special offering. Make these loaves from four quarts of choice flour, and bake them with yeast. They will be an offering to the Lord from the first of your crops. ¹⁸ Along with the bread, present seven one-year-old male lambs with no defects, one young bull, and two rams as burnt offerings to the Lord. These burnt offerings, together with the grain offerings and liquid offerings, will be a special gift, a pleasing aroma to the Lord. ¹⁹ Then you must offer one male goat as a sin offering and two one-year-old male lambs as a peace offering.

²⁰ “The priest will lift up the two lambs as a special offering to the Lord, together with the loaves representing the first of your crops. These offerings, which are holy to the Lord, belong to the priests. ²¹ That same day will be proclaimed an official day for holy assembly, a day on which you do no ordinary work. This is a permanent law for you, and it must be observed from generation to generation wherever you live.^[c]

The Holy Spirit Comes

2 On the day of Pentecost^[a] all the believers were meeting together in one place.

Jesus Promises Living Water

³⁷ On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me!

² But soon it was time for the Jewish Festival of Shelters,

¹⁶ In the end, the enemies of Jerusalem who survive the plague will go up to Jerusalem each year to worship the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, and to celebrate the Festival of Shelters. ¹⁷ Any nation in the world that refuses to come to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, will have no rain. ¹⁸ If the people of Egypt refuse to attend the festival, the Lord will punish^[a] them with the same plague that he sends on the other nations who refuse to go. ¹⁹ Egypt and the other nations will all be punished if they don’t go to celebrate the Festival of Shelters.

¹⁴ As they studied the Law, they discovered that the Lord had commanded through Moses that the Israelites should live in shelters during the festival to be held that month.^{[a] 15} He had said that a proclamation should be made throughout their towns and in Jerusalem, telling the people to go to the hills to get branches from olive, wild olive,^[b] myrtle, palm, and other leafy trees. They were to use these branches to make shelters in which they would live during the festival, as prescribed in the Law.

¹⁶ So the people went out and cut branches and used them to build shelters on the roofs of their houses, in their courtyards, in the courtyards of God’s Temple, or in the squares just inside the Water Gate and the Ephraim Gate. ¹⁷ So everyone who had returned from captivity lived in these shelters during the festival, and they were all filled with great joy! The Israelites had not celebrated like this since the days of Joshua^[c] son of Nun.

¹⁸ Ezra read from the Book of the Law of God on each of the seven days of the festival. Then on the eighth day they held a solemn assembly, as was required by law.