¹³ “Be careful^(A) to do everything I have said to you. Do not invoke the names of other gods;^(B) do not let them be heard on your lips.^(C)

The Three Annual Festivals

¹⁴ “Three times^(D) a year you are to celebrate a festival to me.

¹⁵ “Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread;^(E) for seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Aviv,^(F) for in that month you came out of Egypt.

“No one is to appear before me empty-handed.^(G)

¹⁶ “Celebrate the Festival of Harvest^(H) with the firstfruits^(I) of the crops you sow in your field.

“Celebrate the Festival of Ingathering^(J) at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field.^(K)

¹⁷ “Three times^(L) a year all the men are to appear before the Sovereign Lord.

¹⁸ “Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast.^(M)

“The fat of my festival offerings must not be kept until morning.^(N)

¹⁹ “Bring the best of the firstfruits^(O) of your soil to the house of the Lord your God.

“Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.^(P)

God’s Angel to Prepare the Way

²⁰ “See, I am sending an angel^(Q) ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared.^{(R) 21} Pay attention to him and listen^(S) to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive^(T) your rebellion,^(U) since my Name^(V) is in him. ²² If you listen carefully to what he says and do^(W) all that I say, I will be an enemy^(X) to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you. ²³ My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites,^(Y) and I will wipe them out. ²⁴ Do not bow down before their gods or worship^(Z) them or follow their practices.^(AA) You must demolish^(AB) them and break their sacred stones^(AC) to pieces.