Exodus 23:14-19
New Living Translation
Three Annual Festivals
14 “Each year you must celebrate three festivals in my honor. 15 First, celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread. For seven days the bread you eat must be made without yeast, just as I commanded you. Celebrate this festival annually at the appointed time in early spring, in the month of Abib,[a] for that is the anniversary of your departure from Egypt. No one may appear before me without an offering.
16 “Second, celebrate the Festival of Harvest,[b] when you bring me the first crops of your harvest.
“Finally, celebrate the Festival of the Final Harvest[c] at the end of the harvest season, when you have harvested all the crops from your fields. 17 At these three times each year, every man in Israel must appear before the Sovereign, the Lord.
18 “You must not offer the blood of my sacrificial offerings together with any baked goods containing yeast. And do not leave the fat from the festival offerings until the next morning.
19 “As you harvest your crops, bring the very best of the first harvest to the house of the Lord your God.
“You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 23:15 Hebrew appointed time in the month of Abib. This first month of the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar usually occurs within the months of March and April.
- 23:16a Or Festival of Weeks. This was later called the Festival of Pentecost (see Acts 2:1). It is celebrated today as Shavuot (or Shabuoth).
- 23:16b Or Festival of Ingathering. This was later called the Festival of Shelters or Festival of Tabernacles (see Lev 23:33-36). It is celebrated today as Sukkot (or Succoth).
Exodus 23:14-19
New English Translation
14 “Three times[a] in the year you must make a pilgrim feast[b] to me. 15 You are to observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread; seven days[c] you must eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you, at the appointed time of the month of Abib, for at that time[d] you came out of Egypt. No one may appear before[e] me empty-handed.
16 “You are also to observe[f] the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors that you have sown in the field, and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year[g] when you have gathered in[h] your harvest[i] out of the field. 17 At[j] three times in the year all your males will appear before the Sovereign Lord.[k]
18 “You must not offer[l] the blood of my sacrifice with bread containing yeast; the fat of my festal sacrifice must not remain until morning.[m] 19 The first of the firstfruits of your soil you must bring to the house of the Lord your God.
“You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.[n]
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Exodus 23:14 tn Heb “three feet” or “three foot-beats.” This adverbial accusative expression also occurs in Num 22:28, 32, 33.
- Exodus 23:14 tn This is the word תָּחֹג (takhog) from the root חָגַג (khagag); it describes a feast that was accompanied by a pilgrimage. It was first used by Moses in his appeal that Israel go three days into the desert to hold such a feast.
- Exodus 23:15 tn This is an adverbial accusative of time.
- Exodus 23:15 tn Heb “in it.”
- Exodus 23:15 tn The verb is a Niphal imperfect; the nuance of permission works well here—no one is permitted to appear before God empty (Heb “and they will not appear before me empty”).
- Exodus 23:16 tn The words “you are also to observe” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
- Exodus 23:16 tn An infinitive construct with a preposition and a pronominal suffix is used to make a temporal clause: “in the going in of the year.” The word “year” is the subjective genitive, the subject of the clause.
- Exodus 23:16 tn An infinitive construct with a preposition and a pronominal suffix is used to make a temporal clause: “in the ingathering of you.”
- Exodus 23:16 tn Heb “gathered in your labors.” This is a metonymy of cause put for the effect. “Labors” are not gathered in, but what the labors produced—the harvest.
- Exodus 23:17 tn Adverbial accusative of time: “three times” becomes “at three times.”
- Exodus 23:17 tn Here the divine Name reads in Hebrew הָאָדֹן יְהוָה (haʾadon yehvah), which if rendered according to the traditional scheme of “Lord” for “Yahweh” would result in “Lord Lord.” A number of English versions therefore render this phrase “Lord God.”
- Exodus 23:18 tn The verb is תִּזְבַּח (tizbakh), an imperfect tense from the same root as the genitive that qualifies the accusative “blood”: “you will not sacrifice the blood of my sacrifice.” The verb means “to slaughter”; since one cannot slaughter blood, a more general translation is required here. But if the genitive is explained as “my blood-sacrifice” (a genitive of specification; like “the evil of your doings” in Isa 1:16), then a translation of sacrifice would work (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 304).
- Exodus 23:18 sn See N. Snaith, “Exodus 23:18 and 34:25, ” JTS 20 (1969): 533-34; see also M. Haran, “The Passover Sacrifice,” Studies in the Religion of Ancient Israel (VTSup), 86-116.
- Exodus 23:19 sn On this verse, see C. M. Carmichael, “On Separating Life and Death: An Explanation of Some Biblical Laws,” HTR 69 (1976): 1-7; J. Milgrom, “You Shall Not Boil a Kid in Its Mother’s Milk,” BRev 1 (1985): 48-55; R. J. Ratner and B. Zuckerman, “In Rereading the ‘Kid in Milk’ Inscriptions,” BRev 1 (1985): 56-58; and M. Haran, “Seething a Kid in Its Mother’s Milk,” JJS 30 (1979): 23-35. Here and at 34:26, where this command is repeated, it ends a series of instructions about procedures for worship.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2017 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.