Deuteronomy 16

Watch for the month of Abib, and keep the Passover for the LORD your God. It was in the month of Abib that the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt at night.

1Observe the month of Abib, and keep the passover unto the LORD thy God: for in the month of Abib the LORD thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night.

Note"Abib" means "ripening ears of grain", the spring month when barley ripened, roughly March–April. After the exile the same month was called Nisan. "Passover" translates Hebrew *pesach*; the name comes from the account of the destroying plague passing over the Israelite houses in Egypt, and it names both the animal killed and the festival itself.

2So offer the Passover sacrifice to the LORD your God from your flock or your herd. Do this at the place the LORD will choose as the home for his name.

2Thou shalt therefore sacrifice the passover unto the LORD thy God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which the LORD shall choose to place his name there.

NoteElsewhere the Passover animal is a lamb or kid from the flock; here "flock or herd" (herd = cattle) is included because the word covers the whole set of sacrifices eaten during the festival week, not only the Passover animal itself. "The home for his name" is a Hebrew way of saying that God claims a place as his own and is present to be addressed there. The point of the phrase in this chapter is that there is to be one such place, not many local shrines.

3Do not eat any bread made with yeast along with it. For seven days eat flat bread made without yeast, the bread of hard times, because you left Egypt in a hurry. Do this so that you remember the day you left Egypt for as long as you live.

3Thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction; for thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste: that thou mayest remember the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life.

NoteBread rises because yeast is left to work in the dough over hours. Bread made in a hurry has no time to rise and comes out flat. "The bread of hard times" is the literal sense of the Hebrew, bread that tastes of poverty and of a night of flight.

4For seven days no yeast is to be found anywhere in your land. And none of the meat you sacrifice on the evening of the first day may be left until morning.

4And there shall be no leavened bread seen with thee in all thy coast seven days; neither shall there any thing of the flesh, which thou sacrificedst the first day at even, remain all night until the morning.

NoteThe King James "in all thy coast" has nothing to do with the sea; "coast" in 1611 English meant border, and so the territory inside it.

5You may not offer the Passover sacrifice in just any of the towns the LORD your God is giving you.

5Thou mayest not sacrifice the passover within any of thy gates, which the LORD thy God giveth thee:

NoteThe King James "within any of thy gates" means "in any of your towns." A walled town was identified by its gate, and the gateway was where public business (markets, meetings, lawsuits) was carried on, so "gates" stands for the town as a whole.

6Offer it only at the place the LORD your God will choose as the home for his name. Sacrifice it there in the evening, as the sun goes down, at the same time of day that you came out of Egypt.

6But at the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to place his name in, there thou shalt sacrifice the passover at even, at the going down of the sun, at the season that thou camest forth out of Egypt.

7Cook it and eat it at the place the LORD your God will choose. Then in the morning turn back and go to your tents.

7And thou shalt roast and eat it in the place which the LORD thy God shall choose: and thou shalt turn in the morning, and go unto thy tents.

Note"Go back to your tents" is the ordinary phrase for going home. It also fits the situation literally: people traveling to the central sanctuary for the festival camped there for the night.

8For six days eat bread made without yeast. On the seventh day hold a special gathering for the LORD your God, and do no work that day.

8Six days thou shalt eat unleavened bread: and on the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to the LORD thy God: thou shalt do no work therein.

NoteVerse 3 says seven days of unleavened bread and this verse says six. The two counts are stated from different angles, the seventh day is the assembly day named here, and ancient readers took it as unleavened along with the rest. A "special gathering" (Hebrew *atzeret*) was a closing assembly at the end of a festival, on which normal work stopped.

9Count seven weeks. Start counting the seven weeks from the time you first put the sickle to the standing grain.

9Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee: begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn.

NoteA sickle is a short curved blade used to cut standing stalks of grain by hand. The count of seven weeks begins with the first cutting of the barley harvest, so the date depends on when the crop is ready rather than on a fixed number in a calendar.

10Then keep the Feast of Weeks for the LORD your God. Bring a gift you give freely, in keeping with how much the LORD your God has blessed you.

10And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the LORD thy God with a tribute of a freewill offering of thine hand, which thou shalt give unto the LORD thy God, according as the LORD thy God hath blessed thee:

NoteThe "Feast of Weeks" is named for those seven weeks. It fell fifty days after the count began, which is why Greek-speaking Jews later called it Pentecost, "fiftieth"; its Hebrew name is Shavuot. It marked the end of the grain harvest. A "freewill offering" was one no law required by amount, the giver set the size himself, here in proportion to that year's harvest.

11And be glad before the LORD your God at the place he chooses as the home for his name. You and your son and daughter, your male and female servants, the Levite who lives in your town, and the foreigner, the orphan and the widow who live among you.

11And thou shalt rejoice before the LORD thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are among you, in the place which the LORD thy God hath chosen to place his name there.

NoteThe Levites were the one tribe given no block of farmland of their own; they lived scattered in the towns and were supported from offerings and tithes. That is why they are listed here beside the others who had no land or family to fall back on. The "foreigner" is not a passing traveler but a resident outsider living long-term among Israelites without inherited land of his own.

12Remember that you were a slave in Egypt. So be careful to keep and obey these rules.

12And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt: and thou shalt observe and do these statutes.

13Keep the Feast of Shelters for seven days, after you have gathered in the grain from your threshing floor and the juice from your winepress.

13Thou shalt observe the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine:

NoteThe King James "feast of tabernacles" uses "tabernacle" in its old sense of a tent or hut; the Hebrew name is Sukkot, "booths." It was the autumn festival at the end of the farming year, during which people camped out in temporary shelters made of branches. The Hebrew literally says "your threshing floor and your winepress", a threshing floor was a flat, hard, open area where cut grain was beaten and tossed to separate the kernels from the husks; a winepress was a hollowed basin where grapes were trodden. Naming the two places is a way of saying "once the whole harvest is in."

14Be glad during your feast, along with your son and daughter, your male and female servants, and the Levite, the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow who live in your town.

14And thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite, the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates.

15For seven days hold this feast for the LORD your God at the place the LORD will choose. The LORD your God will bless all your crops and everything you do, so your joy will be full.

15Seven days shalt thou keep a solemn feast unto the LORD thy God in the place which the LORD shall choose: because the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all thine increase, and in all the works of thine hands, therefore thou shalt surely rejoice.

16Three times a year all your men are to come before the LORD your God at the place he will choose: at the Feast of Bread Without Yeast, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Shelters. No one is to come before the LORD empty-handed.

16Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty:

NoteThese three were the pilgrimage festivals, the occasions when men were expected to travel to the central sanctuary rather than mark the day at home. The Feast of Bread Without Yeast is the week that follows Passover, so the three fall in spring, early summer, and autumn, around the barley harvest, the wheat harvest, and the final ingathering. "Not empty-handed" means not without an offering in hand.

17Each man is to give what he is able to give, in keeping with the blessing the LORD your God has given you.

17Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee.

18Appoint judges and officials for your tribes in every town the LORD your God is giving you. They are to judge the people fairly.

18Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates, which the LORD thy God giveth thee, throughout thy tribes: and they shall judge the people with just judgment.

NoteThe "officials" (Hebrew *shoterim*) were not judges but administrative officers, record-keepers and enforcers who summoned parties, kept documents, and carried out decisions. Cases were heard publicly in the open space inside the town gate.

19Do not twist justice. Do not favor one person over another. Do not take a bribe, because a bribe blinds the eyes of wise people and twists the words of those who do right.

19Thou shalt not wrest judgment; thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous.

NoteThree King James idioms: "wrest judgment" means to bend or twist a legal decision out of shape; "respect persons" is literally "recognise faces," that is, to decide a case according to who the parties are rather than the facts; and "a gift" here means specifically a payment made to a judge, a bribe.

20Follow justice, and nothing but justice, so that you may live and take the land the LORD your God is giving you as your own.

20That which is altogether just shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live, and inherit the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

NoteThe Hebrew repeats the word: "justice, justice you shall pursue." Doubling a word this way is how the language gives emphasis, so the sense is something like "justice and only justice."

21Do not plant any tree as a sacred pole beside the altar you build for the LORD your God.

21Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any trees near unto the altar of the LORD thy God, which thou shalt make thee.

NoteThe King James "grove" translates the Hebrew word *asherah*. An Asherah was a wooden pole or stylised tree set up beside an altar as the emblem of the goddess Asherah, worshiped in Canaan as a mother goddess. The object was a single planted upright, not a wood.

22And do not set up a sacred stone pillar for yourselves, which the LORD your God hates.

22Neither shalt thou set thee up any image; which the LORD thy God hateth.

NoteThe King James "image" here means a *matzevah*: an upright stone slab or pillar set on end at a place of worship. Such standing stones were a normal feature of Canaanite shrines, and earlier Israelite figures had set them up as markers; this law rules them out.