Deuteronomy 16

Deuteronomy 16:1 “Set aside the month of Avib and watch the Passover to Yahveh your God, because Yahveh your God brought you out of Egypt by night in the month of Avib.

Deuteronomy 16:2 Sacrifice to Yahveh your God a Passover animal from the herd or flock in the place where Yahveh chooses to have his name dwell.

Deuteronomy 16:3 Do not eat leavened bread[1] with it. For seven days, you are to eat matzah[2] with it, the bread of hardship– because you left the land of Egypt in a hurry — so that you may remember for the rest of your life the day you left the land of Egypt.

Deuteronomy 16:4 No yeast is to be found anywhere in your territory for seven days, and none of the meat you sacrifice in the evening of the first day is to remain until morning.

Deuteronomy 16:5 You are not to sacrifice the Passover animal in any of the towns Yahveh your God is giving you.

Deuteronomy 16:6 Sacrifice the Passover animal only at the place where Yahveh, your God, chooses to have his name dwell. Do this in the evening as the sun sets at the same time of day you departed from Egypt.

Deuteronomy 16:7 You are to cook and eat it in the place Yahveh your God chooses, and you are to return to your tents in the morning.

Deuteronomy 16:8 Eat matzah for six days. On the seventh day, there is to be a solemn assembly to Yahveh, your God; do not do any work.

Deuteronomy 16:9 “You are to count seven weeks, counting the weeks from the time the sickle is first put to the standing grain.

Deuteronomy 16:10 You are to celebrate the Festival of Weeks to Yahveh, your God, with a spontaneous voluntary offering that you give in proportion to how Yahveh, your God, has empowered you.

Deuteronomy 16:11 Enjoy the face of Yahveh your God, in the place where he chooses to have his name dwell – you, your son and daughter, your male and female slave, the Levite within your city gates, as well as the guest, the fatherless, and the widow among you.

Deuteronomy 16:12 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt; carefully watch these prescriptions.

Deuteronomy 16:13 “You are to celebrate the Festival of Huts[3] for seven days when you have gathered in everything from your threshing floor and winepress.

Deuteronomy 16:14 Enjoy yourselves at your festival – you, your son and daughter, your male and female slave, as well as the Levite, the guest, the fatherless, and the widow within your city gates.

Deuteronomy 16:15 You are to hold a seven-day festival for Yahveh, your God, in the place he chooses because Yahveh, your God, will empower you in all your produce and all the work of your hands, and you will certainly have joy.

Deuteronomy 16:16 “All your males are to appear three times a year before Yahveh your God in the place he chooses: at the Festival of Matzah, the Festival of Weeks, and the Festival of Huts. No one is to appear before Yahveh empty-handed.

Deuteronomy 16:17 Everyone must appear with a gift suited to his means, according to the empowerment Yahveh your God has given you.

Deuteronomy 16:18 “Appoint judges and officials for your tribes in all your towns Yahveh your God is giving you. They are to judge the people with ethical judgment.

Deuteronomy 16:19 Do not deny justice or show partiality to[4] anyone. Do not accept a “gift” because it blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous.

Deuteronomy 16:20 Pursue justice – justice, so that you will stay alive and take possession of the land Yahveh your God is giving you.

Deuteronomy 16:21 “Do not set up an Asherah of any kind of wood next to the altar you will build for Yahveh your God,

Deuteronomy 16:22 and do not set up a standing stone; Yahveh, your God hates them.

[1]חָמֵץ = (anything) leavened.

[2] מַצָּה= Matzah (unleavened bread). Deuteronomy 16:3, 8, 16.

[3]סֻכָּה = hut. Deuteronomy 16:13, 16; 31:10.

[4]literally “recognize the face of”

Deuteronomy 16 quotes:

“WE now approach one of the /nost profound and comprehensive sections of the book of Deuteronom}-, in wliich the inspired writer presents to our view what we may call the three great cardinal feasts of the Jewish j’ear, namely, the passover, Pentecost, and tabernacles ; or, redemption, the Hoi}’ Ghost, and the glory. We have here a more condensed view of those lovely institutions than that given in Leviticus xxiii, where we have, if we count the Sabbath, eight feasts ; but if we view the Sabbath as distinct, and having its own special place as the type of God’s own eternal rest, then there are seven feasts, namely, the passover. the feast of unleavened bread, the feast of first-fruits, Pentecost, trumpets, the day of atonement, and tabernacles.”

Mackintosh Charles Henry. Notes on the Book of Deuteronomy. Loizeaux Bros 1880. p. 219.

“The three major festivals or pilgrimages are dealt with first in this chapter: (a) Passover and Unleavened Bread (vv. 1–8); (b) Weeks, or “Pentecost” (vv. 9–12); (c) Booths (vv. 13–15); vv. 16–17 are a summary section relating to all three festivals and indicating the common theme linking the legislation in this section of Deuteronomy. The legislation concerning the officers of law (vv. 18–20) introduces further legislation relating to: the king (17:14–20); priests (18:1–8); prophets (18:9–22). Verses 21–22 contain a brief portion of legislation relating to the sanctuary of the Lord.”

Craigie, Peter C.. The Book of Deuteronomy (The New International Commentary on the Old Testament) (p. 240). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Kindle Edition.

“These laws and commands (relating to the judge, priest, king and prophet) are considered by some scholars to make up Israel’s constitution, but this view needs to be balanced by the fact that they belong to the overall structure and concerns of the book, and may not have had an independent existence.”

Woods, Edward J.. Deuteronomy: An Introduction and Commentary (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries Book 5) . InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.