Deuteronomy 16King James Version
The three pilgrimage feasts: Passover, the feast of weeks, and the feast of tabernacles. Three times a year, all the men of Israel are to appear before the Lord at the place He chooses. Justice is to be pursued: judges and officers in every town, no bribes, no respecting of persons. 'Justice, justice shalt thou pursue.'
Moses establishes the three pilgrimage festivals: Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles. Each is to be celebrated at the central sanctuary. Each connects a moment in the agricultural calendar with a moment in the Exodus story. The chapter ends with an instruction for appointing honest judges and a prohibition against sacred poles and pillars beside the altar.
The annual festivals are not just religious holidays; they are the rhythm by which Israel's identity, memory, and gratitude are renewed in community every year.
16: "Three 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." The whole community gathers three times a year, not to individuals' private convenience but on God's calendar.
The plains of Moab, 1406 BC. Moses is describing festivals that have not happened yet in the land, for harvests that have not been planted. He is giving the agricultural calendar of a country they have not entered its theological meaning in advance.
Moses, legislating. The Levite, the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow are named as those who should share in the festival joy.
These three festivals structured Israelite time for centuries and were still operative in Jesus's day, the setting for his entry into Jerusalem, the Last Supper, and the Day of Pentecost. They embedded Exodus theology into seasonal rhythms so that harvest thanksgiving and historical remembrance became inseparable.
For when your faith feels isolated and purely private. The chapter says three times a year everyone shows up together, eats together, and remembers together. Community is not optional; it is the design.
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.
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.
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.
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.
5Thou mayest not sacrifice the passover within any of thy gates, which the LORD thy God giveth thee:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
12And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt: and thou shalt observe and do these statutes.
13Thou shalt observe the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine:
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.
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 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:
17Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee.
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.
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.
20That which is altogether just shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live, and inherit the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
21Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any trees near unto the altar of the LORD thy God, which thou shalt make thee.
22Neither shalt thou set thee up any image; which the LORD thy God hateth.