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16. Feasts

¹ Observe the month of Aviv and celebrate the Passover of the LORD your God, because in the month of Aviv he brought you out of Egypt by night. ² Sacrifice as the Passover to the LORD your God an animal from your flock or herd at the place the LORD will choose as a dwelling for his Name. ³ Do not eat it with bread made with yeast, but for seven days eat unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, because you left Egypt in haste—so that all the days of your life you may remember the time of your departure from Egypt. ⁴ Let no yeast be found in your possession in all your land for seven days. Do not let any of the meat you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain until morning.

⁵ You must not sacrifice the Passover in any town the LORD your God gives you ⁶ except in the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name. There you must sacrifice the Passover in the evening, when the sun goes down, on the anniversary Or down, at the time of day of your departure from Egypt. ⁷ Roast it and eat it at the place the LORD your God will choose. Then in the morning return to your tents. ⁸ For six days eat unleavened bread and on the seventh day hold an assembly to the LORD your God and do no work.

The Festival of Weeks

⁹ Count off seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain. ¹⁰ Then celebrate the Festival of Weeks to the LORD your God by giving a freewill offering in proportion to the blessings the LORD your God has given you. ¹¹ And rejoice before the LORD your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites in your towns, and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows living among you. ¹² Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and follow carefully these decrees.

The Festival of Tabernacles

¹³ Celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress. ¹⁴ Be joyful at your festival—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites, the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns. ¹⁵ For seven days celebrate the festival to the LORD your God at the place the LORD will choose. For the LORD your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete.

¹⁶ Three times a year all your men must appear before the LORD your God at the place he will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks and the Festival of Tabernacles. No one should appear before the LORD empty-handed: ¹⁷ Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the LORD your God has blessed you.

Judges

¹⁸ Appoint judges and officials for each of your tribes in every town the LORD your God is giving you, and they shall judge the people fairly. ¹⁹ Do not pervert justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the innocent. ²⁰ Follow justice and justice alone, so that you may live and possess the land the LORD your God is giving you.

Worshiping Other Gods

²¹ Do not set up any wooden Asherah pole beside the altar you build to the LORD your God, ²² and do not erect a sacred stone, for these the LORD your God hates.

11. And thou shalt require. On another ground he exhorts and excites them to willingness, because the service of God brings this rejoicing; for there is nothing which ought more to stimulate us to obedience, that when we know that God rather consults our good than seeks to obtain any advantage from us. Ungodly men, indeed, rejoice also, nay, they are wanton and intemperate in their joy; but since that joy is not only transient, but their laughter is turned into weeping and gnashing of teeth, it is not without cause that Moses here magnifies it as a peculiar blessing, to rejoice before God; as if a father should invite his children to delight themselves together with him. But by this external exercise, believers were reminded that there is no real or desirable joy, unless in reference to God. And surely, however the wicked may exult in their pleasures, and abandon themselves to gratifcations, still, since tranquillity of conscience, which alone brings true rejoicing, is wanting to them, they do not enjoy the merriment into which they plunge themselves. Finally, Moses amplifies by a comparison the good which they enjoyed in the service of God, when he says, “And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt;” for that their present condition might be more pleasant to them, he heightened its sweetness by the recollection of their most miserable captivity. I have here neglected Cicero’s ³⁶⁰³⁶⁰ Tusc. Quoest iv., “Nam cum ratione animus movetur placide et constanter, tum illud gaudium dicitur; cum autem inaniter, et effuse animus exultat, tum ilia laetitia gestiens, vel nimia dici potest; quam ita definiunt, sine ratione animi elationem.” — Edit. Elz., 1661, p. 1088, a. very subtle distinction between the words gaudium and laetitia, for unless I take both of them in a good sense, I could not translate the Hebrew words, whereby God would express how indulgently He deals with His children. Meanwhile, this passage contains an exhortation to render thanks to God our deliverer.