Deuteronomy 16 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
~1406 BC, closing the section of law dealing with worship and opening the section on officials
Location
the plains of Moab, with the festivals to be kept at the one sanctuary in the land ahead
Audience
Israelites who would organise their year around the agricultural seasons of Canaan
Situation
Moses sets out the three annual pilgrimage festivals, Passover with unleavened bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Shelters, then turns to appointing judges and officials and demands impartial justice.
Key Background
The three festivals track the farming year, with Passover at the barley harvest in spring, Weeks seven weeks later at the wheat harvest, and Shelters in autumn after the grape and olive ingathering, so the religious calendar and the working calendar were the same calendar. Requiring men to travel to a single sanctuary three times a year built a national identity out of repeated shared journeys, in a society where most people otherwise rarely left their district. The turn to judges at the end is not a change of subject, since ancient legal cases were often heard at sanctuaries, and the warning against bribes and partiality addresses the ordinary reality of local courts run by elders who knew everyone involved.
Keep the month of and celebrate the for your God, because it was in the month of that your God brought you out of Egypt at night.
Sacrifice the — from the flock or the herd — to your God at the will as a home for his name.
Don't eat anything with alongside it. For seven days eat with it — bread of — because you left Egypt in a rush. Do this so that you remember the day you came out of Egypt for as long as you live.
No yeast should be found anywhere in your territory for seven days. And none of the meat you sacrifice on the evening of the first day should be left over until morning.
You are not allowed to sacrifice the Passover animal in just any of the towns that Yahweh your God is giving you.
Instead, sacrifice it only at the place Yahweh your God will choose as a home for his name. Do it in the evening, at sunset — the same time of day you left Egypt.
it and eat it at the place Yahweh your God will choose, and then in the morning head back to your
For six days eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day hold a for Yahweh your God. Don't do any work on that day.
Count off from the time the sickle first cuts the standing grain.
Then celebrate the of for Yahweh your God with a you — proportional to how much Yahweh your God has provided for you.
Celebrate in the presence of Yahweh your God — you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the in your towns, and the and among you — at the place Yahweh your God will choose as a home for his name.
Remember that you were once in Egypt. Be careful to follow these instructions.
Celebrate the of for seven days after you've gathered in the produce from your and your winepress.
Celebrate your festival — you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites, immigrants, orphans, and widows in your towns.
Celebrate for seven days for Yahweh God at the place Yahweh will choose. Yahweh God will provide for you in all harvest and in everything you do, and will be
a every male among you must appear before Yahweh your God at the place he will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks, and the Festival of Shelters. No one should appear before Yahweh
Each person should give what they can, to how Yahweh your God has provided for them.
Appoint and for each of your tribes in every town that Yahweh your God is giving you. They must judge the people
Don't Don't show favoritism. Don't accept a because a blinds the eyes of the wise and corrupts the words of those who are in the right.
— only — so that you may live and take possession of the land Yahweh your God is giving you.
Don't set up any wooden beside the altar you build for Yahweh your God.
And don't set up a — Yahweh your God these.