Deuteronomy 16
1 “[Each year] honor Yahweh our God by celebrating the Passover [Festival] in the month of Abib [in early spring]. It was on a night in that month that Yahweh rescued your ancestors from Egypt.
“Observe the month of new grain, at the beginning of springtime, so that you may accomplish the Passover to the Lord your God. For in this month, the Lord your God led you away from Egypt in the night.
2 [In order to celebrate that festival], go to the place that Yahweh will choose [for you to worship him], and offer [there one young animal] from your cattle or your sheep to be the Passover sacrifice, to honor Yahweh [MTY].
And you shall immolate the Passover to the Lord your God, from sheep and from oxen, in the place which the Lord your God will choose, so that his name may dwell there.
3 [When you eat the Passover meal], the bread that you eat must not have yeast in it. You must eat this kind of bread, which will be called the bread of suffering/misery, for seven days. This is to help you to remember all during the time that you are alive that when your ancestors left Egypt, [where they were suffering because they were slaves], they left very quickly. [They did not put in yeast and wait for the dough to swell up].
You shall not eat it with leavened bread. For seven days you shall eat, without leaven, the bread of affliction. For you departed from Egypt in fear. So may you remember the day of your departure from Egypt, throughout all the days of your life.
4 [During that festival], you must not have any yeast in any house in your land for seven days. Furthermore, the meat [of the animals] that you sacrifice on the evening of the first day [of the Passover Festival must be eaten during that night]; do not allow any of it to remain until the next day.
No leaven shall be present in all your confines for seven days. And by morning, there shall not remain any of the flesh which was immolated on the first day in the evening.
5 “To honor Yahweh our God, you must offer the Passover sacrifice only at the place that he chooses for you [to worship him]; do not offer that sacrifice in any other town in the land that Yahweh is giving to you. Offer that sacrifice when the sun is setting, at the same time of day that your ancestors [started to] leave Egypt.
You cannot immolate the Passover in any of your cities, which the Lord your God will give to you, that you wish,
but only in the place which the Lord your God will choose, so that his name may dwell there. You shall immolate the Passover in the evening, upon the setting of the sun, which is the time when you departed from Egypt.
7 Boil [the meat] and eat it at the place [of worship] that Yahweh our God chooses. The next morning, you may return to your tents.
And you shall cook and eat it in the place which the Lord your God will choose, and, rising up in the morning, you shall go into your tent.
8 Each day for six days the bread that you eat must have no yeast in it. On the seventh day, you must all gather to worship Yahweh our God. [It will be a day of rest]; you must not do any work on that day.”
For six days, you shall eat unleavened bread. And on the seventh day, because it is the assembly of the Lord your God, you shall do no work.
9 “[Each year], from the day that you start to harvest your grain, count seven weeks.
You shall number for yourself seven weeks from that day, the day on which you put the sickle to the grain field.
10 Then, to honor Yahweh our God, celebrate the Harvest Festival. Do that by bringing to him an offering [of grain]. Yahweh has blessed you [by causing it to grow in your fields during that year]. If you had a big harvest, bring a big offering. If you had a small harvest, bring a small offering.
And you shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks, to the Lord your God, with a voluntary oblation from your hand, which you shall offer according to the blessing of the Lord your God.
11 [Each married couple] should be joyful in the presence of Yahweh. Their children, their servants, the descendants of Levi [who are in that town], and the foreigners, orphans, and widows [who are living among you], should also be joyful. Bring those offerings to the place of worship that Yahweh will choose.
And you shall feast in the sight of the Lord your God: you, your son and your daughter, your man servant and your woman servant, and the Levite who is within your gates, and the new arrival as well as the orphan and the widow, who abide with you, in the place which the Lord your God will choose, so that his name may dwell there.
12 [“When you celebrate these festivals] by obeying these commands, remember that your ancestors were previously slaves in Egypt.”
And you shall recall that you were a servant in Egypt. And you shall preserve and carry out the things that have been instructed.
13 “[Each year], after you have threshed all your grain and pressed [the juice from] all your grapes, you must celebrate the Festival of [Living in Temporary] Shelters for seven days.
Likewise, you shall celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days, when you will have gathered your fruits from the orchard and the winepress.
14 [Each married couple] along with their children, their servants, the descendants of Levi [who are in that town], and the foreigners, orphans, and widows [who are living among you], should be joyful in the presence of Yahweh.
And you shall feast at the time of your festival: you, your son and daughter, your man servant and woman servant, likewise the Levite and the new arrival, the orphan and the widow, who are within your gates.
15 Honor Yahweh our God by celebrating this festival for seven days in the place that Yahweh chooses [for you to worship him]. You should all be joyful, because Yahweh will have blessed your harvest and all the other work that you have done.
For seven days you shall celebrate feasts to the Lord your God in the place which the Lord will choose. And the Lord your God will bless you in all your crops, and in every work of your hands. And you shall be joyful.
16 “So, each year all of you Israeli men must gather [with your families] to worship Yahweh our God at the place that he will choose, [to celebrate three festivals]: The Passover Festival, the Harvest Festival, and the Festival of Living in Temporary Shelters. Each of you men must bring [LIT] an offering [for Yahweh to these festivals]
Three times a year, all your males shall appear in the sight the Lord your God in the place which he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles. No one shall appear before the Lord empty.
17 in proportion to the blessings that Yahweh has given you [during that year].”
But each one shall offer according to what he will have, according to the blessing of the Lord his God, which he will give to him.
18 “Appoint judges and other officials throughout your tribes, in all the towns [in the land] that Yahweh our God is giving to you. They must judge people fairly/justly.
You shall appoint judges and magistrates at all your gates, which the Lord your God will give to you, throughout each of your tribes, so that they may judge the people with a just judgment,
19 They must not judge unjustly. They must not favor one person more than another. The judges must not accept bribes, because if a judge accepts a bribe, even if he is wise and honest, it will be very difficult for him to judge fairly [IDM]; [he will do what the person who gave him the bribe wants him to do and declare that] the righteous/innocent people [must be punished].
and not so as to show favoritism to either side. You shall not accept a person’s reputation, nor gifts. For gifts blind the eyes of the wise and alter the words of the just.
20 You must be completely fair and just [DOU], in order that you will enter and occupy the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you.”
You shall justly pursue what is just, so that you may live and possess the land, which the Lord your God will give to you.
21 “When you make an altar to worship Yahweh our God, do not put next to it any wooden statue [that represents] the goddess Asherah.
You shall not plant a sacred grove, nor shall you plant any tree near the altar of the Lord your God;
22 And do not set up any [stone] pillar [to worship any idol, because] Yahweh hates them.”
you shall neither make nor set up for yourself a statue. These things the Lord your God hates.”
