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Three Annual Festivals

(Exodus 34.18-26; Deuteronomy 16.1-17)

The Lord said:

14 Celebrate three festivals each year in my honor.

15 (A) Celebrate the Festival of Thin Bread by eating bread made without yeast, just as I have commanded.[a] Do this at the proper time during the month of Abib,[b] because it is the month when you left Egypt. And make certain that everyone brings the proper offerings.

16 (B) Celebrate the Harvest Festival[c] each spring when you start harvesting your wheat, and celebrate the Festival of Shelters[d] each autumn when you pick your fruit.

17 Your men must come to these three festivals each year to worship me.

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Footnotes

  1. 23.15 as I have commanded: See 12.14-20.
  2. 23.15 Abib: See the note at 12.2.
  3. 23.16 Harvest Festival: Traditionally called the “Festival of Weeks” and known in New Testament times as “Pentecost.”
  4. 23.16 Festival of Shelters: The Hebrew text has “Festival of Ingathering” (so also in 34.22), which was the final harvesting of crops and fruits before the autumn rains began. But the usual name was “Festival of Shelters.”

14 “Celebrate a festival in my honor three times a year.(A) 15 Observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread. As I commanded you, you are to eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib,[a] because you came out of Egypt in that month. No one is to appear before me empty-handed.(B) 16 Also observe the Festival of Harvest[b] with the firstfruits of your produce from what you sow in the field, and observe the Festival of Ingathering[c](C) at the end of the year, when you gather your produce[d] from the field. 17 Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord God.

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Footnotes

  1. 23:15 March–April; called Nisan in the post-exilic period; Neh 2:1; Est 3:7
  2. 23:16 The Festival of Harvest is called Festival of Weeks elsewhere; Ex 34:22. In the NT it is called Pentecost; Ac 2:1.
  3. 23:16 The Festival of Ingathering is called Festival of Shelters elsewhere; Lv 23:34–36.
  4. 23:16 Lit labors