Deuteronomy 16
Three Times a Year Before Him, and Never Empty-Handed
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The Passover and Unleavened Bread
16:1Observe the month of new produce and celebrate Passover for the Lord your God, for in the month of new produce you came out of Egypt by night.
16:2Sacrifice the Passover to the Lord your God, sheep and cattle, at the place the Lord your God will choose for His name to be invoked there.
16:3Do not eat leaven with it. For seven days eat unleavened bread with it, bread of affliction, because you came out of Egypt in haste, so that you may remember the day of your departure from the land of Egypt all the days of your life.
16:4No leaven shall be seen with you anywhere in your boundaries for seven days, and none of the meat you sacrifice on the evening of the first day shall remain overnight until morning.
16:5You may not sacrifice the Passover in any of your cities that the Lord your God is giving you.
16:6Sacrifice the Passover only at the place the Lord your God will choose for His name to be invoked there, in the evening at sunset, at the time of your departure from Egypt.
16:7Boil it, roast it, and eat it at the place the Lord your God will choose; in the morning turn back and go to your houses.
16:8Eat unleavened bread for six days; on the seventh day hold a concluding celebration, a feast for the Lord your God. Do no work on it except what is done for a person's needs.
The Feast of Weeks
16:9Count seven complete weeks for yourself; begin counting seven weeks when you first put the sickle to the harvest.
16:10Celebrate the Feast of Weeks for the Lord your God according to your hand's ability, whatever He gives you, as the Lord your God has blessed you.
16:11Rejoice before the Lord your God, you, your son and daughter, your male and female slaves, the Levite in your cities, and the newcomer, orphan, and widow among you, at the place the Lord your God will choose for His name to be invoked there.
16:12Remember that you were a household slave in the land of Egypt, and keep and practice these commandments.
The Feast of Tabernacles
16:13Celebrate the Feast of Tents for seven days when you gather in from your threshing floor and winepress.
16:14Rejoice at your feast, you, your son and daughter, your male and female slaves, and the Levite, newcomer, orphan, and widow in your cities.
16:15Celebrate the feast for the Lord your God seven days at the place the Lord your God will choose for Himself. If the Lord your God blesses you in all your produce and all the work of your hands, then you shall rejoice.
Centralized Worship and Justice
16:16Three times a year every male among you shall appear before the Lord your God at the place the Lord will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tent-pitching. Do not appear before the Lord your God empty-handed.
16:17Each shall give according to the ability of your hands, according to the blessing the Lord your God has given you.
16:18Appoint judges and recording officials in all your cities that the Lord your God is giving you, tribe by tribe, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.
16:19They shall not bend justice, show partiality, or accept a bribe, for bribes blind the eyes of the wise and nullify the words of the righteous.
16:20Pursue what is just justly, so that you may live and enter and inherit the land the Lord your God is giving you.
16:21Do not plant for yourself a sacred grove, any tree, beside the altar of the Lord your God that you make for yourself.
16:22Do not set up for yourself a sacred pillar, things the Lord your God hated.
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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.