16:13 You must celebrate the Festival of Temporary Shelters 8 for seven days, at the time of the grain and grape harvest. 9 16:14 You are to rejoice in your festival, you, your son, your daughter, your male and female slaves, the Levites, the resident foreigners, the orphans, and the widows who are in your villages. 10 16:15 You are to celebrate the festival seven days before the Lord your God in the place he 11 chooses, for he 12 will bless you in all your productivity and in whatever you do; 13 so you will indeed rejoice!
A song of ascents. 17
128:1 How blessed is every one of the Lord’s loyal followers, 18
each one who keeps his commands! 19
128:2 You 20 will eat what you worked so hard to grow. 21
You will be blessed and secure. 22
2:13 You also do this: You cover the altar of the Lord with tears 23 as you weep and groan, because he no longer pays any attention to the offering nor accepts it favorably from you.
1 tn Heb “within your gates” (so KJV, NASB); NAB “who belongs to your community.”
2 sn They have no allotment or inheritance with you. See note on the word “inheritance” in Deut 10:9.
3 tn Heb “the
4 tn See note at Deut 12:12.
5 tn Heb “in all the sending forth of your hands.”
6 tn Heb “the
7 tn Heb “gates.”
8 tn The Hebrew phrase חַג הַסֻּכֹּת (khag hassukot, “festival of huts” or “festival of shelters”) is traditionally known as the Feast of Tabernacles. The rendering “booths” (cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV) is now preferable to the traditional “tabernacles” (KJV, ASV, NIV) in light of the meaning of the term סֻכָּה (sukkah, “hut; booth”), but “booths” are frequently associated with trade shows and craft fairs in contemporary American English. Clearer is the English term “shelters” (so NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT), but this does not reflect the temporary nature of the living arrangement. This feast was a commemoration of the wanderings of the Israelites after they left Egypt, suggesting that a translation like “temporary shelters” is more appropriate.
9 tn Heb “when you gather in your threshing-floor and winepress.”
10 tn Heb “in your gates.”
11 tn Heb “the
12 tn Heb “the
13 tn Heb “in all the work of your hands” (so NASB, NIV); NAB, NRSV “in all your undertakings.”
14 tn Or “household” (so NASB, NIV, NLT); Heb “house” (so KJV, NRSV).
15 tn Heb “fruit of majestic trees,” but the following terms and verses define what is meant by this expression. For extensive remarks on the celebration of this festival in history and tradition see B. A. Levine, Leviticus (JPSTC), 163; J. E. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC), 389-90; and P. J. Budd, Leviticus (NCBC), 328-29.
16 sn Psalm 128. The psalmist observes that the godly individual has genuine happiness because the Lord rewards such a person with prosperity and numerous children.
17 sn The precise significance of this title, which appears in Pss 120-134, is unclear. Perhaps worshipers recited these psalms when they ascended the road to Jerusalem to celebrate annual religious festivals. For a discussion of their background see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 219-21.
18 tn Heb “every fearer of the
19 tn Heb “the one who walks in his ways.”
20 tn The psalmist addresses the representative God-fearing man, as indicated by the references to “your wife” (v. 3) and “the man” (v. 4), as well as the second masculine singular pronominal and verbal forms in vv. 2-6.
21 tn Heb “the work of your hands, indeed you will eat.”
22 tn Heb “how blessed you [will be] and it will be good for you.”
23 sn You cover the altar of the
24 tn BDAG 437 s.v. ἡμέρα 2.c has “every day” for this phrase.
25 tn Grk “in the temple.” This is actually a reference to the courts surrounding the temple proper, and has been translated accordingly.
26 tn Here κατά (kata) is used as a distributive (BDAG 512 s.v. B.1.d).
27 sn The term glad (Grk “gladness”) often refers to joy brought about by God’s saving acts (Luke 1:14, 44; also the related verb in 1:47; 10:21).
28 tn Grk “with gladness and humbleness of hearts.” It is best to understand καρδίας (kardias) as an attributed genitive, with the two nouns it modifies actually listing attributes of the genitive noun which is related to them.