Exodus 23:16-17

23:16 “You are also to observe ¹  the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors that you have sown in the field, and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year ²  when you have gathered in ³  your harvest ⁴  out of the field. 23:17 At ⁵  three times in the year all your males will appear before the Lord God. ⁶ 

Leviticus 23:34-43

23:34 “Tell the Israelites, ‘On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the Festival of Temporary Shelters ⁷  for seven days to the Lord. 23:35 On the first day is a holy assembly; you must do no regular work. ⁸  23:36 For seven days you must present a gift to the Lord. On the eighth day there is to be a holy assembly for you, and you must present a gift to the Lord. It is a solemn assembly day; ⁹  you must not do any regular work.

23:37 “‘These are the appointed times of the Lord that you must proclaim as holy assemblies to present a gift to the Lord – burnt offering, grain offering, sacrifice, and drink offerings, ¹⁰  each day according to its regulation, ¹¹  23:38 besides ¹²  the Sabbaths of the Lord and all your gifts, votive offerings, and freewill offerings which you must give to the Lord.

23:39 “‘On ¹³  the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you gather in the produce of the land, you must celebrate a pilgrim festival of the Lord for seven days. On the first day is a complete rest and on the eighth day is complete rest. 23:40 On the first day you must take for yourselves branches from majestic trees ¹⁴  – palm branches, branches of leafy trees, and willows of the brook – and you must rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. 23:41 You must celebrate it as a pilgrim festival to the Lord for seven days in the year. This is a perpetual statute throughout your generations; ¹⁵  you must celebrate it in the seventh month. 23:42 You must live in temporary shelters ¹⁶  for seven days; every native citizen in Israel must live in temporary shelters, 23:43 so that your future generations may know that I made the Israelites live in temporary shelters when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.’”

Numbers 29:12-38

The Feast of Temporary Shelters

29:12 “‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month you are to have a holy assembly; you must do no ordinary work, and you must keep a festival to the Lord for seven days. 29:13 You must offer a burnt offering, an offering made by fire as a pleasing aroma to the Lord: thirteen young bulls, two rams, and fourteen lambs each one year old, all of them without blemish. 29:14 Their grain offering must be of finely ground flour mixed with olive oil, three-tenths of an ephah for each of the thirteen bulls, two-tenths of an ephah for each of the two rams, 29:15 and one-tenth for each of the fourteen lambs, 29:16 along with one male goat for a purification offering, in addition to the continual burnt offering with its grain offering and its drink offering.

29:17 “‘On the second day you must offer twelve young bulls, two rams, fourteen lambs one year old, all without blemish, 29:18 and their grain offering and their drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, according to their number as prescribed, 29:19 along with one male goat for a purification offering, in addition to the continual burnt offering with its grain offering and their drink offerings.

29:20 “‘On the third day you must offer ¹⁷  eleven bulls, two rams, fourteen lambs one year old, all without blemish, 29:21 and their grain offering and their drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, according to their number as prescribed, 29:22 along with one male goat for a purification offering, in addition to the continual burnt offering with its grain offering and its drink offering.

29:23 “‘On the fourth day you must offer ten bulls, two rams, and fourteen lambs one year old, all without blemish, 29:24 and their grain offering and their drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, according to their number as prescribed, 29:25 along with one male goat for a purification offering, in addition to the continual burnt offering with its grain offering and its drink offering.

29:26 “‘On the fifth day you must offer nine bulls, two rams, and fourteen lambs one year old, all without blemish, 29:27 and their grain offering and their drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, according to their number as prescribed, 29:28 along with one male goat for a purification offering, in addition to the continual burnt offering with its grain offering and its drink offering.

29:29 “‘On the sixth day you must offer eight bulls, two rams, and fourteen lambs one year old, all without blemish, 29:30 and their grain offering and their drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, according to their number as prescribed, 29:31 along with one male goat for a purification offering, in addition to the continual burnt offering with its grain offering and its drink offering.

29:32 “‘On the seventh day you must offer seven bulls, two rams, and fourteen lambs one year old, all without blemish, 29:33 and their grain offering and their drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs, according to their number as prescribed, 29:34 along with one male goat for a purification offering, in addition to the continual burnt offering with its grain offering and its drink offering.

29:35 “‘On the eighth day you are to have a holy assembly; you must do no ordinary work on it. 29:36 But you must offer a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, as a pleasing aroma to the Lord, one bull, one ram, seven lambs one year old, all of them without blemish, 29:37 and with their grain offering and their drink offerings for the bull, for the ram, and for the lambs, according to their number as prescribed, 29:38 along with one male goat for a purification offering, in addition to the continual burnt offering with its grain offering and its drink offering.

Deuteronomy 16:13-16

The Festival of Temporary Shelters

16:13 You must celebrate the Festival of Temporary Shelters ¹⁸  for seven days, at the time of the grain and grape harvest. ¹⁹  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. ²⁰  16:15 You are to celebrate the festival seven days before the Lord your God in the place he ²¹  chooses, for he ²²  will bless you in all your productivity and in whatever you do; ²³  so you will indeed rejoice! 16:16 Three times a year all your males must appear before the Lord your God in the place he chooses for the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks, and the Festival of Temporary Shelters; and they must not appear before him ²⁴  empty-handed.

Deuteronomy 16:1

The Passover-Unleavened Bread Festival

16:1 Observe the month Abib ²⁵  and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in that month ²⁶  he ²⁷  brought you out of Egypt by night.

Deuteronomy 8:2

8:2 Remember the whole way by which he ²⁸  has brought you these forty years through the desert ²⁹  so that he might, by humbling you, test you to see if you have it within you to keep his commandments or not.

Deuteronomy 8:1-2

The Lord’s Provision in the Desert

8:1 You must keep carefully all these commandments ³⁰  I am giving ³¹  you today so that you may live, increase in number, ³²  and go in and occupy the land that the Lord promised to your ancestors. ³³  8:2 Remember the whole way by which he ³⁴  has brought you these forty years through the desert ³⁵  so that he might, by humbling you, test you to see if you have it within you to keep his commandments or not.

Deuteronomy 7:9-10

7:9 So realize that the Lord your God is the true God, ³⁶  the faithful God who keeps covenant faithfully ³⁷  with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, 7:10 but who pays back those who hate ³⁸  him as they deserve and destroys them. He will not ignore ³⁹  those who hate him but will repay them as they deserve!

Ezra 3:4

3:4 They observed the Festival of Temporary Shelters ⁴⁰  as required ⁴¹  and offered the proper number of ⁴²  daily burnt offerings according to the requirement for each day.

Nehemiah 8:14-18

8:14 They discovered written in the law that the LORD had commanded through ⁴³  Moses that the Israelites should live in temporary shelters during the festival of the seventh month, 8:15 and that they should make a proclamation and disseminate this message ⁴⁴  in all their cities and in Jerusalem: ⁴⁵  “Go to the hill country and bring back olive branches and branches of wild olive trees, myrtle trees, date palms, and other leafy trees to construct temporary shelters, as it is written.”

8:16 So the people went out and brought these things ⁴⁶  back and constructed temporary shelters for themselves, each on his roof and in his courtyard and in the courtyards of the temple ⁴⁷  of God and in the plaza of the Water Gate and the plaza of the Ephraim Gate. 8:17 So all the assembly which had returned from the exile constructed temporary shelters and lived in them. The Israelites had not done so from the days of Joshua son of Nun until that day. Everyone experienced very great joy. ⁴⁸  8:18 Ezra ⁴⁹  read in the book of the law of God day by day, from the first day to the last. ⁵⁰  They observed the festival for seven days, and on the eighth day they held an assembly ⁵¹  as was required. ⁵² 

Zechariah 14:16-19

14:16 Then all who survive from all the nations that came to attack Jerusalem will go up annually to worship the King, the Lord who rules over all, and to observe the Feast of Tabernacles. ⁵³  14:17 But if any of the nations anywhere on earth refuse to go up to Jerusalem ⁵⁴  to worship the King, the Lord who rules over all, they will get no rain. 14:18 If the Egyptians will not do so, they will get no rain – instead there will be the kind of plague which the Lord inflicts on any nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. 14:19 This will be the punishment of Egypt and of all nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.

[23:16]  ¹ tn The words “you are also to observe” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[23:16]  ² tn An infinitive construct with a preposition and a pronominal suffix is used to make a temporal clause: “in the going in of the year.” The word “year” is the subjective genitive, the subject of the clause.

[23:16]  ³ tn An infinitive construct with a preposition and a pronominal suffix is used to make a temporal clause: “in the ingathering of you.”

[23:16]  ⁴ tn Heb “gathered in your labors.” This is a metonymy of cause put for the effect. “Labors” are not gathered in, but what the labors produced – the harvest.

[23:17]  ⁵ tn Adverbial accusative of time: “three times” becomes “at three times.”

[23:17]  ⁶ tn Here the divine Name reads in Hebrew הָאָדֹן יְהוָה (ha’adon yÿhvah), which if rendered according to the traditional scheme of “Lord” for “Yahweh” would result in “Lord Lord.” A number of English versions therefore render this phrase “Lord God,” and that convention has been followed here.

[23:34]  ⁷ tn The rendering “booths” (cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV) is probably better than the traditional “tabernacles” 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. The nature of the celebration during this feast (see the following verses) as a commemoration of the wanderings of the Israelites after they left Egypt suggests that a translation like “temporary shelters” is more appropriate.

[23:35]  ⁸ tn Heb “work of service”; KJV “servile work”; NASB “laborious work”; TEV “daily work.”

[23:36]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew term עֲצֶרֶת (’atseret) “solemn assembly [day]” derives from a root associated with restraint or closure. It could refer either to the last day as “closing assembly” day of the festival (e.g., NIV) or a special day of restraint expressed in a “solemn assembly” (e.g., NRSV); cf. NLT “a solemn closing assembly.”

[23:37]  ¹⁰ tn The LXX has “[their] burnt offerings, and their sacrifices, and their drink offerings.”

[23:37]  ¹¹ tn Heb “a matter of a day in its day”; NAB “as prescribed for each day”; NRSV, NLT “each on its proper day.”

[23:38]  ¹² tn Heb “from to separation.” See BDB 94 s.v. בַּד 1.e for an explanation of this phrase. This phrase is repeated in front of each of the four items in this verse in the Hebrew text, but these have not been translated into English for stylistic reasons. Cf. KJV, NASB “besides”; NRSV “apart from.”

[23:39]  ¹³ tn Heb “Surely on the fifteenth day.” The Hebrew adverbial particle אַךְ (’akh) is left untranslated by most recent English versions; however, cf. NASB “On exactly the fifteenth day.”

[23:40]  ¹⁴ 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.

[23:41]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “for your generations.”

[23:42]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “in the huts” (again at the end of this verse and in v. 43), perhaps referring to temporary shelters (i.e., huts) made of the foliage referred to in v. 40 (J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 389).

[29:20]  ¹⁷ tn The words “you must offer” are implied.

[16:13]  ¹⁸ 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.

[16:13]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “when you gather in your threshing-floor and winepress.”

[16:14]  ²⁰ tn Heb “in your gates.”

[16:15]  ²¹ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 16:1.

[16:15]  ²² tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 16:1.

[16:15]  ²³ tn Heb “in all the work of your hands” (so NASB, NIV); NAB, NRSV “in all your undertakings.”

[16:16]  ²⁴ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 16:1.

[16:1]  ²⁵ sn The month Abib, later called Nisan (Neh 2:1; Esth 3:7), corresponds to March-April in the modern calendar.

[16:1]  ²⁶ tn Heb “in the month Abib.” The demonstrative “that” has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[16:1]  ²⁷ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[8:2]  ²⁸ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[8:2]  ²⁹ tn Or “wilderness” (so KJV, NRSV, NLT); likewise in v. 15.

[8:1]  ³⁰ tn The singular term (מִצְוָה, mitsvah) includes the whole corpus of covenant stipulations, certainly the book of Deuteronomy at least (cf. Deut 5:28; 6:1, 25; 7:11; 11:8, 22; 15:5; 17:20; 19:9; 27:1; 30:11; 31:5). The plural (מִצְוֹת, mitsot) refers to individual stipulations (as in vv. 2, 6).

[8:1]  ³¹ tn Heb “commanding” (so NASB). For stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy, “giving” has been used in the translation (likewise in v. 11).

[8:1]  ³² tn Heb “multiply” (so KJV, NASB, NLT); NIV, NRSV “increase.”

[8:1]  ³³ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 16, 18).

[8:2]  ³⁴ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[8:2]  ³⁵ tn Or “wilderness” (so KJV, NRSV, NLT); likewise in v. 15.

[7:9]  ³⁶ tn Heb “the God.” The article here expresses uniqueness; cf. TEV “is the only God”; NLT “is indeed God.”

[7:9]  ³⁷ tn Heb “who keeps covenant and loyalty.” The syndetic construction of בְּרִית (bÿrit) and חֶסֶד (khesed) should be understood not as “covenant” plus “loyalty” but as an adverbial construction in which חֶסֶד (“loyalty”) modifies the verb שָׁמַר (shamar, “keeps”).

[7:10]  ³⁸ tn For the term “hate” as synonymous with rejection or disobedience see note on the word “reject” in Deut 5:9 (cf. NRSV “reject”).

[7:10]  ³⁹ tn Heb “he will not hesitate concerning.”

[3:4]  ⁴⁰ tn The Hebrew phrase אֶת חַג־הַסֻּכּוֹת (’et khag-hassukot, “festival of huts” [or “shelters”]) is traditionally known as the Feast of Tabernacles. The rendering “booths” (cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV) is probably better than the traditional “tabernacles” 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. The nature of the celebration during this feast as a commemoration of the wanderings of the Israelites after they left Egypt suggests that a translation like “temporary shelters” is more appropriate.

[3:4]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “according to what is written.”

[3:4]  ⁴² tn Heb “by number.”

[8:14]  ⁴³ tn Heb “by the hand of.”

[8:15]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “a voice.”

[8:15]  ⁴⁵ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[8:16]  ⁴⁶ tn The words “these things” are not in the Hebrew text but have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[8:16]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “the house.”

[8:17]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “And there was very great joy.”

[8:18]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “He”; the referent (Ezra) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:18]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “the last day.”

[8:18]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “on the eighth day an assembly.” The words “they held” have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[8:18]  ⁵² tn Heb “according to the judgment.”

[14:16]  ⁵³ sn Having imposed his sovereignty over the earth following the Battle of Armageddon, the Lord will receive homage and tribute from all who survive from all the nations. The Feast of Tabernacles was especially associated with covenant institution and renewal so it will be appropriate for all people to acknowledge that they are vassals to the Lord at that time (cf. Deut 31:9-13; Neh 8:12-18; 9:1-38).

[14:17]  ⁵⁴ sn The reference to any…who refuse to go up to Jerusalem makes clear the fact that the nations are by no means “converted” to the Lord but are under his compulsory domination.