Deuteronomy 16:16

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 ¹  empty-handed.

Deuteronomy 16:13

The Festival of Temporary Shelters

16:13 You must celebrate the Festival of Temporary Shelters ²  for seven days, at the time of the grain and grape harvest. ³ 

Deuteronomy 31:10

31:10 He ⁴  commanded them: “At the end of seven years, at the appointed time of the cancellation of debts, ⁵  at the Feast of Temporary Shelters, ⁶ 

Deuteronomy 16:10

16:10 Then you are to celebrate the Festival of Weeks ⁷  before the Lord your God with the voluntary offering ⁸  that you will bring, in proportion to how he ⁹  has blessed you.

Deuteronomy 16:14

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 

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

² 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.

³ tn Heb “when you gather in your threshing-floor and winepress.”

³ tn Heb “Moses.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁴ tn The Hebrew term שְׁמִטָּה (shÿmittah), a derivative of the verb שָׁמַט (shamat, “to release; to relinquish”), refers to the procedure whereby debts of all fellow Israelites were to be canceled. Since the Feast of Tabernacles celebrated God’s own deliverance of and provision for his people, this was an appropriate time for Israelites to release one another. See note on this word at Deut 15:1.

⁵ tn The Hebrew phrase הַסֻּכּוֹת[חַג] ([khag] hassukot, “[festival of] huts” [or “shelters”]) is traditionally known as the Feast of Tabernacles. See note on the name of the festival in Deut 16:13.

⁴ tn The Hebrew phrase חַג שָׁבֻעוֹת (khag shavu’ot) is otherwise known in the OT (Exod 23:16) as קָצִיר (qatsir, “harvest”) and in the NT as πεντηχοστή (penthcosth, “Pentecost”).

⁵ tn Heb “the sufficiency of the offering of your hand.”

⁶ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 16:1.

⁵ tn Heb “in your gates.”