23:14 “Three times 1 in the year you must make a pilgrim feast 2 to me. 23:15 You are to observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread; seven days 3 you must eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you, at the appointed time of the month of Abib, for at that time 4 you came out of Egypt. No one may appear before 5 me empty-handed.
23:16 “You are also to observe 6 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 7 when you have gathered in 8 your harvest 9 out of the field. 23:17 At 10 three times in the year all your males will appear before the Lord God. 11
16:1 Observe the month Abib 13 and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in that month 14 he 15 brought you out of Egypt by night.
9:25 I lay flat on the ground before the Lord for forty days and nights, 16 for he 17 had said he would destroy you.
1 tn The expression rendered “three times” is really “three feet,” or “three foot-beats.” The expression occurs only a few times in the Law. The expressing is an adverbial accusative.
2 tn This is the word תָּחֹג (takhog) from the root חָגַג (khagag); it describes a feast that was accompanied by a pilgrimage. It was first used by Moses in his appeal that Israel go three days into the desert to hold such a feast.
3 tn This is an adverbial accusative of time.
4 tn Heb “in it.”
5 tn The verb is a Niphal imperfect; the nuance of permission works well here – no one is permitted to appear before God empty (Heb “and they will not appear before me empty”).
6 tn The words “you are also to observe” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
7 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.
8 tn An infinitive construct with a preposition and a pronominal suffix is used to make a temporal clause: “in the ingathering of you.”
9 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.
10 tn Adverbial accusative of time: “three times” becomes “at three times.”
11 tn Here the divine Name reads in Hebrew הָאָדֹן יְהוָה (ha’adon yÿhvah), which if rendered according to the traditional scheme of “
12 tn Heb “the
13 sn The month Abib, later called Nisan (Neh 2:1; Esth 3:7), corresponds to March-April in the modern calendar.
14 tn Heb “in the month Abib.” The demonstrative “that” has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.
15 tn Heb “the
16 tn The Hebrew text includes “when I prostrated myself.” Since this is redundant, it has been left untranslated.
17 tn Heb “the