Exodus 34:23

34:23 At three times ¹  in the year all your men ²  must appear before the Lord God, ³  the God of Israel.

Deuteronomy 12:5

12:5 But you must seek only the place he ⁴  chooses from all your tribes to establish his name as his place of residence, ⁵  and you must go there.

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 ⁶  empty-handed.

Deuteronomy 31:11

31:11 when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God in the place he chooses, you must read this law before them ⁷  within their hearing.

Psalms 84:7

84:7 They are sustained as they travel along; ⁸ 

each one appears ⁹  before God in Zion.

Luke 2:42

2:42 When ¹⁰  he was twelve years old, ¹¹  they went up ¹²  according to custom.

¹ tn “Three times” is an adverbial accusative.

² tn Heb “all your males.”

³ 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.

⁴ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

⁵ tc Some scholars, on the basis of v. 11, emend the MT reading שִׁכְנוֹ (shikhno, “his residence”) to the infinitive construct לְשָׁכֵן (lÿshakhen, “to make [his name] to dwell”), perhaps with the 3rd person masculine singular sf לְשַׁכְּנוֹ (lÿshakÿno, “to cause it to dwell”). Though the presupposed nounשֵׁכֶן (shekhen) is nowhere else attested, the parallel here with שַׁמָּה (shammah, “there”) favors retaining the MT as it stands.

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

⁷ tn Heb “before all Israel.”

⁸ tn Heb “they go from strength to strength.” The phrase “from strength to strength” occurs only here in the OT. With a verb of motion, the expression “from [common noun] to [same common noun]” normally suggests movement from one point to another or through successive points (see Num 36:7; 1 Chr 16:20; 17:5; Ps 105:13; Jer 25:32). Ps 84:7 may be emphasizing that the pilgrims move successively from one “place of strength” to another as they travel toward Jerusalem. All along the way they find adequate provisions and renewed energy for the trip.

⁹ tn The psalmist returns to the singular (see v. 5a), which he uses in either a representative or distributive (“each one” ) sense.

¹⁰ tn Grk “And when.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

¹¹ sn According to the Mishnah, the age of twelve years old is one year before a boy becomes responsible for his religious commitments (m. Niddah 5.6).

¹² tc Most mss, especially later ones (A C^vid Θ Ψ 0130 Ë^1,13 33 Ï lat) have εἰς ῾Ιεροσόλυμα (eij" &ierosoluma, “to Jerusalem”) here, but the ms support for the omission is much stronger (א B D L W 579 1241 pc co); further, the longer reading clarifies what they went up to and thus looks like a motivated reading.