Psalms 78:68

78:68 He chose the tribe of Judah,

and Mount Zion, which he loves.

Psalms 132:13

132:13 Certainly ¹  the Lord has chosen Zion;

he decided to make it his home. ² 

Exodus 23:17

23:17 At ³  three times in the year all your males will appear before the Lord God. ⁴ 

Exodus 34:23-24

34:23 At three times ⁵  in the year all your men ⁶  must appear before the Lord God, ⁷  the God of Israel. 34:24 For I will drive out ⁸  the nations before you and enlarge your borders; no one will covet ⁹  your land when you go up ¹⁰  to appear before the Lord your God three times ¹¹  in the year.

Deuteronomy 12:5

12:5 But you must seek only the place he ¹²  chooses from all your tribes to establish his name as his place of residence, ¹³  and you must go there.

Deuteronomy 12:11

12:11 Then you must come to the place the Lord your God chooses for his name to reside, bringing ¹⁴  everything I am commanding you – your burnt offerings, sacrifices, tithes, the personal offerings you have prepared, ¹⁵  and all your choice votive offerings which you devote to him. ¹⁶ 

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 ¹⁷  empty-handed.

¹ tn Or “for.”

² tn Heb “he desired it for his dwelling place.”

³ tn Adverbial accusative of time: “three times” becomes “at three times.”

⁴ 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.

⁵ tn “Three times” is an adverbial accusative.

⁶ tn Heb “all your males.”

⁷ 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.

⁸ tn The verb is a Hiphil imperfect of יָרַשׁ (yarash), which means “to possess.” In the causative stem it can mean “dispossess” or “drive out.”

⁹ sn The verb “covet” means more than desire; it means that some action will be taken to try to acquire the land that is being coveted. It is one thing to envy someone for their land; it is another to be consumed by the desire that stops at nothing to get it (it, not something like it).

¹⁰ tn The construction uses the infinitive construct with a preposition and a suffixed subject to form the temporal clause.

¹¹ tn The expression “three times” is an adverbial accusative of time.

¹² tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

¹³ 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.

¹⁴ tn Heb “and it will be (to) the place where the Lord your God chooses to cause his name to dwell you will bring.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “heave offerings of your hand.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 12:5.

¹⁷ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 16:1.