Exodus 23:14-17

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 

Exodus 34:23

34:23 At three times ¹²  in the year all your men ¹³  must appear before the Lord God, ¹⁴  the God of Israel.

Deuteronomy 12:5-7

12:5 But you must seek only the place he ¹⁵  chooses from all your tribes to establish his name as his place of residence, ¹⁶  and you must go there. 12:6 And there you must take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the personal offerings you have prepared, ¹⁷  your votive offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. 12:7 Both you and your families ¹⁸  must feast there before the Lord your God and rejoice in all the output of your labor with which he ¹⁹  has blessed you.

Deuteronomy 12:11

12:11 Then you must come to the place the Lord your God chooses for his name to reside, bringing ²⁰  everything I am commanding you – your burnt offerings, sacrifices, tithes, the personal offerings you have prepared, ²¹  and all your choice votive offerings which you devote to him. ²² 

Deuteronomy 12:18

12:18 Only in the presence of the Lord your God may you eat these, in the place he ²³  chooses. This applies to you, your son, your daughter, your male and female servants, and the Levites ²⁴  in your villages. In that place you will rejoice before the Lord your God in all the output of your labor. ²⁵ 

Deuteronomy 16:1-8

The Passover-Unleavened Bread Festival

16:1 Observe the month Abib ²⁶  and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in that month ²⁷  he ²⁸  brought you out of Egypt by night. 16:2 You must sacrifice the Passover animal ²⁹  (from the flock or the herd) to the Lord your God in the place where he ³⁰  chooses to locate his name. 16:3 You must not eat any yeast with it; for seven days you must eat bread made without yeast, symbolic of affliction, for you came out of Egypt hurriedly. You must do this so you will remember for the rest of your life the day you came out of the land of Egypt. 16:4 There must not be a scrap of yeast within your land ³¹  for seven days, nor can any of the meat you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain until the next morning. ³²  16:5 You may not sacrifice the Passover in just any of your villages ³³  that the Lord your God is giving you, 16:6 but you must sacrifice it ³⁴  in the evening in ³⁵  the place where he ³⁶  chooses to locate his name, at sunset, the time of day you came out of Egypt. 16:7 You must cook ³⁷  and eat it in the place the Lord your God chooses; you may return the next morning to your tents. 16:8 You must eat bread made without yeast for six days. The seventh day you are to hold an assembly for the Lord your God; you must not do any work on that day. ³⁸ 

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 ³⁹  empty-handed.

Deuteronomy 16:1

The Passover-Unleavened Bread Festival

16:1 Observe the month Abib ⁴⁰  and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in that month ⁴¹  he ⁴²  brought you out of Egypt by night.

Deuteronomy 1:3

1:3 However, it was not until ⁴³  the first day of the eleventh month ⁴⁴  of the fortieth year ⁴⁵  that Moses addressed the Israelites just as ⁴⁶  the Lord had instructed him to do.

Deuteronomy 1:21

1:21 Look, he ⁴⁷  has placed the land in front of you! ⁴⁸  Go up, take possession of it, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, said to do. Do not be afraid or discouraged!”

[23:14]  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.

[23:14]  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.

[23:15]  ³ tn This is an adverbial accusative of time.

[23:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “in it.”

[23:15]  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”).

[23:16]  ⁶ 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]  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.

[23:16]  ⁸ 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]  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.

[23:17]  ¹⁰ tn Adverbial accusative of time: “three times” becomes “at three times.”

[23:17]  ¹¹ 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.

[34:23]  ¹² tn “Three times” is an adverbial accusative.

[34:23]  ¹³ tn Heb “all your males.”

[34:23]  ¹⁴ 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.

[12:5]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[12:5]  ¹⁶ 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.

[12:6]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “heave offerings of your hand.”

[12:7]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and your houses,” referring to entire households. The pronouns “you” and “your” are plural in the Hebrew text.

[12:7]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 12:5.

[12:11]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and it will be (to) the place where the Lord your God chooses to cause his name to dwell you will bring.”

[12:11]  ²¹ tn Heb “heave offerings of your hand.”

[12:11]  ²² tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 12:5.

[12:18]  ²³ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 12:5.

[12:18]  ²⁴ tn See note at Deut 12:12.

[12:18]  ²⁵ tn Heb “in all the sending forth of your hands.”

[16:1]  ²⁶ sn The month Abib, later called Nisan (Neh 2:1; Esth 3:7), corresponds to March-April in the modern calendar.

[16:1]  ²⁷ tn Heb “in the month Abib.” The demonstrative “that” has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[16:1]  ²⁸ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[16:2]  ²⁹ tn Heb “sacrifice the Passover” (so NASB). The word “animal” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[16:2]  ³⁰ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in the previous verse.

[16:4]  ³¹ tn Heb “leaven must not be seen among you in all your border.”

[16:4]  ³² tn Heb “remain all night until the morning” (so KJV, ASV). This has been simplified in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[16:5]  ³³ tn Heb “gates.”

[16:6]  ³⁴ tn Heb “the Passover.” The translation uses a pronoun to avoid redundancy in English.

[16:6]  ³⁵ tc The MT reading אֶל (’el, “unto”) before “the place” should, following Smr, Syriac, Targums, and Vulgate, be omitted in favor of ב (bet; בַּמָּקוֹם, bammaqom), “in the place.”

[16:6]  ³⁶ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 16:1.

[16:7]  ³⁷ tn The rules that governed the Passover meal are found in Exod 12:1-51, and Deut 16:1-8. The word translated “cook” (בָּשַׁל, bashal) here is translated “boil” in other places (e.g. Exod 23:19, 1 Sam 2:13-15). This would seem to contradict Exod 12:9 where the Israelites are told not to eat the Passover sacrifice raw or boiled. However, 2 Chr 35:13 recounts the celebration of a Passover feast during the reign of Josiah, and explains that the people “cooked (בָּשַׁל, bashal) the Passover sacrifices over the open fire.” The use of בָּשַׁל (bashal) with “fire” (אֵשׁ, ’esh) suggests that the word could be used to speak of boiling or roasting.

[16:8]  ³⁸ tn The words “on that day” are not in the Hebrew text; they are supplied in the translation for clarification (cf. TEV, NLT).

[16:16]  ³⁹ tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 16:1.

[16:1]  ⁴⁰ sn The month Abib, later called Nisan (Neh 2:1; Esth 3:7), corresponds to March-April in the modern calendar.

[16:1]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “in the month Abib.” The demonstrative “that” has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[16:1]  ⁴² tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[1:3]  ⁴³ tn Heb “in” or “on.” Here there is a contrast between the ordinary time of eleven days (v. 2) and the actual time of forty years, so “not until” brings out that vast disparity.

[1:3]  ⁴⁴ sn The eleventh month is Shebat in the Hebrew calendar, January/February in the modern (Gregorian) calendar.

[1:3]  ⁴⁵ sn The fortieth year would be 1406 b.c. according to the “early” date of the exodus. See E. H. Merrill, Kingdom of Priests, 66-75.

[1:3]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “according to all which.”

[1:21]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun (“he”) has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons, to avoid repetition.

[1:21]  ⁴⁸ tn Or “has given you the land” (cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV).