Deuteronomy 16

1 You are to observe the month of Abib and to celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God, because it was in the month of Abib that the Lord your God led you out of Egypt by night.

2 The Passover sacrifice from your herd or flock must be offered to the Lord your God in the place where the Lord will choose to live with you.

3 Don't eat ordinary bread with it. For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast with it, the bread of hardship, because you had to leave Egypt in such a hurry. This way you'll remember day you left Egypt for the rest of your lives.

4 Don't have yeast anywhere in your country for seven days. Don't keep any of the meat that you sacrifice on the evening of the first day until the morning.

5 Don't sacrifice the Passover animal in any of the towns that the Lord your God is giving you.

6 The Passover sacrifice must be offered by you only at the place where the Lord your God will choose to live with you. You are to do this in the evening at sunset-the same time you left Egypt.

7 Cook it and eat it in the place the Lord your God will choose. Then in the morning go back to your tents.

8 Eat bread without yeast for six days, and the on the seventh day you are to have a holy meeting to honor the Lord your God. You are not to do any work.

9 Count off seven weeks from when you start the grain harvest.

10 Then celebrate the Festival of Weeks to honor him the Lord your God by giving him a freewill offering, depending on just how much the Lord your God has blessed you.

11 You will celebrate in the Lord's presence in the place where he will choose to live with you. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female slaves, and the Levites who live in your towns, as well as the foreigners, orphans, and widows among you.

12 Don't forget that you were once slaves in Egypt, and be careful to follow these regulations.

13 Celebrate the Festival of Shelters for seven days once you have finished threshing your grain and pressing your grapes.

14 Enjoy your feast—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female slaves, and the Levites who live in your towns, as well as the foreigners, orphans, and widows among you.

15 Celebrate this Festival for seven days to honor the Lord your God in the place he will choose, because the Lord your God will bless your whole harvest and everything you do, so you will be really happy.

16 All your men must come before the Lord your God in the place He will choose three times every year: the Festival of Bread without Yeast, the Festival of Weeks, and the Festival of Shelters. No one should come before the Lord without an offering.

17 Each of you is to bring whatever gift you can, depending on how much the Lord your God has blessed you.

18 Choose judges and officials for each of your tribes in every town that the Lord your God is giving you. They must judge the people fairly.

19 Don't pervert justice or show favoritism. Don't take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the wise and twists the words of the truthful.

20 Always do what is right and just, so that you may go on living, occupying the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

21 Don't ever set up a wooden Asherah pole next to the altar you build for the Lord your God,

22 and don't make for yourselves an idolatrous stone pillar, which the Lord your God hates.