Deuteronomy 16
1 “[Each year] honor Yahweh our God by celebrating the Passover [Festival] in the month of Abib [in early spring]. It was on a night in that month that Yahweh rescued your ancestors from Egypt.
Observe the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover to the LORD your God, because in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night.
2 [In order to celebrate that festival], go to the place that Yahweh will choose [for you to worship him], and offer [there one young animal] from your cattle or your sheep to be the Passover sacrifice, to honor Yahweh [MTY].
You are to offer to the LORD your God the Passover sacrifice from the herd or flock in the place the LORD will choose as a dwelling for His Name.
3 [When you eat the Passover meal], the bread that you eat must not have yeast in it. You must eat this kind of bread, which will be called the bread of suffering/misery, for seven days. This is to help you to remember all during the time that you are alive that when your ancestors left Egypt, [where they were suffering because they were slaves], they left very quickly. [They did not put in yeast and wait for the dough to swell up].
You must not eat leavened bread with it; for seven days you are to eat with it unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, because you left the land of Egypt in haste—so that you may remember for the rest of your life the day you left the land of Egypt.
4 [During that festival], you must not have any yeast in any house in your land for seven days. Furthermore, the meat [of the animals] that you sacrifice on the evening of the first day [of the Passover Festival must be eaten during that night]; do not allow any of it to remain until the next day.
No leaven is to be found in all your land for seven days, and none of the meat you sacrifice in the evening of the first day shall remain until morning.
5 “To honor Yahweh our God, you must offer the Passover sacrifice only at the place that he chooses for you [to worship him]; do not offer that sacrifice in any other town in the land that Yahweh is giving to you. Offer that sacrifice when the sun is setting, at the same time of day that your ancestors [started to] leave Egypt.
You are not to sacrifice the Passover animal in any of the towns that the LORD your God is giving you.
You must only offer the Passover sacrifice at the place the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for His Name. Do this in the evening as the sun sets, at the same time you departed from Egypt.
7 Boil [the meat] and eat it at the place [of worship] that Yahweh our God chooses. The next morning, you may return to your tents.
And you shall roast it and eat it in the place the LORD your God will choose, and in the morning you shall return to your tents.
8 Each day for six days the bread that you eat must have no yeast in it. On the seventh day, you must all gather to worship Yahweh our God. [It will be a day of rest]; you must not do any work on that day.”
For six days you must eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day you shall hold a solemn assembly to the LORD your God, and you must not do any work.
9 “[Each year], from the day that you start to harvest your grain, count seven weeks.
You are to count off seven weeks from the time you first put the sickle to the standing grain.
10 Then, to honor Yahweh our God, celebrate the Harvest Festival. Do that by bringing to him an offering [of grain]. Yahweh has blessed you [by causing it to grow in your fields during that year]. If you had a big harvest, bring a big offering. If you had a small harvest, bring a small offering.
And you shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God with a freewill offering that you give in proportion to how the LORD your God has blessed you,
11 [Each married couple] should be joyful in the presence of Yahweh. Their children, their servants, the descendants of Levi [who are in that town], and the foreigners, orphans, and widows [who are living among you], should also be joyful. Bring those offerings to the place of worship that Yahweh will choose.
and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in the place He will choose as a dwelling for His Name—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite within your gates, as well as the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widows among you.
12 [“When you celebrate these festivals] by obeying these commands, remember that your ancestors were previously slaves in Egypt.”
Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and carefully follow these statutes.
13 “[Each year], after you have threshed all your grain and pressed [the juice from] all your grapes, you must celebrate the Festival of [Living in Temporary] Shelters for seven days.
You are to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress.
14 [Each married couple] along with their children, their servants, the descendants of Levi [who are in that town], and the foreigners, orphans, and widows [who are living among you], should be joyful in the presence of Yahweh.
And you shall rejoice in your feast—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite, as well as the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widows among you.
15 Honor Yahweh our God by celebrating this festival for seven days in the place that Yahweh chooses [for you to worship him]. You should all be joyful, because Yahweh will have blessed your harvest and all the other work that you have done.
For seven days you shall celebrate a feast to the LORD your God in the place He will choose, because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that your joy will be complete.
16 “So, each year all of you Israeli men must gather [with your families] to worship Yahweh our God at the place that he will choose, [to celebrate three festivals]: The Passover Festival, the Harvest Festival, and the Festival of Living in Temporary Shelters. Each of you men must bring [LIT] an offering [for Yahweh to these festivals]
Three times a year all your men are to appear before the LORD your God in the place He will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles. No one should appear before the LORD empty-handed.
17 in proportion to the blessings that Yahweh has given you [during that year].”
Everyone must appear with a gift as he is able, according to the blessing the LORD your God has given you.
18 “Appoint judges and other officials throughout your tribes, in all the towns [in the land] that Yahweh our God is giving to you. They must judge people fairly/justly.
You are to appoint judges and officials for your tribes in every town that the LORD your God is giving you. They are to judge the people with righteous judgment.
19 They must not judge unjustly. They must not favor one person more than another. The judges must not accept bribes, because if a judge accepts a bribe, even if he is wise and honest, it will be very difficult for him to judge fairly [IDM]; [he will do what the person who gave him the bribe wants him to do and declare that] the righteous/innocent people [must be punished].
Do not deny justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous.
20 You must be completely fair and just [DOU], in order that you will enter and occupy the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you.”
Pursue justice, and justice alone, so that you may live, and you may possess the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
21 “When you make an altar to worship Yahweh our God, do not put next to it any wooden statue [that represents] the goddess Asherah.
Do not set up any wooden Asherah pole next to the altar you will build for the LORD your God,
22 And do not set up any [stone] pillar [to worship any idol, because] Yahweh hates them.”
and do not set up for yourselves a sacred pillar, which the LORD your God hates.
