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 you have made a Passover to your God YHWH, for in the month of Abib your God YHWH has 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].
and you have sacrificed a Passover to your God YHWH, of the flock and of the herd, in the place which YHWH chooses to cause His Name to dwell there.
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 do not eat any fermented thing with it; [for] seven days you eat unleavened things with it, bread of affliction (for you have come out of the land of Egypt in haste), so that you remember the day of your coming out of the land of Egypt all [the] days of your life;
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.
and leaven is not seen with you in all your border [for] seven days, and there does not remain [any] of the flesh which you sacrifice at evening on the first day 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 able to sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates which your God YHWH is giving to you,
except at the place which your God YHWH chooses to cause His Name to dwell—there you sacrifice the Passover in the evening, at the going in of the sun, the season of your coming out of 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 have cooked and eaten in the place on which your God YHWH fixes, and have turned in the morning and gone 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 eat unleavened things, and on the seventh day [is] a restraint to your God YHWH; you do no work.
9 “[Each year], from the day that you start to harvest your grain, count seven weeks.
You number seven weeks for yourself; you begin to number seven weeks from the beginning of the sickle among 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 have observed the Celebration of Weeks to your God YHWH, a tribute of a free-will offering of your hand, which you give as your God YHWH blesses 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 have rejoiced before your God YHWH, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your manservant, and your handmaid, and the Levite who [is] within your gates, and the sojourner, and the fatherless, and the widow, who [are] in your midst, in the place which your God YHWH chooses to cause His Name to dwell there,
12 [“When you celebrate these festivals] by obeying these commands, remember that your ancestors were previously slaves in Egypt.”
and you have remembered that you have been a servant in Egypt, and have observed and done 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 observe the Celebration of Shelters for yourself [for] seven days, in your ingathering of your threshing-floor and of your wine-vat;
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 have rejoiced in your celebration, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your manservant, and your handmaid, and the Levite, and the sojourner, and the fatherless, and the widow, who [are] within your gates.
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 celebrate before your God YHWH in the place which YHWH chooses, for your God YHWH blesses you in all your increase and in every work of your hands, and you have been only rejoicing.
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 in a year all of your males appear before your God YHWH in the place which He chooses: in the Celebration of Unleavened Things, and in the Celebration of Weeks, and in the Celebration of Shelters; and they do not appear before YHWH empty;
17 in proportion to the blessings that Yahweh has given you [during that year].”
each [gives] according to the gift of his hand, according to the blessing of your God YHWH, which He has given to 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 set for yourself judges and authorities within all your gates which your God YHWH is giving to you, for your tribes; and they have judged the people [with] a 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].
You do not turn aside judgment; you do not discern faces, nor take a bribe, for the bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts 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.”
Righteousness—you pursue righteousness, so that you live and have possessed the land which your God YHWH is giving to 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.
You do not plant an Asherah of any trees for yourself near the altar of your God YHWH, which you make for yourself,
22 And do not set up any [stone] pillar [to worship any idol, because] Yahweh hates them.”
and you do not raise up any standing image for yourself which your God YHWH is hating.”
