Deuteronomychapter 16
22 verses · BSBDeuteronomy book hub →
Key verse
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.
It stands in Booths, and none appear empty-handed, verses 13 to 17.
The chapter
Chapter summary
The three pilgrimage feasts and the charge to judges. Passover at the place the LORD shall choose. No leaven seen within all thy coast seven days. Weeks. Seven weeks from the sickle put to the standing corn; rejoicing before the LORD with household, Levite, stranger, fatherless, widow. Tabernacles. Seven days from the ingathering. Three times a year all males shall appear before the LORD; none shall appear empty. ‘Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates … thou shalt not wrest judgment; thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift … Justice, justice shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live, and inherit the land’.
Context
Law · Moses · Deuteronomy overview
The world behind this chapter
Deuteronomy 16The history
The speech is Moses in the first person. The chapter is cut in two by the weekly reading, since the portion Re'eh ends at 16:17 and the portion Shoftim opens at 16:18.
The setting is the plain east of the Jordan in the fortieth year, at about 1406 BC on the frame this site keeps.
The occasion is the year Israel would keep once it held land, since two of the three feasts are dated by a harvest rather than by a calendar month.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
A first hearer knew the Passover as a meal kept in the house, with the blood struck on the doorposts, which is what Exodus 12 describes. Verse 5 forbids killing it in any of the towns, and that is the change the chapter makes.
He knew the farming year. The count to the Feast of Weeks begins when the sickle is first put to the standing grain, and Tabernacles is dated by the threshing floor and the winepress.
He knew what a town gate was for. The open ground inside the gate was where a town did its legal business, and verse 18 puts judges and officials there in every town.
He knew what an Asherah pole and a standing pillar were, since both stood at the shrines around him. Verses 21 and 22 forbid setting either beside the altar of the LORD.
What it meant to them
The chapter set the shape of the year for a people who would work land. Three times a year the men went up, and nobody appeared empty-handed.
It commanded joy, which few laws do, and it named who had to be at the table when the joy happened. The Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow are on the list twice.
The second half tied the nation's hold on the land to the conduct of its own courts, since verse 20 makes justice the condition of living and inheriting.
Sources cited
- The site's published exposition of Deuteronomy 16, in the store
- Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible , 1871
- Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible , 1832
Where the chapter sits
Deuteronomy 16 falls in Second sermon, the law restated (chapters 5–26). The Decalogue repeated; the Shema; laws for the land, for worship, for kingship, for war, for the poor. The covenant's central exposition.
Before it: First sermon, retrospective, chapters 1–4. After it: Third sermon, blessings and curses, chapters 27–30.
The whole shape of Deuteronomy→The structure of this chapter
Places1
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. Passover kept where he chooses
1. (vv. 1-2)
Deuteronomy 16:1
“The Chaldee paraphrasts expound it, "Because they came out of Egypt by daylight," there being an express order that they should not stir out of their doors till morning, Exod. xii. One of them expounds it thus: " He brought thee out of Egypt, and did wonders by night. " The other, "and thou shalt eat the passover by night. " The laws concerning it are, 1.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 16:2
“Thou shalt therefore sacrifice the passover unto the Lord thy God,....”
Observe the month of Abib: Exodus 12:22 told Israel that none should go out of the door of his house until the morning, and Numbers 33:3 dates the departure to the morrow after the passover, while verse 1 here says the LORD brought thee forth out of Egypt by night. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the night as the hour Pharaoh's permission was extorted and the morning as the hour of the march, and both accounts stand in the canon as they are written. Verse 2 then says of the flock and the herd, where Exodus 12:5 required a lamb or a kid out of the flock. Keil and Delitzsch take the wider phrase to cover the festal offerings of the seven days, which verse 3 keeps distinct from the passover itself by the words with it.
2. (vv. 3-4)
Deuteronomy 16:3
“Christ our passover being sacrificed for us, and we having participated in the blessed fruits of that sacrifice to our comfort, let us keep the feast in a holy conversation, free from the leaven of malice towards our brethren and hypocrisy towards God, and with the unleavened bread of sincerity and love.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 16:4
“And there shall be no leavened bread seen with thee in all thy coasts seven days,....”
Unleavened bread is given a name here, the bread of affliction, and a reason, that thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste. The command attached to it is remember, which falls fourteen times in this book and fastens every time on an event rather than a doctrine, and verses 3 and 12 are two of the fourteen. Verse 4 repeats the rule of Exodus 12:10 and Exodus 34:25 that nothing of the flesh remain all night, and Adam Clarke reads the plain taste of the bread as the thing that carried the memory.
3. (vv. 5-7)
Deuteronomy 16:5
“Thou mayest not sacrifice the passover within any of thy gates,.... Or cities, as the Targum of Jonathan, so called because they usually had gates to them, in which public affairs were transacted; but in none of these, only in the city of Jerusalem, the place the Lord chose, might they kill the passover and eat it, and other passover offerings: which the Lord thy God giveth thee; in the land of Canaan, and which land was given them of God.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 16:5
“The passover was itself a sacrifice; hence Christ, as our passover, is said to be sacrificed for us ( 1 Cor. v. 7 ), and many other sacrifices were offered during the seven days of the feast ( Num. xxviii.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 16:6
“But at the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to place his name in,....”
Deuteronomy 16:7
“And thou shalt roast and eat it in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose,....”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 16:7
“Some think that they might, if they pleased, return the very morning after the paschal lamb was killed and eaten, the priests and Levites being sufficient to carry on the rest of the week's work; but the first day of the seven is so far from being the day of their dispersion that it is expressly appointed for a holy convocation ( Lev. xxiii.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The place which the LORD shall choose falls fifteen times in this book, all of them between chapters 12 and 26, and four stand in this chapter at verses 2, 6, 7 and 15 without the place ever being named. Exodus 12 kept the passover in the houses with the blood struck on the door posts, and here it may not be killed within any of thy gates at all. Albert Barnes takes that gathering of worship to one sanctuary as the point the whole chapter turns on, and the older commentators hold both accounts by reading Exodus 12 as the ordinance of the night in Egypt and this chapter as its standing form in the land. The Samaritan Pentateuch reads the phrase as a place already chosen and identifies it with Gerizim, which is the root of the question the woman raises at John 4:20.
4. (v. 8)
Deuteronomy 16:8
“Six days shalt thou eat unleavened bread,.... In other places it is ordered to be eaten seven days, Exo 12:15 and here it is not said six only; it was to be eaten on the seventh as on the other, though that is here distinguished from the six, because of special and peculiar service assigned to it, but not because of an exemption from eating unleavened bread on it.”
Exodus 12:15 and Leviticus 23:6 give seven days of unleavened bread and this verse gives six, with a solemn assembly on the seventh. John Gill answers that the text does not say six only, and that the seventh day is counted apart because a day of assembly and rest was laid on it, rather than because the bread changed. The prohibition of work on that seventh day is the same one the sabbath carries.
B. Seven weeks, then a gift as he has blessed you
1. (vv. 9-10)
Deuteronomy 16:9
“Feast of Weeks; and Deu 16:13-17, Feast of Tabernacles. Nothing is here added to the rules given in Leviticus and Numbers except the clauses so often recurring in Deuteronomy and so characteristic of it, which restrict the public celebration of the festivals to the sanctuary, and enjoin that the enjoyments of them should be extended to the Levites, widows, orphans, etc.”
Deuteronomy 16:10
“It is here called a tribute of a free-will-offering. It was required of them as a tribute to their Sovereign Lord and owner, under whom they held all they had; and yet because the law did not determine the quantum, but it was left to every man's generosity to bring what he chose, and whatever he brought he must give cheerfully, it is therefore called a free-will offering.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 16:10
“An offering of "first fruits," that is, from the beginning of the harvest, is commanded. If you remember well, the law commands this is to be done on the day of Pentecost. This was obviously given to them as a "shadow," but the truth was reserved for us. For on the day of Pentecost, after they offered up the sacrifice of prayers, the church of the apostles received the first fruits of the coming of the Holy Spirit.”
Origen of Alexandria· written before 253· HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 2.2.5patristic
The count begins from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn, which fixes this feast to the state of the harvest rather than to a fixed date. Leviticus 23:15-16 counts the same seven weeks from the sheaf of the wave offering and arrives at fifty days, and the Greek word for fiftieth gives the day the name Pentecost that Acts 2:1 uses. The offering is called a tribute and a freewill offering in one breath, owed as tribute and measured by the giver according as the LORD thy God hath blessed thee, and Gill sets 1 Corinthians 16:2 beside it for the same way of reckoning.
2. (vv. 11-12)
Deuteronomy 16:12
“And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt,....”
Rejoicing is commanded three times in this chapter, at verses 11, 14 and 15, and here it is commanded in company. The list runs to son, daughter, manservant, maidservant, Levite, stranger, fatherless and widow, so the people with no land of their own are named at the feast beside the household that holds some. Verse 12 gives the ground for that in one line, thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt, which is the second of this chapter's two calls to remember. Adam Clarke reads the whole festal meal as a thing eaten with friends and shared with the poor rather than consumed by the family that brought it.
C. Booths, and none appear empty-handed
1. (vv. 13-15)
Deuteronomy 16:13
“Thou shalt observe the feast of tabernacles seven days,.... Which began on the fifteenth day of Tisri, or September; see Lev 23:34, &c. after that thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine; and therefore sometimes called the feast of ingathering, Exo 23:16, barley harvest began at the passover, and wheat harvest at Pentecost; and before the feast of tabernacles began, the vintage and the gathering of the olives were over, as well as all other summer fruits were got in.”
Deuteronomy 16:14
“And thou shalt rejoice in thy feast,.... At this feast of tabernacles and ingathering of the fruits of the earth, in token of gratitude and thankfulness for the goodness of God bestowed on them; the Targum of Jonathan adds, with the flute and the pipe, making use of instrumental music to increase the joy on this occasion: thou and thy son, &c. See Gill on Deu 16:11.”
Deuteronomy 16:15
“Seven days shalt thou keep a solemn feast unto the Lord thy God,....”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 16:15
“We must rejoice in God, not only because of what we have received and are receiving from him daily, but because of what he has promised, and we expect to receive yet further from him: because he shall bless thee, therefore thou shalt rejoice. Those that make God their joy may rejoice in hope, for he is faithful that has promised.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Leviticus 23:42-43 gives the reason for this feast as the booths, that your generations may know that God made the children of Israel to dwell in booths when he brought them out of Egypt. Deuteronomy names no booths here and dates the feast by the barn and the winepress instead, after that thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine, which is why Exodus 23:16 can call it the feast of ingathering. Verse 15 then makes the blessing the ground of the joy rather than its result, because the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all thine increase, therefore thou shalt surely rejoice. Matthew Henry reads that order as joy resting on a promise as much as on a harvest already gathered.
2. (vv. 16-17)
Deuteronomy 16:16
“Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy God--No command was laid on women to undertake the journeys, partly from regard to the natural weakness of their sex, and partly to their domestic cares.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 16:16
“Three times a year shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy God,....”
Deuteronomy 16:16
“Three times in a year - See Exo 23:14 (note), where all the Jewish feasts are explained. See also Lev 23:34 (note).”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 16:17
“Every man shall give as he is able,.... The quantity to be given is not fixed in the law, but the wise men appointed it, as observed on Deu 16:16 but it is left by the Lord to the generosity of the people, only giving this general rule, that they should do according to their ability, and as the Lord had prospered them; see 1Co 16:2 so Jarchi,"every man that hath many eatables and much goods shall bring many burnt offerings and many peace offerings.''”
The same three pilgrimages are commanded at Exodus 23:14-17 and again at Exodus 34:23, and here the spring feast is named by its unleavened bread rather than by the passover. What is required of the men is attendance and a gift, and the amount of the gift is left open, since every man shall give as he is able. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown observe that no command was laid on the women, and the narrative has them going up all the same, with Hannah at Shiloh in 1 Samuel 1:7 and the family of Jesus at Jerusalem every year in Luke 2:41.
D. Justice, justice shall you follow
1. (vv. 18-19)
Deuteronomy 16:18
“Judges and officers shalt thou make--These last meant heralds or bailiffs, employed in executing the sentence of their superiors. in all thy gates--The gate was the place of public resort among the Israelites and other Eastern people, where business was transacted and causes decided.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Deuteronomy 16:19
“A gift doth blind the eyes - Biasseth his mind, that he cannot discern between right and wrong. The words - That is the sentence, of those Judges who are used to do righteous things, it makes them give wrong judgment. That which is altogether just - Hebrew. righteousness, righteousness, that is, nothing but righteousness in all causes and times, and to all persons equally.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 16:19
The ninth plague was of darkness, by which the covetous and avaricious are struck, because nothing so blinds a man as covetousness. Whence the Prophet: "Gifts and presents blind the eyes of the prudent and change the words of the just."
Bonaventure· written before 1257· Collationes de Decem Praeceptis, Collation 7patristic
Exodus 18:25 and Deuteronomy 1:15 set rulers over thousands and hundreds in one camp, and this verse plants judges and officers in all thy gates, which puts a court in every town of a people about to be spread over a land. Adam Clarke reads the officers as the men who carried out the sentence and checked the weights and measures in the markets, so the office covers enforcement as well as judgment. Verse 19 names the three ways a court fails, wresting judgment, respecting persons and taking a gift, and it argues the third rather than merely forbidding it, for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise. Cases too hard for a local bench go up to the place which the LORD shall choose under 17:8-13.
2. (v. 20)
Deuteronomy 16:20
“That which is altogether just shalt thou follow,.... Or "justice", "justice" (a), strict justice, and nothing else: that thou mayest live and inherit the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee; that is, continue in the possession of it. (a) צדק צדק.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 16:20
“In another place: "You shall follow justly after that which is just," lest we turn from justice, by asserting our own view of truth, recalling the experience of Saul and Agag.”
Jerome· written before 420· Against the Pelagians 2.3patristic
The Hebrew doubles a single word here, and John Gill renders it justice, justice, where the King James carries the force of the repetition with altogether just. The verb behind follow is closer to pursue than to keep, so the court is sent after justice rather than told to wait for it to arrive. What hangs on the charge is tenure, that thou mayest live, and inherit the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, which ties Israel's hold on the ground to the conduct of its own courts.
3. (vv. 21-22)
Deuteronomy 16:21
“Thou shalt not plant thee a grove, etc. - We have already seen that groves were planted about idol temples for the purpose of the obscene worship performed in them. (See on Deu 12:3 (note)). On this account God would have no groves or thickets about his altar, that there might be no room for suspicion that any thing contrary to the strictest purity was transacted there. Every part of the Divine worship was publicly performed, for the purpose of general edification.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 16:22
“Neither shalt thou set thee up any image--erroneously rendered so for "pillar"; pillars of various kinds, and materials of wood or stone were erected in the neighborhood of altars. Sometimes they were conical or oblong, at other times they served as pedestals for the statues of idols. A superstitious reverence was attached to them, and hence they were forbidden.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
These two verses turn from the courts back to the altar, and 17:1 carries the same subject on with the rule about a blemished sacrifice. Grove translates asherah, which names a Canaanite goddess and the wooden pole that stood for her, and the King James follows the Septuagint in rendering it by the plantation around the shrine. Image in verse 22 is the standing pillar, which Jamieson, Fausset and Brown give as the sense, and it is the same word used of the stone Jacob set up and anointed at Genesis 28:18 and 35:14. What one patriarch raised as a memorial is here a thing which the LORD thy God hateth, and Clarke reads the ban on both as keeping the worship of God in open sight.
This page carries no textual note on Deuteronomy 16. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
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