Deuteronomychapter 16
22 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the Lord empty:
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Deuteronomy Overview.
Moses gave this law on the plains of Moab to farming households who would travel to worship three times a year. Two of the three feasts are dated by the harvest rather than by the calendar, so the year it describes is a farmer's year. The feasts were to be kept at a place not yet chosen, which moved one of them out of the family home. The chapter then turns to the courts that would sit at every town gate. Listen for the people named at the table when Israel rejoices, and for the link the chapter draws between justice and keeping the land.
Context
- Who
- Farming households who would travel three times a year and settle their disputes at a town gate
- What
- The Passover, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles gathered to the chosen place, followed by the charge to appoint just judges in every town.
- Where
- The plains of Moab, with the feasts set at a sanctuary not yet chosen and the courts set at the gates of every town.
- When
- The fortieth year after the Exodus, about 1406 BC on the early date this site keeps.
- Why
- To shape Israel's year around the LORD's deliverance and the harvest, with the poor at the feast, and to make just courts the condition of living in the land.
Historical context
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.
Show the rest of the historical context, 6 more paragraphs
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.
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.
Significance
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.
Show the rest of the significance, 2 more paragraphs
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.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
This chapter sets the three pilgrim feasts, and the classical commentary on it touches the Jewish year at more points than any other chapter of the book. The leap year begins here. Rashi on Deuteronomy 16:1:1 reads the command to watch the month of Abib as a duty to check in advance whether the ears will be ripe in time for the Omer offering. Where they will not, a month is added to the year, which he takes from Sanhedrin 11b. That is the reckoning behind the extra month the Jewish calendar still adds. At the Passover table, Rashi on Deuteronomy 16:3:1 reads the bread of affliction as bread that calls the affliction in Egypt to mind, from Sifrei Devarim 130:5. Rashi on Deuteronomy 16:8:1 works through the difference between the six days here and the seven at Exodus 12:15. He holds that unleavened bread is obligatory only on the first night of Passover and optional on the other days, citing Pesachim 120a. The counting to the second feast starts from the cutting. Rashi on Deuteronomy 16:9:1 fixes the start of the seven weeks at the cutting of the Omer, from Sifrei Devarim 136:2-3 and Menachot 71a. At the third feast, Rashi on Deuteronomy 16:13:1 draws the rule for the covering of the booth from the words about the barn and the wine press. The covering is made of what falls off in the threshing floor and the press, which he takes from Rosh Hashanah 13a and Sukkah 12a.
How it is read
The commentary reads the feasts as obligations of the household and of the purse together. Rashi on Deuteronomy 16:10:1 reads the free-will offering as a sum measured by the blessing received. He adds the two things a household does with it, offering peace offerings of rejoicing and inviting guests to the meal. Rashi on Deuteronomy 16:17:1 reads the ability of the hand in the same way, holding that a man with a large household and large possessions brings more, from Sifrei Devarim 143:10 and Chagigah 8b. Rashi on Deuteronomy 16:15:1 gives the plain sense of the closing words as an assurance rather than a command. The rabbis' sense extends the duty of rejoicing to the night before the last day, from Sukkah 48a. On the Passover offering itself, Rashi on Deuteronomy 16:2:1 and 16:2:2 separate the lamb from the festival offering of oxen. The festival offering was eaten first where the company was too large for one lamb, so that the Passover itself was eaten after the appetite was satisfied, which he takes from Pesachim 69b and 70a. Rashi on Deuteronomy 16:6:1 divides the three times named in the verse. The slaughter runs from the sixth hour, the eating follows at sunset, and what is left in the morning is taken out to be destroyed. The second half of the chapter turns to the courts. Rashi on Deuteronomy 16:18:1 distinguishes the judges who pass sentence from the officers who enforce it. Rashi on Deuteronomy 16:20:1 reads the doubled word for justice as a charge to go to a reliable court, from Sanhedrin 32b. The Rashi entries are from corpus entries marked kept, the Rosenbaum and Silbermann edition, public domain. Sforno on Deuteronomy 16:5:1 and 16:14:1 is from Eliyahu Munk's HaChut Hameshulash, CC-BY. Every entry in this chapter's corpus file carries text, so no commentator here is cited by ref alone.
What the rabbis say
The rabbis teach that God keeps four guests of his own at the feast. Rashi on Deuteronomy 16:11:1 sets the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless and the widow against the son, the daughter, the manservant and the maidservant. He gives God's words as a bargain: if you gladden mine, I will gladden yours, from Midrash Tanchuma, Re'eh 18. They teach that Israel left Egypt by day while the leave to go was given at night. That is how Rashi on Deuteronomy 16:1:2 reconciles this verse with Numbers 30:3, citing Sifrei Devarim 128:5 and Berakhot 9a. They teach that planting a tree of the Asherah is itself an offence, even where the planter never worships it, which Rashi gives on Deuteronomy 16:21:1 from Sifrei Devarim 145:1. The corpus also holds the Midrash and the Talmud on this chapter as locators without their text. Among them are Berakhot 9a:25 at verse 1, Berakhot 12b:24 at verse 3 and Beitzah 2a:1 at verse 4. Others are Bava Metzia 87b:6 at verse 9, Jerusalem Talmud Peah 8:7:3 at verse 11, Beitzah 11b:7 at verse 16 and Avodah Zarah 52a:14 at verse 18.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Deuteronomy 16:1:1, 16:1:2, 16:2:1, 16:2:2, 16:3:1, 16:6:1, 16:8:1, 16:9:1, 16:10:1, 16:11:1, 16:13:1, 16:15:1, 16:17:1, 16:18:1, 16:20:1 and 16:21:1, Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, public domain, 1929 to 1934; Sforno, Sforno on Deuteronomy 16:5:1 and 16:14:1, Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash, CC-BY; Midrash and Talmud, Berakhot 9a:25 and 12b:24, Beitzah 2a:1 and 11b:7, Bava Metzia 87b:6, Jerusalem Talmud Peah 8:7:3 and Avodah Zarah 52a:14, cited by ref alone; The Sefaria corpus on disk, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/deuteronomy/16.json, fetched 2026-09-19, 2026.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Passover kept where he chooses
Deuteronomy 16:1-2
Observe the month of Abib: Exodus 12:22 kept Israel indoors until morning and Numbers 33:3 dates the departure to the next day, while verse 1 says the LORD “brought you out of Egypt by night”. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the night as the hour Pharaoh's permission was forced. Keil and Delitzsch take “from the herd or flock” in verse 2 to cover the festal offerings of the seven days.
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
Josiah's Passover at 2 Chronicles 35:7 drew lambs and goats from the flock and bulls from the herd, the two sources this verse names. 2 Kings 23:23 places it in Jerusalem. Albert Barnes counts six places in the first sixteen verses that bind the feasts to the one sanctuary.
Deuteronomy 16:3-4
Unleavened bread is given a name, “the bread of affliction”, and a reason, “you left the land of Egypt in haste”. The command attached is to remember, a word that falls fourteen times in this book. Verse 4 repeats the rule of Exodus 12:10 that nothing of the meat remain until morning, and Adam Clarke reads the plain taste of the bread as the thing that carried the memory.
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
Exodus 13:7 had kept leaven out of all Israel's borders for the seven days, and this verse keeps it out of all the land. Paul applies the feast at 1 Corinthians 5:7-8, where Christ is the Passover sacrifice and the old leaven is cleaned out. Matthew Henry names that leaven malice and hypocrisy.
Deuteronomy 16:5-7
Exodus 12 kept the Passover in the houses with blood on the doorposts, and here it may not be killed “in any of the towns”. Albert Barnes takes this gathering of worship to one sanctuary as the chapter's point. 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.
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
Exodus 12:6 set the slaughter at twilight, and this verse ties the hour to the hour of the departure. Matthew Henry reports that the Chaldee paraphrasts place the going out of Egypt by daylight, with one of them reading the night as the time of the eating. The sacrifice keeps the hour.
Exodus 12:8-9 required the first Passover roasted over the fire. Adam Clarke says the flesh of the feasts was eaten fresh, a necessity in that climate, and nothing was left until morning.
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
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 assembly and rest were laid on it. The ban on work that day is the one the Sabbath carries.
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.”
Seven weeks, then a gift as he has blessed you
Deuteronomy 16:9-10
The count begins “from the time you first put the sickle to the standing grain”, which ties this feast to the harvest. Leviticus 23:15-16 counts the same seven weeks to fifty days, and the Greek word for fiftieth gives the day the name Pentecost that Acts 2:1 uses. The freewill offering is measured by how the LORD has blessed the giver, and Gill sets 1 Corinthians 16:2 beside it.
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.”
Origen reads the firstfruits offered at this feast as a shadow, and the truth as the Spirit given to the apostles on the day of Pentecost. Leviticus 23:17 names that day's offering, two loaves baked with leaven, as firstfruits to the LORD. The feast looked ahead.
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
Deuteronomy 16:11-12
Rejoicing is commanded here in company. The list runs to sons, daughters, servants, the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widows, so people with no land are named at the feast beside the household that holds some. Verse 12 gives the ground in one line, “Remember that you were slaves in Egypt”, and Adam Clarke reads the festal meal as shared with friends and the poor.
The memory of slavery is set beside the feast at which verse 11 seats servants, strangers, widows and orphans. Albert Barnes counts that widening of the feasts to the Levite, the widow and the orphan as Deuteronomy's own addition to Leviticus and Numbers. Freed slaves feast with their servants.
Booths, and none appear empty-handed
Deuteronomy 16:13-15
Leviticus 23:42-43 grounds this feast in the booths of the wilderness, while Deuteronomy dates it by the threshing floor and the winepress, which is why Exodus 23:16 can call it the Feast of Ingathering. Verse 15 makes the blessing the ground of the joy, “because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce”. Matthew Henry reads that order as joy resting on a promise.
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.”
Nehemiah 8:14-17 records the Feast of Tabernacles kept in booths after the exile, kept as no generation had kept it from the days of Joshua, and the people rejoice greatly. At 8:10 they send portions to those with nothing prepared, the care this verse gives the foreigner, the fatherless and the widows. John Gill dates the feast from the fifteenth day of Tisri.
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.”
The seven days fall after the whole harvest is in, and John Gill counts the vintage, the olives and the summer fruit as gathered before the feast began. John 7:2 and 7:10 put Jesus in Jerusalem for this feast. The joy is promised complete.
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
Deuteronomy 16:16-17
The same three pilgrimages are commanded at Exodus 23:14-17 and 34:23, and here the spring feast is named by its unleavened bread. The men owe attendance and a gift, and the amount is left open, “a gift as he is able”. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown observe that no command was laid on the women, yet Hannah goes up at 1 Samuel 1:7 and Jesus' family every year at Luke 2:41.
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
1 more voice on this verse
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
Every man appears at the three feasts with a gift as he is able. John Gill reports that the law left the amount to the giver and the Jewish sages later fixed one, and Jarchi measured it by the blessing the LORD had given. Paul measures a gift by what one has at 2 Corinthians 8:12.
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.''”
Justice, justice shall you follow
Deuteronomy 16:18-19
Exodus 18:25 set rulers over thousands in one camp, and this verse puts judges and officials in every town of a people about to spread over a land. Adam Clarke reads the officials as the men who carried out sentences and checked weights in the markets. Verse 19 argues its ban on bribes rather than only stating it, “for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise”.
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
Exodus 23:8 gives the same reason for the ban on bribes, with those who see where this verse has the wise. John Wesley reads the words of the righteous as the sentence of a just judge, which a gift turns to wrong judgment. Bonaventure joined this line to the plague of darkness.
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
The Hebrew doubles a single word, and John Gill renders it justice, justice, where the King James carries the repetition with altogether just. The verb is pursue, so the court is sent after justice rather than told to wait for it. What hangs on the charge is tenure, “so that you may live, and you may possess the land”, which ties Israel's hold on the ground to its courts.
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
Deuteronomy 16:21-22
Asherah names a Canaanite goddess and the wooden pole that stood for her, and the King James follows the Septuagint in rendering it grove. The “sacred pillar” of verse 22 is the word used of the stone Jacob anointed at Genesis 28:18, so what one patriarch raised as a memorial is now a thing the LORD hates. Clarke reads the ban on both as keeping God's worship in open sight.
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
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown describe the sacred pillars set up near altars as wood or stone, some serving as pedestals for idols. The LORD hates the pillar, and 12:3 orders such pillars smashed with the Asherah poles. Hezekiah did both at 2 Kings 18:4.
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
How this psalm is built
The form: Law, the calendar of the three pilgrim feasts followed by the charge to the courts, as 16 classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The place the LORD will choose, four times over | The phrase stands 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 doorposts, and here it may not be killed within any of the towns at all.This site's published exposition of Deuteronomy 16, the note on verses 5 to 7, which cites Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament, and Keil and Delitzsch. | Deuteronomy 16:2, Deuteronomy 16:6, Deuteronomy 16:7, Deuteronomy 16:15 |
| Rejoicing commanded three times | Verses 11, 14 and 15 each command rejoicing, and the first two command it in company. The published note records that Adam Clarke reads the whole festal meal as a thing eaten with friends and shared with the poor.This site's published exposition of Deuteronomy 16, the note on verses 11 and 12, which cites Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710. | Deuteronomy 16:11, Deuteronomy 16:14, Deuteronomy 16:15 |
| The guest list at the feast | Verses 11 and 14 name sons, daughters, menservants, maidservants, the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow. The people with no land of their own stand at the feast beside the household that holds some.This site's published exposition of Deuteronomy 16, the note on verses 11 and 12. | Deuteronomy 16:11, Deuteronomy 16:14 |
| The word doubled for emphasis | The Hebrew of verse 20 doubles a single word, which John Gill renders justice, justice, and the King James carries as altogether just. The verb behind follow is closer to pursue than to keep, so the court is sent after justice.This site's published exposition of Deuteronomy 16, the note on verse 20, which cites John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, and Keil and Delitzsch. | Deuteronomy 16:20 |
| The three ways a court fails | Verse 19 names denying justice, showing partiality and taking a bribe, and it argues the third rather than merely forbidding it, since a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise. Verse 20 then ties Israel's hold on the land to the conduct of its own courts.This site's published exposition of Deuteronomy 16, the note on verses 18 and 19, which cites Adam Clarke and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871. | Deuteronomy 16:19, Deuteronomy 16:20 |
The New Testament's use
10 more paragraphs on the patterns
The fifty days counted at verses 9 and 10 give the day its Greek name, and Acts 2:1 dates the coming of the Spirit to it.
The three pilgrimages are commanded at Exodus 23:14-17 and again at Exodus 34:23. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown observe that no command was laid on the women, and the narrative has them going up all the same. Hannah goes up at 1 Samuel 1:7, and Luke 2:41 has the family of Jesus at Jerusalem every year.
The night or the morning
Exodus 12:22 told Israel that nobody should go out of the door of his house until the morning, and Numbers 33:3 dates the departure to the day after the Passover. Verse 1 here says the LORD brought Israel 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. Both accounts stand in the canon as they are written.
The flock and the herd
Verse 2 says the Passover sacrifice comes from the herd or the flock, 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. The published note carries the reading and states no verdict.
Six days or seven
Exodus 12:15 and Leviticus 23:6 give seven days of unleavened bread, and verse 8 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.
What stands beside the altar
Verse 21 forbids the Asherah pole and verse 22 the sacred pillar. The word behind the pillar is the 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 the LORD hates, and Adam Clarke reads the ban on both as keeping the worship of God in open sight.
Keep studying
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 form and classifications
The Jewish annual reading cycle, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, portions 47 and 48 and This site's published exposition of Deuteronomy 16.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Bonaventure, Collationes de Decem Praeceptis, Collation 7; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Origen of Alexandria, HOMILIES ON LEVITICUS 2.2.5.