Deuteronomy 16
The Israelites are instructed to observe the Passover in the month of new grain, commemorating their departure from Egypt, and to eat unleavened bread for seven days. They are also to celebrate the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles, offering voluntary oblations and feasting with their families and the Levites. All males are to appear before the Lord three times a year at these feasts, offering according to their means. Additionally, the Israelites are to appoint just judges and magistrates, avoiding favoritism and bribery, and to worship the Lord without idolatry or sacred groves.
1"Observe the month of new grain, at the beginning of springtime, so that you may accomplish the Passover to the Lord your God. For in this month, the Lord your God led you away from Egypt in the night2And you shall immolate the Passover to the Lord your God, from sheep and from oxen, in the place which the Lord your God will choose, so that his name may dwell there3You shall not eat it with leavened bread. For seven days you shall eat, without leaven, the bread of affliction. For you departed from Egypt in fear. So may you remember the day of your departure from Egypt, throughout all the days of your life4No leaven shall be present in all your confines for seven days. And by morning, there shall not remain any of the flesh which was immolated on the first day in the evening5You cannot immolate the Passover in any of your cities, which the Lord your God will give to you, that you wish6but only in the place which the Lord your God will choose, so that his name may dwell there. You shall immolate the Passover in the evening, upon the setting of the sun, which is the time when you departed from Egypt7And you shall cook and eat it in the place which the Lord your God will choose, and, rising up in the morning, you shall go into your tent8For six days, you shall eat unleavened bread. And on the seventh day, because it is the assembly of the Lord your God, you shall do no work9You shall number for yourself seven weeks from that day, the day on which you put the sickle to the grain field10And you shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks, to the Lord your God, with a voluntary oblation from your hand, which you shall offer according to the blessing of the Lord your God11And you shall feast in the sight of the Lord your God: you, your son and your daughter, your man servant and your woman servant, and the Levite who is within your gates, and the new arrival as well as the orphan and the widow, who abide with you, in the place which the Lord your God will choose, so that his name may dwell there12And you shall recall that you were a servant in Egypt. And you shall preserve and carry out the things that have been instructed13Likewise, you shall celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days, when you will have gathered your fruits from the orchard and the winepress14And you shall feast at the time of your festival: you, your son and daughter, your man servant and woman servant, likewise the Levite and the new arrival, the orphan and the widow, who are within your gates15For seven days you shall celebrate feasts to the Lord your God in the place which the Lord will choose. And the Lord your God will bless you in all your crops, and in every work of your hands. And you shall be joyful16Three times a year, all your males shall appear in the sight the Lord your God in the place which he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles. No one shall appear before the Lord empty17But each one shall offer according to what he will have, according to the blessing of the Lord his God, which he will give to him18You shall appoint judges and magistrates at all your gates, which the Lord your God will give to you, throughout each of your tribes, so that they may judge the people with a just judgment19and not so as to show favoritism to either side. You shall not accept a person’s reputation, nor gifts. For gifts blind the eyes of the wise and alter the words of the just20You shall justly pursue what is just, so that you may live and possess the land, which the Lord your God will give to you21You shall not plant a sacred grove, nor shall you plant any tree near the altar of the Lord your God22you shall neither make nor set up for yourself a statue. These things the Lord your God hates.
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