The Law · Chapter 16 of 34

Deuteronomy 16

Moses commands Israel to keep three annual pilgrimage feasts at the place God chooses: Passover with unleavened bread, remembering the exodus; the Feast of Weeks, giving freely as God has blessed; and the Feast of Tabernacles, rejoicing after harvest. All are to include the whole community. He then charges Israel to appoint just judges who take no bribes and pursue only what is right.

What happens in Deuteronomy 16

Moses details Israel's three great festivals. Passover is kept in the month of Abib, sacrificed at God's chosen place at evening, eaten with unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, recalling their hasty flight from Egypt. Seven days no leaven is to be seen. Fifty days later comes the Feast of Weeks, counted from the first sickle to the grain, kept with a freewill offering measured by God's blessing, and shared with sons, daughters, servants, Levites, strangers, orphans, and widows.

The Feast of Tabernacles follows the harvest, seven days of rejoicing before God. Three times a year all the men appear before the LORD, none empty handed, each giving as he is able. Moses then commands the appointment of judges and officers in every town who judge justly, never wresting judgment, showing partiality, or taking bribes, for bribes blind the wise. Justice, and justice alone, is to be pursued. He forbids sacred groves and images by the altar.

Deuteronomy 16 in context

Continuing the covenant code, this chapter organizes Israel's sacred calendar around three pilgrimage feasts, each tied to both the exodus story and the agricultural year. Gathering at the central sanctuary reinforced national unity and shared memory.

The abrupt turn to appointing just judges begins a section on Israel's leadership and public institutions. Together, worship and justice frame the health of the community: a people who rightly remember God and rightly govern one another.

Main themes of Deuteronomy 16

Deuteronomy 16 (KJV)

1Observe the month of Abib, and keep the passover unto the LORD thy God: for in the month of Abib the LORD thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night. 2Thou shalt therefore sacrifice the passover unto the LORD thy God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which the LORD shall choose to place his name there. 3Thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction; for thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste: that thou mayest remember the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life. 4And there shall be no leavened bread seen with thee in all thy coast seven days; neither shall there any thing of the flesh, which thou sacrificedst the first day at even, remain all night until the morning. 5Thou mayest not sacrifice the passover within any of thy gates, which the LORD thy God giveth thee: 6But at the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to place his name in, there thou shalt sacrifice the passover at even, at the going down of the sun, at the season that thou camest forth out of Egypt. 7And thou shalt roast and eat it in the place which the LORD thy God shall choose: and thou shalt turn in the morning, and go unto thy tents. 8Six days thou shalt eat unleavened bread: and on the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to the LORD thy God: thou shalt do no work therein. 9Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee: begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn. 10And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the LORD thy God with a tribute of a freewill offering of thine hand, which thou shalt give unto the LORD thy God, according as the LORD thy God hath blessed thee: 11And thou shalt rejoice before the LORD thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are among you, in the place which the LORD thy God hath chosen to place his name there. 12And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt: and thou shalt observe and do these statutes. 13Thou shalt observe the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine: 14And thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite, the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates. 15Seven days shalt thou keep a solemn feast unto the LORD thy God in the place which the LORD shall choose: because the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all thine increase, and in all the works of thine hands, therefore thou shalt surely rejoice. 16Three 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: 17Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee. 18Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates, which the LORD thy God giveth thee, throughout thy tribes: and they shall judge the people with just judgment. 19Thou shalt not wrest judgment; thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous. 20That which is altogether just shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live, and inherit the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. 21Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any trees near unto the altar of the LORD thy God, which thou shalt make thee. 22Neither shalt thou set thee up any image; which the LORD thy God hateth.

Verses to carry from Deuteronomy 16

“Thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction; for thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste: that thou mayest remember the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life.”Deuteronomy 16:3

“And thou shalt rejoice before the LORD thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are among you, in the place which the LORD thy God hath chosen to place his name there.”Deuteronomy 16:11

“That which is altogether just shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live, and inherit the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.”Deuteronomy 16:20

Reflection

Notice how these feasts refuse to leave anyone out, deliberately drawing in the servant, the stranger, and the fatherless. And notice how worship is joined to justice. Where might your celebration before God need to become more inclusive, and your daily dealings more just? Let gratitude and fairness grow together in you.

A prayer from Deuteronomy 16