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Deuteronomy 16
1Observe the month of Abib, and keep the to the LORD your God; for in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night.
2You shall the to the LORD your God, of the and the herd, in the place which the LORD shall choose to cause his name to dwell there.
3You shall eat no leavened bread with it. You shall eat unleavened bread with it seven days, even the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste) that you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.
4No yeast shall be seen with you in all your borders seven days; neither shall any of the meat, which you the first day at evening, remain all night until the morning.
5You may not the within any of your gates which the LORD your God gives you;
6but at the place which the LORD your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell in, there you shall the at evening, at the going down of the sun, at the season that you came out of Egypt.
7You shall roast and eat it in the place which the LORD your God chooses. In the morning you shall return to your tents.
8Six days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to the LORD your God. You shall do no work.
9You shall count for yourselves seven weeks. From the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain you shall begin to count seven weeks.
10You shall keep the feast of weeks to the LORD your God with a tribute of a free will of your hand, which you shall give according to how the LORD your God blesses you.
11You shall rejoice before the LORD your God: you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow who are among you, in the place which the LORD your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there.
12You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt. You shall observe and do these statutes.
13You shall keep the feast of booths seven days, after you have gathered in from your threshing floor and from your wine press.
14You shall rejoice in your feast, you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your gates.
15You shall keep a feast to the LORD your God seven days in the place which the LORD chooses, because the LORD your God will bless you in all your increase and in all the work of your hands, and you shall be altogether joyful.
16Three times in a year all of your males shall appear before the LORD your God in the place which he chooses: in , in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of booths. They shall not appear before the LORD empty.
17Every man shall give as he is able, according to the LORD your God’s blessing which he has given you.
18You shall make judges and officers in all your gates, which the LORD your God gives you, according to your tribes; and they shall judge the people with judgment.
19You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality. You shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the .
20You shall follow that which is altogether just, that you may live and inherit the land which the LORD your God gives you.
21You shall not plant for yourselves an Asherah of any kind of tree beside the LORD your God’s , which you shall make for yourselves.
22Neither shall you set yourself up a sacred stone which the LORD your God hates.
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Questions this passage answers
Who is God?
God is the one living Creator who made everything and depends on nothing, and Scripture answers this question mainly by telling us his character rather than by defining his substance. When God described himself to Moses he said he is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abundant in loving kindness and truth, and yet will by no means clear the guilty. The New Testament adds that this God is finally known in Jesus Christ, who has made him known.
What does it mean to fear the Lord?
The fear of the LORD is not terror of an unpredictable God. It is the reverence of a creature who has rightly understood who God is, holy, sovereign and near, and who therefore takes him seriously in every decision. Proverbs calls it the beginning of knowledge, because a person who has not reckoned with God has not yet begun to understand anything rightly.