The Passover

Deuteronomy 16

Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to YHWH your God; for in the month of Abib YHWH your God brought you out of Egypt by night. You are to sacrifice the Passover to YHWH your God, of the flock and the herd, in the place that YHWH chooses to cause ʜɪꜱ name to dwell. You must not eat leavened bread. For seven days, you are to eat unleavened bread, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste) so that you will remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life. No yeast must be seen with you in all your borders for seven days, and none of the meat which you sacrifice in the evening of the first day, is to remain overnight until the morning. You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates which YHWH your God gives you; but at the place where YHWH your God chooses to cause ʜɪꜱ name to dwell in, there you must sacrifice the Passover at evening, at the going down of the sun, at the season that you came out of Egypt. You are to roast and eat it in the place which YHWH your God chooses. In the morning you are to return to your tents. Six days you are to eat unleavened bread. On the seventh day there is to be a solemn assembly to YHWH your God. You must do no work.

The Festival of Weeks

You to count seven weeks, starting from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain, you are to begin to count seven weeks. You are to keep the feast of weeks to YHWH your God with a tribute of a free will offering of your hand, which you give according to how YHWH your God blesses you. Rejoice before YHWH 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 where YHWH your God chooses to cause ʜɪꜱ name to dwell. You must remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and observe and follow these statutes.

The Festival of Tabernacles

You are to celebrate the feast of booths seven days, after you have gathered in from your threshing floor and from your wine press. 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. You are to keep a feast to YHWH your God seven days in the place which YHWH chooses, because YHWH your God will bless you in all your increase and in all the work of your hands, and you are to be altogether joyful. Three times in a year all of your males must appear before YHWH your God in the place ʜᴇ chooses: in the feast of unleavened bread, in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of booths. They must not appear before YHWH empty-handed. Everyone is to give as they is able, according to YHWH your God’s blessing which ʜᴇ has given you.

Appointing Judges

You are to appoint judges and officers for all your town gates that YHWH your God gives you, according to your tribes. They are to judge the people with righteous judgment. You must not pervert justice. You must not show partiality. You must not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous. Pursue justice-justice so that you may live and inherit the land that YHWH your God gives you.

You must not plant for yourselves an Asherah of any kind of tree beside YHWH your God’s altar, which you are to make for yourselves, and do not erect a sacred pillar which YHWH your God hates.