Deuteronomy 16, Three Festivals

We continue with commandments related to the concept of a sabbath rest and related feasts.

Deuteronomy 16: 1-4, The Passover

Observe the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover of the LORD your God, because in the month of Abib he brought you out of Egypt by night.

Sacrifice as the Passover to the LORD your God an animal from your flock or herd at the place the LORD will choose as a dwelling for his Name. Do not eat it with bread made with yeast, but for seven days eat unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, because you left Egypt in haste--so that all the days of your life you may remember the time of your departure from Egypt.

Let no yeast be found in your possession in all your land for seven days. Do not let any of the meat you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain until morning.
 

The first festival the Israelites are to keep is Peschal/Passover. (Craigie, in The Book of Deuteronomy, Wm. B. Erdman, 1976, says that Abib is the month that is later called Nisan.) During this festival, the Israelites are, for seven days, to eat unleavened bread, the "bread of affliction", recalling the hurried leave during the exodus from Egypt.

Deuteronomy 16: 5-8, The Passsover sacrifice.

You must not sacrifice the Passover in any town the LORD your God gives you except in the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name. There you must sacrifice the Passover in the evening, when the sun goes down, on the anniversary of your departure from Egypt.

Roast it and eat it at the place the LORD your God will choose. Then in the morning return to your tents.

For six days eat unleavened bread and on the seventh day hold an assembly to the LORD your God and do no work.
 

The Passover feast lasts seven days, creating a Sabbath end day.

Deuteronomy 16: 9-12, The Feast of Weeks

Count off seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain. Then celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God by giving a freewill offering in proportion to the blessings the LORD your God has given you. And rejoice before the LORD your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name--you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, the Levites in your towns, and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows living among you.

Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and follow carefully these decrees.

Seven weeks after the Passover is another seven day festival, the Feasts of Weeks, presumably so-named because it is seven weeks after Passover. In the New Testament it is the festival of Pentecost.

Deuteronomy 16: 13-15, Feast of Tabernacles

Celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress.

Be joyful at your Feast--you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levites, the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns. For seven days celebrate the Feast to the LORD your God at the place the LORD will choose. For the LORD your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete.
 

The feasts are to be a time of joy.  In this case, it is a celebration of the harvest.

Deuteronomy 16: 16-17, Requirement of all men

Three times a year all your men must appear before the LORD your God at the place he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles. No man should appear before the LORD empty-handed: Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the LORD your God has blessed you.

These three feasts are the requirements for all men (and by implication, everyone.) Everyone is to bring YHWH gifts of devotion.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread, here, is the celebration of Passover. The Feast of Tabernacles is sometimes translated Feast of Booths.

Deuteronomy 16: 18-20, Follow justice

Appoint judges and officials for each of your tribes in every town the LORD your God is giving you, and they shall judge the people fairly. Do not pervert justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous.

Follow justice and justice alone, so that you may live and possess the land the LORD your God is giving you.

There is a transition to a new emphasis, that of justice and lines of authority.  This is probably an amplification of the Fifth Commandment about honoring one's parents.

The text will look at four leaders: judge, king, priest and prophet (say John Currid, quoting John Walton.)  We begin with instructions to judges.

Deuteronomy 16: 21-22, YHWH, not Asherah

Do not set up any wooden Asherah pole beside the altar you build to the LORD your God, and do not erect a sacred stone, for these the LORD your God hates.

An Asherah pole might be a tree planted to honor Asherah. Asherah was a popular Canaanite god of fertility. She will be a threat to Israel throughout the Old Testament.