Section 41 of 12016:1–17Deuteronomy

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King James VersionDeuteronomy 16:1–17

Observe 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.

Thou 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.

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.

And 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.

Thou mayest not sacrifice the passover within any of thy gates, which the LORD thy God giveth thee:

But 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.

And 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.

Six 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.

Seven 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.

And 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:

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.

And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt: and thou shalt observe and do these statutes.

Thou shalt observe the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine:

And 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.

Seven 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.

Three 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:

Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee.

Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.

Scripture text: King James Version, Standardized 1769 text. Public domain in the United States.About this Bible text

Deuteronomy 16:1–17

Passover, Weeks, and Booths Gather the Community

Passover is timed to the night of leaving Egypt

The month of Abib is kept because the LORD brought Israel out of Egypt by night. Flock and herd are sacrificed as Passover at the chosen place, not in ordinary gates. Unleavened bread is the bread of affliction, eaten seven days because they left in haste, so that the day of coming out is remembered all their life. None of the first evening's flesh remains until morning. They roast and eat at the place, return to tents in the morning, and hold a work-free assembly on the seventh day.

Weeks and Booths turn harvest into inclusive joy

Seven weeks are counted from putting the sickle to the grain. The feast of weeks is a freewill tribute according to blessing, with rejoicing that includes son, daughter, servants, Levite, stranger, fatherless, and widow at the chosen place, because Israel was a bondman in Egypt. Booths lasts seven days after gathering grain and wine, with the same widened household. Three times a year males appear before the LORD at the place he chooses, not empty-handed; each gives as he is able according to blessing. The calendar does not encode dates for modern prophecy, erase Jewish practice by appropriation, or excuse coerced giving.

How this should shape us

Plan communal feasts around truthful memory, gifts matched to actual capacity, and the full presence of workers, migrants, widows, orphans, and landless people. Keep these pilgrimages as Israel's worship, not as a speculative timetable.

Teach it back

Explain Deuteronomy 16:1–17 in your own words. Include its place in Moses' speeches or the final narrative, both movements, one material uncertainty, one affected person or group, and one use the complete context rules out.

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Go deeper

The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.

Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties

Where do careful interpreters disagree?

Best judgment: Interpreters disagree about the composition, date, Mosaic presentation, final-form role, legal relationship, rhetoric, history, and reception of “Passover, Weeks, and Booths Gather the Community.” Confidence is strongest in the received unit's movement summarized here; historical and source-critical reconstructions remain probable, plausible, or uncertain as the evidence warrants.

How certain? probable

Research trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section

King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006

Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.

Deuteronomy 16:1–17, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus

Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Deuteronomy

Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, speech and legal clauses, poetic lines, older-English controls, and translation limits.

Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Deut.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 16:1–17

NET Bible: Deuteronomy with translators' notes

Supports: Unit-bounded translation, syntax, lexical, legal, poetic, measure, name, and selected textual notes; silence is not evidence.

NET Bible Deuteronomy PDF, complete PDF pp. 1–111, translation and translator notes attached to 16:1–17

Deuteronomy Part 1: Law, Reform, and Historical Setting

Supports: Concise critical framing of Deuteronomy's law collection, historical setting, relationship to other Torah laws, centralization, and moral tensions.

Yale Bible Study, 'Deuteronomy Part 1,' complete two-page PDF and linked lesson sections on law, legal collections, reform, centralization, and ethics, applied to Deuteronomy 16:1–17

The Place of Deuteronomy in the Formation of the Pentateuch

Supports: A current debate map only; no unexposed chapter argument is attributed.

Schmid, Oxford Handbook chapter (2020), official abstract and six-question scope: Pentateuchal setting, reworked Tetrateuch, layers, date, covenant and treaty, and Deuteronomism

Deuteronomy: The First Torah

Supports: Mosaic speech presentation, self-referential Torah language, final-form function, and one model of earlier independent literary life.

Glatt-Gilad, 'Deuteronomy: The First Torah,' complete article sections on speeches, Torah self-reference, law differences, and Joshua-Kings reception; applied to Deuteronomy 16:1–17

Deuteronomy and Treaty Texts: A Critical Reexamination of Deuteronomy 13, 17, 27, and 28

Supports: Comparative Hittite and Neo-Assyrian evidence, Tell Tayinat implications, literary-dependence proposals, and explicit controversy limits.

Polk, Deuteronomy and Treaty Texts (2016), complete dissertation, introduction and chapters on treaty comparison with focused treatment of Deuteronomy 13, 17, 27, and 28; applied to Deuteronomy 16:1–17

How the Jerusalem Temple Was Chosen as the Only Place of Worship

Supports: Cult centralization, the law collection's opening, the Torah's unnamed place, and one historical reconstruction of later Jerusalem identification.

Glatt-Gilad, 'How the Jerusalem Temple Was Chosen,' complete sections on Deuteronomy 12, the unnamed chosen place, Shiloh, Solomon, and Josianic centralization; applied to Deuteronomy 16:1–17

Sources for This Section

These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.

Biblical text

King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006

eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society

USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.

Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.

Exact location: Deuteronomy 16:1–17, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus

Open source ↗

hebrew text and morphology

Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Deuteronomy

Open Scriptures

Open Scriptures, release 2.2

Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, speech and legal clauses, poetic lines, older-English controls, and translation limits.

Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Deut.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 16:1–17

Open source ↗

translation and translator notes

NET Bible: Deuteronomy with translators' notes

Biblical Studies Press

eBible.org distribution of the NET Bible, PDF generated 2026-08-12

Supports: Unit-bounded translation, syntax, lexical, legal, poetic, measure, name, and selected textual notes; silence is not evidence.

Exact location: NET Bible Deuteronomy PDF, complete PDF pp. 1–111, translation and translator notes attached to 16:1–17

Open source ↗

modern critical open study guide

Deuteronomy Part 1: Law, Reform, and Historical Setting

Joel S. Baden and Yale Bible Study

Yale Divinity School, 2023 course edition

Supports: Concise critical framing of Deuteronomy's law collection, historical setting, relationship to other Torah laws, centralization, and moral tensions.

Exact location: Yale Bible Study, 'Deuteronomy Part 1,' complete two-page PDF and linked lesson sections on law, legal collections, reform, centralization, and ethics, applied to Deuteronomy 16:1–17

Open source ↗

modern scholarly handbook chapter abstract

The Place of Deuteronomy in the Formation of the Pentateuch

Konrad Schmid

The Oxford Handbook of the Pentateuch, Oxford University Press, 2020

Supports: A current debate map only; no unexposed chapter argument is attributed.

Exact location: Schmid, Oxford Handbook chapter (2020), official abstract and six-question scope: Pentateuchal setting, reworked Tetrateuch, layers, date, covenant and treaty, and Deuteronomism

Open source ↗

modern jewish scholarly open composition study

Deuteronomy: The First Torah

David A. Glatt-Gilad

TheTorah.com, 2015

Supports: Mosaic speech presentation, self-referential Torah language, final-form function, and one model of earlier independent literary life.

Exact location: Glatt-Gilad, 'Deuteronomy: The First Torah,' complete article sections on speeches, Torah self-reference, law differences, and Joshua-Kings reception; applied to Deuteronomy 16:1–17

Open source ↗

open access doctoral dissertation

Deuteronomy and Treaty Texts: A Critical Reexamination of Deuteronomy 13, 17, 27, and 28

Andrew Polk

University of Chicago Knowledge Commons, 2016

Supports: Comparative Hittite and Neo-Assyrian evidence, Tell Tayinat implications, literary-dependence proposals, and explicit controversy limits.

Exact location: Polk, Deuteronomy and Treaty Texts (2016), complete dissertation, introduction and chapters on treaty comparison with focused treatment of Deuteronomy 13, 17, 27, and 28; applied to Deuteronomy 16:1–17

Open source ↗

modern jewish scholarly open centralization study

How the Jerusalem Temple Was Chosen as the Only Place of Worship

David A. Glatt-Gilad

TheTorah.com, 2017

Supports: Cult centralization, the law collection's opening, the Torah's unnamed place, and one historical reconstruction of later Jerusalem identification.

Exact location: Glatt-Gilad, 'How the Jerusalem Temple Was Chosen,' complete sections on Deuteronomy 12, the unnamed chosen place, Shiloh, Solomon, and Josianic centralization; applied to Deuteronomy 16:1–17

Open source ↗

Deuteronomy 16:1–17, King James Version

Passover is timed to the night of leaving Egypt

Weeks and Booths turn harvest into inclusive joy

How this should shape us

Teach it back

Go deeper

Where do careful interpreters disagree?

King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006

Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Deuteronomy

NET Bible: Deuteronomy with translators' notes

Deuteronomy Part 1: Law, Reform, and Historical Setting

The Place of Deuteronomy in the Formation of the Pentateuch

Deuteronomy: The First Torah

Deuteronomy and Treaty Texts: A Critical Reexamination of Deuteronomy 13, 17, 27, and 28

How the Jerusalem Temple Was Chosen as the Only Place of Worship