Deuteronomy 16: Passover, the feast of weeks, the feast of booths, and judges

In plain English: Keep the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to Yahweh your God, because in the month of Abib Yahweh your God brought you out of Egypt by night.

The Hebrew word: "Abib" is aviv, which the dictionary gives as "green, i.e. a young ear of grain; hence, the name of the month Abib or Nisan". It is the month Israel left Egypt (Exodus 13:4).

In plain English: Sacrifice the Passover to Yahweh your God, from the flock and the herd, in the place Yahweh will choose to make his name live there.

Good to know: In Exodus 12:5 the Passover lamb is taken "from the sheep or from the goats". Here the Passover is "of the flock and the herd", and it is sacrificed at the chosen place (verses 5 and 6), while in Exodus each household took its own lamb (Exodus 12:3). The text does not say how the two fit together, and readers explain it in different ways.

In plain English: Do not eat any bread made with yeast with it. For seven days eat unleavened bread with it, the bread of affliction (or: the bread of misery), because you came out of the land of Egypt in a hurry. Do this so that you remember the day you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.

In plain English: No yeast is to be seen with you anywhere in your land for seven days. And none of the meat you sacrifice on the evening of the first day is to be left overnight until morning.

In plain English: You may not sacrifice the Passover in just any of the towns Yahweh your God is giving you,

In plain English: but only at the place Yahweh your God will choose to make his name live there. There you are to sacrifice the Passover in the evening, as the sun goes down, at the time (or: the season) you came out of Egypt.

In plain English: Roast it (or: cook it) and eat it in the place Yahweh your God will choose. In the morning turn and go back to your tents.

The Hebrew word: "Roast" is bashal, which the dictionary gives as "properly, to boil up; hence, to be done in cooking". It is the same word as "boil" in 14:21.

How it is translated: This Bible says "boil" or a longer form in 19 of the 24 verses that use bashal, and "roast" or a longer form in 4. In Deuteronomy it is in only 2 verses: 14:21 ("boil") and here ("roast").

What changes: Read as "roast", the verse agrees with Exodus 12:8 and 12:9, which say the lamb is to be roasted with fire and not boiled. Read as "cook" or "boil", the usual meaning of the word, it gives a different way of preparing it. 2 Chronicles 35:13 uses the same word with "with fire", and this Bible says "roasted" there.

In plain English: For six days eat unleavened bread. On the seventh day there is to be a solemn assembly to Yahweh your God. Do no work.

In plain English: Count seven weeks. Begin counting the seven weeks from the time you first put the sickle to the standing grain.

In plain English: Then keep the feast of weeks to Yahweh your God with a freewill offering from your hand, as much as you can give (this Bible: a tribute), in keeping with how Yahweh your God has blessed you.

The Hebrew word: "Weeks" is shavu'ot, from a word the dictionary gives as "literally, sevened, i.e. a week".

Good to know: Leviticus 23:15 and 23:16 count seven weeks, fifty days, to an offering of new grain. Acts 2:1 calls it "the day of Pentecost", from the Greek word the dictionary gives as "fiftieth".

Church tradition: Jews keep this feast as Shavuot. Many churches keep Pentecost to remember what Acts 2 tells of that day.

In plain English: Rejoice before Yahweh your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male and female servants, the Levite who lives in your towns, and the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow who are among you, in the place Yahweh your God will choose to make his name live there.

In plain English: Remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and be careful to keep these statutes.

In plain English: Keep the feast of booths for seven days, after you have gathered in the harvest from your threshing floor and your winepress.

The Hebrew word: "Booths" is sukkot, from a word the dictionary gives as "a hut or lair".

How it is translated: This Bible says "booth" or a longer form in 12 of the 29 verses that use the word, and "shelter" or a longer form in 10.

Good to know: Leviticus 23:42 and 23:43 say Israel is to live in these shelters for the seven days, so that later generations know that Yahweh made Israel live in shelters when he brought them out of Egypt. Jews still keep the feast as Sukkot, and John 7:2 names it.

In plain English: Rejoice at your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male and female servants, the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow who live in your towns.

In plain English: For seven days keep the feast to Yahweh your God in the place Yahweh will choose, because Yahweh your God will bless you in all your crops and in all the work of your hands, and you will be full of joy.

In plain English: Three times a year all your men are to appear before Yahweh your God in the place he will choose: at the feast of unleavened bread, at the feast of weeks, and at the feast of booths. No one is to appear before Yahweh empty-handed.

Good to know: The same rule, three times a year for all the men, is in Exodus 23:17 and 34:23. Here the three feasts are named, and the place is the one Yahweh will choose.

In plain English: Each man is to give as he is able (literally: by the gift of his hand), in keeping with the blessing Yahweh your God has given you.

In plain English: Appoint judges and officers in all the towns Yahweh your God is giving you, tribe by tribe. They are to judge the people with right judgment.

In plain English: Do not twist justice. Do not show favor to anyone (literally: do not regard faces). Do not take a bribe, because a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous.

In plain English: Pursue what is just, altogether just (literally: justice, justice), so that you may live and own the land Yahweh your God is giving you.

The Hebrew words: "That which is altogether just" is literally "justice, justice": the word tsedeq twice. The dictionary gives it as "the right (natural, moral or legal)".

In plain English: Do not plant any kind of tree as an Asherah pole beside the altar of Yahweh your God that you will make.

In plain English: Do not set up a sacred stone (or: pillar), which Yahweh your God hates.