Deuteronomy · 22 verses
Deuteronomy 16
Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.
The chapter
What happens here
Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.
The Passover is given seven days of unleavened bread, then six days of it, with a solemn assembly arriving neatly on the seventh—an intriguing little wobble in the calendar.
Three feasts, one chosen placevv. 1–17
The Passover begins the year’s procession: sacrifice at the place chosen for the LORD’s Name, unleavened bread, haste remembered, and a return to the tents in the morning. The counting then starts with the sickle in the grain, and the Feast of Weeks brings a freewill offering and a remarkably broad company—sons and daughters, servants, Levites, foreigners, fatherless children, and widows. After the threshing floor and winepress have done their work comes the seven-day Feast of Tabernacles, with joy declared complete. Three times a year the men are to appear, and nobody is to arrive empty-handed; the gift is according to the blessing received, which is a gentler sort of arithmetic than equal shares.
Justice, with a final pair of prohibitionsvv. 18–22
The towns receive judges and officials, who are to judge with righteous judgment. Justice is not to be denied or bent by partiality, and a bribe is described with splendid bluntness: it blinds wise eyes and twists righteous words. Then, without much ceremony, the instructions turn from courts to the altar: no wooden Asherah pole beside it, and no sacred pillar either. The chapter ends with two objects firmly unwelcome.
The text
Read it
Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.
Deut 16:1Observe the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover to the LORD your God, because in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night.
Deut 16:2You are to offer to the LORD your God the Passover sacrifice from the herd or flock in the place the LORD will choose as a dwelling for His Name.
Deut 16:3You must not eat leavened bread with it; for seven days you are to eat with it unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, because you left the land of Egypt in haste—so that you may remember for the rest of your life the day you left the land of Egypt.
Deut 16:4No leaven is to be found in all your land for seven days, and none of the meat you sacrifice in the evening of the first day shall remain until morning.
Deut 16:5You are not to sacrifice the Passover animal in any of the towns that the LORD your God is giving you.
Deut 16:6You must only offer the Passover sacrifice at the place the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for His Name. Do this in the evening as the sun sets, at the same time you departed from Egypt.
Deut 16:7And you shall roast it and eat it in the place the LORD your God will choose, and in the morning you shall return to your tents.
Deut 16:8For six days you must eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day you shall hold a solemn assembly to the LORD your God, and you must not do any work.
Deut 16:9You are to count off seven weeks from the time you first put the sickle to the standing grain.
Deut 16:10And you shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God with a freewill offering that you give in proportion to how the LORD your God has blessed you,
Deut 16:11and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in the place He will choose as a dwelling for His Name—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite within your gates, as well as the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widows among you.
Deut 16:12Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and carefully follow these statutes.
Deut 16:13You are to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress.
Deut 16:14And you shall rejoice in your feast—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite, as well as the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widows among you.
Deut 16:15For seven days you shall celebrate a feast to the LORD your God in the place He will choose, because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that your joy will be complete.
Deut 16:16Three times a year all your men are to appear before the LORD your God in the place He will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles. No one should appear before the LORD empty-handed.
Deut 16:17Everyone must appear with a gift as he is able, according to the blessing the LORD your God has given you.
Deut 16:18You are to appoint judges and officials for your tribes in every town that the LORD your God is giving you. They are to judge the people with righteous judgment.
Deut 16:19Do not deny 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.
Deut 16:20Pursue justice, and justice alone, so that you may live, and you may possess the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
Deut 16:21Do not set up any wooden Asherah pole next to the altar you will build for the LORD your God,
Deut 16:22and do not set up for yourselves a sacred pillar, which the LORD your God hates.
02 — Read alongside
Where this is echoed
Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 221 passages were voted onto 22 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.
- 16Psalms 96:8Ascribe to the LORD the glory due His name; bring an offering and enter His courts.
- 16Proverbs 3:9–10Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your crops;
- 16Haggai 1:9You expected much, but behold, it amounted to little. And what you brought home, I blew away. Why? declares the LORD of Hosts. Because My house still lies in ruins, while each of you is busy with his own house.
- 16Exodus 23:14–17Three times a year you are to celebrate a feast to Me.
- 16Matthew 2:11On coming to the house, they saw the Child with His mother Mary, and they fell down and worshiped Him. Then they opened their treasures and presented Him with gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.
- 16Exodus 34:20You must redeem the firstborn of a donkey with a lamb; but if you do not redeem it, you are to break its neck. You must redeem all the firstborn of your sons. No one shall appear before Me empty-handed.
- 161 Chronicles 29:14–17But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? For everything comes from You, and from Your own hand we have given to You.
- 161 Chronicles 29:3–9Moreover, because of my delight in the house of my God, I now give for it my personal treasures of gold and silver, over and above all that I have provided for this holy temple:
- 161 Kings 9:25Three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar he had built for the LORD, burning incense with them before the LORD. So he completed the temple.
- 16Isaiah 60:6–9Caravans of camels will cover your land, young camels of Midian and Ephah, and all from Sheba will come, bearing gold and frankincense and proclaiming the praises of the LORD.
- 16Isaiah 23:18Yet her profits and wages will be set apart to the LORD; they will not be stored or saved, for her profit will go to those who live before the LORD, for abundant food and fine clothing.
- 16Mark 12:3But they seized the servant, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed.
- 172 Corinthians 9:6–7Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.
- 172 Corinthians 8:12For if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have.
- 19Leviticus 19:15You must not pervert justice; you must not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the rich; you are to judge your neighbor fairly.
- 1Exodus 13:4Today, in the month of Abib, you are leaving.
Onward