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Deuteronomy 16

Deuteronomy book home•Chapter 16 of 34•22 verses

Chapter overviewAt a glance + deeper study

REVIEWED OVERVIEW

Deuteronomy 16 Overview

Moses reviews the three major pilgrimage feasts—Passover, Weeks, and Tabernacles—and commands Israel’s males to appear before the LORD with gifts according to God’s blessing. The chapter then turns to civil leadership: judges must pursue justice, refuse bribes, and avoid idolatrous objects beside the LORD’s altar.

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Before you read Deuteronomy 16

Coming from

Chapter 15 regulated debt release, generosity, servants, and firstlings within Israel’s covenant economy.

In this chapter

Worship calendar and public justice are joined: Israel must remember redemption, rejoice before God, and administer judgment without partiality.

Leads into

Chapter 17 continues the concern for pure worship and just leadership through laws about idolatry, hard cases, and the future king.

Key understandingExplore deeper

The feasts anchor Israel’s year in remembered acts of God and shared rejoicing. Passover recalls the exodus; Weeks marks harvest abundance; Tabernacles celebrates gathered increase and the LORD’s provision. The judicial section shows that covenant faithfulness is not limited to sanctuary rites—bribes and distorted judgment also corrupt the nation. The ban on groves and pillars prevents blending Canaanite worship symbols with the LORD’s altar.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Truth 1

Israel’s worship calendar is built around remembered redemption and grateful rejoicing.

Truth 2

Giving is proportionate to blessing rather than reduced to empty appearance.

Truth 3

Justice must not be bent by status, partiality, or bribery.

Truth 4

True worship and righteous public judgment belong to the same covenant life.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Connection 1

Exodus 12 establishes the Passover at the exodus.

Connection 2

Leviticus 23 gives the broader annual feast calendar.

Connection 3

John 7 is set during the feast of Tabernacles, while the Gospels frame Jesus’ crucifixion in Passover season, showing how these feasts remain important biblical background.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep this clear 1

The three-feast pilgrimage requirement belongs to Israel’s covenant worship in the land and is not a Christian attendance rule.

Keep this clear 2

Do not separate worship from ethics; the chapter places feast observance and impartial justice side by side.

Keep this clear 3

The prohibition of pagan worship objects beside the altar is not a ban on every tree or stone structure; it targets idolatrous cultic use.

Read Deuteronomy 16 watching for…

What each feast calls Israel to remember or celebrate.

The repeated emphasis on rejoicing with household, Levite, and vulnerable people.

The requirement not to appear before the LORD empty.

The commands to judges concerning partiality and bribes.

Why pagan worship objects are forbidden beside God’s altar.

Chapter outline5 sections

1-8Israel is commanded concerning the Passover and unleavened bread 9-12Israel is commanded concerning the feast of weeks 13-17Israel is commanded concerning the feast of tabernacles and appearing before the LORD 18-20Judges must judge justly and refuse bribes 21-22Groves and idolatrous pillars are forbidden beside God’s altar

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.

Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates, which the LORD thy God giveth thee, throughout thy tribes: and they shall judge the people with just judgment.

Thou shalt not wrest judgment; thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous.

That which is altogether just shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live, and inherit the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any trees near unto the altar of the LORD thy God, which thou shalt make thee.

Neither shalt thou set thee up any image; which the LORD thy God hateth.

STUDY THIS VERSE

Deuteronomy 16:11

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