Deutéronome 16

The Passover

¹Observe the month of Abib by keeping the Passover for the LORD your God, because it was in the month of Abib, at night, that the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt. ²Sacrifice the Passover to the LORD your God, from your flock or your herd, at the place the LORD will choose as a dwelling for his name.^{a 3}Do not eat bread made with yeast with it. For seven days eat bread made without yeast with it, the bread of affliction, because you left the land of Egypt in a hurry. Do this so that all your life you will remember the day you came out of the land of Egypt. ⁴For seven days no yeast is to be seen anywhere in your land. And none of the meat you sacrifice on the evening of the first day may be left over until morning. ⁵You may not sacrifice the Passover in just any of the towns the LORD your God is giving you, ⁶but only at the place the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his name. There you are to sacrifice the Passover in the evening, as the sun goes down, at the time of day you came out of Egypt. ⁷Cook it and eat it at the place the LORD your God will choose. Then in the morning turn back and go to your tents.^{bc 8}For six days eat bread made without yeast, and on the seventh day hold a solemn assembly for the LORD your God. Do no work on it.

The Festival of Weeks

⁹Count seven weeks. Begin counting the seven weeks from the time you first put the sickle to the standing grain. ¹⁰Then keep the Festival of Weeks for the LORD your God, bringing a freewill offering from your own hand, as much as fits the way the LORD your God has blessed you. ¹¹Rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your son and daughter, your male and female servants, the Levite who lives in your towns, and the outsider, the fatherless child and the widow who live among you. Rejoice at the place the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his name. ¹²Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and be careful to keep these statutes.

The Festival of Booths

¹³Keep the Festival of Booths for seven days, when you have gathered in the harvest from your threshing floor and your winepress. ¹⁴Rejoice at your festival, you and your son and daughter, your male and female servants, and the Levite, the outsider, the fatherless child and the widow who live in your towns. ¹⁵For seven days keep the festival for 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 that your hands do, and you are to be nothing but joyful. ¹⁶Every male among you is to appear before the LORD your God three times a year, at the place he will choose. The three times are the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks and the Festival of Booths. None of them is to come before the LORD with empty hands. ¹⁷Each of them is to give as he is able, in keeping with the blessing the LORD your God has given you.

Judges and justice

¹⁸Appoint judges and officials for each of your tribes in all the towns the LORD your God is giving you, and they are to judge the people with fair judgment. ¹⁹Do not bend justice, and do not favor anyone because of who they are. Take no bribe, for a bribe makes even the wise blind and overturns the pleas of those in the right. ²⁰Pursue what is right, nothing but what is right, so that you may live and take possession of the land the LORD your God is giving you.

²¹Do not plant any tree as an Asherah pole beside the altar you build for the LORD your God.

²²And do not set up a standing stone, a thing the LORD your God hates.