Deuteronomy

Feasts of the Lord

Observe the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover in honor of the Lord since it was in this month that the Lord, your God, brought you out of Egypt by night.

On the Passover, you shall sacrifice oxen and sheep to the Lord in the place he has chosen for his Name to dwell.

For the Passover supper, you are not to eat leavened bread, but for seven days, you shall eat unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, because you left Egypt hastily. So you shall remember all the days of your life, the day on which you left Egypt.

For seven days, no leaven shall be seen throughout your territory; nor shall any flesh you sacrifice on the evening of the first day be left for the following day.

You may not offer the Passover sacrifice in any city that the Lord gives you,

but only in the place chosen by the Lord as the dwelling place for his Name. Sacrifice the Passover in the evening, at sunset, when you came out of Egypt.

You shall roast it and eat it in the place chosen by the Lord, your God. And then, in the morning, you shall return to your house.

You shall eat unleavened bread for six days, and on the seventh, you shall celebrate a solemn assembly in honor of the Lord, and you shall not work.

You shall count seven weeks from the day you start cutting the standing wheat.

Then you shall celebrate the Feast of the Seven Weeks for the Lord, your God, making a voluntary offering from your harvest in proportion to how the Lord, your God, blesses you.

At the place the Lord has chosen as the dwelling place for his Name, you shall feast, you and your children, your servants, the Levite who lives in your cities, the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow who live among you.

Remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and be careful to put these precepts into practice.

Celebrate the Feast of the Tents for seven days after gathering the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress.

Rejoice during this feast—you and your children, your servants, the Levite, the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow who live in your city.

You shall feast for seven days in honor of the Lord at the place chosen by him; because the Lord will bless you in all your produce and all the work of your hands, so that your joy may be complete.

Three times a year, all your men shall present themselves before the Lord, your God, in the place chosen by him: on the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of the Tents. And you shall not present yourselves empty-handed,

but each one will offer in proportion to what he has, according to the blessing that the Lord has bestowed upon you.

The Judges: Administration of Justice

Appoint judges and secretaries for your tribes in every city the Lord gives you, that they may judge the people according to justice.

You shall not bend the law or show partiality. Do not accept gifts because gifts blind the eyes of the wise and subvert the cause of the righteous.

Justice! Seek justice if you want to live and inherit the land which the Lord, your God, gives you.

Do not plant any tree or sacred pillar near the altar of your God.

Do not put up the sacred stones that the Lord hates.