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15 You are to observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread; seven days[a] you must eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you, at the appointed time of the month of Abib, for at that time[b] you came out of Egypt. No one may appear before[c] me empty-handed.

16 “You are also to observe[d] the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors that you have sown in the field, and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year[e] when you have gathered in[f] your harvest[g] out of the field. 17 At[h] three times in the year all your males will appear before the Sovereign Lord.[i]

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Footnotes

  1. Exodus 23:15 tn This is an adverbial accusative of time.
  2. Exodus 23:15 tn Heb “in it.”
  3. Exodus 23:15 tn The verb is a Niphal imperfect; the nuance of permission works well here—no one is permitted to appear before God empty (Heb “and they will not appear before me empty”).
  4. Exodus 23:16 tn The words “you are also to observe” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
  5. Exodus 23:16 tn An infinitive construct with a preposition and a pronominal suffix is used to make a temporal clause: “in the going in of the year.” The word “year” is the subjective genitive, the subject of the clause.
  6. Exodus 23:16 tn An infinitive construct with a preposition and a pronominal suffix is used to make a temporal clause: “in the ingathering of you.”
  7. Exodus 23:16 tn Heb “gathered in your labors.” This is a metonymy of cause put for the effect. “Labors” are not gathered in, but what the labors produced—the harvest.
  8. Exodus 23:17 tn Adverbial accusative of time: “three times” becomes “at three times.”
  9. Exodus 23:17 tn Here the divine Name reads in Hebrew הָאָדֹן יְהוָה (haʾadon yehvah), which if rendered according to the traditional scheme of “Lord” for “Yahweh” would result in “Lord Lord.” A number of English versions therefore render this phrase “Lord God.”