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16 “You are also to observe[a] 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[b] when you have gathered in[c] your harvest[d] out of the field. 17 At[e] three times in the year all your males will appear before the Sovereign Lord.[f]

18 “You must not offer[g] the blood of my sacrifice with bread containing yeast; the fat of my festal sacrifice must not remain until morning.[h]

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Footnotes

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.”
  4. 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.
  5. Exodus 23:17 tn Adverbial accusative of time: “three times” becomes “at three times.”
  6. 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.”
  7. Exodus 23:18 tn The verb is תִּזְבַּח (tizbakh), an imperfect tense from the same root as the genitive that qualifies the accusative “blood”: “you will not sacrifice the blood of my sacrifice.” The verb means “to slaughter”; since one cannot slaughter blood, a more general translation is required here. But if the genitive is explained as “my blood-sacrifice” (a genitive of specification; like “the evil of your doings” in Isa 1:16), then a translation of sacrifice would work (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 304).
  8. Exodus 23:18 sn See N. Snaith, “Exodus 23:18 and 34:25, ” JTS 20 (1969): 533-34; see also M. Haran, “The Passover Sacrifice,” Studies in the Religion of Ancient Israel (VTSup), 86-116.

16 “Celebrate the Festival of Harvest(A) with the firstfruits(B) of the crops you sow in your field.

“Celebrate the Festival of Ingathering(C) at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field.(D)

17 “Three times(E) a year all the men are to appear before the Sovereign Lord.

18 “Do not offer the blood of a sacrifice to me along with anything containing yeast.(F)

“The fat of my festival offerings must not be kept until morning.(G)

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