The Feast of Tabernacles Reviewed^(A)

^13 (B)“You shall observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days, when you have gathered from your threshing floor and from your winepress. ¹⁴ And ^(C)you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant and the Levite, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow, who are within your ^[a]gates. ^15 (D)Seven days you shall keep a sacred feast to the Lord your God in the place which the Lord chooses, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you surely rejoice.

^16 (E)“Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God in the place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles; and ^(F)they shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed. ¹⁷ Every man shall give as he is able, ^(G)according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you.

Justice Must Be Administered

¹⁸ “You shall appoint ^(H)judges and officers in all your ^[b]gates, which the Lord your God gives you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with just judgment. ^19 (I)You shall not pervert justice; ^(J)you shall not ^[c]show partiality, ^(K)nor take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and ^[d]twists the words of the righteous. ²⁰ You shall follow what is altogether just, that you may ^(L)live and inherit the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

^21 (M)“You shall not plant for yourself any tree, as a ^[e]wooden image, near the altar which you build for yourself to the Lord your God. ^22 (N)You shall not set up a sacred pillar, which the Lord your God hates.

Various Instructions

17 “You ^(O)shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God a bull or sheep which has any ^[f]blemish or defect, for that is an ^[g]abomination to the Lord your God.

^2 (P)“If there is found among you, within any of your ^[h]gates which the Lord your God gives you, a man or a woman who has been wicked in the sight of the Lord your God, ^(Q)in transgressing His covenant, ³ who has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, either ^(R)the sun or moon or any of the host of heaven, ^(S)which I have not commanded, ^4 (T)and it is told you, and you hear of it, then you shall inquire diligently. And if it is indeed true and certain that such an ^[i]abomination has been committed in Israel, ⁵ then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has committed that wicked thing, and ^(U)shall stone ^(V)to death that man or woman with stones. ⁶ Whoever is deserving of death shall be put to death on the testimony of two or three ^(W)witnesses; he shall not be put to death on the testimony of one witness. ⁷ The hands of the witnesses shall be the first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So you shall put away the evil from among ^(X)you.

^8 (Y)“If a matter arises which is too hard for you to judge, between degrees of guilt for bloodshed, between one judgment or another, or between one punishment or another, matters of controversy within your gates, then you shall arise and go up to the ^(Z)place which the Lord your God chooses. ⁹ And ^(AA)you shall come to the priests, the Levites, and ^(AB)to the judge there in those days, and inquire of them; ^(AC)they shall pronounce upon you the sentence of judgment. ¹⁰ You shall do according to the sentence which they pronounce upon you in that place which the Lord chooses. And you shall be careful to do according to all that they order you. ¹¹ According to the sentence of the law in which they instruct you, according to the judgment which they tell you, you shall do; you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left from the sentence which they pronounce upon you. ¹² Now ^(AD)the man who acts presumptuously and will not heed the priest who stands to minister there before the Lord your God, or the judge, that man shall die. So you shall put away the evil from Israel. ^13 (AE)And all the people shall hear and fear, and no longer act presumptuously.

Principles Governing Kings

¹⁴ “When you come to the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and possess it and dwell in it, and say, ^(AF)‘I will set a king over me like all the nations that are around me,’ ¹⁵ you shall surely set a king over you ^(AG)whom the Lord your God chooses; one ^(AH)from among your brethren you shall set as king over you; you may not set a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. ¹⁶ But he shall not multiply ^(AI)horses for himself, nor cause the people ^(AJ)to return to Egypt to multiply horses, for ^(AK)the Lord has said to you, ^(AL)‘You shall not return that way again.’ ¹⁷ Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and ^(AM)gold for himself.

¹⁸ “Also it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, from the one ^(AN)before the priests, the Levites. ¹⁹ And ^(AO)it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes, ²⁰ that his heart may not ^[j]be lifted above his brethren, that he ^(AP)may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, and that he may ^[k]prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel.

¹⁴ Jesus answered and said to them, “Even if I bear witness of Myself, My witness is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going; but ^(A)you do not know where I come from and where I am going. ^15 (B)You judge according to the flesh; ^(C)I judge no one. ¹⁶ And yet if I do judge, My judgment is true; for ^(D)I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me. ^17 (E)It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true.