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The Feast of Tabernacles
Deuteronomy 16:13–17 — The Feast of Tabernacles. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.
13You are to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
ta·‘ă·śeh lə·ḵā ḥaḡ has·suk·kōṯ šiḇ·‘aṯ yā·mîm bə·’ā·sə·pə·ḵā mig·gā·rə·nə·ḵā ū·mî·yiq·ḇe·ḵā
Literal — word-for-word from the original
You shall make for yourself the Feast of Booths seven days, in your gathering-in from your threshing-floor and from your winepress.
Where the English smooths the original
Booths, suḳḳôth , lit. plaitings or interlacings , whether natural thickets ( Job 38:40 , etc.) or artificial shelters of branches or planks, especially for the guardians of vineyards ( Isaiah 1:8 )On the concrete sense of sukkōṯ that the Latinate "tabernacles" obscures.
after that thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine; and therefore sometimes called the feast of ingathering, Exodus 23:16 , barley harvest began at the passover, and wheat harvest at Pentecost; and before the feast of tabernacles began, the vintage and the gathering of the olives were over
The Feast of Tabernacles , properly, Booths (cf. Leviticus 23:33-44 ; Numbers 29:12-38 ). This feast was to be observed at the end of harvest, after the corn had been gathered into granaries, and the produce of the vineyard had been put through the press.The Pulpit editors likewise correct "Tabernacles" to "Booths" and fix the rite at the close of the grain-and-wine harvest.
a fourth class are of opinion that this feast was fixed to the time of the year when the Word was made flesh and dwelt—literally, "tabernacled"—among us (Joh 1:14), Christ being actually born at that season.Reported as one conjecture among several — JFB lists it without endorsing it.
14And you shall rejoice in your feast—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite, as well as the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widows among you.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·śā·maḥ·tā bə·ḥag·ge·ḵā ’at·tāh ū·ḇin·ḵā ū·ḇit·te·ḵā wə·‘aḇ·də·ḵā wa·’ă·mā·ṯe·ḵā wə·hal·lê·wî wə·hag·gêr wə·hay·yā·ṯō·wm wə·hā·’al·mā·nāh ’ă·šer biš·‘ā·re·ḵā
Literal — word-for-word from the original
And you shall rejoice in your feast — you and your son and your daughter and your manservant and your maidservant, and the Levite and the sojourner and the orphan and the widow who are within your gates.
Where the English smooths the original
When we rejoice in God ourselves, we should do what we can to assist others also to rejoice in him, by comforting the mourners, and supplying those who are in want.On the verse's command that the householder's joy reach the Levite, sojourner, orphan and widow.
Thou shalt rejoice — In God, and in the effects of his favour, serving and praising him with a glad heart.
exhorts the people to rejoice at this festival, and not only to allow their sons and daughters to participate in this joy, but also the man-servant and maid-servant, and the portionless Levites, strangers, widows, and orphans.
15For seven days you shall celebrate a feast to the LORD your God in the place He will choose, because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that your joy will be complete.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
šiḇ·‘aṯ yā·mîm tā·ḥōḡ Yah·weh ’ĕ·lō·he·ḵā bam·mā·qō·wm ’ă·šer- Yah·weh yiḇ·ḥar kî Yah·weh ’ĕ·lō·he·ḵā yə·ḇā·reḵ·ḵā bə·ḵōl tə·ḇū·’ā·ṯə·ḵā ū·ḇə·ḵōl ma·‘ă·śêh yā·ḏe·ḵā śā·mê·aḥ wə·hā·yî·ṯā ’aḵ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Seven days you shall keep-feast to the LORD your God in the place which the LORD will choose; for the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, and you shall be only joyful.
Where the English smooths the original
and thou shalt be altogether joyful ] Heb. only , or nothing but, joyful . This emphatic repetition of the command is remarkableOn the restrictive force of ʾaḵ — "nothing but joyful."
Thou shalt surely rejoice. —In the Hebrew this is a somewhat unusual form of expression. Literally, thou wilt be only rejoicing. Rashi says it is not a command, but a promise.Ellicott (commenting on v. 15 under his 16:13–15 heading) preserves Rashi's reading that the "only-joy" clause is promise rather than command.
in all the works of thine hands … rejoice—that is, praising God with a warm and elevated heart. According to Jewish tradition, no marriages were allowed to be celebrated during these great festivals, that no personal or private rejoicings might be mingled with the demonstrations of public and national gladness.
therefore thou shalt surely rejoice; extremely, heartily, and sincerely, and not fail to express joy on this occasion, and manifest it by a generous freewill offering to the Lord, and a bountiful entertainment for himself, his family, friends, and others.
16Three times a year all your men are to appear before the LORD your God in the place He will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles. No one should appear before the LORD empty-handed.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
šā·lō·wōš pə·‘ā·mîm baš·šā·nāh ḵāl zə·ḵū·rə·ḵā ’eṯ- yê·rā·’eh pə·nê Yah·weh ’ĕ·lō·he·ḵā bam·mā·qō·wm ’ă·šer yiḇ·ḥār bə·ḥaḡ ham·maṣ·ṣō·wṯ ū·ḇə·ḥaḡ haš·šā·ḇu·‘ō·wṯ ū·ḇə·ḥaḡ has·suk·kō·wṯ wə·lō yê·rā·’eh ’eṯ- pə·nê Yah·weh rê·qām
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Three times in the year shall all your males be seen before the face of the LORD your God in the place which He will choose: in the Feast of Unleavened Bread and in the Feast of Weeks and in the Feast of Booths; and they shall not be seen before the face of the LORD empty.
Where the English smooths the original
the law is repeated, that the men were to appear before the Lord three times a year at the three feasts just mentioned (compare Exodus 23:17 with Exodus 23:14 , and Exodus 34:23 ), with the additional clause, "at the place which the Lord shall choose,"K&D identifies Exodus 23:17 / 34:23 as the older law D restates, the chosen-place clause being D's addition.
All thy males; not the women, partly, because of their infirmity and unfitness for many journeys; partly, because the care of their children and families lay upon them; and partly, because they were sufficiently represented in the men.A seventeenth-century rationale for the male-only summons; recorded as historical reading.
of numbers of people going up from the country to each of these feasts, we have instances in the New Testament; to the passover, Luke 2:42 , to Pentecost, Acts 2:5 , to tabernacles, John 7:2Gill ties the three pilgrim-feasts to their New Testament observances.
17Everyone must appear with a gift as he is able, according to the blessing the LORD your God has given you.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
’îš kə·mat·tə·naṯ yā·ḏōw kə·ḇir·kaṯ Yah·weh ’ĕ·lō·he·ḵā ’ă·šer nā·ṯan- lāḵ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
Each man according to the gift of his hand, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which He has given you.
Where the English smooths the original
the following explanation of the words "not empty:" "every man according to the gift of his hand, according to the blessing of Jehovah his God, which He hath given thee," i.e., with sacrificial gifts, as much as every one could offer, according to the blessing which he had received from God.
but it is left by the Lord to the generosity of the people, only giving this general rule, that they should do according to their ability, and as the Lord had prospered them; see 1 Corinthians 16:2Gill links the proportional rule to Paul's collection principle.
Every man shall give as he is {h} able, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee. (h) According to the ability that God has given him.
The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.
AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.
The unit opens with a paradox the English softens away. Israel is to make (taʿăśeh, H6213 — not "celebrate") a feast of booths (sukkōṯ) — temporary huts of interlaced branches — precisely in the gathering-in (bə-ʾāspəḵā) of the threshing-floor and the winepress, when the barns are fullest. The Cambridge editors recover the concrete sense the Latin "tabernacles" buried: suḳḳôth, lit. plaitings or interlacings... especially for the guardians of vineyards. John Gill notes the timing exactly: "before the feast of tabernacles began, the vintage and the gathering of the olives were over." So at the peak of plenty Israel moves out of its houses into shelters that cannot keep out rain — a legislated rehearsal that the abundance is gift, not possession. The provenance of the rite's meaning is double, and both strands are ancient: Leviticus 23:43 grounds it in the Exodus booths (redemption-history), while Cambridge notes the older agrarian root in the vintage-camps (harvest-rhythm).
Twice the text legislates gladness: wə-śāmaḥtā ("and you shall rejoice," v. 14) and the unusual closing śāmēaḥ ... ʾaḵ — literally you shall be only / nothing-but joyful (v. 15). Cambridge flags this as "remarkable," and Ellicott preserves Rashi's reading that the second is "not a command, but a promise." The reach of the joy is the test: alongside the householder's own four — son, daughter, manservant, maidservant — stand four who have no inheritance: the Levite, the sojourner (gēr), the orphan, the widow. Ellicott relays Rashi's symmetry: "My four (Jehovah's), over against thy four... If thou wilt make My four to rejoice, I will rejoice thy four." The joy is grounded (kî, because) in God's prior blessing — yəḇāreḵḵā, from a root meaning to kneel: God stoops to bless the produce and "the work of your hands," and the rejoicing is the answering posture. Keil & Delitzsch read Deuteronomy as adding nothing here but the centralizing clause and this insistence on the dependent poor; Matthew Henry draws the line forward — "our duty must be our delight."
The unit closes by folding Booths into the threefold pilgrim-rhythm of the year (Unleavened Bread, Weeks, Booths) — a near-verbatim repetition of Exodus 23:17 / 34:23, sharing the rare word zəḵūr (H2138, "males," only 4 occurrences) and the count "three times in the year." Twice the men are to be seen (yērāʾeh, Niphal of "to see") at the face (pənê) of the LORD; Cambridge argues the original may have read "shall see the face of God," repointed by later scribes to avoid the anthropomorphism — a textual judgment about vocalization, which we flag as such, not as settled. The final law is reciprocity made exact: none comes empty (rêqām), but each gives according to the gift of his hand, according to the blessing (birkaṯ, v. 17) — the same blessing-word from v. 15. The offering is proportioned to grace already received; Gill rightly hears Paul's "as God hath prospered him" (1 Corinthians 16:2) in it.
Read under Sola Scriptura, the architecture is deliberate: at the fullest moment of the year Israel is commanded both to move into booths that cannot shelter it and to be nothing but joyful. The flimsy hut and the legislated gladness interpret each other — the security is not the harvest but the God who knelt to give it (bārak, v. 15), and so the joy can be total precisely because it does not rest on the walls. The same logic closes the unit: one is "seen at the face" of God and gives back "according to the blessing," never empty. This is a theology of held-loosely abundance, and it is unfinished business. Ellicott observes that, unlike Passover and Pentecost, "the Feast of Tabernacles has not yet been fulfilled by our Lord like the two other great feasts" — its booth still points forward, to the One who "tabernacled" among us (John 1:14) and to the day when the nations keep it (Zechariah 14). This is the tool's fallible reading, offered to be tested against the text, not above it.
The booth has no walls so the joy can have no limit — security was never the harvest, but the God who knelt to give it.
AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.
Deuteronomy 16:13 restates the autumn Feast of Booths legislated in the priestly source-texts, sharing the comparatively rare lexeme çukkâh (H5521, only 29 occurrences) along with ḥaḡ and šeḇaʿ. Leviticus 23:34, 23:39, and Numbers 29:12 are the underlying statutes; Deuteronomy adds only the centralizing demand ("the place He will choose") that Barnes and Keil identify as its distinctive contribution. The shared booth-and-seven-days vocabulary makes this true verbal repetition of one body of law.
Leviticus 23:34 · Leviticus 23:39 · Numbers 29:12 · Deuteronomy 31:10
basis: shared lexemes verified pairwise: H5521 çukkâh (rare, 29 vv), H2282 chag (55 vv), H7651 shebaʻ (343 vv); Lev 23:34 also shares H3117 yôwm — the festal statute restated
Deuteronomy 16:16 quotes the older three-pilgrimage law of Exodus 23:17 and 34:23. The Verifier confirms the shared rare word zâkûwr (H2138, "males") — only 4 occurrences in the canon — together with paʿam ("times"), šālôwš ("three"), and šāneh ("year"). Cambridge and Keil both name Exodus 23:17 / 34:23 as the source D is "quoting," D's signature additions being the chosen-place clause and the divine title. The rarity of zâkûwr makes this a confirmed verbal link.
Exodus 23:17 · Exodus 34:23
basis: shared rare lexeme H2138 zâkûwr (only 4 vv) + H6471 paʻam, H7969 shâlôwsh, H8141 shâneh — D restates the older pilgrim-feast law
Zechariah 14:16–19 takes the very rite of Deuteronomy 16 and projects it onto the end: "all the nations" will go up year by year to keep the Feast of Booths, and those who refuse receive no rain. The Verifier records shared çukkâh (H5521) and ḥaḡ (H2282) — genuine verbal overlap of the feast's name — but Zechariah is not quoting the statute; it is re-deploying the festival as a figure of the universal worship of the LORD. Because the link is a figural re-reading of the rite rather than a legal citation, we tier it typological. Ellicott explicitly flags Tabernacles as the one great feast that "has not yet been fulfilled by our Lord," pointing to "Unfulfilled prophecies regarding it may be pointed out, as in Zechariah 14" — a widely-held reading, not novel.
Zechariah 14:16 · Zechariah 14:18 · Zechariah 14:19
basis: shares feast-name lexemes H5521 çukkâh + H2282 chag, but Zechariah figurally extends the rite to the nations rather than quoting the law; ancient/widely-held (Ellicott names Zech 14 as the feast's unfulfilled prophecy)
The command "they shall not appear empty" (rêqām, H7387) sits within a Deuteronomic pattern of the same word: the freed slave is not to be sent away empty (Deuteronomy 15:13), and Israel left Egypt not empty (Exodus 3:21). The motif is thematic — a shared moral logic of God's generosity reproduced in His people — rather than a verbal quotation of this verse, so we tier it structural. The basis is the recurring lexeme rêqām and the pattern "none goes/comes empty," not a citation claim.
Deuteronomy 15:13 · Exodus 3:21
basis: shared lexeme H7387 rêqām ("empty") deployed in a common Deuteronomic generosity-pattern (free the slave / leave Egypt / come to the feast — never empty); a motif, with no quotation claimed
When the law of Deuteronomy 16:16 is enacted, 2 Chronicles 8:13 is its fulfillment in narrative: Solomon offers "at the set feasts, three times in the year, in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles" — naming the same three pilgrim-feasts in the same order. The Verifier records an unusually dense overlap for a single verse-pair: çukkâh (H5521, 29 vv), shâbûwaʿ (H7620, "weeks," only 17 vv), matstsâh (H4682, "unleavened bread," 42 vv), and ḥaḡ (H2282) — the festal triad itself, restated. With the rare "weeks"-word shared, this is genuine verbal correspondence: the Chronicler shows the centralizing command obeyed at the very "place He will choose," Solomon's temple. Ellicott observes that "the dedication of Solomon's temple... occurred about the time of the Feast of Tabernacles," anchoring the narrative to this unit's autumn feast.
2 Chronicles 8:13
basis: shared rare lexeme H7620 shâbûwaʻ ("weeks," 17 vv) + H5521 çukkâh (29 vv) + H4682 matstsâh (42 vv) + H2282 chag — the three-feast formula of Deut 16:16 restated as Solomon's practice at the chosen sanctuary
This unit is in Deuteronomy, not Joshua, and does not contain Joshua 1:5; the mandatory Joshua 1:5 link does not arise here. It is recorded only to honor the standing rule that the Joshua 1:5 → Hebrews 13:5 thread ("I will never leave you nor forsake you") carries a debated NT provenance and must be flagged wherever it appears. No such citation is present in Deuteronomy 16:13–17, so this thread is not asserted for this unit.
Joshua 1:5 · Hebrews 13:5
basis: not applicable to this unit (no Joshua 1:5 present); recorded per standing directive that the Heb 13:5 quotation's source — Deut 31:6/8 vs Josh 1:5 vs Gen 28:15 — is debated and must be flagged wherever invoked
AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.
The Feast of Booths (sukkōṯ) is built on dwelling in temporary shelters. John 1:14 says the Word "dwelt" — eskēnōsen, literally tented / tabernacled — among us. The Greek verb cannot share a Strong's number with the Hebrew çukkâh (cross-Testament links never can), so this is read structurally/typologically, not as a verbal quotation: the incarnation as God taking up a temporary booth in human flesh. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown report this very connection as one ancient conjecture — that the feast "was fixed to the time of the year when the Word was made flesh and dwelt—literally, 'tabernacled'—among us (Joh 1:14)" — listing it without endorsing the birth-date claim.
John 1:14
Of the three pilgrim-feasts, Ellicott observes that Passover (Christ's death) and Unleavened Bread (serving Him "in sincerity and truth") are fulfilled, but "the Feast of Tabernacles has not yet been fulfilled by our Lord like the two other great feasts." Its note of only-joy (śāmēaḥ ʾaḵ, v. 15) reaches toward a consummation: in John 7, at this very feast, Jesus cries that rivers of living water will flow from the believer (John 7:37–38), and the eschatological Booths of Zechariah 14 awaits the gathering of the nations. The figural reading — Booths as the still-future feast of the kingdom — is ancient (Ellicott names it), not a novel invention.
John 7:2 · John 7:37 · Zechariah 14:16
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.
Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:
This unit is Hebrew throughout; all confirmed verbal threads rest on shared Strong's lexemes verified pairwise with the Verifier (engine/verifier.py). Two honesty notes specific to Deuteronomy 16:13–17. (1) Auto-tier vs. recorded tier. The Verifier's automatic label calls several links "verbal / quotation — confirmed" wherever lexemes overlap; we have downgraded the Zechariah 14 parallel to typological because, although it shares the feast-name words çukkâh and ḥaḡ, Zechariah re-deploys the rite eschatologically rather than quoting the statute — a figural, not a legal, link. The Leviticus/Numbers/Exodus parallels are left as verbal because they restate one body of festal law and include genuinely rare lexemes (çukkâh, 29 vv; zâkûwr, 4 vv), and 2 Chronicles 8:13 is left verbal because it reproduces the three-feast formula with the rare "weeks"-word shâbûwaʿ (17 vv) — a narrative enactment of the same statute, not a figural reuse. (2) A vocalization crux, not a consonantal one. In v. 16 "appear before the LORD" (yērāʾeh) the Cambridge Bible argues the Masoretic pointing may mask an original "see the face of God," altered to avoid anthropomorphism. We report this as a debated reading of the vowel-points, not a textual emendation we endorse; the BSB and the parse ("be seen") are not contradicted. (3) The male-only summons (v. 16) and the women's exemption (Benson, Poole) are recorded as historical commentary on the ancient rationale — preserved verbatim, not asserted as the tool's own judgment. All ⚙ synthesis here is fallible and offered to be tested against God's Word.
✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)