Deuteronomy 16:13-17·~1 min

The Feast of Tabernacles

After threshing and pressing, Israel is to keep a seven-day feast of joy. The whole community shares in it at the chosen place because the LORD blesses their produce and labor.

Y¹³ou are to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress. 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. 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.

The chapter then gathers the three annual feasts into a single obligation: Israel's men must appear before the LORD and not come empty-handed, but give according to His blessing.

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. ¹⁷Everyone must appear with a gift as he is able, according to the blessing the LORD your God has given you.

Section summaryThe Feast of Tabernacles gathers Israel into seven days of joy after the produce is in. It includes the whole community before the LORD at the chosen place, and it frames the yearly pilgrimages as occasions for grateful giving in proportion to His blessing.

Role in the chapterThis section completes the cycle of annual feasts and gathers them into one rhythm of appearing before the LORD. It emphasizes fullness: full harvest, full joy, and gifts that answer God's generous provision.