Deuteronomy 16:9-12·~1 min

The Feast of Weeks

The feast is dated from the beginning of harvest and answered with a freewill offering proportioned to the LORD's blessing.

Y⁹ou are to count off seven weeks from the time you first put the sickle to the standing grain. ¹⁰And you shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God with a freewill offering that you give in proportion to how the LORD your God has blessed you,

The celebration is to be joyful and shared with household, Levite, foreigner, fatherless, and widow at the chosen place. Israel's former slavery in Egypt is to shape its careful obedience.

¹¹and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in the place He will choose as a dwelling for His Name — you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite within your gates, as well as the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widows among you. ¹²Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and carefully follow these statutes.

Section summaryThe Feast of Weeks follows the first cutting of grain and is marked by a freewill offering shaped by the LORD's blessing. Its joy is shared at the chosen place with the whole community, under the memory that Israel once lived as slaves in Egypt.

Role in the chapterThis section turns from exodus memory to harvest gratitude without losing the exodus frame. It keeps worship generous and communal, especially by drawing in those who stand at the edges of ordinary power.