the Fourth Week of Advent
Click here to learn more!
Read the Bible
George Lamsa Translation
Deuteronomy 16
1 OBSERVE the month of Abib and keep the passover to the LORD your God; because in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night.2 You shall therefore sacrifice the passover to the LORD, of the flock and the herd, at the place where the LORD your God shall choose to set his name.3 You shall eat no leavened bread with it; but seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it, even the bread of affliction; for you came forth out of Egypt in haste; that you may remember the day when you came forth out of Egypt all the days of your life.4 And there shall no leavened bread be seen with you in all your territory for seven days; neither shall there anything of the meat, which you sacrifice on the evening of the first day, remain all night until the morning.5 It is unlawful for you to sacrifice the passover within any of your towns which the LORD your God gives you:6 But at the place where the LORD your God shall choose to set his name, there you shall sacrifice the passover in the evening at the going down of the sun, at the time that you came out of Egypt.7 And you shall cook it and eat it in the place which the LORD your God shall choose; and you shall turn in the morning and go to your tents.8 For six days you shall eat unleavened bread; and on the seventh day there shall be a solemn assembly to the LORD your God; you shall do no work therein.9 You shall count seven weeks to yourselves; begin to count the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain.10 And then you shall keep the feast of weeks to the LORD your God with sufficient of freewill offering of your hand, which you shall set aside as the LORD your God has blessed you;11 And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your son and your daughter and your manservant and your maidservant and the Levite who is within your towns and the sojourner and the fatherless and the widow who is among you, at the place where the LORD your God has chosen to place his name.12 And you must remember that you were a bondman in Egypt; so you shall observe and do these statutes.13 You shall observe the feast of tabernacles seven days, after you have gathered in from your threshing floor and from your wine press;14 And you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter and your manservant and your maidservant and the Levite, the sojourner, the orphan, and the widow who is within your towns.15 For seven days you shall keep a solemn feast to the LORD your God in the place which the LORD chooses; because the LORD your God shall bless you in all your increase and in all the works of your hand, and you shall rejoice.16 Three times in a year shall all your memorial gifts be brought before the LORD your God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of the tabernacles; and you shall not appear before the LORD your God empty-handed;17 But every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which he has given you.
18 You shall appoint to yourselves judges and scribes in all your cities, which the LORD your God gives you, throughout your tribes; and they shall judge the people with just judgment.19 You shall not pervert judgment; you shall not be partial, neither take a bribe; for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise men in judgment, and perverts the cause of the innocent.20 But you must judge your neighbor righteously, that you may live and go in and inherit the land which the LORD your God gives you.21 You shall not plant for yourselves a grove of any trees near the altar of the LORD your God, which you shall make for yourselves.22 Neither shall you set up for yourselves any statue, which the LORD your God hates.