Deuteronomy 16

{Each year} honor God our God in the early spring with the Passover Celebration. It was on a night in the early spring that God rescued your families from Egypt.

In order to celebrate, go to the place that God will choose for you to worship him. There, sacrifice one young animal from your sheep or cattle to God. \*

When you eat the Passover meal, the bread that you eat must not have yeast in it. You must eat this kind of bread, called the bread of suffering, for seven days. This is to help you to always remember {that your families were suffering in Egypt because they were slaves.} When they left Egypt, they left very quickly.

During the Passover Celebration, which will last for seven days, you must not have any yeast {in any house} in your land. Furthermore, you must eat the meat of the animal that you sacrifice on the evening of the first day of the Passover Festival during that night. Do not allow any of it to remain until the next day. \*

You must offer the Passover sacrifice only at the place that he chooses for you to worship him. Do not offer that sacrifice in any other town in the land that God is giving to you. Offer that sacrifice when the sun is setting, at the same time of day that your ancestors started to leave Egypt. \*

Cook the meat and eat it at the place of worship that God our God chooses. The next morning, you may return to your tents.

Each day for six days the bread that you eat must have no yeast in it. On the seventh day, you must all gather to worship God our God. You must not do any work on that day. \*

Each year, from the day that you start to harvest your grain, count seven weeks.

Then, to honor God our God, celebrate the Celebration of Weeks. Do that by bringing to him an offering {of grain}. God has blessed you by causing it to grow in your fields during that year. If you had a big harvest, bring a big offering. If you had a small harvest, bring a small offering. \*

You should be joyful in the presence of God. Their children, their servants, the descendants of Levi who are in that town, and the foreigners, orphans, and widows who are living among you, should also be joyful. Bring those offerings to the place of worship that God will choose.

When you celebrate these festivals by obeying these commands, remember that your families were slaves in Egypt. \*

Each year, after you have threshed all your grain and pressed the juice from all your grapes, you must celebrate the Festival of Shelters for seven days.

Each married couple along with their children, their servants, the descendants of Levi who are in that town, and the foreigners, orphans, and widows who are living among you, should be joyful in the presence of God. \*

Honor God our God by celebrating this festival for seven days in the place that he chooses for you to worship him. You should all be joyful, because God will have blessed your harvest and all the other work that you have done. \*

So, each year all of you Israelite men must gather to worship God our God at the place that he will choose, to celebrate three festivals: The Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Celebration of Weeks, and the Festival of Shelters. No one should come before God without an offering.

Every man {must give} in proportion to the blessings that God has given you {during that year}. \*

Appoint judges and other officials throughout your tribes, in all the towns in the land that God our God is giving to you. They must judge people fairly.

They must not judge unjustly. They must not favor one person more than another. The judges must not accept bribes because a bribe causes a wise person to ignore what is right and misrepresent the words of righteous people.

You must be completely fair and just, in order that you may live long enough to occupy the land that God our God is giving to you. \*

When you make an altar to worship God our God, do not put next to it any wooden pole that represents the goddess Asherah.

And do not set up any stone pillar to worship any idol, because God hates them. \*