15:19–23 The firstborn of an animal belongs to the Lord, just as the firstfruits of the crop do. This is one way of making the confession that God is the source and owner of all life. This confession is first found in the creation narrative, with the offerings of Cain and Abel (Gen. 4:2–4). Both the farmer and the herdsman brought offerings appropriate to the divine blessing. The teaching of Deuteronomy is already implicit in the Genesis account. The offering of the first of the harvest and of animals must be done as a confession of love and fear of Yahweh. Abel offered the choicest of the firstborn; Cain merely brought an offering. Ritual apart from the faith commitment of the participant has no merit.

In Deuteronomy, the offering of the firstborn is done at the central sanctuary and is eaten by the herdsman making the offering. This appears to be an advancement of the earlier requirements. In the original covenant, the offering of the firstborn of clean animals belongs to the Lord as a confession of the slaying of the firstborn in Egypt and the sparing of Israel at the time of the exodus (Ex. 13:11–15). Unclean animals and the firstborn of humans are redeemed. Deuteronomy is also a development of the law of the firstborn as given in the wilderness. There the firstborn belongs to the kherem, that is, the irrevocable dedication that cannot be redeemed (Num. 18:14). In Numbers, humans and unclean animals can be redeemed; unclean animals may be bought back by the owner for use on his farm. All other firstfruits and the firstborn of animals are proscribed. In this case, they must be eaten by the families of the priests. Leviticus conforms to the regulation of Numbers in declaring that the firstborn is kherem (Lev. 27:26–29). Leviticus includes humans in the items that may be so proscribed, such as someone guilty of a capital crime (Ex. 22:20). In Deuteronomy, Moses makes the individual making the offering responsible to “dedicate” it to the Lord (qadash; Deut. 15:19), which does not make its use exclusive to the sanctuary or the priests. It is, however, a sacred meal, probably reflecting the circumstances of a later time in which worship was limited to the single place the Lord would choose. There was no longer a need to support clergy at the more local sanctuaries.

16:1–8 Passover celebrates the exodus from Egypt. It consists of two festivals: the sacrifice of the Passover animal and the seven-day festival of mazzot, the Feast of Unleavened Bread (cf. Lev. 23:6). Since the Passover meal also involves unleavened bread, the two are described as one (Lev. 23:4). The time of the feast is calculated according to the moon of the month of “Abib” (= “new ears of grain”). In later Babylonian nomenclature, this is the month of Nisan. Since the lunar cycle was also the basis of the agricultural calendar, the months had to be kept concurrent with the seasons. Twelve lunar cycles constitute only 354 days, requiring the periodic addition of a lunar equivalent. At some point the Babylonians determined that 235 lunar cycles equaled 19 solar cycles, so they could be very precise in integrating 7 lunar months during a 19-year period. Modern-day Passover is celebrated on a modification of that cycle.

“Passover” is a translation of the Hebrew pesakh. The origin of this term cannot be determined, but it has the sense of “protective sacrifice.” The English term Passover comes from the Latin translation; the LXX uses the verb skepazō for the Lord’s covering or protecting the Israelites (Ex. 12:13; cf. Isa. 31:5). Making the Passover sacrifice into a pilgrimage festival brings about modifications. The meal is no longer celebrated as a family, with the blood of the sacrificial lamb smeared on the doorposts and lintel. It becomes a communal event in which a larger animal can be chosen from the sheep or goats (Ex. 12:5). Deuteronomy 16:2 includes bovines, which later Jewish exegesis takes to be additional offerings (cf. 2 Chron. 35:7–13). It is no longer specified that the animal be roasted (Ex. 12:8), only that it must be cooked (Hb. bashal often means “to boil”). The Passover is to be eaten with unleavened bread, signifying the hasty circumstance of the flight from Egypt. The urgency of harvest requires the pilgrim to return home following the Passover sacrifice, but he is to continue eating unleavened bread for six more days (Deut. 16:7–8). Leaven is to be removed from the entire territory (v. 4), not just from the central sanctuary. On the seventh day after the sacrifice, counting the day as beginning at sunset, a festal gathering is to be held. This would take place in the various towns and cities to which the pilgrims return—only the sacrificial food is to be consumed at the central place. Deuteronomy only mentions the assembled festival for the Passover, but the other festivals had one as well (Lev. 23:21, 35–36). The conclusion of unleavened bread takes place at home during the height of harvest, when greater temptation to neglect the duties of the festival might be present.

16:9–12 The Feast of Weeks derives its name from the method used to calculate its date. The feast is unique in that a precise date for the celebration of the feast is not given. The counting begins with an offering of the first sheaf of the harvest on the day after the Sabbath (Lev. 23:10–11). The time of harvest varies from year to year and place to place, depending on the weather. It is possible the time of the feast would vary from region to region. Debate has centered on whether the Sabbath specified is a Sunday or the day after the Sabbath of a festival, such as the first day of Unleavened Bread. A later halachic ruling used the latter interpretation to state that the first sheaf must be brought on the second day of the feast, namely, the sixteenth of Nisan, so the Feast of Weeks always falls on the seventh of Sivan in the Babylonian calendar (May/June). The Torah simply specifies that it be the first day after the Sabbath.

Harvest is a festive time. The offerings of harvest are voluntary according to the blessing of the harvest. A time of plenty may be expected to be a time of greater generosity. According to Leviticus, the Feast of Weeks is also a solemn assembly in which no work is done (Lev. 23:16–21). It consists of offerings of loaves made of new grain as firstfruits of the harvest. The various offerings by fire make it a complete festal occasion.

At least by the time of the second temple, the Feast of Weeks became the occasion to dramatize the revelatory event at Sinai, known in Hebrew as the zeman mattan Toratenu (“time when our Torah was given”), and to make a renewed oath of the giving of the law. This may be the festival setting of Psalms 50 and 81. These festal psalms are a proclamation of the theophany and celebration of the commandments in another era. The day of the assembly, as expressed in Deuteronomy 9:10; 10:4, was when Israel received the Word of God through an apparently dramatized ritual and then took upon themselves the Ten Words by covenant and oath. This was the counterpart to the dramatization of the exodus at Passover and of the wilderness by the erection of booths. In 2 Chronicles 15:8–15 we read of a great assembly under King Asa in the third month, in which participants come from Ephraim, Manasseh, Benjamin, Judah, and Simeon. They offer sacrifices, enter a covenant to seek the Lord with all their heart and soul, and take oaths to the accompaniment of blasts from the trumpets and shofar (cf. Ps. 81:3). All this is done with great joy, which may speak to the occasion of a festival in which the rite of a covenant renewal is observed.

The celebration of Weeks is much better known from later Jewish writings and the NT. As is typical in Deuteronomy, there is no attention to accompanying festal celebrations, such as those mentioned in Leviticus. The emphasis is entirely on being proportionately generous to the blessing of the harvest.

16:13–15 Booths is a full, eight-day festival, with sacred assemblies on the first and last days (cf. Lev. 23:33–36). The festival takes place after all the harvest has been gathered. Booths is characterized by ceremonies of festal processions adorned with fruits and decorative palms (Lev. 23:40). As the last of the harvest, this is the most joyous of festivals. It is also the time of year when the labor of the field is not pressing. According to Deuteronomy 31:10–13, this is the occasion of the teaching of the Torah every seventh year. In later Jewish tradition this is also the time of prayers for rain.

The Festival of Booths is explicitly connected in Leviticus 23:42–43 to the time of wilderness wanderings. The connection of Booths to the time of the wilderness is not self-evident, for at that time Israel lived in tents. Booths are connected to harvest, when the fruit is ripening and being gathered. Booths are set up in the fields for shelter from sun and rain (e.g., Isa. 1:8). An apt symbol for the completion of the harvest and the celebration of bounty is a booth of the type used in the fields at harvest. This also becomes a way of remembering God’s bountiful provision during the years of wilderness wandering.

16:16–17 God is the sovereign King, who reigns from the temple. His subjects are required to appear before him in acknowledgement of his rule. Only adult males of the family are obligated to make their appearance three times a year at the central sanctuary. The celebrations themselves are inclusive, as is repeatedly emphasized. There may be a practical side to this requirement’s being limited to males, as nursing mothers and young children could not easily make a journey of several days.

The Passover sacrifice is here referred to as the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The obligation at the sanctuary is limited to the night of the Passover (Deut. 16:7), and the workers then return home but eat unleavened bread for seven days. According to the instructions of the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread begins on the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening (Ex. 12:6). The summary appropriately concludes with the emphasis of social responsibility present in the entire section: each family must be represented, bearing gifts in proportion to the way that God has blessed them. The goal of prosperity is the ability to give more.