Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Deuteronomy 16:13
Thou shalt observe the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine:
13. Thou shalt keep ] Heb. perform for thyself, see on Deu 16:1.
the feast of booths ] feast, ag, as in Deu 16:10. Booths, suth, lit. plaitings or interlacings, whether natural thickets (Job 38:40, etc.) or artificial shelters of branches or planks, especially for the guardians of vineyards (Isa 1:8); applied first by D, and explained by H, Lev 23:39-43, which prescribes that the people shall dwell throughout the feast in booths of palm-fronds, boughs of thick trees and poplars (Neh 8:15, olive, myrtle, palm and thick tree branches). H’s reason for this custom is that Israel dwelt in booths at the Exodus; but the general resort of the cultivators to booths in their vineyards at the time of the ripening of the grapes and the vintage, which still continues in Palestine (Robinson, Bib. Res. ii. 81), was no doubt very ancient and the real origin of the name of the Feast. After the centralisation of the cultus, the booths were erected in the courts and on the flat roofs of the city, Neh 8:14-17, which implies that before the restoration of Israel’s worship under Nehemiah the custom had been in abeyance. The term tabernacles is used in the EVV. in the sense given by Johnson of ‘casual dwellings’ (Lat. taberna a hut, tabernaculum a tent).
seven days ] So H, Lev 23:39, to which P, Num 29:35, adds an eighth, with a convocation. Passover and Weeks are one day each.
threshing-floor and winepress ] Deu 15:14.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
13 15. The Feast of Booths
To be observed for seven days after the harvest of corn and wine by each family and their dependents, at the One Altar; and that altogether joyfully because of God’s blessing. For the parallels and the other name of the Feast see introd. to Deu 16:1-17. This feast is also called the feast par excellence (1Ki 8:2; 1Ki 8:65, etc., cp. Jdg 21:19 ff.) not so much for its length, as because it crowned the year. See further Deu 31:10.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Deu 16:13-15
Thou shalt observe the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine.
Harvest home
The Feast of Tabernacles was the harvest home of Israel. Where is the antitype of the festival of Tabernacles? The vision of the great multitude which no man could number is a vision throughout of a heavenly Feast of Tabernacles; the harvest home of the Church triumphant.
I. These festivals are occasions of hospitality and of reunion. A selfish life is an unchristian life. A man might possibly remember God in solitude, a monastery has ere now fostered devotion: but there is one virtue which cannot be practised in seclusion–charity; the Gospel virtue–without which we are nothing. The very exertion which it costs some men to come out is salutary. If some are made frivolous by the love of society, some are made selfish by isolation from their kind.
II. Two things were especially required of the Israelites when they assembled for their three annual feasts: first, that they should not appear before the lord empty; secondly, that children and servants, the Levite and the stranger, the fatherless and widow, should be allowed to rejoice with them. The feast only becomes a blessing when it remembers God, and remembers man.
III. The law of God was read over, once in seven years, to the assembled Israelites at their Feast of Tabernacles. If there be a time when we remember duty, surely it should be when our hands are full of gifts. A time of feasting, nay, a time of prosperity, nay, a time of unmarked, of average sufficiency, brings its own peculiar risk of practical ungodliness.
IV. Yet we recognise in this festival the comforting side of true religion. Gods voice never comes to make us miserable. If it condemns, it is that we may rise out of condemnation into a state altogether joyous. A harvest home is a glimpse of the love and of the peace and of the joy of the Gospel.
V. It is also a memento of the place of thankfulness in the Gospel. Is there any test so condemning as that which touches us on the point of gratitude? Who really gives God thanks for life, for health, for motion, for speech, for reason? Well may we have one day in the year set apart for the work of simple praise.
VI. Recognise in this celebration the identification of the God of nature and providence with the God of revelation and of the Gospel. The things that are seen become a very sign and sacrament of the things that are not seen. The harvest of the natural world indicates to us, by its marvellous yet now familiar phenomena, the working of the same power which alone can melt the heart of stone, and impress upon a trifling soul the realities of a life and a home in heaven. VII. Finally, let the service which gives thanks for an earthly harvest carry your thoughts to that great reaping after sowing, which is before every one of us, in the resurrection of the body and in the eternity which is yet beyond (Mat 13:39; Gal 6:7-8). God grant us all a place in that ingathering, the close of a worlds labour, the inauguration of a heavenly rest! (Dean Vaughan.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Of the feast of tabernacles, see on Exo 23:16; Lev 23:34; Num 29:12.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
13-17. Thou shalt observe the feastof tabernacles seven days(See on Ex23:14; Le 23:34; Nu29:12). Various conjectures have been formed to account for theappointment of this feast at the conclusion of the whole harvest.Some imagine that it was designed to remind the Israelites of thetime when they had no cornfields to reap but were daily supplied withmanna; others think that it suited the convenience of the peoplebetter than any other period of the year for dwelling in booths;others that it was the time of Moses’ second descent from the mount;while a fourth class are of opinion that this feast was fixed to thetime of the year when the Word was made flesh and dweltliterally,”tabernacled”among us (Joh1:14), Christ being actually born at that season.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Thou shalt observe the feast of tabernacles seven days,…. Which began on the fifteenth day of Tisri, or September; see Le 23:34, c.
after that thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine and therefore sometimes called the feast of ingathering, Ex 23:16, barley harvest began at the passover, and wheat harvest at Pentecost; and before the feast of tabernacles began, the vintage and the gathering of the olives were over, as well as all other summer fruits were got in.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Verses 13-15:
This was the Feast of Tabernacles, or Booths, or Ingathering, the last of the sacred festivals. It began five days after Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, and lasted eight days, see Lev 23:33-34; Num 29:12-38. It marked the completion of the harvest, after the gathering of the grain into storage, and the processing of the fruit of the vineyard.
This was to be a time of national rejoicing and thanksgiving, that God had provided ample harvest to supply the needs of the people, and to provide for the relief of the poor, the stranger, the widow, the orphan, and the Levites.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
13. Thou shalt observe the feast of tabernacles. Its first day was called the day of In-gathering, ( collectionum ,) because the produce of the whole year was then stored in their granaries (361) and provision cellars. Since, therefore, they then rested from their rural labors, it was a convenient time of year for the celebration of the festivals; for in order that they might more willingly go up to Jerusalem, it was arranged by God, that it should be done with but little expense and sacrifice of their domestic interests. Where our translation is, “When Jehovah shall have blessed thee,” it stands literally, “Because he shall bless thee,” (362) but the sense is nearly the same; for Moses assures them that, provided they devote their minds diligently and faithfully to the service of God, they shall never want grounds for rejoicing, since He will never interrupt the flow of His blessing. The end, therefore, of the fifteenth verse, is not a mere command, but also a promise; as if he had said, that, if they were not ungrateful, there was no fear but that God would continually supply new cause for gladness; and these two clauses are to be taken in connection, “God will bless thee, and, therefore, thou shalt only rejoice;” for in this passage I willingly interpret thus (363) the particle אך, ak. It is indeed absurd to take it adversatively. It will not, therefore, be improper to explain it exclusively, as if he said, that, there should be no sorrow or anxiety, which should hinder them from the performance of their pious duty; those who render it “ surely,” approach also to this meaning.
(361) “ Aux greniers, ou aux caves, ou fenils, et gardoirs de toute provision.” — Fr.
(362) Vide A. V., Deu 16:15, “Because the Lord thy God shall bless thee,” etc.
(363) “ Car il y a ici un mot qui se prend bien pour Toutes fois; mais il signifie pareillement Tant y a, ou Quoy qu’il en soit, ou Pour vrai; ” for there is here a word, which may properly mean, Nevertheless; but it also means However, or, At any rate, or, Truly. — Fr.
“Only ( Utique, Vatablus; veruntamen, Pagninus; profrcto, Malvenda ) joyful; understand, and not sad, i.e., You shall indulge in nothing but rejoicing.” — Pol. Syn. in loco.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES
Deu 16:13-17.
THERE is a theme near to my heart which links itself to the season of AutumnThe Great Harvest Home Day of the Old Testament, the Feast of Tabernacles. The very reading of the text has reminded us of its constitution, and also that it was intended to celebrate the harvest fully garnered.
In studying it, we shall relate the discussion to five suggestions: It was a Recognition of Temporal Good; a Symbol of Temporary Residence; an Emphasis of National Unity; a Message of Millennial Glory; and, an Appeal for Present Usefulness.
THE RECOGNITION OF TEMPORAL GOOD.
Thou shall observe the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that thou hast garnered in thy corn and thy wine (Deu 16:13).
It occurred at the close of the harvest. This ancient people were dwellers in a prosperous land. The first sight they ever had of it was the word picture of the spies sent from Kadesh-Barnea to investigate and bring back a report. While they returned to render a majority and minority report on the subject of the occupation of the land, they were agreed on this, It is a good land which the Lord our God doth give us * *. Surely it floweth with milk and honey * *. And, presenting that gigantic cluster of grapes, they added, this is the fruit of it (Num 13:27).
But, after all, their greatest harvest called for no such gratitude as ought to characterize the occupants of this, our beloved landAmerica.
The little territory of Goshen, or even that greater stretch of Solomons time when he reigned over all the kingdom from the river Euphrates even unto the land of the Philistines, and to the border of Egypt, was but a small spot which would be lost in some of the great states of this Union. Their richest valleys were not more fruitful than the great sweeps of American soil, which as yet, have never felt the touch of ploughshare. Since Josiah Strong wrote his book, Our Country, it is needless for another to expatiate on the extent of it, save to remind his auditors that we are now much larger than when he caused to be published that splendid volume. We know that when the Imperial City on its seven hills ruled as the mistress of the world, and the realm of the Caesars stretched from the Caucasian mountains on the East three thousand miles to the Atlantic Ocean on the West, and from the Orkney Islands on the North two thousand miles South to Thebes on the Nile, with one hundred and twenty millions of people subject to the imperial nod, their territory was only one-third of that which now makes up American possessions.
But whether you are apprised of those statistics which a reliable speaker put forth some years since, declaring that the average consumption of grains to the person is more than forty bushels per annum, while in Europe it is only seventeen, and the average consumption of meat in the United States is one hundred and twenty pounds to the person, while in Europe, it is but fifty-seven and a half, one must be ready to say for the prosperity of his country what the Psalmist long since wrote, He hath not dealt so with any nation. Before such temporal good the spirit of thanksgiving ought to stir in every heart the sentiment of Kiplings Recessional:
God of our fathers, known of old;
Lord of our far-flung battle line;
Beneath whose awful hand we hold Dominion over palm and pine.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forgetlest we forget!
This ancient feast celebrated the increase as from the Lord.
Seven days shalt thou keep a solemn feast unto the Lord thy God in the place which the Lord shall choose: because the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thine increase, and in all the works of thine hands, therefore thou shalt surely rejoice (Deu 16:15).
That Old Testament truth, oft affirmed by prophet and poet, is stated more strongly still by a New Testament Apostle, Every good gift, and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning (Jas 1:17). It is a doctrine which needs emphasis in this self-assertive century. It is an assertion which reminds men afresh of the source of all good, and the very acceptance of which begets the spirit of gratitude.
R. F. Horton tells the story of a farmer whose fields lay on the undulating slopes of the Cheviot, but whose spirit was careless, earth-bound, and sordid. One spring morning when the ploughs were in the furrow, and he walked alone in the hollow of the hills, and looked at the hedge rows now being clothed in green, and listened to the song of birds, and watched the soft white clouds which moved across the sky like a procession of dancing children, suddenly he stopped and said, Everything I see and hear is praising God. Everything, everything, except me! I am not. I know not how. The very thought was the seed of Gods truth which
Taught his heart to bear his part
And join in the praise of spring.
But if the spring season calls for thanksgiving, how much more the autumn, when the fruits are garnered and the brown fields have sent their loads to the bin, and the pledge of the early summer has been made good in the fruitage of the early fall.
And yet, after all, there is a better occasion of thanksgiving than that we are prospered in material wealth; and the sweetest song is not with him to whom the seasons have brought most of silver and gold, but rather with him to whom the year has brought most of God. Edgar S. Sellew has voiced my thought in his recent thanksgiving poem:
For what today am I most truly thankful?
Is it for granaries that Thy harvests fill?
Is it for lowing herd, or flock, so ample?
Or any gift of Thine, through sovereign will?
Is it because my coffers are full laden
With golden store, or gems of greatest worth?
Is it because I stand so free from burden
And care, amid the stricken ones of earth?
Is it because the blessed free exemption
Of all my dear ones given me of God
From earthly sorrows, through the free redemption,
So graciously poured oer them by our Lord?
Oh, no! our joy springs from a fount still higher
From God Himself, the Spring of all joys,
Because Jehovah isThat holy fire
Throws deepest shade on earth and earthly joys.
Thou art the Source and Spring of all our gladness,
Eternal pleasures by Thy hand are spread;
Thou art the Balm for all our grief and sadness
We praise and worship Thee, our Living Head.
But to our feast again. We have said it was
A SYMBOL OF TEMPORAL RESIDENCE.
A short season, spent in booths.
Seven days shalt thou keep a solemn feast unto the Lord thy God (Deu 16:15).
And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days.
And ye shall keep it a feast unto the Lord seven days in the year. It shall be a statute for ever in your generations. * *
Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born, shall dwell in booths (Lev 23:40-42).
There is not a New Testament truth but the shadow of it is found in the Old Testament Scripture. It did not remain for the Apostle Paul to see the great fact that here have we no continuing city, and to speak of us as pilgrims and strangers in the earth, but only to reaffirm that which God had written into the constitution of the Feast of the Tabernacles. But this assertion which might strike sorrow into the heart of the man who knows not God, nor trusts in the redemption of His Son, becomes to the Christian an inspiration and a song. It is the very thought which sustains him in sorrows hour, which soothes him when suffering is on, which paints for him the prospect of victory in the moment of darkest defeat. For they who have confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth thereby declare plainly that they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly country. Wherefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He hath prepared for them a city. The man who has entertained this view of life is one who can sing with Tennyson,
Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea.
But such a tide as, moving, seems asleep,
Too full for sound or foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home!
Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark!
For tho from out our bourne of Time and Place,
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face,
When I have crost the bar.
This short season was parenthesized by Sabbaths. In the original constitution of this feast, it is written, In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work therein (Lev 23:7). Surely the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. God who created us knew the necessityphysical, mental, and moralof devoting this seventh section of time to rest of the body, and the recreation of the soul and spirit. One of the ill-omens of this hour is the somewhat dominant disposition to despise this Divine ordination of time. The atheist who proposes to rule God out of the world by refusing to recognize the Sabbath; the money-maddened who, in his greed of gain, objects to shutting up shop or shutting down the mill; the pleasure-seeking who convert the sacred hours into spreesthese with all other confederates are cooperating with Satan in his assault against one of the greatest essentials of moral manhood and Christian civilization. I listened with interest one Sunday afternoon to what a notable priest said on the subject of mill-running on the Sabbath. And I had a right to be interested, for in my study on Saturday night, I had discussed with one of my young men the very question of whether, at this season of the year, with nothing before him, he should forfeit a good position, or continue to work seven days in the week. Not because the question was in my mind at all debatable, did I listen with interest God settled that before either of us were bornbut because I knew the strength of his temptation, the need of my sympathy, the expression of counsel, which, upon mature reflection, would appear to him in as perfect accord with reason as it was with Revelation. I cannot believe those guiltless who, in love of money, tempt youth or even maturity to transgress at once the law of God, and the essential laws of their own being.
At Ironton, Ohio, a godly man, an elder in the Presbyterian church, owned and operated a blast furnace, and in the face of the philosophy of iron manufacturers that a furnace would chill not at work every day in the week, Elder Means ordered his fires banked on Saturday night because he had read in the Book, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. On opening them Monday, he found the moulten metal running more freely than ever, and discovered that he could actually make more iron in six days than in seven, and at less cost. But if that had not been true, the Divine command and the human demand would have remained the same. Ye shall do no servile work therein. For the reason long since assigned by Talleyrand, some repose, some cessation from nervous excitement, some intermissions from labor for the purposes of meditation, to save one from crumbling under the shocks and pressures of public life, are our necessity; and for the additional reason, well known to Christian men, furnishing even occasion to God to call for this time, that the soul required it. To deny it is to throttle the higher nature. That which is noblest in us is atrophied, and our moral and spiritual evolution is arrested, and the true man is buried up in the beast.
There is a gospel in the Ten Commandments, and one of its great doctrines is voiced in these words,
Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work:
But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates (Exo 20:9-10).
The time has come when, for the sake of the generation of which we are a part, and the posterity on which we expend our prayers, we must fight back this foe to the Christian Sabbath, knowing that if it conquers, the future of the Christian civilization is doomed.
Here again the prayer of Kiplings Recessional is appropriate:
If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe
Such boasting as the Gentiles use,
Or lesser breeds without the Law
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forgetlest we forget!
But for the third suggestion from our feast:
AN EMPHASIS OF NATIONAL UNITY
Reverting again to the constitution of this first feast in Leviticus, we find this said, Ye shall dwell in booths seven days. All that are Israelites born, shall dwell in booths (Lev 23:42).
The presence of every Israelite was expected. It mattered not how far their residence from the feast, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, the last man was to assemble. It was the one way, and the best way to keep alive the national spirit, and to confederate the forces of Israel. It was also the shadow of things to come when the Gospel feast should call together in the church the children of Abraham by faith. When Paul penned his Epistle to the Hebrews, among other wise and wholesome suggestions, he made this, Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forgetting the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is. What these great feasts were to the spirit of national unity with the Jews, confederating their forces, sealing their affections, solidifying their purposes, making possible at once warfare defensive and aggressivethe calling together of the congregation, and the co-operation of churches and greater assemblies, they are to the work of God now in hand.
This country has a peculiar folk who style themselves Brethren, who object to all Christian organization, and who, in spite of their otherwise excellent knowledge of the Word, insist upon walking every man apart. They are a perfect illustration of the necessity of the feast of tabernacles, or a regularly ordained time and place for the assembly for the service of Gods saints. In Texas and Arkansas, the Baptist denomination was once torn asunder by those who represented the anti-organization spirit.
What is the result of such a philosophy of religion? I speak only a patent truth when I say that in soul-winning service, in the upbuilding of those organizations which made for the betterment of the world, in sending missionaries to benighted lands, in filling up the office unto which Christ came, and into which He has called His own, namely, the office of seeking and saving that which was lost, they are the least valuable of all those who wear the Name of the Lord. The reason is not far to seek! With practically no assembly of their forces, and no temples of worship, scarce a tent or a booth, standing almost every man apart, they are a rope of sand.
I make these remarks to add another for the benefit of those church-members who have a name upon the church roll, but whose faces are seldom seen in the house of God, and whose hands are not outstretched to help in the hour of need. Brethren, sisters, let this Old Testament feast of tabernacles tell you that when Gods Name is to be honored by the gathering together of His people, according to His direction, He expects you there, and your absence is worse than your condemnation; it is your spiritual decline and undoing.
At that feast the person of no Israelite was despised. It mattered not who they were or from what station, they were alike welcome. The word is, Thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite, the stranger and the fatherless, and the widow that are within thy gates. Their relationship to this feast was not determined by whether they were rich or poor, high or low; the only question was whether they were Israelites.
Ah, what a suggestion here! Henry Ward Beecher sagely said, That institution is not worthy the name of church which fails or refuses to cut the social loaf from top to bottom.
Sometime ago, E. J. Hardy, writing about Bostons social elite, recited an instance of a man who had leaped from comparative poverty to sudden wealth, and with the change in his fortune moved from the humble home into a palace, and celebrated the occasion by a brilliant reception. A friend of many years noticing the absence of his hosts brother, who had been less unfortunate in financial speculations, and was poor, inquired whether he was sick, and received the answer, No, no; but in sending out invitations for such an occasion, the line must be drawn somewhere. God save the mark, when that line falls where it disfellowships a brother! And yet, far better that it be so with worldlings than with those who claim to be the children of God! The only question the church has any right to ask in the constitution of its membership, or in the conduct of its fellowship, is this, Are you a child of God? So far back as the book from which we bring our text, we hear God saying, Ye shall not respect persons. Peter learned by a vision from Heaven that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth Him and worketh righteousness is accepted with Him, while James excoriates the conduct of that church which has the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ with respect of persons, and gives the chief seat to the man with the gold ring, and goodly apparel, and pushes under the foot-stool His poor.
Unquestionably, the rifest and ripest problems relate themselves to this very subject. If capital and labor ever find common ground, and the problem of the blackman in America is to see a happy solution, and poverty and riches come to terms of peace, the church of God, in all her assemblies and services, must stand for the principle of equality in Christ Jesus; and must understand that any institution, as Louis Banks said, which is sufficiently aristocratic in spirit to quarantine against one little waif, whatever its ignorance, or rags, or color, establishes a quarantine against the presence and glory of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ! Let them establish a quarantine against torn wool, and cotton and silk to keep out cholera, if they will; but let there be no quarantine at the church door against any torn and trampled remnant of humanity that bears the impress of God.
THE MESSAGE OF MILLENNIAL GLORY
When one reads the record of this Old Testament feast, he may have wondered why, whenever it is referred to, that this is introduced:
Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy 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 tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the Lord empty (Deu 16:16).
But the Scripture study will render the reason evident. Paul, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, speaking of the Israelites experience, said,
Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples; and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come (1Co 10:11).
And to the Colossians, he adds, concerning the feasts of the Old Testament, They are a shadow of the things to come (Col 2:17). In that marvelous exposition of Old Testament symbols, the Epistle to the Hebrews, he says,
For the Law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices, which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect (Heb 10:1).
What is the suggestion then of these shadows? The feast of unleavened bread is better known to you as the passover, and represents always and everywhere, redemption. It was the redemption of Israel when the first-born of Egypt was slain; it was redemption for us when the Only Born of God was given to the cross. Paul distinctly says in 1Co 5:7 that the paschal lamb typified the death of Christ; while the feast of weeks is the famous Pentecost, prefiguring that blessed experience of the descent of the Spirit, on that great day when the Church of Christ was born in old Jerusalem.
But the feast of tabernacles has not yet had its antitype, for it typifies the times of the restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy Prophets since the world began, For the Jews, it speaks of the remnant yet to return; and of the re-establishment of those types which shall be interpreted in the very presence of the reigning Christ, for has Zechariah not reminded us concerning the glory of the latter day,
It shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles (Zec 14:16).
I never anticipate that blessed hour which Paul has described in the fifteenth of I Corinthians and the fourth of I Thessalonians, and John has so marvelously depicted in the apocalypse, but I put new meaning into that petition of my Lords Prayer, Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. For it is a time when He shall reign from sea to sea; it is a time when the roar of battle shall cease, and the sword and the spear shall have been transformed into implements of peace and agriculture, and Gods people shall repose beneath His shade; and as Macintosh puts it, All the earth shall rejoice in the government of the Prince of Peace. To anticipate is to sing with William Cullen Bryant:
O North, with all thy vales of green!
O South with all thy palms!
From peopled towns and fields between
Uplift the voice of psalms.
Raise, ancient East! the anthem high,
And let the youthful West reply.
Lo! in the clouds of heaven appears
Gods well-beloved Son.
He brings a train of brighter years,
His Kingdom is begun.
He comes a guilty world to bless
With mercy, truth, and righteousness.
O Father, haste the promised hour,
When at His feet shall lie
All rule, authority, and power,
Beneath the ample sky;
When He shall reign from pole to pole,
The Lord of every human soul.
When all shall heed the words He said,
Amid their daily cares,
And by the loving life He led
Shall strive to pattern theirs;
And He who conquered Death shall win
The mightier conquest over sin.
But between this hour and that, whether it be near or far, God makes provision for our employment. It is a strange thing how these Old Testament symbols speak whole, not partial truths, and combine a sound philosophy with an essential practice.
Before we close this study, we must see another lesson from this feast of the tabernacles.
THE APPEAL TO PRESENT USEFULNESS
And they shall not appear before the Lord empty.
Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord thy God which He hath given thee (Deu 16:16-17).
And God who gave to them all the increase of their land, the fruit of the wine-press, shall require it of them, that they rejoice the heart of the Levite, the stranger and the widow and the fatherless. The place where He meets His people is not only a sphere of joy and praise, but also a center from which streams of blessing were to flow in all directions.
How evident the lesson in all this for us.
Here is presented the Christians solemn responsibility. Whatever other grace you may have cultivated you never become Christ like until you have had this grace of giving. You remember the Apostles appeal to the people of his love, Therefore, as ye abound in every thing, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also (2Co 5:7). The miserly man may be a member of the church, but never a Christian. It is not worth while to ask whether an interrogation point must be written after the profession of such an one, God has already determined the sign that shall characterize that mans religion; He has preceded his profession by the minus sign. Covetousness is placed in the catalogue of sins which debar one forever from the Celestial City. The giving Spirit of the Christ was such that He spared not even Himself; how then dare we claim to be His children and spare nothing for the Levite, the stranger, the widow and the fatherless, and even steal away from Him His tithe! Will a man rob God? and yet profess to be His faithful servant? Out with such hypocrisy! Only those will ever participate in that feast of which this is but a shadow and type, who, when they had opportunity, went not up to God empty, but gave as God had given unto them.
Here is named a special privilege. The educated man counts it his deepest privilege to pass to another what he has stored up by earnest study; and the true Christian man regards his substance from the same standpoint. Giving is to his warm, beating heart what flowing is to the water-vein, a relief from pressure, coming down from the very heights, and joy in proportion to the people strengthened and refreshed. Not a few times I have looked into the face of Louise Shepherd, that young woman, who, at Old Orchard camp meeting some years since, stripped her jewels from fingers and clothing, gave the diamonds, and exchanged gold for iron; and there is a heavenly beauty about it which is not explained by arrangement or proportion of features, or combinations of color and figure; a beauty born of the blessed privilege of working together with God.
Dr. McArthur of New York City had in his church a scrub-woman who never gave less than $150 a year to foreign missions, and never earned more than $1.00 for her hard days service. And yet that woman walked the earth with the heart of a queen beating in her bosom, for she knew that in this blessed work she was wedded to the King of kings.
Oh, what a privilege! Who can tell the meaning of the language of Jesus when He said, Give and it shall be given unto you. The most righteous lives under Gods stars are those, wherever lived, by whomsoever, that only get from God to give; lives pressed down, heaped up, running over! A young woman in an after-meeting stated, It is said that our lives are so shallow that we cannot hold much, but they can overflow a great deal. Thank God for the fact and may I be a vessel constantly filled to overflowing!
He here appointed a channel of power. After all, the greatness of man and his real occasion for gratitude, is not measured by what he has received; but, rather, by what he gives. That is why God spared not His own Son. That is why Christ could save others, but Himself He could not save. And one, who would be a light in the world, must understand that light is born of self-consumption; and as it is impossible for a wick in the candle, the gas in the tube, or the wire in the bulb, to keep itself, and yet dissipate the darkness, no more can we! Henry T. Chapman, of Leed, Eng., quotes the author of a book on India, saying, One day I stood near one of the great temples of India. While my friend and I stood there, a native woman came carrying a little child in her arms. She took no notice of us, but when she got to the foot of the temple steps, she threw herself prone on the ground, holding up the babe in her arms. We looked and saw the babe was ill-shapen, and had none of the beauty which characterizes infanthood. Then she prayed this prayer, O grant that my child may grow as fair as other children. Grant that it may grow comely; grant that it may grow strong. Oh, hear the cry of a mothers breaking heart! Her prayer was finished, and she arose and was passing away. The speaker said, Friend, to whom have you prayed? She answered, I do not know; but surely there must be somewhere one who would hear the cry of a mothers heart, and keep a mothers heart from breaking!
Beloved, it is within our power, as a favored people of God, by giving silver and gold, by giving sons and daughters, by giving self, to send the Gospel of the Kingdom for a witness to those who live in such ignorance, that they may know that there is a God, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. And if ever the time comes when the dark spots of the earth shall have been illuminated, the ill-shapened straightened, the sick healed, and the captive souls set at liberty, it will be when those of us who assemble in His Name express our gratitude to the God of all good, and prove the genuineness of our profession by a practice of this Old Testament precept, and give every man as he is able, according to the blessing which Jehovah our God has given him (Deu 16:17).
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
(3) TABERNACLES (Deu. 16:13-15)
13 Thou shalt keep the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that thou hast gathered in from thy threshing-floor and from thy winepress: 14 and thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, and the Levite, and the sojourner, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates, 15 Seven days shalt thou keep a feast unto Jehovah thy God in the place which Jehovah thy God will bless thee in all thine increase, and in all the work of thy hands, and thou shalt be altogether joyful.
THOUGHT QUESTIONS 16:1315
283.
What was the purpose of the feast of Tabernacles?
284.
Read: Exo. 23:16; Lev. 23:33-36; Num. 29:12-16 to help in your understanding of this feast.
AMPLIFIED TRANSLATION 16:1315
13 You shall observe the feast of tabernacles or booths seven days, after you have gathered in from your threshing floor and wine vat.
14 You shall rejoice in your feast, you, your son and daughter, your manservant and maidservant, the Levite, the transient and the stranger, the fatherless and the widow, that are within your towns.
15 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 will bless you in all your produce, and in all the works of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful.
COMMENT 16:1315
Also called the feasts of booths, and ingathering. See Exo. 23:16; Lev. 23:33-36; Lev. 23:39-44; Num. 29:12-16. It was on the 15th day of the 7th month, the month Tisri (our Sept.-Oct.). At this time they gathered in the fruits of the land (Lev. 23:39). The word Tabernacles (from the Heb. sukkah or succoth)[33] is translated booths in most of the recent versions as this word more aptly describes the homes of the Israelites during the week this festival was being celebrated. It was camp meetin time, and a memorial service to their camping days as they came out of Egypt, as well as a Thanksgiving Day for the recent harvest.
[33] Gesenius says of this word: a booth, a cot, made of leaves and branches interwoven . . . He would render the phrase, the feast of tabernacles (Deu. 16:13) the feast of booths and branches.
AND THOU SHALT BE ALTOGETHER JOYFUL (Deu. 16:15)This probably was Israels most festive and joyous feast.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
Deu. 16:13-15. THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES.
(13) Thou shalt observe the feast of tabernacles seven days.For details of the observance see the passages already referred to in Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers, but more especially Lev. 23:33-43.
(14) Thou, and thy son . . .The rejoicing of the Feast of Tabernacles was proverbial among the Jews. On the persons who are to share the joy, Rashi has an interesting note. The Levite, the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow,My four (Jehovahs), over against thy fourthy son, thy daughter, thy manservant, thy maidservant. If thou wilt make My four to rejoice, I will rejoice thy four.
(15) Seven days.An eighth day is mentioned both in Lev. 23:36 and Num. 29:35. But the seven days of this feast are also spoken of in both those passages (Lev. 23:36 and Num. 29:12). There is, therefore, no contradiction between the two passages. The eighth day is treated apart from the first seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles, somewhat in the same way as the Passover is always distinguished in the Pentateuch from the six days which followed it, and which are called the Feast of Unleavened bread. The reason for the distinction in that case becomes clear in the fulfilment of the feast by our Lord. The Passover is His sacrifice and death. We keep the feast of unleavened bread by serving Him in sincerity and truth. The Feast of Tabernacles has not yet been fulfilled by our Lord like the two other great feasts of the Jewish calendar. Unfulfilled prophecies regarding it may be pointed out, as in Zechariah 14. Our Lord refused to signalise that feast by any public manifestation (Joh. 7:2-10). There may, therefore, be some reason for separating the eighth and last day of the Feast of Tabernacles from the former seven, which will appear in its fulfilment in the kingdom of God. It is remarkable that the dedication of Solomons temple, the commencement of the second temple and the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, all occurred about the time of the Feast of Tabernacles.
Thou shalt surely rejoice.In the Hebrew this is a somewhat unusual form of expression. Literally, thou wilt be only rejoicing. Rashi says it is not a command, but a promise.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
13. Gathered in thy corn and thy wine Better thus, in thy gathering from thy threshing floor and thy wine-press. At the present time very little wine is made in Palestine. “No wine is made from the very extensive vineyards of Hebron except a little by the Jews.” ROBINSON’S Biblical Researches, vol. ii, p. 442. “Wine is not the most important, but rather the least so, of all the objects for which the vine is cultivated.” Bibliotheca Sacra, Nov., 1846.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Feast of Tabernacles (Booths, Ingathering) – ( Deu 16:13-15 ).
This feast is passed over very briefly, not because it was not important, for it was the feast at which the whole Law had to be read out every seven years (Deu 31:10-13), but because what Moses has been emphasising has already mainly been spelled out. This is very understandable given the context, but would be unlikely in someone who was inventing the speech afterwards. It is typical of a speaker who is conscious of the time his speech is taking and does not wish to weary his listeners by going through the same thing again and again.
Analysis in the words of Moses:
a You shall keep the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that you have gathered in from your threshing-floor and from your winepress (Deu 16:13).
b And you shall rejoice in your feast, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your man-servant, and your maid-servant, and the Levite, and the resident alien, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within your gates (Deu 16:14).
b Seven days shall you keep a feast to Yahweh your God in the place which Yahweh shall choose (Deu 16:15 a).
a Because Yahweh your God will bless you in all your increase, and in all the work of your hands, and you shall be altogether joyful (Deu 16:15 b)
Note that in ‘a’ they are to keep the feast in view of all the abundance of harvests that they have received, and in the parallel it is because Yahweh has blessed them in all their increase, and in all the work of their hands. Thus are they to be altogether joyful. In ‘b’ they are all to rejoice in their feast from the highest to the lowest, none are to be excluded, and in the parallel they shall keep the feast to Yahweh their God for seven days in the place which He will choose.
Deu 16:13-14
‘ You shall keep the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that you have gathered in from your threshing-floor and from your winepress, and you shall rejoice in your feast, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your man-servant, and your maid-servant, and the Levite, and the resident alien, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within your gates.’
The Feast of Tabernacles was celebrated at the end of the agricultural year. By this time not only had the barley and wheat harvest been gathered, but also the grape harvest and the summer fruits. The threshing floor and the winepress had done their job and it was now time to celebrate and look forward to the coming rains which would enable the commencing of the round all over again.
It was thus a special time of rejoicing, and all were to have a part in it. The description given, as constantly used in this regard in Deuteronomy, is intended to include everyone in the land who owes allegiance to Yahweh.
Deu 16:15
‘ Seven days shall you keep a feast to Yahweh your God in the place which Yahweh shall choose, because Yahweh your God will bless you in all your increase, and in all the work of your hands, and you shall be altogether joyful.’
Again the feast was to be kept for ‘seven days’ demonstrating the divine perfection of the feast, and was to be held in the place where Yahweh had been pleased to take up His dwelling. This feast at the end of the agricultural ‘year’ or season was to be held because Yahweh would have blessed their increase throughout the year, all their harvests would have been gathered in, and everything would have been more than satisfactory. Thus they would be altogether joyful, and they were to demonstrate the fact.
For details of the priestly functions at this feast see Num 29:12-38; Lev 23:33-36. There would, of course, also be a multitude of freewill offerings.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Feast of Tabernacles – The Feast of Tabernacles is discussed in Lev 23:33-43 and Num 29:12-38. The Feast of Tabernacles is also called the Feast of Ingathering (Exo 23:16; Exo 34:22).
Exo 23:16, “And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering , which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.”
Exo 34:22, “And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year’s end.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Of the Feast of Tabernacle
v. 13. Thou shalt observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days, v. 14. and thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, and the Levite, the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow that are within thy gates, v. 15. Seven days shalt thou keep a solemn feast unto the Lord, thy God, v. 16. Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the Lord, thy God, in the place which He shall choose, v. 17. every man shall give as he is able,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Moses doth not repeat in this place what sacrifices were to be observed in keeping this feast of tabernacles. These were particularly appointed. Num 29:12 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Deu 16:13 Thou shalt observe the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine:
Ver. 13. Thou shalt observe. ] See Trapp on “ Exo 23:16 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Deu 16:13-15
13You shall celebrate the Feast of Booths seven days after you have gathered in from your threshing floor and your wine vat; 14and you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter and your male and female servants and the Levite and the stranger and the orphan and the widow who are in your towns. 15Seven days you shall celebrate a feast to the LORD your God in the place which the LORD chooses, because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful.
Deu 16:13 Feast of Booths The Feast of Booths came in the fall and was during the ingathering time (cf. Exo 23:16; Exo 34:22; Lev 23:33-43).
The background to booths is said to reflect the Israelites’ experience of:
1. agricultural life in Egypt, where booths were built in the fields at harvest time
2. living in temporary housing (i.e., tents) during the exodus and wilderness wandering period
3. the temporary shelters needed for pilgrims to stay at the central sanctuary (less probable)
Deu 16:15 YHWH wants to bless His people so that they may rejoice (BDB 970, KB 1333, Qal PERFECT) individually, as a family, and as the people of God (cf. Deu 12:7; Deu 12:12; Deu 12:18; Deu 14:26; Deu 16:11; Deu 16:14; Deu 26:11; Deu 27:7).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
corn = threshing-floor Put by Figure of speech Metonymy,
wine = winepress. for what is produced from them.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
the feast: Deu 31:10, Exo 23:16, Exo 34:22, Lev 23:34-36, Num 29:12-40, 2Ch 5:3, 2Ch 7:8-10, 2Ch 8:13, Ezr 3:4, Neh 8:14-18, Zec 14:16-18, Joh 7:2
corn and thy wine: Heb. floor and thine wine-press
Reciprocal: Lev 23:39 – when Jdg 21:19 – a feast 1Ki 8:2 – at the feast Son 5:1 – eat Eze 45:25 – In the seventh
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
16:13 Thou shalt {g} observe the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine:
(g) That is, the 15th day of the seventh month, Lev 23:34.