Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Deuteronomy 16:7
And thou shalt roast and eat [it] in the place which the LORD thy God shall choose: and thou shalt turn in the morning, and go unto thy tents.
7. And thou shalt seethe ] The Heb. bashal may be used in the general sense of cooking, but it usually means to boil ( Deu 14:21 ; 1Sa 2:13; 1Sa 2:15). The R.V. roast is due to the effort to harmonise this law with that of P, Exo 12:9, which directs that the sacrifice shall be roast with fire; but P expressly adds that it shall not be boiled in water, and uses for this the same vb bashal as D does. Clearly D and P enjoin different methods of preparing the paschal lamb. Boiling appears to have been the earlier preparation of the part of victims eaten by the worshippers (Jdg 6:19 ff.; 1Sa 2:13 f.) and roasting was at first regarded as an innovation (1Sa 2:15). See however Driver’s note.
thou shalt turn ] See on Deu 3:1.
and go unto thy tents ] An interesting survival from the nomadic period of Israel’s history; cp. (also for the time after the settlement in towns) Jdg 7:8; Jdg 19:9 (EVV. home); 1Sa 13:2 ; 2Sa 19:8; 2Sa 20:22; 1Ki 12:16. The people then are to return to their homes on the morning after the Passover feast.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Thou shalt roast; so that word is used also 2Ch 35:13.
In the morning; either,
1. The morning after the seventh day, as appears, partly, by the following verse, which is added to explain and limit this ambiguous word; partly, by the express command of God that the people should come to Jerusalem to keep this feast, which by Gods appointment lasted for seven days; partly, from the examples of the people staying there the whole time of the feast, 2Ch 30:21; 35:17; and partly, from the nature and business of this feast, wherein there being so many extraordinary sacrifices to be offered, and feasts made by the people upon the sacrifices, and two days of solemn assemblies, it is not probable that they would absent themselves from these solemn services, for the performance whereof they came purposely to Jerusalem. Or,
2. The morning after the first day, and so they were permitted to go then, and possibly some that lived near Jerusalem might go and return again to the last day of the solemn assembly. But the former seems more probable.
Thy tents, i.e. thy dwellings, which he calls tents, as respecting their present state, and withal to put them in mind afterwards when they were settled in better habitations, that there was a time when they dwelt in tents.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
7. thou shalt roast and eat it(Seeon Ex 12:8; compare 2Ch35:13).
thou shalt turn in themorning, and go unto thy tentsThe sense of this passage, onthe first glance of the words, seems to point to the morning afterthe first daythe passover eve. Perhaps, however, the divinelyappointed duration of this feast, the solemn character and importantobject, the journey of the people from the distant parts of the landto be present, and the recorded examples of their continuing all thetime (2Ch 30:21; 2Ch 35:17),(though these may be considered extraordinary, and thereforeexceptional occasions), may warrant the conclusion that the leavegiven to the people to return home was to be on the morning after thecompletion of the seven days.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And thou shalt roast and eat it in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose,…. The word for “roast” signifies to “boil”, and is justly so used, and so Onkelos here renders it, and the Septuagint version both roast and boil; but it is certain that the passover lamb was not to be boiled, it is expressly forbidden, Ex 12:8 wherefore some think the Chagigah is here meant, and the other offerings that were offered at this feast; and so in the times of Josiah they roasted the passover with fire, according to the ordinance of God; but the other holy offerings sod or boiled they in pots, cauldrons and pans, and divided them speedily among the people, 2Ch 35:13, but the passover lamb seems plainly to be meant here by the connection of this verse with the preceding verses; wherefore Jarchi observes, that this is to be understood of roasting with fire, though expressed by this word:
and thou shalt turn in the morning, and go unto thy tents; not in the morning of the fifteenth, after the passover had been killed and eaten on the fourteenth, but in the morning, after the feast of unleavened bread, which lasted seven days, was over; though some think that they might if they would depart home after the passover had been observed, and were not obliged to stay and keep the feast of unleavened bread at Jerusalem, but march to their own cities; and so Aben Ezra observes, that some say a man may go on a feast day to his house and country, but, says he, we do not agree to it; and it appears from the observation of other feasts, which lasted as long as these, that the people did not depart to their tents till the whole was over; see 1Ki 8:66 and with this agrees the Targum of Jonathan,
“and thou shall turn in the morning of the going out of the feast, and go to thy cities.”
Jarchi indeed interprets it afterwards of the second day.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
7. Thou shalt roast The Hebrew word ( bashal) may mean to boil, but it is also used in a general sense of preparing food for use by cooking.
Go unto thy tents Or, dwellings. The term tents may have been used to remind them of their long dwelling in tents through the years of their wandering.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Passover and the Feast of Sevens ( Deu 16:7-12 ).
Deu 16:7-8
They began on the day after the initial first day sabbath of Unleavened Bread (that is on the evening of that sabbath after sundown) when the sheaf of the waveoffering, the first result of the putting in of the sickle to the standing grain, was brought at the feast of unleavened bread (Lev 23:15). It was the evening after the night of the Passover feast. Thus the two feasts were joined by a divine string of sevens. Their way of thinking about time was partly dominated by seven as an indication that Yahweh controlled their time, and that their times were in His hand. But their overall calendar was dominated by the movements of the moon, because that was convenient. That is why they necessarily had a sacred calendar and an agricultural calendar, although the two intermingled. (They were not at this stage ‘calendar minded’).
Analysis in the words of Moses:
a And you shall roast and eat it in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, and you shall turn in the morning, and go to your tents (Deu 16:7).
b Six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to Yahweh your God. You shall do no work (Deu 16:8).
c Seven sevens shall you number to you, from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain shall you begin to number seven sevens (Deu 16:9).
c And you shall keep the feast of sevens to Yahweh your God with a tribute of a freewill-offering of your hand, which you shall give, according as Yahweh your God blesses you (Deu 16:10).
b And you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your man-servant, and your maid-servant, and the Levite that is within your gates, and the resident alien, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are in the midst of you, in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, to cause His name to dwell there (Deu 16:11).
a And you shall remember that you were a bondsman in Egypt, and you shall observe and do these statutes (Deu 16:12).
Note than in ‘a’ they are to roast and eat it (the Passover lamb) in the place which Yahweh their God shall choose, and they shall turn in the morning, and go their your tents (a reminder of the days of journeying), and in the parallel they will remember that they were bondsmen in Egypt and observe and do these statutes. In ‘b’ the seventh day of unleavened bread was to be a solemn assembly, and in it no work would be done (certainly a cause of celebration among their servants), and in the parallel (at the feast of sevens) they were to rejoice before Yahweh their God and this would include their servants and the poor who would all partake in the feast. Thus both feasts offered special blessing to the servants. In ‘c’ we discover the direct connection between Unleavened Bread and Sevens. They were to number seven sevens from the time they began to put the sickle to the standing grain, and the sheaf of the wave-offering was offered on the evening after the first day sabbath of Unleavened Bread, and in the parallel they would then keep the Feast of Sevens to Yahweh their God with a tribute of a freewill-offering from their hand, which they were to give according as Yahweh their God blessed them. At this feast they would bring the gifts of firstfruits, already symbolised by the sheaf offered when the seven sevens count began. Thus in a sense the two feasts ran into each other, and as the men went to their harvesting they were very much aware that they had seven sevens of days (excluding the Sabbaths and the six further days of Unleavened Bread) for their harvesting. God and His giving would constantly be kept in mind.
This flowing from one feast of rejoicing to another is very much a people’s aspect of things which again points to this being intended in a speech to the people, and not as some artificial law-book.
Deu 16:7
‘ And you shall roast and eat it in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, and you shall turn in the morning, and go to your tents.’
We are still at the Passover. Again the emphasis is on the place which Yahweh would choose. This emphasises His sovereignty in the arrangement. He is their Lord, they are His subjects. He has chosen this place for Him to dwell in and for them to come with their sacrifices. It would appear from this that the Passover was celebrated in the open air, the men and the households sitting together among the many other households on the holy ground around the tabernacle, the ‘place’ chosen by Yahweh. Strictly only the men were required to gather at the feasts, but they would regularly bring some or most of their households with them as Deu 12:18 makes clear. It was to be ‘roasted’ (bishel). The verb simply means ‘cooked’ and can mean either roasted or boiled, but Exo 12:8-9 declares that it should be roasted, and when the verb refers to boiling, ‘with water’ is normally added. Compare 2Ch 35:13 a where the verb means ‘cooked’ and ‘ with fire’ is added, while in Num 11:8; 2Sa 13:8 it refers to cooking cakes. In Akkadian the verb basalu also means to cook by roasting or boiling. Thus we can translate here ‘roasting’. Once the feast was over they would retire to their tents (compare Deu 1:7; Deu 5:30; Deu 11:6). If taken literally this would confirm that ‘the place’ in mind was not originally Jerusalem, although ‘going to their tents’ (compare 2Sa 20:1; 1Ki 12:16) was used later of going to houses. But the main point here is that the tents reminded them of the deliverance. From Passover night they then lived in tents.
Deu 16:8
‘ Six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to Yahweh your God. You shall do no work.’
For six days unleavened bread must be eaten, and the final day of the seven was to be a solemn sabbath, a day for public rites and festival, in which no work was to be done. Of course on that day also unleavened bread was to be eaten. (Compare Deu 16:4. If all leaven had been removed from within their borders as previously asserted there would anyway be no alternative). It was to be a day of rest and rejoicing for all, and the count down to the Feast of Svens had already begun.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Ver. 7. And thou shalt turn in the morning, and go unto thy tents Moses speaks of tents here, because they had no other dwellings when these precepts were delivered. It means, however, their habitations in general. These words are to be considered barely as a permission, not a command. Thou shalt turn, or thou mayest turn; i.e. “after you have eaten the paschal lamb at the sanctuary, you are allowed to return home, if you please.” Yet pious people, who were able to bear so great a charge, were wont, no doubt, to stay the whole seven days before they returned home. It is inferred likewise from ver. 8 that those who went home after celebrating the passover, returned again to the place of public worship against the seventh day of the feast, to keep the solemn assembly to the Lord, unless they lived at too great a distance; in which case, their presence might be dispensed with. See Lowth and Kidder.
REFLECTIONS.God charges them here carefully to observe his solemnities, as nothing would serve more effectually to secure them in their allegiance to him. The first and chief of these is the passover; which was typical of that divine Lamb, whose sacrifice is the price of our eternal redemption, Seven days they did eat unleavened bread in remembrance of their bondage, and the haste with which they were thrust out of Egypt. And this signal mercy they must not only once a year, but all their days, remember, as a constant motive to love and serve God. Note: A dying Jesus, and our redemption by him, must be continually in our eye; and his love towards us every day fresh in our memory, and warm upon our hearts.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
roast = -cook.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
roast: Exo 12:8, Exo 12:9, 2Ch 35:13, Psa 22:14, Psa 22:15
in the place: Deu 16:2, Deu 16:6, 2Ki 23:23, Joh 2:13, Joh 2:23, Joh 11:55
Reciprocal: Luk 22:14 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Deu 16:7. Thou shalt turn in the morning The words are only a permission, not an absolute command. After the solemnity was over, they might return to their several places of abode. Some think they might return, if they pleased, the very morning after the paschal lamb was killed and eaten, the priests and Levites being sufficient to carry on the rest of the weeks work. But this is evidently a mistake; for the first day of the seven was so far from being the day of their dispersion, that it was expressly appointed for a holy convocation. Nor was it their practice to disperse on that day, but to keep together the whole week, 2Ch 35:17. The meaning, therefore, is, as the paraphrase of Jonathan expounds it, In the morning, after the end of the feasts, thou shalt go to thy tents; that is, thy dwellings, which Moses calls here tents, referring to their present state, and to put them in mind afterward, when they were settled in better habitations, that there was a time when they dwelt in tents.