Deuteronomy 16

₁Moses said: ‘You must remember the month of Abib. You must celebrate Passover for the Lord your God because it was in the month of Abib that He saved you from Egypt. It was during the night. ₂You must sacrifice a Passover offering for the Lord your God. You must kill a sheep or a goat or a cow at the place that the Lord will choose for you to worship Him.

₃You may not eat any bread that was made with yeast in it when you eat the meat of the Passover offering. You must eat flat bread with your meat for 7 days. This bread will make you remember that you had suffered a lot before you went out of the land of Egypt. This is how you must always remember that day when you had to go out of Egypt quickly. ₄There must be no yeast in all your land for 7 days. And there may not be any meat left over until the next morning, of the meat that you sacrificed on the night of the first day.

₅You may not sacrifice the Passover offering at your homes or in any town that the Lord your God gives you. ₆No, you must sacrifice the Passover offering at the place that the Lord your God will choose for you to worship Him. You must sacrifice the Passover offering in the evening when the sun goes down. That was the time when you went out of Egypt. ₇You must fry the meat and eat it at the place that the Lord your God will choose. The next morning you must go back to your tents. ₈Then you must eat flat bread for 6 days and the 7th day must be a holy feast for the Lord your God. You may not do any work on that day.’

₉‘You must count 7 weeks from the day that you start cutting off the wheat with a sickle. ₁₀This is the time when you must celebrate the Feast of weeks for the Lord your God. You must decide how many offerings you want to give to the Lord your God because He has blessed you. ₁₁You must rejoice before the Lord your God at the place that He will choose for you to worship Him. You and your children and your slaves and slave girls and strangers and orphans and widows who live among you must do this. ₁₂You must remember that you also were slaves in the land of Egypt and you must do everything that these laws say.’

₁₃‘When you have finished threshing wheat on the threshing-floor and pressing wine in the wine-press, then you must celebrate the Feast_of_shelters for 7 days. ₁₄All of you must celebrate together, you and your children and your slaves and strangers and slave girls and the orphans and widows who live among you. ₁₅You must celebrate the feast for the Lord your God for 7 days at the place that the Lord will choose, because the Lord your God will give you good wheat harvests and He will be with you in everything you do so that you will be very happy.’

₁₆‘All Israelite men and boys must come and worship the Lord your God 3 times each year at the place that He will choose. They must come to the Feast of the flat bread, the Feast of weeks and the Feast_of_shelters. Everyone must bring something for the Lord. ₁₇They must bring gifts to Him and each one must decide what he wants to give because the Lord his God has blessed him and has given him everything.’

₁₈‘You must choose judges and leaders for all the tribes in all the towns that the Lord your God gives you. They must judge the people and they must be fair when they decide who is right. ₁₉They may not say that guilty people are innocent and innocent people are guilty. They must not be against some people and help only other people.

Do not take bribe money from people who are guilty to say that they are innocent, because bribe money makes wise men blind and makes people who do right suffer. ₂₀You must do what is right, and never do what is wrong, so that you can keep on living in the land that the Lord your God gives you.’

₂₁‘Do not put sacred_pillars into the ground at the altar of the Lord your God. ₂₂You may never put sacred_pillars into the ground. The Lord hates it.’