23:14 “Three times 1 in the year you must make a pilgrim feast 2 to me. 23:15 You are to observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread; seven days 3 you must eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you, at the appointed time of the month of Abib, for at that time 4 you came out of Egypt. No one may appear before 5 me empty-handed.
23:16 “You are also to observe 6 the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors that you have sown in the field, and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year 7 when you have gathered in 8 your harvest 9 out of the field.
1 tn The expression rendered “three times” is really “three feet,” or “three foot-beats.” The expression occurs only a few times in the Law. The expressing is an adverbial accusative.
2 tn This is the word תָּחֹג (takhog) from the root חָגַג (khagag); it describes a feast that was accompanied by a pilgrimage. It was first used by Moses in his appeal that Israel go three days into the desert to hold such a feast.
3 tn This is an adverbial accusative of time.
4 tn Heb “in it.”
5 tn The verb is a Niphal imperfect; the nuance of permission works well here – no one is permitted to appear before God empty (Heb “and they will not appear before me empty”).
6 tn The words “you are also to observe” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
7 tn An infinitive construct with a preposition and a pronominal suffix is used to make a temporal clause: “in the going in of the year.” The word “year” is the subjective genitive, the subject of the clause.
8 tn An infinitive construct with a preposition and a pronominal suffix is used to make a temporal clause: “in the ingathering of you.”
9 tn Heb “gathered in your labors.” This is a metonymy of cause put for the effect. “Labors” are not gathered in, but what the labors produced – the harvest.