Deuteronomy 16

## Summary Deuteronomy 16 sets out the calendar of three pilgrimage festivals — Passover/Unleavened Bread (vv. 1–8), Weeks (vv. 9–12), and Booths (vv. 13–15) — all tied to "the place" Yahweh will choose, followed by instructions on appointing honest judges (vv. 18–20) and prohibitions against Canaanite cult objects near the altar (vv. 21–22). ## Key words - *shamor* ("keep", H8104G) — qal absolute infinitive opening the chapter; this construction intensifies the command, functioning almost as an emphatic imperative "be sure to keep." - *yivchar* ("he will choose", H0977) — qal imperfect, repeated in vv. 2, 6, 7, 11, 15, 16; the ongoing/future aspect frames the chosen place as a standing, not-yet-fully-fixed requirement each time the festivals are mentioned. - *lesaken shemo sham* ("to cause his name to dwell there", H7931 + H8034) — piel infinitive construct with pronominal suffix; the piel stem (causative/intensive) marks Yahweh as the one who causes his name to reside at the place, distinct from the place choosing itself. - *tzedek tzedek tirdof* ("righteousness, righteousness you will pursue", H6664G x2 + H7291) — the doubled noun *tzedek* before the qal imperfect verb *tirdof* is a repetition not required syntactically; it sits outside normal word order for emphasis. - *lo takir panim* ("you will not recognize/pay regard to faces", H5234A) — hiphil imperfect of *nakar*; the causative stem here carries the idiomatic sense "to show partiality," literally "to make faces recognized/favored." ## What the text says The chapter is built almost entirely on sequential perfect verbs (*ve-qatalta* forms) following an initial infinitive or imperfect, a common Hebrew legal-narrative pattern: an opening command (*shamor*, "keep") sets the topic, and each following verb continues the chain of obligation — "you will observe... you will sacrifice... you will cook... you will eat... you will turn... you will go." This creates a continuous procedural sequence rather than isolated commands. The repeated phrase *ba-maqom asher yivchar Yahweh* ("in the place which Yahweh will choose") uses the qal imperfect *yivchar*, indicating an action treated as ongoing or not yet finalized within the text's own frame — the choice is referred to consistently but the location itself is not named. The instructions for the three festivals share a formulaic structure: a time notice (*shivat yamim*, "seven days"; *shalosh pe'amim ba-shanah*, "three times in the year"), a naming of the festival by construct phrase (*chag ha-matzot*, *chag shavu'ot*, *chag ha-sukkot* — each using *chag*, H2282, "festival of," in construct state), and a recurring social list (son, daughter, servant, Levite, sojourner, orphan, widow) attached to the command *ve-samachta* ("you will rejoice," H8055). The legal section on judges (vv. 18–20) shifts from festival vocabulary to judicial vocabulary, using paired participles *shoftim ve-shoterim* ("judges and officials," both qal participles, "the one doing") and closing with the doubled *tzedek tzedek*, an emphatic construction not paralleled elsewhere in the chapter. ## Differences between versions In verse 4, the Hebrew *lo yalin min ha-basar* ("it will not remain overnight from the meat") is rendered by the LXX as οὐ κοιμηθήσεται ("it will not sleep"), a literalizing figurative choice for the Hebrew idiom of overnight remaining. In verse 18, the Hebrew pair *shoftim ve-shoterim* ("judges and officials") is translated by the LXX as κριτὰς καὶ γραμματοεισαγωγεῖς ("judges and scribes/registrars"), a differing specification of the second term's function compared to the Hebrew's more general "officials."