Exodus 23:16

Summary

The verse names two agricultural festivals: the Chag ha-Katzir ("festival of the harvest"), marked by the firstfruits of what is sown in the field, and the Chag ha-Asif ("festival of ingathering"), which occurs at the year's end when the produce is gathered from the field.

Key words

• Chag ("festival of", H2282) — construct-state noun appearing twice, each time governing a following noun (ha-Katzir, ha-Asif) to name a specific festival tied to an agricultural moment.
• bikkurei ("first-fruits of", H1061) — masculine plural construct, linking the harvest festival directly to the produce that ripens first, itself further specified by ma'aseikha ("your works/produce", H4639G with H9021).
• tizra' ("you will sow", H2232) — qal imperfect, denoting an action not yet completed or habitual, describing the sowing that precedes the harvest named in the clause.
• be-tzet ha-shanah ("when the year goes out", H3318I + H8141) — infinitive construct with preposition be (H9003), giving a temporal marker: literally "in the going-out of the year," i.e., at the year's close.
• be-ospekha ("when you gather", H0622 + H9041) — infinitive construct with pronominal suffix, parallel in form to tizra', framing the second festival around the completed action of gathering.

What the text says

The verse is built as two parallel clauses, each introduced by ve-chag ("and the festival of"), followed by a construct noun naming the season (ha-katzir, "the harvest"; ha-asif, "the ingathering"). Each clause then adds a temporal or descriptive qualifier: the first festival is defined by bikkurei ma'aseikha, "the firstfruits of your works," and further specified by a relative clause using the imperfect tizra' ("you will sow") — pointing to the produce that results from sowing in the field. The second festival is anchored temporally by two infinitive constructions with be-: be-tzet ha-shanah ("when the year goes out") and be-ospekha... min ha-sadeh ("when you gather... from the field"), giving a double specification — both the general point in the agricultural year and the specific act of gathering the produce.

The direct object marker 'et (H0853) before ma'aseikha in the second clause marks ma'aseikha ("your works/produce") explicitly as the object of the gathering, a marking absent in the first clause where ma'aseikha stands in construct with bikkurei. This grammatical difference reflects the different syntactic roles of the same noun in each half of the verse — genitive-like construct in the first, direct object in the second.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders bikkurei ma'aseikha ("firstfruits of your works") as πρωτογενημάτων... τῶν ἔργων σου, using ποιήσεις ("you shall make/keep") where the Hebrew has no verb "to make" at that point, the festival name itself functioning as the object. The LXX also translates be-tzet ha-shanah ("when the year goes out") as ἐπ' ἐξόδου τοῦ ἐνιαυτοῦ ("at the exodus/going-out of the year"), closely mirroring the Hebrew infinitive construction. The Vulgate's "in exitu anni" similarly preserves the "going out" image. The SBLIBRE Spanish translation adds "me ofrecerás" ("you will offer to me"), an interpretive addition not present in the Hebrew construct chain bikkurei ma'aseikha.