Deuteronomy 16

The writer calls the month “Abib,” an older name of the month that became known as Nisan (March-April). The month is called Nisan in Exodus 12:2, where the feast of Passover is first discussed. The day the week-long observance begins is the 15th of the month, according to Leviticus 23:6. The Israelites followed a lunar calendar, with every month starting at the first tiny crescent after the new moon. A new moon is when the moon is hidden behind earth’s shadow for one day. The sun, moon, and earth are aligned, with earth in the middle. Nisan is the name of the first Jewish month of the year. It’s when Jews celebrate Passover, one of their most revered holidays. The month falls around Eastertime, in March or April. Jesus went to Jerusalem to observe Passover, when he was arrested and crucified.

Jerusalem will become the site of the one and only Jewish Temple—the only approved Jewish site for sacrificing animals to God. Solomon built the first one in the 900s BC, two or more centuries after Moses.

This harvest festival goes by several names. The Hebrew name here is literally, Festival of Weeks, using a Hebrew word based on the seven-week timeline. Many Jews today call the festival by its Hebrew name Shavuot, meaning “weeks.” In New Testament times it became known as the Festival of Pentecost, from the Greek word meaning “fiftieth.” Jews celebrated the festival 50 days after Passover. Passover is when the Romans crucified Jesus. For more background, see Exodus 34:22-27 and Leviticus 23:15-22.

Levites were the tribe designated to serve as Israel’s priests and their assistants. They didn’t get any plug of tribal territory, like the other tribes. They depended on the tithes and offerings from other tribes for their salaries and survival. For more about the Levites, see the introduction to the Levites in Numbers 3.

It’s often called the Festival of Shelters or Festival of Booths. In Exodus, it was the last harvest festival of the year. That’s when farmers harvested late-season crops such as grapes, figs, and olives (Exodus 23:16). This was in the late summer and early autumn. The Hebrew word describing the festival here is sukka. It can mean tent, canopy, or temporary shelter. Moses said God wanted the Israelites to observe this festival by building temporary shelters and living in them for seven days “so you and your descendants will remember that the people of Israel I led out of Egyptian slavery once lived in shelters like this” (Leviticus 23:43).

Often called “Feast of Unleavened Bread.” Observant Jews eat a large cracker-like bread called matzo.

The text simply calls them “Asherah,” without describing what they are. But that’s the name of an ancient fertility goddess from the Sumerian civilization in what is now southern Iraq. One of her symbols was a “tree of life.” Some ancient jewelry shows the tree growing out of the goddess’s belly. The Asherah poles reported in the Bible apparently represented those trees. Some poles were carved, perhaps with an image of the goddess (2 Kings 21:7). Asherah poles may have been trees or poles meant to represent trees, as symbols of a Canaanite fertility goddess known as Asherah, goddess of motherhood. She was the love interest of Baal, chief god of the people who lived in Canaan, now known as Israel and the Palestinian Territories.