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Deuteronomy

About this book
Chapter 16

1 Observe the month Abib and keep the Passover to the Lord your God, for in that month he brought you out of Egypt by night. 2 You must sacrifice the Passover animal (from the flock or the herd) to the Lord your God in the place where he chooses to locate his name. 3 You must not eat any yeast with it; for seven days you must eat bread made without yeast, as symbolic of affliction, for you came out of Egypt hurriedly. You must do this so you will remember for the rest of your lives the day you came out of the land of Egypt. 4 There must not be a scrap of yeast within your land for seven days, nor can any of the meat you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain until the next morning. 5 You may not sacrifice the Passover in just any of your villages that the Lord your God is giving you, 6 but you must sacrifice it in the evening in the place where he chooses to locate his name, at sunset, the time of day you came out of Egypt.⁠ 7 You must boil13 and eat it in the place the Lord your God chooses;⁠ you may return the next morning to your tents.⁠ 8 You must eat bread made without yeast for six days. The seventh day you are to hold an assembly for the Lord your God; you must not do any work on that day. 9 You must count seven weeks; you must begin to count them from the time you begin to harvest the standing grain. 10 Then you are to celebrate the Feast of Weeks before the Lord your God with the voluntary offering that you will bring, in proportion to how he has blessed you. 11 You shall rejoice before him—you, your son, your daughter, your male and female slaves, the Levites in your villages, the resident foreigners, the orphans, and the widows among you—in the place where the Lord chooses to locate his name. 12 Furthermore, remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and so be careful to observe these statutes. 13 You must celebrate the Feast of Shelters for seven days, at the time of the grain and grape harvest. 14 You are to rejoice in your festival,⁠ you, your son, your daughter, your male and female slaves, the Levites, the resident foreigners, the orphans, and the widows who are in your villages. 15 You are to celebrate the festival seven days before the Lord your God in the place he chooses, for he will bless you in all your productivity and in whatever you do; so you will indeed rejoice! 16 Three times a year all your males must appear before the Lord your God in the place he chooses for the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Shelters; and they must not appear before him empty-handed. 17 Every one of you must give as you are able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God that he has given you. 18 You must appoint judges and civil servants for each tribe in all your villages that the Lord your God is giving you, and they must judge the people fairly.⁠ 19 You must not pervert justice or show favor. Do not take a bribe, for bribes blind the eyes of the wise and distort the words of the righteous.⁠ 20 You must pursue justice alone so that you may live and inherit the land the Lord your God is giving you.⁠ 21 You must not plant any kind of tree as a sacred Asherah pole near the altar of the Lord your God which you build for yourself.⁠ 22 You must not erect a sacred pillar, a thing the Lord your God detests.

Texts in conversation

Compare Deuteronomy 16:7 and LXX Deuteronomy 16:7

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

The Greek Septuagint translation of Deuteronomy 16 adds the instruction to roast the Passover offering, attempting to harmonize the conflicting command to boil it with the earlier command in Exodus that strictly forbids boiling and requires roasting.

Passages

Deuteronomy 16:7

Hebrew Bible
5 You may not sacrifice the Passover in just any of your villages that the Lord your God is giving you, 6 but you must sacrifice it in the evening in the place where he chooses to locate his name, at sunset, the time of day you came out of Egypt. 7 You must boil13 and eat it in the place the Lord your God chooses; you may return the next morning to your tents. 8 You must eat bread made without yeast for six days. The seventh day you are to hold an assembly for the Lord your God; you must not do any work on that day. 9 You must count seven weeks; you must begin to count them from the time you begin to harvest the standing grain.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Deuteronomy

LXX Deuteronomy 16:7

Septuagint
5 you shall not have power to sacrifice the passover in any of your cities, which the Lord your God gives you. 6 But in the place which the Lord your God shall choose, to have his name called there, you shall sacrifice the passover in the evening at the setting of the sun, at the time when you came out of Egypt. 7 And you shall boil and roast and eat it in the place, which the Lord your God shall choose; and you shall return in the morning, and go to your house. 8 Six days you will eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day is a holiday, a feast to the Lord your God: you shall not do in it any work, save what must be done by any one. 9 Seven full weeks you will number to yourself; when you have begun to put the sickle to the grain, you shall begin to number seven weeks.
300–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Deuteronomy

References

"... The Septuagint, then, is not just a translation but also an interpretation of Deuteronomy. There is a concern to disambiguate, to contemporise and to harmonise readings with other biblical texts and contemporary Jewish practice. For instance, the translator adds the verb ‘roast’ (ὀπτήσεις) to chapter 16, verse 7 in order to specify that the paschal offering must not only be boiled in water, but also be roasted by fire. LXX Deuteronomy is a harmonisation of two incompatible laws: Exodus 12:8-9 forbade emphatically the cooking of the lamb in any way with water, prescribing instead its roasting over the fire (compare 1 Samuel 2:15); the MT of Deuteronomy 16:7, however, uses the verb bashal ‘to boil’ for cooking. The Septuagint of Deuteronomy combines these two laws, so that the meat must be both boiled and roasted (compare 2 Chronicles 35:13 and its resolution of the laws). As Wevers rightly asked, “Could this then have reflected local practice in Alexandria?” ..."
Timothy H. Lim, “Deuteronomy in the Judaism of the Second Temple Period,” in Deuteronomy in the New Testament, ed. Maarten J. J. Menken and Steve Moyise (London: T&T Clark International, 2007), 6–26.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Deuteronomy 16:7 and LXX Deuteronomy 16:7

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