Three times a year you are to celebrate a feast to Me.
Parallel translations
- WEB “You shall observe a feast to me three times a year.
- KJV Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year.
- NKJV “Three times you shall keep a feast to Me in the year:
- NASB “Three times a year you shall celebrate a feast to Me.
- NLT “Each year you must celebrate three festivals in my honor.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Three times a year Israel must hold a feast to the Lord. Regular communal worship anchors the people's life in God.
Overview
This introduces the three annual pilgrimage festivals that structured Israel's worship and gathered the nation before God. These feasts rehearsed God's saving acts and renewed covenant devotion. Each festival finds its fulfillment in Christ, who is our Passover, our firstfruits, and the giver of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 5:7).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Deut 16:16Three times a year all your men are to appear before the LORD your God in the place He will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles. No one should appear before the LORD empty-handed.
- Exod 34:22–24And you are to celebrate the Feast of Weeks with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year.
- Lev 23:5The Passover to the LORD begins at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month.
- Lev 23:16You shall count off fifty days until the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the LORD.
- Exod 23:17Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord GOD.
- Lev 23:34“Speak to the Israelites and say, ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the Feast of Tabernacles to the LORD begins, and it continues for seven days.
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Christ at the center
The Passover lamb whose blood turns away death, the exodus through the sea, the manna, the rock, and the tabernacle where God dwells with his people all foreshadow Jesus — our Passover, our redemption, the bread from heaven, and God-with-us in the flesh.
How Exodus 23:14 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.