Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year.
Parallel translations
- WEB “You shall observe a feast to me three times a year.
- BSB Three times a year you are to celebrate a feast to Me.
- 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 in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty:
- Exod 34:22–24And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year’s end.
- Lev 23:5In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD’s passover.
- Lev 23:16Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD.
- Exod 23:17Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the LORD God.
- Lev 23:34Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the LORD.
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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.