Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the LORD God.
Parallel translations
- WEB Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord Yahweh.
- BSB Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord GOD.
- NKJV “Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord God.
- NASB Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord God.
- NLT At these three times each year, every man in Israel must appear before the Sovereign, the Lord.
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 every male is to appear before the Lord Yahweh. Faithful, regular worship of God is a binding covenant duty.
Overview
This command gathered the men of Israel before God at the three annual feasts, uniting the nation in worship and covenant renewal. Appearing before the Lord acknowledged His kingship and their belonging to Him. Such gathered worship anticipates the great assembly of God's people before His throne, made possible through Christ our access to the Father (Hebrews 12:22-24).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- 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 34:23Thrice in the year shall all your menchildren appear before the LORD God, the God of Israel.
- Deut 12:5But unto the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come:
- Exod 23:14Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year.
- Luke 2:42And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast.
- Deut 31:11When all Israel is come to appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing.
- Ps 84:7They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 23:17 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.