Exodus 23:17

17 Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord God.

Exodus 23:17 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 23:17

Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the
Lord thy God.
] In the city of Jerusalem, when they were come into the land of Canaan, and the temple was there built: here they were to show themselves before the Lord as being his, and devoted to his service; concerning which the Misnic doctors have the following canon ^F3,

``all are bound to appear except a man deaf and dumb, a fool, a little one, one of neither sex, or of both sexes, women, servants not free, the lame, the blind, the sick, an old man, and he that cannot go on his feet.''

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FOOTNOTES:

F3 Misn. Chagigah, c. 1. sect. 1.

Exodus 23:17 In-Context

15 You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread (you shall eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt; none shall appear before Me empty);

16 and the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors which you have sown in the field; and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you have gathered in the fruit of your labors from the field.

17 Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord God.

18 You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread; nor shall the fat of My sacrifice remain until morning.

19 The first of the firstfruits of your land you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew YHWH, usually translated Lord