Exodus 23:17

17 Three times in the year shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy 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 Take heed to keep the feast of unleavened bread: seven days ye shall eat unleavened bread, as I charged thee at the season of the month of new , for in it thou camest out of Egypt: thou shalt not appear before me empty.

16 And thou shalt keep the feast of the harvest of first-fruits of thy labours, whatsoever thou shalt have sown in thy field, and the feast of completion at the end of the year in the gathering in of thy fruits out of thy field.

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

18 For when I shall have cast out the nations from before thee, and shall have widened thy borders, thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven, neither must the fat of my feast abide till the morning.

19 Thou shalt bring the first-offerings of the first-fruits of thy land into the house of the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a lamb in its mother's milk.