Biblion Bible Commentary
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You Shall Dwell in Shelters
Leviticus 23:33-44
33 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, · WEB
The last feast is a week of camping out at the height of the harvest, so that a prosperous nation remembers it once had no houses.
Five days after the day of atonement, the year's most cheerful festival begins — the feast of booths for seven days Leviticus 23:34.
Its timing is stated in a clause that gives it its character: when you have gathered in the fruits of the land Leviticus 23:39. Everything is in. The barns are full, the wine is made, the work of the year is finished and the result is known.
And at that moment the nation is required to move out of its houses.
You shall dwell in temporary shelters for seven days Leviticus 23:42 — branches of palm, boughs of thick trees, willows from the brook Leviticus 23:40. Families build lean-tos and sleep in them for a week, in the season of greatest plenty.
The reason is given plainly: that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in temporary shelters when I brought them out of the land of Egypt Leviticus 23:43.
The method is the interesting part. This is not a story told to children; it is a week of being slightly uncomfortable so that the story is unnecessary. A child who has slept under branches in his father's orchard has some idea what the wilderness meant, and the memory is installed in the body rather than in the mind.
And the instruction attached is not solemnity. You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God seven days Leviticus 23:40. The feast that recalls homelessness is the most festive in the calendar, and it is commanded to be so.
The closing summary lists all the appointed feasts and then draws the distinction the chapter opened with: they are kept in addition to the Sabbaths of Yahweh, and in addition to your gifts, and in addition to all your vows Leviticus 23:38.
The annual cycle is one thing; the weekly day is another; voluntary offerings are a third. The chapter has separated them at the start and separates them again at the end.
And the last verse reports the delivery: so Moses declared to the children of Israel the appointed feasts of Yahweh Leviticus 23:44.
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