'Festival' in the Bible

Later, Moses and Aaron went in and said to Pharaoh, “This is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says: Let My people go, so that they may hold a festival for Me in the wilderness.”

Moses replied, “We will go with our young and our old; we will go with our sons and daughters and with our flocks and herds because we must hold Yahweh’s festival.”

“This day is to be a memorial for you, and you must celebrate it as a festival to the Lord. You are to celebrate it throughout your generations as a permanent statute.

“You are to observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread because on this very day I brought your divisions out of the land of Egypt. You must observe this day throughout your generations as a permanent statute.

For seven days you must eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there is to be a festival to the Lord.

“Celebrate a festival in My honor three times a year.

Observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread. As I commanded you, you are to eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, because you came out of Egypt in that month. No one is to appear before Me empty-handed.

Also observe the Festival of Harvest with the firstfruits of your produce from what you sow in the field, and observe the Festival of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather your produce from the field.

“You must not offer the blood of My sacrifices with anything leavened. The fat of My festival offering must not remain until morning.

When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; then he made an announcement: “There will be a festival to the Lord tomorrow.”

“Observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread. You are to eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib as I commanded you. For you came out of Egypt in the month of Abib.

“Observe the Festival of Weeks with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Festival of Ingathering at the turn of the agricultural year.

“Do not present the blood for My sacrifice with anything leavened. The sacrifice of the Passover Festival must not remain until morning.

The Festival of Unleavened Bread to the Lord is on the fifteenth day of the same month. For seven days you must eat unleavened bread.

“Tell the Israelites: The Festival of Booths to the Lord begins on the fifteenth day of this seventh month and continues for seven days.

“You are to celebrate the Lord’s festival on the fifteenth day of the seventh month for seven days after you have gathered the produce of the land. There will be complete rest on the first day and complete rest on the eighth day.

You are to celebrate it as a festival to the Lord seven days each year. This is a permanent statute for you throughout your generations; you must celebrate it in the seventh month.

On the fifteenth day of this month there will be a festival; unleavened bread is to be eaten for seven days.

“On the day of firstfruits, you are to hold a sacred assembly when you present an offering of new grain to the Lord at your Festival of Weeks; you are not to do any daily work.

“You are to hold a sacred assembly on the fifteenth day of the seventh month; you must not do any daily work. You are to celebrate a seven-day festival for the Lord.

You are to celebrate the Festival of Weeks to the Lord your God with a freewill offering that you give in proportion to how the Lord your God has blessed you.

“You are to celebrate the Festival of Booths for seven days when you have gathered in everything from your threshing floor and winepress.

Rejoice during your festival—you, your son and daughter, your male and female slave, as well as the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow within your gates.

You are to hold a seven-day festival for the Lord your God in the place He chooses, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, and you will have abundant joy.

“All your males are to appear three times a year before the Lord your God in the place He chooses: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks, and the Festival of Booths. No one is to appear before the Lord empty-handed.

Moses commanded them, “At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of debt cancellation, during the Festival of Booths,

They also said, “Look, there’s an annual festival to the Lord in Shiloh, which is north of Bethel, east of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and south of Lebonah.”

So all the men of Israel were assembled in the presence of King Solomon in the seventh month, the month of Ethanim, at the festival.

Solomon and all Israel with him—a great assembly, from the entrance of Hamath to the Brook of Egypt—observed the festival at that time in the presence of the Lord our God, seven days, and seven more days—14 days.

Jeroboam made a festival in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month, like the festival in Judah. He offered sacrifices on the altar; he made this offering in Bethel to sacrifice to the calves he had set up. He also stationed the priests in Bethel for the high places he had set up.

He offered sacrifices on the altar he had set up in Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month. He chose this month on his own. He made a festival for the Israelites, offered sacrifices on the altar, and burned incense.

So all the men of Israel were assembled in the king’s presence at the festival; this was in the seventh month.

So Solomon and all Israel with him—a very great assembly, from the entrance to Hamath to the Brook of Egypt—observed the festival at that time for seven days.

On the eighth day they held a sacred assembly, for the dedication of the altar lasted seven days and the festival seven days.

He followed the daily requirement for offerings according to the commandment of Moses for Sabbaths, New Moons, and the three annual appointed festivals: the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks, and the Festival of Booths.

A very large assembly of people was gathered in Jerusalem to observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread in the second month.

The Israelites who were present in Jerusalem observed the Festival of Unleavened Bread seven days with great joy, and the Levites and the priests praised the Lord day after day with loud instruments.

The Israelites who were present in Judah also observed the Passover at that time and the Festival of Unleavened Bread for seven days.

They celebrated the Festival of Booths as prescribed, and offered burnt offerings each day, based on the number specified by ordinance for each festival day.

They observed the Festival of Unleavened Bread for seven days with joy, because the Lord had made them joyful, having changed the Assyrian king’s attitude toward them, so that he supported them in the work on the house of the God of Israel.

They found written in the law how the Lord had commanded through Moses that the Israelites should dwell in booths during the festival of the seventh month.

The Lord is God and has given us light.Bind the festival sacrifice with cordsto the horns of the altar.

Stop bringing useless offerings.Your incense is detestable to Me.New Moons and Sabbaths,and the calling of solemn assemblies—I cannot stand iniquity with a festival.

Your singing will be like thaton the night of a holy festival,and your heart will rejoicelike one who walks to the music of a flute,going up to the mountain of the Lord,to the Rock of Israel.

Look at Zion, the city of our festival times.Your eyes will see Jerusalem,a peaceful pasture, a tent that does not wander;its tent pegs will not be pulled upnor will any of its cords be loosened.

ז ZayinThe Lord has rejected His altar,repudiated His sanctuary;He has handed the walls of her palacesover to the enemy.They have raised a shout in the house of the Lordas on the day of an appointed festival.

ת TavYou summoned my attackers on every side,as if for an appointed festival day;on the day of the Lord’s angerno one escaped or survived.My enemy has destroyedthose I nurtured and reared.

“In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you are to celebrate the Passover, a festival of seven days during which unleavened bread will be eaten.

During the seven days of the festival, he will provide seven bulls and seven rams without blemish as a burnt offering to the Lord on each of the seven days, along with a male goat each day for a sin offering.

At the festival that begins on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, he will provide the same things for seven days—the same sin offerings, burnt offerings, grain offerings, and oil.

What will you do on a festival day,on the day of the Lord’s feast?

I have been Yahweh your Godever since the land of Egypt.I will make you live in tents again,as in the festival days.

Then all the survivors from the nations that came against Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, and to celebrate the Festival of Booths.

And if the people of Egypt will not go up and enter, then rain will not fall on them; this will be the plague the Lord inflicts on the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Booths.

This will be the punishment of Egypt and all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Booths.

“Look, I am going to rebuke your descendants, and I will spread animal waste over your faces, the waste from your festival sacrifices, and you will be taken away with it.

“Not during the festival,” they said, “so there won’t be rioting among the people.”

At the festival the governor’s custom was to release to the crowd a prisoner they wanted.

After two days it was the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a treacherous way to arrest and kill Him.

“Not during the festival,” they said, “or there may be rioting among the people.”

At the festival it was Pilate’s custom to release for the people a prisoner they requested.

Every year His parents traveled to Jerusalem for the Passover Festival.

When He was 12 years old, they went up according to the custom of the festival.

The Festival of Unleavened Bread, which is called Passover, was drawing near.

[For according to the festival he had to release someone to them.]

While He was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many trusted in His name when they saw the signs He was doing.

When they entered Galilee, the Galileans welcomed Him because they had seen everything He did in Jerusalem during the festival. For they also had gone to the festival.

After this, a Jewish festival took place, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

Now the Passover, a Jewish festival, was near.

The Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near,

Go up to the festival yourselves. I’m not going up to the festival yet, because My time has not yet fully come.”

After His brothers had gone up to the festival, then He also went up, not openly but secretly.

The Jews were looking for Him at the festival and saying, “Where is He?”

When the festival was already half over, Jesus went up into the temple complex and began to teach.

On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, he should come to Me and drink!

Then the Festival of Dedication took place in Jerusalem, and it was winter.

They were looking for Jesus and asking one another as they stood in the temple complex: “What do you think? He won’t come to the festival, will He?”

The next day, when the large crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem,

Now some Greeks were among those who went up to worship at the festival.

Before the Passover Festival, Jesus knew that His hour had come to depart from this world to the Father. Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.

Since Judas kept the money-bag, some thought that Jesus was telling him, “Buy what we need for the festival,” or that he should give something to the poor.

Therefore, don’t let anyone judge you in regard to food and drink or in the matter of a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day.