Deuteronomy 16 · a question people ask

"All of your males shall appear before the LORD" (16:16). Were the feasts only for men?

In the text

Verse 16 says, "Three times in a year all of your males shall appear before the LORD your God in the place which he chooses", as Exodus did (Exodus 23:17, 34:23). But the same chapter names others at the feasts: "you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the Levite… the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow" are to rejoice at the feast of weeks (16:11), and again at booths (16:14). Later, at the feast of booths in the seventh year, Moses says, "Assemble the people, the men and the women and the little ones, and the foreigners who are within your gates" (31:12). The Bible also shows whole households going up to worship: Elkanah "went up out of his city from year to year to worship and to sacrifice to the LORD of Armies in Shiloh" (1 Samuel 1:3), and "all his house" went up with him "to offer to the LORD the yearly sacrifice" (1 Samuel 1:21); Jesus' "parents went every year to Jerusalem at the feast of the Passover" (Luke 2:41). The chapter doesn't say why the command in 16:16 names the males.

The verses

“Three times in a year all of your males shall appear before the LORD your God in the place which he chooses: in the feast of unleavened bread, in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of booths. They shall not appear before the LORD empty.”
Deuteronomy 16:16 · World English Bible
“Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord GOD.”
Exodus 23:17 · World English Bible
“Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord GOD, the God of Israel.”
Exodus 34:23 · World English Bible
“You shall rejoice before the LORD your God: you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow who are among you, in the place which the LORD your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there.”
Deuteronomy 16:11 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Deuteronomy 16

Deuteronomy 16: Three times a year

The Passover left the house for the place the LORD would choose: "You may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates" (16:5). Weeks and booths are commanded joy, with the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow at the table (16:11, 16:14), gifts are measured by the LORD's blessing (16:17), and judges sit in the very gates where the Passover can't be kept (16:18).

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