Leviticus 23:34, commentary and pictures

The fifteenth day of the seventh month began the Feast of Tabernacles, kept for seven days as the closing religious gathering of the year. It was one of the three yearly gatherings at Jerusalem, when the people came from throughout the land with offerings from field and orchard after the harvest and lived for the week in booths of green branches with music, gladness and daily reading of the law. The feast was both a thanksgiving for the harvest and a memorial of God's protecting care and tent life in the wilderness, calling the people to reflect on His goodness, mercy and guidance in giving sun and rain for grain, oil, dates and wine. It fostered gratitude through rejoicing and generous hospitality to the Levites, strangers and poor, giving them time largely free from ordinary labor for worship, education and sacred fellowship.

Time and Observance

The fifteenth day of the seventh month begins the feast of tabernacles, kept for seven days unto the Lord as the closing religious gathering of the year. It is established as a seven-day celebration to the Lord.

For that week the people live in leafy booths made of green branches, including palm and myrtle, built in the streets of Jerusalem and in the temple courts, on rooftops and in courtyards, and across the surrounding hills and valleys. The observance is kept by people and rulers together from the fifteenth through the twenty-second of the month, with great gladness and with songs and music while the law is read daily.

The feast is one of Israel's three yearly religious gatherings at Jerusalem, drawing people from throughout the kingdom and from Palestine and other lands. They come with gifts of thanksgiving for God's goodness through the year, with offerings from orchard and field. It is held after the harvest, when free from work to devote themselves to its sacred observances, with sacred memorial services and social gatherings and with outdoor recreation and social life.

These gatherings could not be kept during the captivity but began again after the return to the land. Solomon's temple dedication was held during this festival, at the joyful season after harvest when people from throughout Israel gathered at Jerusalem. On one occasion Jesus had stayed away from several such gatherings because of hostility toward him.

Meaning and Purpose

The feast was both a thanksgiving for the completed harvest and a memorial of God's protecting care over Israel in the wilderness, when they dwelt in tents. To keep that wilderness tent life in remembrance, the people left their houses and lived for the seven days in booths made of green branches. As the closing religious gathering of the year, it called them to remember God's goodness, mercy, guidance, and continued care, and to give Him thanks for what He had provided.

Its purpose was to turn their minds to God's goodness and mercy in His guidance and continual care, and in the sunshine and rain by which the land had yielded its increase. That increase included grain, olives whose oil was stored away, dates from the palm, and grapes pressed into wine. The observance was appointed to keep God in the minds of the people. Coming after the Day of Atonement, when they stood at peace with Heaven, it was kept as a season of joyful worship and thanksgiving.

It cultivated gratitude for harvest blessings through rejoicing and through generous hospitality to the Levites, the strangers, and the poor, with offerings brought from orchard and field, sacred memorial services, and social gatherings. The week in leafy booths gave occasion for outdoor recreation and social life. For devout Israelites this feast formed part of nearly a month each year largely free from ordinary care and labor and devoted to education.