Leviticus 23:37
These are the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD, a burnt offering, and a meat offering, a sacrifice, and drink offerings, every thing upon his day: These are the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD, a burnt offering, and a meat offering, a sacrifice, and drink offerings, every thing upon his day:
Leviticus 23:37 designates the feasts of the Lord as holy convocations, with offerings made by fire — burnt offering, grain offering, sacrifice, and drink offerings — to be presented each on its own appointed day. The verse belongs to the directions for the appointed gatherings, including the Feast of Tabernacles. Those annual memorials were meant to bring God to the minds of the people. Their observance was resumed after the return from captivity, though most priests and leaders had lost sight of their purpose and the gatherings were perverted.
The Feast of Tabernacles was the closing gathering of the year, kept seven days, a full week, in the seventh month from the fifteenth through the twenty-second day, after the harvest and before the new year's work began. The feast was proclaimed in the cities and in Jerusalem, and brought people to Jerusalem from throughout the kingdom, from Palestine and other lands. It was both a harvest thanksgiving for grain, olives, grapes, and the produce of orchard and field, and a memorial of God's protecting care for Israel in the wilderness, meant to lead the people to reflect on His goodness, mercy, care, and blessing through the year.
During the feast the people lived in booths made of green boughs and branches, set up on rooftops, in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, to commemorate their tent life. Its celebration expressed thanksgiving for the year's blessings through gifts and offerings, leafy booths, sacred songs, joyful praise, sacred memorial service and temple sacrificial ceremonies, fellowship, social gatherings, and great gladness in a holy gathering. The feast followed the Day of Atonement, when confession and atonement had brought the people peace with Heaven. It fostered gratitude for God's provision and served for education, and as a time of rejoicing, outdoor recreation, and social life, its hospitality to Levites, strangers, and the poor made the rejoicing sweeter.
The Feast of Tabernacles named in the surrounding verses provides the model for assembling God's people in a camp meeting.