Add parallel Print Page Options

10 He[a] commanded them: “At the end of seven years, at the appointed time of the cancellation of debts,[b] at the Feast of Shelters,[c] 11 when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God in the place he chooses, you must read this law before them[d] within their hearing. 12 Gather the people—men, women, and children, as well as the resident foreigners[e] in your villages—so they may hear and thus learn about and fear the Lord your God and carefully obey all the words of this law.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 31:10 tn Heb “Moses.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.
  2. Deuteronomy 31:10 tn The Hebrew term שְׁמִטָּה (shemittah), a derivative of the verb שָׁמַט (shamat, “to release; to relinquish”), refers to the procedure whereby debts of all fellow Israelites were to be canceled. Since the Feast of Tabernacles celebrated God’s own deliverance of and provision for his people, this was an appropriate time for Israelites to release one another. See note on this word at Deut 15:1.
  3. Deuteronomy 31:10 tn The Hebrew phrase חַג הַסֻּכּוֹת (khag hassukkot, “festival of huts” [or “shelters”]) is traditionally known as the Feast of Tabernacles. See note on the name of the festival in Deut 16:13.sn For the regulations on this annual festival see Deut 16:13-15.
  4. Deuteronomy 31:11 tn Heb “before all Israel.”
  5. Deuteronomy 31:12 sn The ger (גֵּר) “foreign resident” or “naturalized citizen,” (see Exod 12:19 and Deut 29:10-13) could make sacrifices (Lev 17:8; 22:18; Num 15:14) and participate in Israel’s religious festivals: Passover Exod 12:48; Day of Atonement Lev 16:29; Feast of Weeks Deut 16:10-14; Feast of Tabernacles/Temporary Shelters Deut 31:12.