Bible Strands
Deuteronomy 31:11
when all Israel comes before the LORD your God at the place He will choose, you are to read this law in the hearing of all Israel.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Moses instructs Israel before crossing the Jordan to publicly read the law at the end of every seventh year during the Feast of Tabernacles (Deuteronomy 31:10). The command requires the entire community to gather at the location Yahweh will choose.
The words — The text emphasizes בּוֹא (bo') for "comes" and לְרָאוֹת (le.ra'ot) for "to appear," framing the event as a formal presentation before the presence of Yahweh. כָּל (kol) stresses that "all" Israel must attend this assembly.
The thread — This mandated public reading aligns with Joshua 8:34, where Joshua reads the full law before the congregation, and 2 Kings 23:2, where a king gathers Judah and Jerusalem to the house of the LORD. It operationalizes the pilgrimage requirement outlined in Deuteronomy 16:16.
Why it lands — The verse demands a physical gathering where the law is audibly proclaimed to every demographic present. It establishes a fixed, communal mechanism for preserving the text and ensuring collective awareness.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
When all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing.
Cross-references
- 2 Kings 23:2 And he went up to the house of the LORD with all the people of Judah and Jerusalem, as well as the priests and the prophets—all the people small and great—and in their hearing he read all the words of the Book of the Covenant that had been found in the house of the LORD.
- Joshua 8:34 Afterward, Joshua read aloud all the words of the law—the blessings and the curses—according to all that is written in the Book of the Law.
- Deuteronomy 16:16 Three times a year all your men are to appear before the LORD your God in the place He will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles. No one should appear before the LORD empty-handed.
- Exodus 23:16 You are also to keep the Feast of Harvest with the firstfruits of the produce from what you sow in the field. And keep the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather your produce from the field.
- Exodus 34:24 For I will drive out the nations before you and enlarge your borders, and no one will covet your land when you go up three times a year to appear before the LORD your God.
- Deuteronomy 12:5 Instead, you must seek the place the LORD your God will choose from among all your tribes to establish as a dwelling for His Name, and there you must go.
- Nehemiah 8:1 At that time all the people gathered together in the square before the Water Gate, and they asked Ezra the scribe to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded for Israel.
- Nehemiah 8:13 On the second day of the month, the heads of all the families, along with the priests and Levites, gathered around Ezra the scribe to study the words of the Law.
- Nehemiah 9:3 While they stood in their places, they read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God for a quarter of the day, and they spent another quarter of the day in confession and worship of the LORD their God.
- Psalms 84:7 They go from strength to strength, until each appears before God in Zion.