Bible Strands
Exodus 23:17
Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord GOD.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God issues this command through Moses to the Israelites, directly following the instructions for the Feast of Harvest and the Feast of Ingathering in Exodus 23:16.
The words — The text specifies יֵרָאֶה (ye.ra.'Eh), "he will present himself," applied to כָּל־זָכָר (kol-zakar), "every male," who must appear before the Lord.
The thread — This appearance requirement repeats in Exodus 34:23 and Deuteronomy 16:16, while Exodus 23:14 establishes the underlying command to celebrate three annual feasts.
Why it lands — The text demands that every Israelite male physically present himself at the sanctuary during each of the three designated festivals.
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
Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord God.
Cross-references
- 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 34:23 Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord GOD, the God of Israel.
- Exodus 23:14 Three times a year you are to celebrate a feast to Me.
- 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.
- 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.
- Psalms 84:7 They go from strength to strength, until each appears before God in Zion.
- Luke 2:42 And when He was twelve years old, they went up according to the custom of the Feast.