The remaining sentences relate to the feasts of harvest and
ingathering, whose connection with the fruits of the field is
otherwise clear. As for Deuteronomy, there also it is required
on the one hand that the dues from the flock and herd and field
shall be personally offered at Jerusalem, and made the occasion
of joyous sacrificial feasts; on the other hand, that three
appearances in the year shall be made at Jerusalem, at Easter,
at Pentecost, and at the feast of tabernacles, and not with empty
hands. These requirements can only be explained on the assumption
that the material of the feasts was that furnished by the dues.
Clearly in Deuteronomy all three coincide; sacrifices, dues, feasts;
other sacrifices than those occasioned by the dues can hardly be
thought of for the purpose of holding a joyous festival before
Jehovah; the dues are, properly speaking, simply those sacrifices
prescribed by popular custom, and therefore fixed and festal,
of which alone the law has occasion to treat. /1/
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1. Deuteronomy xii. 6 seq., 11 seq., xiv. 23-26, xvi. 7, 11, 14.
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