With regard to the Feast of Weeks (see at Exodus 23:16), it is stated that the time for its observance was to be reckoned from the Passover. Seven weeks shall they count "from the beginning of the sickle to the corn," i.e., from the time when the sickle began to be applied to the corn, or from the commencement of the corn-harvest. As the corn-harvest was opened with the presentation of the sheaf of first-fruits on the second day of the Passover, this regulation as to time coincides with the rule laid down in Leviticus 23:15. "Thou shalt keep the feast to the Lord thy God according to the measure of the free gift of thy hand, which thou givest as Jehovah thy God blesseth thee." The ἁπ. λεγ. מסּת is the standing rendering in the Chaldee for דּי, sufficiency, need; it probably signifies abundance, from מסס equals מסה, to flow, to overflow, to derive. The idea is this: Israel was to keep this feast with sacrificial gifts, which every one was able to bring, according to the extent to which the Lord had blessed him, and (Deuteronomy 16:11) to rejoice before the Lord at the place where His name dwelt with sacrificial meals, to which the needy were to be invited (cf. Deuteronomy 14:29), in remembrance of the fact that they also were bondmen in Egypt (cf. Deuteronomy 15:15). The "free-will offering of the hand," which the Israelites were to bring with them to this feast, and with which they were to rejoice before the Lord, belonged to the free-will gifts of burnt-offerings, meat-offerings, drink-offerings, and thank-offerings, which might be offered, according to Numbers 29:39 (cf. Leviticus 23:38), at every feast, along with the festal sacrifices enjoined upon the congregation. The latter were binding upon the priests and congregation, and are fully described in Numbers 28 and 29, so that there was no necessity for Moses to say anything further with reference to them.

Deuteronomy 16:16 Parallel Commentaries

Three times

Exodus 23:14-17 Three times you shall keep a feast to me in the year...

Exodus 34:22,23 And you shall observe the feast of weeks, of the first fruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year's end...

1 Kings 9:25 And three times in a year did Solomon offer burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar which he built to the LORD...

and they shall

Exodus 23:15 You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread: (you shall eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded you...

Exodus 34:20 But the firstling of an donkey you shall redeem with a lamb: and if you redeem him not, then shall you break his neck...

1 Chronicles 29:3-9,14-17 Moreover, because I have set my affection to the house of my God, I have of my own proper good, of gold and silver...

Psalm 96:8 Give to the LORD the glory due to his name: bring an offering, and come into his courts.

Proverbs 3:9,10 Honor the LORD with your substance, and with the first fruits of all your increase...

Isaiah 23:18 And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the LORD: it shall not be treasured nor laid up...

Isaiah 60:6-9 The multitude of camels shall cover you, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come...

Haggai 1:9 You looked for much, and, see it came to little; and when you brought it home, I did blow on it. Why? said the LORD of hosts...

Matthew 2:11 And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him...

Mark 12:3 And they caught him, and beat him, and sent him away empty.