Lev. 23:34

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The fifteenth.

Exod 23:16; Exod 34:22; Num 29:12; Deut 16:13-15; Ezra 3:4; Neh 8:14

Zech 14:16-19; John 1:14; John 7:2; Heb 11:9; Heb 11:13

the feast of tabernacles.This feast was celebrated in commemoration of the Israelites' dwelling in tents in the wilderness for forty years; and was kept with greater hilarity than any of the other festivals. Hence, in the Talmud, it is often called {chag,} the feast, by way of excellence; and by Philo, [heorton megisten,] the greatest of the feasts; it was therefore more noticed by the heathen than any other.

It is probable that Cecrops borrowed from it the law which he made in Athens, "that the master of every family should after harvest make a feast for his servants, and eat together with them who had taken pains with him in tilling his grounds."