Feast Oftabernacles
People's Dictionary of the Bible [1]
Tabernacles, Feast of. Numbers 29:12-40. One of the three great annual festivals which all the Hebrews were to keep. During the seven days of its celebration the people dwelt in booths made of the branches and leaves of trees, in commemoration of the 40 years' wandering in the wilderness. Leviticus 23:34-44, As the season of thanksgiving for the fruits of the earth, it is also called the "Feast of Ingathering." Exodus 23:16; Exodus 34:22. It commenced on the fifteenth day of Tisri, October; the first day and the eighth day were distinguished as Sabbaths. Numbers 29:12-40; Deuteronomy 16:13-15; Zechariah 14:16-19. In every seventh year during this festival, the law of Moses was read In the hearing of all the people. Deuteronomy 31:10-13; Nehemiah 8:14-18. In later times, the priests went every morning during the festival, and drew water from the fountain of Siloam, and poured it out to the southwest of the altar, the Levites, in the meanwhile, playing on instruments of music, and singing the Psalms 113:1-9; Psalms 114:1-8; Psalms 115:1-18; Psalms 116:1-19; Psalms 117:1-2; Psalms 118:1-29. This ceremony is said to have been founded on Isaiah 12:3; and was probably a memorial of the abundant supply of water which God afforded to the Hebrews during their wanderings in the wilderness. John 7:2-39.
Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature [2]
Feast of Tabernacles, one of the three great festivals of the Jews, being that of the closing year, as the Passover was of the spring. In , directions for observing the feast are given in very clear terms (comp. ). It was held in commemoration of the divine goodness as exercised towards the Jews when they were wandering in the desert, as well as expressive of gratitude for the supply of the rich fruits of the earth; and so was fitted to awaken the most lively feelings of piety in the minds of the Hebrews in each successive generation. From the writings of the Rabbins we learn,
That those who took part in the festival bore in their left hand a branch of citron, and in their right a palm branch, entwined with willows and myrtle.
A libation of water took place on each of the seven days ; at the time of the morning oblation a priest drew from the fount of Siloam water in a jar holding three logs, and poured it out, together with wine, into two channels or conduits, made on the west side of the altar, the water into the one, the wine into the other.
In the outer court of the women there began, on the evening of the first day, an illumination on great golden candlesticks, which threw its light over the whole of Jerusalem; and a dance by torch-light, attended by song and music, was performed before the candelabra.
From these details, it appears that the Feast of Tabernacles was a season of universal joy. Jerusalem bore the appearance of a camp. The entire population again dwelt in tents, but not with the accompaniments of travel, fatigue, and solicitude; all was hilarity, all wore a holiday appearance; the varied green of the ten thousand branches of different trees; the picturesque ceremony of the water-libation, the general illumination, the sacred solemnities in and before the temple; the feast, the dance, the sacred song; the full harmony of the choral music; the bright joy that lighted up every face, and the gratitude at 'harvest home,' which swelled every bosom—all conspired to make these days a season of pure, deep, and lively joy, which, in all its elements, finds no parallel among the observances of men.
