1883 Haydock Douay Rheims Bible

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Deuteronomy 16:10 And thou shalt celebrate the festival of weeks to the Lord thy God, a voluntary oblation of thy hand, which thou shalt offer according to the blessing of the Lord thy God:

Hand. Hebrew and Septuagint, "as much as thy hand is able;" an offering, bearing a due proportion with what God has bestowed upon thee. (Haydock) --- Each one was exhorted to make peace-offerings and feasts, at Jerusalem, in honour of God, ver. 11. On these festival days the first-born, fattened animals, were brought to be slain, chap. 12:17., and 14:23. The Jews think that by these feasts their solemnities are very much honoured. But the intention of the lawgiver, was only to keep them at a distance from the profane rejoicings of the pagans, and to raise their thoughts and their hearts, by degrees, to the more solid spiritual delights. There were, however, too much inclined to stop at the gratification of the senses, and understood in that sense the sabbath, which Isaias (lviii. 13,) calls delightful, or delicate. (Buxt., Syn. x.)