The following are the principal passages in the Penta- teuch which refer to this festival : Exod. xxiii, IG, where it is spoken of as the Feast of Ingathering, and is brought into connection with the otlier festivals under their ag- ricultural designations, the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of Harvest; Lev. xxiii, 34-36, 39-43, where it is mentioned as commemorating the passage of the Israelites through the desert; Deut. xvi, 13-15, in which there is no notice of the eighth day, and it is treated as a thanksgiving for the harvest; Numb, xxix, 12-38, where there is an enumeration of the sacrifices which belong to the festival; Deut. xxxi, 10-13, where the injunqtion is given for the public reading of the law in the Sabbatical year, at the Feast of Tabernacles. In Neh. viii there is an account of the observance of the feast by Ezra, from which several additional particulars respecting it may be gathered.
II. The Time at lohich this Festival icas celebrated. — The time fixed for the celebration of this feast is from the 15th to the 22d of Tishri, when the season of the year is changing for winter (Josephus, Ant. iii, 10, 4); i. e. in the autumn, when the whole of the chief fruits of the ground — the corn, the wine, and the oil — were gathered in (Exod. xxiii, 16; Lev. xxiii, 39 ; Deut. xvi, 13-15). Hence it is spoken of as occurring "in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labors out of the field." There were thus only four days inter- vening between this festival and the Great Day of Atonement. But though its duration, strictly speaking, was only seven days (Deut. xvi, 13 ; Ezek. xlv, 25), yet, as it was followed by a day of holy convocation, this festival is sometimes described as lasting eight days (Lev. xxiii, 3G ; Neh. viii, 18).
III. The Manner in which this Festival was celehi-ated. — As it is most essential, in describing the mode in which this feast was and still is celebrated, to distinguish be- tween the Pentateuchal enactments and those rites, cer- emonies, and practices which gradually obtained in the course of time, we shall divide our description into three periods.
1. The Period from the Institution of this Festival to the Babylonian Captivity. — The Mosaic enactments about the manner in which this festival is to be celebrated are as follows: The Israelites are to live in tabernacles dur- ing the seven days of this festival, " that your genera- tions may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in tabernacles when I brought them out of the land of P^gvpt" (Lev. xxiii, 42, 43). The first dav alone, X.-K
however, is to be a holy convocation (llJ"lp Sip's), and a Sabbath or day of perfect cessation of business, o;i which no manner of secular work is to be done (ver. 35, 39); and all the able-bodied male members of the con- gregation, who are not legally precluded from it, are to appear in the place of the national sanctuary, as on the Passover and Pentecost (Exod. xxiii, 14, 17 ; xxxiv, 23). On this day the Israelites are to take " the fruit of goodly trees, with branches of palm-trees, boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook" (Lev. xxiii, 40), most probably to symbolize the varied vegetation which grew in the different localities of their journey through the wilderness — viz. the palm-tree of tlie plain where the Israelites encamped, the willow at the moun- tain stream, from which God gave his people water to drink; and the designedly indefinite thick bush on the mountain heights over which they had to travel; while the fruits of the goodly trees represent the produce of the beautiful land which they ultimately obtained after their pilgrimages in the wilderness (Pressel, in Herzog's Real- Encyklopddie, s. v. " Lanbliuttenfest"). As this festival, however, though symbolizing by the several practices thereof the pilgrimage through the wilderness, was nevertheless more especially designed to celebrate the completion of the harvest in the Promised Land, as typified by "the fruit of the goodly trees" in contrast to the plants of the wilderness, the Israelites are enjoined "not to appear before the Lord empty, but every one shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord thy God which he hath given thee" (Exod. xxiii, 15; Deut. xvi, 16, 17). Hence they are to offer burnt- offerings, meat-offerings, drink-offerings, and other sac- rifices as follows : On the first day, the burnt-offering is to consist of thirteen bullocks, two rams, fourteen lambs, and one kid of the goats for a sin-offering, with the ap- propriate meat- and drink-offerings ; the meat-offerings being three tenths of an ephah of fiour mingled with one half of a hin of oil to each bullock, two tenths of an ephah of fiour mingled with one third of a hin of oil to each ram, and one tenth of an ephah of Hour mingled with one quarter of a hin of oil to each lamb ; the drink- offering consisting of one half of a hin of wine to each bullock, one third of a hin of wine to each ram, and one quarter of a hin of wine to each lamb (Nmnb. xv, 2-11 ; xxviii, 12-14). The same number of rams and lambs, and one kid, are to be offered on the following days; the number of bullocks alone is to be reduced by one each <iay, so that on the seventh day only seven are to be offered (xxix, 12-38). There are accordingly to be offered during the seven dav's in all seventy bullocks, fourteen rams, ninety-eight lambs, and seven goats, with thirty-three and three-fifths ephahs of flour, sixty- four and one-sixth bins of oil, and sixty-four and one- sixth bins of wine. Moreover, the law is to be read publicly in the sanctuary on the first day of the festival every Sabbatical year (Deut. xxxi, 10-13). The six following days — i. e. 15th-22d of Tishri — are to be half- festivals; they were most probably devoted to social enjoyments and friendly gatherings, when every head of the family was to enjoy the feasts from the second or festival tithe with his son, daughter, man-servant, maid- servant, the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow (xvi, 14). See Tithe.