Tabernacles, Feast of: the third of the great annual festivals of the Jews
(Leviticus 23:33-43)
It is also called the "feast of ingathering"
(Exodus 23:16; Deuteronomy 16:13) It
was celebrated immediately after the harvest, in the month Tisri, and
the celebration lasted for eight days
(Leviticus 23:33-43) During that
period the people left their homes and lived in booths formed of the
branches of trees. The sacrifices offered at this time are mentioned
in
(Numbers 29:13-38) It was at the time of this feast that Solomon's
temple was dedicated
(1 Kings 8:2) Mention is made of it after the
return from the Captivity. This feast was designed1. to be a memorial of the wilderness wanderings, when the people
dwelt in booths
(Leviticus 23:43) and
2. to be a harvest thanksgiving
(Nehemiah 8:9-18)
The Jews, at a later time, introduced two appendages to the original
festival, viz.,
1. that of drawing water from the Pool of Siloam, and pouring it
upon the altar
(John 7:2,37) as a memorial of the water from the
rock in Horeb; and
2. of lighting the lamps at night, a memorial of the pillar of fire
by night during their wanderings. "The feast of Tabernacles, the
harvest festival of the Jewish Church, was the most popular and
important festival after the Captivity. At Jerusalem it was a
gala day. It was to the autumn pilgrims, who arrived on the 14th
(of the month Tisri, the feast beginning on the 15th) day, like
entrance into a silvan city. Roofs and courtyards, streets and
squares, roads and gardens, were green with boughs of citron and
myrtle, palm and willow. The booths recalled the pilgrimage
through the wilderness. The ingathering of fruits prophesied of
the spiritual harvest.", Valling's Jesus Christ, p. 133
