The Passover and the Feast of Sevens (Deuteronomy 16:7-12).
Deuteronomy 16:7-8 is part of the chiasmus for the feast of sevens, and yet it continues on smoothly from Deuteronomy 16:1-6. But remembering that we shall now consider them along with the Feast of Sevens (the one day feast of weeks or harvest or firstfruits) in relation to them. This feast occurred ‘seven sevens' (of days) after the feast of unleavened bread. Unlike the other ‘seven day' feasts this was a one day feast. Strictly speaking we should not speak of ‘weeks' for that was not how it was thought of, and the seven sevens did not commence on a particular ‘day of the week'.
They began on the day after the initial first day sabbath of Unleavened Bread (that is on the evening of that sabbath after sundown) when the sheaf of the waveoffering, the first result of the putting in of the sickle to the standing grain, was brought at the feast of unleavened bread (Leviticus 23:15). It was the evening after the night of the Passover feast. Thus the two feasts were joined by a divine string of sevens. Their way of thinking about time was partly dominated by seven as an indication that Yahweh controlled their time, and that their times were in His hand. But their overall calendar was dominated by the movements of the moon, because that was convenient. That is why they necessarily had a sacred calendar and an agricultural calendar, although the two intermingled. (They were not at this stage ‘calendar minded').
Analysis in the words of Moses:
a And you shall roast and eat it in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, and you shall turn in the morning, and go to your tents (Deuteronomy 16:7).
b Six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to Yahweh your God. You shall do no work (Deuteronomy 16:8).
c Seven sevens shall you number to you, from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain shall you begin to number seven sevens (Deuteronomy 16:9).
c And you shall keep the feast of sevens to Yahweh your God with a tribute of a freewill-offering of your hand, which you shall give, according as Yahweh your God blesses you (Deuteronomy 16:10).
b And you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your man-servant, and your maid-servant, and the Levite that is within your gates, and the resident alien, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are in the midst of you, in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, to cause His name to dwell there (Deuteronomy 16:11).
a And you shall remember that you were a bondsman in Egypt, and you shall observe and do these statutes (Deuteronomy 16:12).
Note than in ‘a' they are to roast and eat it (the Passover lamb) in the place which Yahweh their God shall choose, and they shall turn in the morning, and go their your tents (a reminder of the days of journeying), and in the parallel they will remember that they were bondsmen in Egypt and observe and do these statutes. In ‘b' the seventh day of unleavened bread was to be a solemn assembly, and in it no work would be done (certainly a cause of celebration among their servants), and in the parallel (at the feast of sevens) they were to rejoice before Yahweh their God and this would include their servants and the poor who would all partake in the feast. Thus both feasts offered special blessing to the servants. In ‘c' we discover the direct connection between Unleavened Bread and Sevens. They were to number seven sevens from the time they began to put the sickle to the standing grain, and the sheaf of the wave-offering was offered on the evening after the first day sabbath of Unleavened Bread, and in the parallel they would then keep the Feast of Sevens to Yahweh their God with a tribute of a freewill-offering from their hand, which they were to give according as Yahweh their God blessed them. At this feast they would bring the gifts of firstfruits, already symbolised by the sheaf offered when the seven sevens count began. Thus in a sense the two feasts ran into each other, and as the men went to their harvesting they were very much aware that they had seven sevens of days (excluding the Sabbaths and the six further days of Unleavened Bread) for their harvesting. God and His giving would constantly be kept in mind.
This flowing from one feast of rejoicing to another is very much a people's aspect of things which again points to this being intended in a speech to the people, and not as some artificial law-book.
‘ And you shall roast and eat it in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, and you shall turn in the morning, and go to your tents.'
We are still at the Passover. Again the emphasis is on the place which Yahweh would choose. This emphasises His sovereignty in the arrangement. He is their Lord, they are His subjects. He has chosen this place for Him to dwell in and for them to come with their sacrifices. It would appear from this that the Passover was celebrated in the open air, the men and the households sitting together among the many other households on the holy ground around the tabernacle, the ‘place' chosen by Yahweh. Strictly only the men were required to gather at the feasts, but they would regularly bring some or most of their households with them as Deuteronomy 12:18 makes clear. It was to be ‘roasted' (bishel). The verb simply means ‘cooked' and can mean either roasted or boiled, but Exodus 12:8-9 declares that it should be roasted, and when the verb refers to boiling, ‘with water' is normally added. Compare 2 Chronicles 35:13 a where the verb means ‘cooked' and ‘ with fire' is added, while in Numbers 11:8; 2 Samuel 13:8 it refers to cooking cakes. In Akkadian the verb basalu also means to cook by roasting or boiling. Thus we can translate here ‘roasting'. Once the feast was over they would retire to their tents (compare Deuteronomy 1:7; Deuteronomy 5:30; Deuteronomy 11:6). If taken literally this would confirm that ‘the place' in mind was not originally Jerusalem, although ‘going to their tents' (compare 2 Samuel 20:1; 1 Kings 12:16) was used later of going to houses. But the main point here is that the tents reminded them of the deliverance. From Passover night they then lived in tents.
‘ Six days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to Yahweh your God. You shall do no work.'
For six days unleavened bread must be eaten, and the final day of the seven was to be a solemn sabbath, a day for public rites and festival, in which no work was to be done. Of course on that day also unleavened bread was to be eaten. (Compare Deuteronomy 16:4. If all leaven had been removed from within their borders as previously asserted there would anyway be no alternative). It was to be a day of rest and rejoicing for all, and the count down to the Feast of Svens had already begun.