The Bible

 

Exodus 23:14-19 : The Three Annual Festivals

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14 Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year.

15 Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty:)

16 And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.

17 Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord GOD.

18 Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the fat of my sacrifice remain until the morning.

19 The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk.

The Bible

 

Leviticus 23:39

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39 Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the LORD seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath.

Commentary

 

Gather

  

To gather, as in Genesis 6:21, refers to things gathered together in the memory of man. It also implies that good things and truths should be gathered together in man before he is regenerated. To gather together in a place to battle, as in Revelation 16:1, signifies the start of combat against truths in defense of falsities. The ancients were accustomed to say that, when anyone died, that he was gathered to his fathers, or to his people, and they understood that he actually came to his parents, his relations and kinsfolk in another life. 'To be gathered to his fathers' means that a person would join the spiritual community sharing similar good loves. 'To be gathered to his people' means that a person would join the spiritual community that holds same true ideas.

(References: Apocalypse Explained 16; Arcana Coelestia 679, Genesis 10, 25, 25:10)