the fifteenth day. This was the feast of Tabernacles, kept in commemoration of their dwelling in tents in the wilderness for forty years. The first and last days were to be kept as sabbaths, on which there were solemn assemblies; and for seven days sacrifices were offered. On the other festivals, two bullocks sufficed, and on the festival at the beginning of this month, only one was appointed; but on the first day of this festival, thirteen young bullocks were appointed; and so on each successive day, with the decrease of only one bullock, till on the seventh day, there were only seven, making in all seventy bullocks. The lambs, and the rams also, were in a double proportion to the number sacrificed at any other festival. This was an expensive service; but more easy at this time of the year than any other, as Bishop Patrick observes, because now their barns were full, and their wine-presses overflowed; and their hearts might well be supposed to be more enlarged than at other times, in thankfulness to God for the multitude of his mercies. The Jewish doctors give this reason for the daily diminution of the number of the bullocks; the whole number, say they, was according to the languages of the seventy nations of the world; and the diminution of one every day signified, that there should be a gradual diminution of those nations till all things were brought under the government of the Messiah; in whose days no sacrifices shall remain, but those of thanksgiving, prayer, and praise.

Exodus 23:16 And the feast of harvest, the first fruits of your labors, which you have sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering...

Exodus 34:22 And you shall observe the feast of weeks, of the first fruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year's end.

Leviticus 23:33-43 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying...

Deuteronomy 16:13,14 You shall observe the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that you have gathered in your corn and your wine...

Nehemiah 8:14,18 And they found written in the law which the LORD had commanded by Moses...

Ezekiel 45:25 In the seventh month, in the fifteenth day of the month, shall he do the like in the feast of the seven days...

Zechariah 14:16-19 And it shall come to pass...

John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelled among us, (and we beheld his glory...

Hebrews 11:9-13 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob...