When Jesus incarnated in the Holy Land, He kept the Old Testament (OT) feasts the Lord gave to Israel (including the Jews). Jn.7:2 NASB “Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was at hand.” In the Jn.7 verses that follow, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for this pilgrim feast.
It was celebrated annually, usually in early October, beginning around 15 days after the September equinox. (The start date varies slightly from year-to-year; their calendar differed from ours.) What did this week-long, or 8-day, festival celebrate? Why was it called the Feast of Booths? That’s a strange name for a feast. To understand why it was called that, let’s go back to the book of Exodus.
Most Bible students are generally familiar with the Exodus account where the Lord God freed Moses and the Israelites from Egyptian bondage. This topic will note their first camps upon departure, their time in the wilderness, and the memorial relation to the later Feast of Booths they’d celebrate in the land of Canáan. (There was no Feast of Booths prescribed in Egypt.)
As they were leaving Egypt that spring, in Ex.12:37-38 “The sons of Israel journeyed from Ramesés to Sukkóth [Strongs h5523, Hebrew], 600,000 men on foot”. Rameses was another name for the Góshen area of Egypt where the ancient Israelites lived, and/or a city in Goshen (Ge.47:6, 11). There were perhaps two million Israelites, counting the women & children with the “mixed multitude”.
The proper noun Sukkoth (h5523) meant ‘booths’, according to Strongs Bible Dictionary, ISBE, etc.
At least two places are named Sukkoth (h5523) in the Bible. The one was there in Egypt. Another was east of the Jordan River, in the area of Canaan which would later be allotted to the Israelite tribe of Gad.
A few centuries earlier, the patriarch Jacob had stopped at the other Sukkoth as he was re-entering the land of Canaan from NW Mesopotámia. Ge.33:17 “Jacob journeyed to Sukkoth [h5523] and built for himself a house, and made booths [sukkót h5521] for his livestock; therefore he named the place Sukkoth [h5523 Booths].” The term sukkot is the plural of sukkáh/booth h5521. Those booths referred to a temporary hut, shelter, or lean-to. Booths/sukkot were erected for people or livestock. Unlike tents, such booths weren’t portable.
Much later the prophet Jonah built a temporary booth for himself just east of Nineveh. Jnh.4:5-6 “He made a booth [h5521] and sat under it. The Lord appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head. Jonah was very glad to have the plant.” Those make-shift booths provided partial protection from the elements.
When the Israelites left Egypt, they remained in the wilderness for 40 years (Ne.9:21). But they didn’t dwell in open-air huts/booths for that time! Such huts were used by harvesters, and are uncommon in the desert. The wilderness climate in that area could be harsh, with intense heat and bitter cold. Furthermore, in the dry wilderness there wasn’t enough forestland or necessary foliage for men to keep erecting a lean-to as family dwellings…not for all those people for 40 years!
Rather, in the wilderness the Israelite families lived in tents. Ex.16:1, 16 indicate that God began the manna provision 30 days or so after they left Egypt. “Gather it every man according to the number of persons each of you has in his tent [óhel h168].” Ex.33:10 “All the people would arise and worship, each at the entrance of his tent [h168].”
Fred H. Wright Manners and Customs of Bible Lands “The Children of Israel lived in tents during their 40 years in the wilderness.” Dr. David HaCohen When and Where the Israelites Dwelt in Sukkot “When staying in places for short periods, people use tents and don’t live in booths (i.e., sukkot), which are heavy and unwieldy. Wandering people don’t use booths.” Also Nu.11:10, 16:27; De.1:27; Jsh.3:14 are some of the verses which show the Israelites living in tents for those years…not in booths.
Tents were made of animal skins or cloths/canvas, and were portable. The term sukkot (h5521 booths) is never used as wilderness dwellings for the Israelites, except when it refers to the “Feast of Booths”.
Yet the Lord instructed Moses that native-born Israelites in the Land of Canaan were to keep an annual “Feast of Booths” (h5521) in the early autumn. The Feast of Booths is specifically noted in ten OT verses: Le.23:34; De.16:13, 16, 31:10; 2Ch.8:13; Ezr.3:4; Ne.8:14; Zec.14:16, 18, 19.
The translation of words into other languages is sometimes imprecise. Also the meanings of words within a language change over time.
The Feast of Booths is called the Feast of Tabernacles in many Bibles (Tyndale, KJV, etc.).
Our English word ‘tabernacle’ comes from the Latin words tabérna and then tabernáculum, used to translate the OT Greek Septúagint term skené (g4633). Tabernaculum meant a booth, hut, tent, or place of worship. It may be portable or stationary. And our noun ‘tabernacle’ too is a rather general term.
In scripture, “tabernacle” most often referred to the portable sacred tent in which the Lord dwelt among the Israelites during the centuries prior to the construction of Solomon’s temple. The Hebrew OT term mishkán (h4908) is translated “tabernacle”. The roof of God’s mishkan/tabernacle structure was a tent (h168; g4633 Septuagint/LXX) covering made of goat’s hair and ram skins, Ex.26:1, 7-14.
However, in the LXX, the term skene (g4633) was used as the translation for both mishkan/tabernacle (h4908) and ohel/tent (h168)! The term skene isn’t explicit, and misunderstandings have resulted.
In the previously noted ten OT verses where “Feast of Booths” (sukkot h5521) occurs, the LXX NETS has the following: “Feast of Tents” (skene g4633) in Le.23:34; De.16:13; 2Ch.8:13; Ezr.3:4; Ne.8:14. “Feast of Tent Pitching” (skenopegía g4634) in De.16:16, 31:10; Zec.14:16, 18, 19. A stationary hut or lean-to shelter isn’t apparent in those LXX verses! In Jn.7:2, this feast is literally the “Feast of Tent Pitching” (g4634). Some Bibles render Jn.7:2 the “Feast of Booths”, others the “Feast of Tabernacles”.
So we see that in part, the mix of terms used in translations is a problem of derivation and semantics.
Philologos: Booths, Tabernacles, Tents and Huts “Rather than speak of…tabernacles that aren’t tabernacles and booths that aren’t booths, it is indeed more sensible to say Sukkot.” As Jews call it.
The Hebrew mishkan (h4908) is rendered tabernacle in English. But in the Hebrew OT the autumn feast is never called the “Feast of Mishkan”, even though the Lord dwelt in His tabernacle. Nor is this feast called the “Feast of Ohel” (h168 tents), even though the Israelites dwelt in tents in the wilderness and a tent covered God’s tabernacle. Rather, this autumn feast is called the Feast of Sukkot/Booths.
Let’s look at the Feast of Booths, starting in Le.23:34 NASB. “On the 15th of this 7th month is the Feast of Booths [Sukkot h5521] for seven days to the Lord.” The Latin Vulgate version (400 AD) has “fériae tabernaculorum” for “Feast of Booths”. The Tyndale Bible (1530 AD) has “Feast of Tabernacles.”
Lev.23.39-40 “When you have in-gathered the crops of the Land [of Canaan], on the first day you shall take the foliage of beautiful trees, palm branches, and boughs of leafy trees and willows, and you shall rejoice before the Lord for seven days.” Israelites were to travel to one location and on the first day of the Feast gather boughs and branches to erect their family booths/huts (and then worship nearby at God’s tabernacle or temple). Ne.8:14-18 repeats these instructions for this Feast.
(Note: For a Feast of Booths today, many Jews traditionally erect in their own yards open-air booths with boughs, branches and leafy roofs. They’re made of foliage and last a week or so before decaying.)
Continuing with Le.23:42-43. “For seven days all the native-born in Israel shall live in booths [h5521], so that your generations may know that I had the sons of Israel live in booths [h5521] when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I AM the Lord your God.” What!?
It seems something in that passage doesn’t add up! Above were noted several scriptures which say the ancient Israelites lived in (portable) tents after departing Egypt…not in booths! So why would God want their descendants to know the Israelites had lived in booths (and not tents) when leaving Egypt?
Again, families didn’t actually live in booths for 40 years. Rather, what Le.23:43 meant is…their first camp upon leaving was…the Egyptian town of Sukkoth (h5523), which means ‘booths’! Probably it was a place of such shelters. Pulpit Commentary Ex.12:37 “The meaning of the word ‘Succoth’ is ‘booths’…Huts made of reeds are common at the present day in the tract SE of Tunis [Egypt].” Ellicott Commentary “The district SE of Tanis…in which clusters of ‘booths’ have been at all times common.”
Ex.12:37, Nu.33:5, the supposed Book of Jasher 81:5…corroborate this first stop on their journey. JFB Commentary Le.23:43, regarding the future Feast of Booths, “In memory of their first lodging at Sukkoth, they [later] kept the feast in shelters formed from tree boughs.”
Some ancient peoples observed sacrificial harvest festivals. Moses had said to Pharaoh in Ex.8:27 (also in Ex.3:18, 5:3), “We must go a three days’ journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God as He commands us”. (This occasion would be during their first keeping of the Feast of Unleavened Bread that spring.) Finally, in Ex.12:31 an exasperated Pharaoh relents. “Get out from among my people, and go, worship the Lord, as you have said.”
The Feast of Booths commemorated this. The place Sukkoth signified their deliverance and freedom! They were no longer a slave people. Thus the Feast of Sukkot/Booths was a celebration of the exodus from Egypt. (The remembrance is akin to the Passover in Egypt.) They became the free people of God!
Nu.33:3-5 “They journeyed from Rameses on the 15th day [by night, De.16:1]…and camped in Sukkoth.” Then late in the 2nd afternoon, 16th Abíb, they camped in Ethám at the wilderness (Nu.33:6; Ex.13:20; Jash.81:7). Then late on the 3rd day, 17th Abib, by Pihahiróth (Nu.33:7; Ex.14:2; Jash.81:12).
When the Israelites hadn’t returned from worship after three days…Pharaoh’s army chased them after the 5th day (from Jash.81:13-14). Ex.14:9 Pharaoh overtook them by Pihahiroth/the sea. Traditionally, the ancient Israelites crossed through the sea on the 7th day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
{Sidelight: At the time of their exodus from Egypt, God commanded the Israelites to observe the 7-day Feast of Unleavened Bread (not to be confused with the autumnal Feast of Booths). De.16:3 their bread was unleavened because they left in haste. (Also leaven can represent sin…ref Mt.16:6, 12; 1Co.5:6-8; Ac.20:6.) The Lord said in Ex.12:15-17, “Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the 1st day you shall have a holy assembly, and another holy assembly on the 7th day. You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt.” The holy occasion of the Passover meal occurred on the 1st day just before the Egyptian firstborn were killed (Ex.12:8, 29). The holy assembly of the 7th day occurred just after the Egyptian army was killed (drowned) in the sea. This spring Feast also commemorated Israel’s deliverance and freedom!
Poole Commentary Ex.12:16 “The 7th day, because then Pharaoh and his host were drowned in the sea. As on the 1st day when the firstborn were killed; so their deliverance was begun on the 1st and completed on the 7th day, and therefore those [two] days deserve a special character of honor.” Rabbi Greg Killian The Seventh Day of Pésach “All of the Egyptian army, their horses…died on the 7th day of Pesach [Passover]. They all were killed by water. Moses and Miriam sang/‘will sing’ a song to HaShém [the Name].” Ex.15:1-22 is the song of deliverance, sung on the 7th day for their holy assembly at the shore of the sea. The traditional Book of Jubilees 49:23, “You [Israelites] celebrated this festival [Unleavened Bread] with haste when you went forth from Egypt till you entered into the wilderness of Shur [Ex.15:22]; for on the shore of the sea you completed it”. So only the 1st and 7th days of the annual Feast of Unleavened Bread, not the intermediate days, were commanded by the Lord as holy convocations for Israel. They’d become free! (also see the topic “Passover and the Exodus Timing”.)}
The Israelites then spent 40 years in the wilderness…so long a time was due to their ensuing sin and unbelief (Nu.14:22-23). The autumn Feast of Sukkot/Booths didn’t celebrate those sins and 38 years of dying in the wilderness! The Le.23:42-43 command that they’d keep a memorial Feast of Booths in Canaan was given by God in the 1st year after leaving Egypt, while they were at Mt. Sinai (Le.27:34)! Following the Ex.12 Passover in Egypt and their exit, they kept the next year’s Passover in Nu.9. They broke camp at Sinai in the 2nd month of the 2nd year (Nu.10:11-13). This was before their wanderings!
It wasn’t until more than a year after departing Egypt that God decreed most of the males over age 20 would die in the wilderness (Nu.14:26-38). Excluded from this decree were Joshua & Caleb, Levites (cf. Nu.14:29 & Nu.1:46-47), women. And that they’d then wander for 38 more years.
The Feast of Sukkot/Booths wasn’t to celebrate their disobedience or 40 years in the wilderness! And again, it wasn’t that they dwelt in lean-to shelters of foliage for 40 years. Rather…their first camp as a free people was at the place called Sukkoth/Booths (in Egypt).
In scripture, the Feast of Booths is also called the Feast of Ingathering (h614), Ex.23:16, 34:22. They would gather-in the later summer crops of the Land of Canaan. The Feast of Ingathering was at the end of the fig, grape, pomegranate harvest. It was a festival of rejoicing (Le.23:40). Not only being thankful for their harvest, but they were to rejoice in the memory of their deliverance from Egyptian bondage prior to entering Canaan. (Also De.16:13, their custom was to live in booths while harvesting grapes. This custom has survived in Palestine. ref International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: Wine, and Jewish Encyclopedia: Tabernacles, Feast Of.) also see my topic “Feasts of the Lord and the Jews”.
But there’s yet more significance to the Feast of Booths. Notice Is.4:5-6, “The Lord will create over Mt. Zion a cloud by day and flaming fire by night. There will be a booth (h5521) to give shade from the heat by day and refuge and protection.” Isaiah indicated that God’s cloud is another type of booth.
The Shekéenah glory cloud was as a booth, providing God’s protection & shelter. Previously the Israelites experienced this, beginning when they were entering the wilderness. Ex.13:20-22 “They set out from Sukkoth [h5523 Booths] and camped in Etham on the edge of the wilderness. And the Lord was going before them in a pillar of cloud by day to lead them on the way, and a pillar of fire by night.”
So God’s glory cloud as a booth/sukkah (Is.4:6) began protecting them as they left Sukkoth the place of booths! (God later even provided a plant to shade Jonah in his booth/sukkah.) The Shekinah glory began sheltering Israel as they departed Sukkoth the place of booths/shelters! Again Le.23:42-43, so future generations at the Feast of Booths would remember how God had delivered and protected them.
In Nu.16:42, 20:6, the glory cloud was still appearing (to guide Moses). Ne.9:19-21 says the Shekinah glory accompanied them for all 40 years in the wilderness! God’s cloud by day and fire by night gave some covering from the heat, and provided some warmth from the cold, of the wilderness/desert.
De.1:2 it was actually only an 11-day journey from the Horéb mountains to Kadésh-barnéa…near where the Israelites spent 38 years. Yet in spite of their disobedience, the Shekinah glory remained with the Israelites the whole time. The Lord is so compassionate and gracious!
The Feast of Sukkot/Booths signified God’s providence, His loving care and protection. Then, decades after being delivered from Egypt (representative of bondage)…following the 7-day Feast of Booths, the 8th day celebration (Le.23:39) of Shémini Atzerét or ‘eighth assembly’ signified the new order of things for Israel as now free in the Promised Land! (In addition, see “God Tabernacles With Humans”.)
Thanks be to God for His continual loving care and protection…in which we too, His New Covenant people in the order of Melchisedek (Ps.110:4), are privileged to share!
Bible Topic Exposition 