Tabernacles, the Feast of

Tabernacles, the Feast of the third of the three great annual festivals, the other two being the feasts of the Passover and Pentecost, on which' the whole male population were required to appear before the Lord in the national sanctuary. It was a celebration of the ingathering of all the fruits of the year, and in general import as well as time corresponded to the modern Thanksgiving season. See FESTIVAL.

I. Names and their Signification. — This festival is called —

1. חִג הִסֻּכּוֹת, Chag has-Sukkoth; Sept. ἑορτὴ σκηνῶν, the Festival of Tents; Vulg. feriae tabernaculorum; A.V. the Feast of Tabernacles (2Ch 8:13; Ezr 3:4; Zec 14:16,18-19); σκηνοπηγία (Joh 7:2; Josephus, Ant. 8:4, 5); σκηναί (Philo, De Sept. § 24); ἡ σκηνή (Plutarch, Sympos. 4:6, 2); because every Israelite was commanded to live in tabernacles during its continuance (comp. Le 23:43).