This verse concludes the list of the three main festivals, which is introduced by verse 14. (See also 34.23.) Three times a year repeats the phrase, but it uses a later Hebrew word for times (literally “beats”). All your males uses the singular your, and males is a collective noun for “men” in contrast to women. Shall … appear is simply “they shall be seen,” or “they shall make an appearance.” Good News Translation makes it explicit that it is imperative that the males come to the place of worship, with “must come to worship me….”

Before the Lord GOD is literally “unto the face of the Lord Yahweh.” This means coming “into the presence of the Lord GOD.” Note that GOD is all in capital letters, while Lord is in lower case letters. This is because the name “Yahweh” is usually represented as “LORD,” and it would be awkward to say “before the Lord LORD.”

Good News Translation usually translates this combination as “Sovereign LORD” (so also New International Version and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), but here we find “the Lord your God.” This is because a shorter form of Lord is used (ʾadon instead of ʾadonay), and because Good News Translation follows the Septuagint in adding the pronoun, “your God.” Note also that Good News Translation changes the third person to second, “all your men must come to worship me, the Lord your God.” If “your God” is normally translated as “the God whom you worship [or, serve]” in a receptor language, one may then translate “Your men must come to these three festivals each year and appear before me, Yahweh, the God whom you worship.”

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .