Chapters 28, 29. P

The amounts of public offerings at the sacred seasons

The following are the seasons for which offerings are enjoined:—(1) every morning and evening (Numbers 28:3-8), (2) the Sabbath (Numbers 28:9 f.), (3) the first day of each month (Numbers 28:11-15) [the Passover is mentioned Numbers 28:16), but no offering is commanded], (4) the seven days of Unleavened Cakes (Numbers 28:17-25), (5) the Feast of Weeks (Numbers 28:26-31), (6) the first day of the sacred seventh month, i.e. the Feast of Trumpets (Numbers 29:1-6), (7) the tenth day of the seventh month, i.e. the Day of Atonement (Numbers 29:7-11), (8) the fifteenth to the twenty-first day of the seventh month, i.e. the seven days of the Feast of Booths (Numbers 29:12-31), (9) the additional, eighth, day of the Feast of Booths (Numbers 29:35-38). Nos. (7) and (9) shew that the list is post-exilic, for neither was observed before the time of Ezra.

The offerings are of four kinds:—burnt-offerings (the flesh of animals), meal-offerings (meal and oil), drink-offerings or libations (wine), and sin-offerings (one he-goat). Similar lists, not, however, so complete and systematic, are found in the Law of Holiness (Leviticus 23) and Ezekiel 45:18 to Ezekiel 46:15. The amounts of the meal-offerings and libations have already been given in Numbers 15:1-16. The animals to be offered are as follows:—4 lambs for a burnt-offering on the Sabbath, and 2 on each of the other days in the week; on all the holy-days except the Sabbath one he-goat for a sin-offering; and in addition to these the following animals:

  Lambs  Rams  Bullocks

1st day of each month  7  1  2

Each of the 7 days of Unleavened Cakes  7  1  2

Feast of Weeks  7  1  2

1st day of 7th month  7  1  1

10th day of 7th month  7  1  1

Each of the 7 days of the Feast of Booths also 13 bullocks on the 1st day, and decreasing by one on each succeeding day.  14  2  

8th day of the Feast of Booths  7  1  1Verse 1. - The Lord spake unto Moses. It is impossible to say with any assurance whether the law of offerings contained in these two chapters was really given to Moses shortly before his death, or whether it was ever given in this connected and completed form. It is obvious that the formula with which the section opens might be used with equal propriety to introduce a digest of the law on this subject compiled by Moses himself, or by some subsequent editor of his writings from a number of scattered regulations, written or oral, which had Divine authority. It is indeed quite true that this routine of sacrifice was only suitable for times of settled habitation in the promised land, and therefore there is a certain propriety in its introduction here on the eve of the entry into Canaan. But it must be remembered, on the other hand, that the same thing holds true of very much of the legislation given at Mount Sinai, and avowedly of that comprised in chapter 15 (see verse 2), which yet appears from its position to have been given before the rebellion of Korah in the wilderness. It is indeed plain that the ritual, festal, and sacrificial system, both as elaborated in Leviticus and as supplemented in Numbers, presupposed throughout an almost immediate settlement in Canaan. It is also plain that a system so elaborate, and entailing so much care and expense, could hardly have come into regular use during the conquest, or for some time after. It cannot, therefore, be said with any special force that the present section finds its natural place here. All we can affirm is that the system itself was of Divine origin, and dated in substance from the days of Moses. In any case, therefore, it is rightly introduced with the usual formula which attests that it came from God, and came through Moses. It must be noted that a great variety of observances which were zealously followed by the Jews of later ages find no place here. Compare, e.g., the ceremonial pouring of water during the feast of tabernacles, to which allusion is made by the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 12:3) and our Lord (John 7:37, 38). The Lord then appointed Joshua to this office as a man "who had spirit." רוּה (spirit) does not mean "insight and wisdom" (Knobel), but the higher power inspired by God into the soul, which quickens the moral and religious life, and determines its development; in this case, therefore, it was the spiritual endowment requisite for the office he was called to fill. Moses was to consecrate him for entering upon this office by the laying on of hands, or, as is more fully explained in Numbers 27:19 and Numbers 27:20, he was to set him before Eleazar the high priest and the congregation, to command (צוּה) him, i.e., instruct him with regard to his office before their eyes, and to lay of his eminence (הוד) upon him, i.e., to transfer a portion of his own dignity and majesty to him by the imposition of hands, that the whole congregation might hearken to him, or trust to his guidance. The object to ישׁמעוּ (hearken) must be supplied from the context, viz., אליו (to him), as Deuteronomy 34:9 clearly shows. The מן (of) in Numbers 27:20 is partitive, as in Genesis 4:4, etc. The eminence and authority of Moses were not to be entirely transferred to Joshua, for they were bound up with his own person alone (cf. Numbers 12:6-8), but only so much of it as he needed for the discharge of the duties of his office. Joshua was to be neither the lawgiver nor the absolute governor of Israel, but to be placed under the judgment of the Urim, with which Eleazar was entrusted, so far as the supreme decision of the affairs of Israel was concerned. This is the meaning of Numbers 27:21 : "Eleazar shall ask to him (for him) the judgment of the Urim before Jehovah." Urim is an abbreviation for Urim and Thummim (Exodus 28:30), and denotes the means with which the high priest was entrusted of ascertaining the divine will and counsel in all the important business of the congregation. "After his mouth" (i.e., according to the decision of the high priest, by virtue of the right of Urim and Thummim entrusted to him), Joshua and the whole congregation were to go out and in, i.e., to regulate their conduct and decide upon their undertakings. "All the congregation," in distinction from 'all the children of Israel," denotes the whole body of heads of the people, or the college of elders, which represented the congregation and administered its affairs. Numbers 28:1 Interlinear
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