Numberschapter 28
31 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
Command the children of Israel, and say unto them, My offering, and my bread for my sacrifices made by fire, for a sweet savour unto me, shall ye observe to offer unto me in their due season.
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Numbers Overview.
This chapter opens a calendar of public worship given to the generation about to enter the land. It belongs to the last block of law in Numbers, spoken on the plains of Moab. The chapter reads as a schedule, and priests used it as one, since they had to know what each day and season required. Listen for the offering that stands underneath all the others, a lamb at the start and the close of every day. Listen also for the fixed measures of flour, oil and wine that rise with the size of each animal. They show the steady rhythm of a nation's worship and its cost.
Context
- Who
- The second generation, a few months from crossing into a land where they would farm the grain and raise the flocks this calendar spends
- What
- A schedule of the public offerings for each day, each Sabbath, each new moon, the Passover week and the Feast of Weeks.
- Where
- The camp on the plains of Moab, with the offerings meant for the altar of the tabernacle and later the temple.
- When
- The fortieth year after the exodus, in the last months before the crossing, about 1406 BC by the count of 1 Kings 6:1, or near 1230 BC on a later dating of the exodus.
- Why
- To fix the nation's regular worship before it entered the land, so that no season passed without its offering.
Historical context
The chapter is the LORD's word through Moses, who by now has handed the army to Joshua and the priesthood to Eleazar. It stands in the fortieth year after the exodus, on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho. Numbers 33:48 places the camp there, and Numbers 36:13 says the last laws of the book were given there. The occasion is the settlement now within reach. The second census has counted the generation that will cross, and chapter 27 has appointed the man to lead them. So a nation with no field of its own receives the schedule of harvest offerings it will owe once it has one. Albert Barnes reads the scale of the system as pointing past the desert to the settled land, citing Deuteronomy 12:8 and 12:9. A first hearer knew the measures by sight, since an ephah held about twenty-two litres and a hin about four. He also knew the daily offering of verses 3 to 8 as the fixed point of the sanctuary's day, a lamb at dawn and a lamb at dusk. Every other offering in the chapter is added on top of it and displaces none of it.
Significance
Israel's neighbours ran their year on the fertility of a local god. This calendar fixed Israel's year to the LORD and priced it in the same goods, which were animals, grain and wine. The daily pair of lambs carried the weight. Twice a day, whatever else the nation was doing, something was burning on that altar, so the relationship held steady while the worshippers came and went.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
Two rules of practice stand in Rashi on this chapter. The first governs a missed offering. The burnt offering of a Sabbath belongs to that Sabbath, and if the day passes the offering is cancelled rather than doubled on the next one (Rashi on Numbers 28:10:1, citing Sifrei Bamidbar 144:2). He states the same rule for the offering of the new month (Rashi on Numbers 28:14:1). The second governs the festival day itself. Rashi holds that the ban on servile work reaches even work that cannot be postponed without loss. Such work is allowed on the middle days of Passover and Tabernacles and is forbidden on the festival day (Rashi on Numbers 28:18:1). That the same distinction between a festival day and the middle days still orders a Jewish festival week is the writer's reading of Rashi's rule, and is not a claim the corpus makes.
How it is read
Rashi reads the opening of this chapter against the end of the last one. Moses had asked God to set a man over the congregation, and the answer here reverses the direction. Instead of giving God a command about his children, Moses is to command the children about God (Rashi on Numbers 28:2:1, citing Sifrei Bamidbar 142:1). Rashi adds a parable of a princess leaving the world and charging her husband about her children. He also notes that the command to speak is addressed to the court (Rashi on Numbers 28:3:1).
The commands for the daily offering are read as new law rather than repetition. Rashi holds that Exodus 29:38 gave the rule for the days when the priests were installed, and that this chapter gives it for all generations (Rashi on Numbers 28:4:1). On the words about Sinai he reports two readings. In the first the daily offering is compared with the offerings of the installation. In the second it is compared with the burnt offering before the giving of the Torah, from which the Rabbis learned that the blood must be received in a vessel (Rashi on Numbers 28:6:1). The pleasing smell he reads as God's satisfaction that his command was carried out (Rashi on Numbers 28:8:1).
The goat of the new month carries the strangest note in the chapter. Rashi gives the legal reading first. The goats of the additional offerings atone for uncleanness brought into the sanctuary, and this one covers the case that nobody knew about at all (Rashi on Numbers 28:15:1, citing Shevuot 9a). He then reports the aggadic reading beside it. God said, "Bring an atonement offering for My sake, because I diminished the size of the Moon" (Rashi on Numbers 28:15:1, citing Chullin 60b). Rashi gives the two readings in that order and does not choose between them.
Ramban works out a point of measure at the twentieth verse. The three tenth parts are for each bullock rather than for the pair together. He argues it from the wording used of the lambs, where Scripture repeats the measure and then says it plainly for every lamb of the seven. He adds that Scripture speaks briefly where the sense is obvious, and states the measure in full at the feast of Tabernacles because the bullocks are more (Ramban on Numbers 28:20:1, the Chavel translation, CC-BY).
Rashi reads two more details as rules with a reason. The offerings of the seven days of Passover stay the same each day, unlike the bullocks of Tabernacles, which decrease (Rashi on Numbers 28:24:1). The feast of Weeks is called the day of firstlings because of the two loaves, which were the first meal offering from the new wheat (Rashi on Numbers 28:26:1, citing Menachot 84b). On the last verse he holds that the drink offerings must be without blemish as well, and reports that the Rabbis ruled wine showing mould unfit (Rashi on Numbers 28:31:1, citing Menachot 87a).
Ibn Ezra comments at four places here and Malbim at three, and the corpus carries none of their text. Ibn Ezra stands cited at Numbers 28:1:1, 28:11:1, 28:16:1 and 28:22:1 because the licence Sefaria reports does not permit keeping it. Malbim stands cited at Numbers 28:1:1, 28:9:1 and 28:27:1 because Sefaria holds no English version.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. Twenty-four of them are Talmudic and sixteen are midrashic. The Jerusalem Talmud carries the heaviest run, at thirteen places. It stands at Berakhot 4:1:28, Rosh Hashanah 1:1:14 and 1:5:1, Shekalim 7:3:8, Shabbat 15:3:1 and 15:3:6, Sanhedrin 4:6:5, Pesachim 4:6:2, Chagigah 1:6:2, Nedarim 3:2:5 and Sotah 2:1:9. Menachot stands at 45a:1, 45a:10, 51a:1, 87a:24 and 91b:12, and Arakhin at 10b:1, 13b:2 and 18b:7. Chagigah stands at 6b:3, Bekhorot at 17a:13, Berakhot at 14b:24, Bava Kamma at 111a:12, and Avot DeRabbi Natan Recension B at 37:10.
The midrashic locators follow the same verses. Bamidbar Rabbah stands at 3:13, 10:8, 12:3, 21:17, 21:21 and 21:23. Midrash Lekach Tov stands at Numbers 28:5:1, 28:8:1, 28:18:1 and 28:20:1, and at Leviticus 10:16:1. Bereshit Rabbah stands at 44:14 and 99:3. Aggadat Bereshit stands at 83:1, Ein Yaakov at Khagigah 1:11, and Sifrei Bamidbar at 143:3. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text, because the corpus holds these locators without it.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Numbers 28:2:1 to 28:31:1, the Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary translated by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, public domain; Ramban, Ramban on Numbers 28:20:1, the Commentary on the Torah translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel, New York, Shilo Publishing House, 1971 to 1976, CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Numbers 28:1:1, 28:11:1, 28:16:1 and 28:22:1, cited by ref because the licence the corpus reports does not permit keeping the text; Malbim, Malbim on Numbers 28:1:1, 28:9:1 and 28:27:1, cited by ref because Sefaria holds no English version; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/numbers/28.json, the 24 Talmud and 16 Midrash locators of this chapter, fetched 2026-09-19.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A lamb in the morning, a lamb at dusk
Numbers 28:1-2
A nation with no field is handed a schedule of harvest offerings, which Barnes reads as pointing to the settled land, since Deuteronomy 12:9 says "you have not yet come to the resting place". Calvin treats "the food for My offerings" as a hard expression for a people needing the rite made plain. Psalm 50:12 answers from God's side: "If I were hungry, I would not tell you".
Numbers 28:1
“The daily offering had been already commanded Exo 29:38, and no doubt additional offerings had become customary on festivals. But no such elaborate system as is here prescribed was or could possibly have been observed in the wilderness: compare Deu 12:8-9. The regulations of this and the next chapter therefore point to the immediate prospect of that settlement in Canaan which alone could enable the Israelites to obey them. Compare the ordinances in Num. 15.”
Matthew Henry gives reasons for repeating these laws now. A new generation had grown up since Sinai, and a people going to war might think worship could wait. The appointed times still held. John Wesley adds that the offerings had been largely discontinued for thirty-eight years, and the land where they would be kept was now in sight.
Numbers 28:2
“It is indeed a hard expression, but the rudeness of His ancient people obliged Him to speak thus grossly, that, on the one hand, they might learn this rite to be acceptable to God, just as food is acceptable to man; and, on the other, that they might study to offer their sacrifices more purely and chastely.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
Numbers 28:3-8
Verse 6 dates this offering to Mount Sinai, where Exodus 29:38-42 had commanded it, and tamid, the word rendered regular, governs the chapter as every feast is laid on it. Barnes notes that the "fermented drink" of verse 7 usually names drink other than wine, barley drink standing in for it in the desert. Paul applies the poured drink offering to himself at Philippians 2:17 and 2 Timothy 4:6.
Numbers 28:3
“But we have said that thus men were reminded always to have God before their eyes in their daily food; and therefore in every way to accustom themselves to cultivate holiness.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
John Gill notes that the Hebrew for twilight is between the two evenings. He cites the Targum of Jonathan, where the morning lamb atoned for the sins of the night and the evening lamb for those of the day. Sacrifice opened and closed each day. Gill reads the pair as a figure of Christ, the Lamb of God of John 1:29.
Numbers 28:4
“The one lamb shalt thou offer in the morning,.... Every morning, to make atonement for the sins of the night, as the Targum of Jonathan: and the other lamb shall thou offer at even; or "between the two evenings", to make atonement for the sins of the day, as the same Targum; in which they prefigured Christ, the Lamb of God, who continually, every day, morning and night, and every moment, takes away the sins of his people, through the virtue and efficacy of his sacrifice, Joh 1:29; see Gill on Exo 29:39.”
The grain offering always went with the burnt offering. John Gill explains that flour and oil mixed together made the minchah, a bread offering, with oil standing in for butter in that country. Albert Barnes reads the grain as the people giving God the fruit of their labour along with the animal.
Numbers 28:5
“And the tenth part of an ephah of flour for a meat offering,.... Which always went along with the burnt offering: mingled with the fourth part of an hin of beaten oil: which in those times and countries was used instead of butter; and fine flour and this mingled together made a "minchah", or bread offering, as it should rather be called; of the measures used; see Gill on Exo 29:40.”
John Calvin reads the mention of Sinai as a recommendation, since the rite had been offered to God from that time. He renders the pleasing aroma as a savour of rest. Matthew Henry reports Bishop Patrick's view that the daily lamb was kept up morning and evening even in the wilderness years.
John Wesley places the pouring at the altar of burnt offering, in the priests' court near the entrance to the sanctuary. Matthew Henry notes that the drink was poured out and never drunk, yet the strongest was required. Henry's lesson is to serve God with the best.
Numbers 28:7
“The original of the word “strong wine” שׁכר shêkār is a term usually employed to describe strong drink other than wine (Lev 10:9 note). The Israelites in the wilderness had, in their lack of wine, substituted shechar made from barley for it. They had thus observed the spirit, though not the letter of the ordinance. The drink-offering was either poured round the foot of the altar; or on the altar, and so upon the flesh of the sacrifice by which the altar was covered (compare Exo 30:9).”
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 28:7
“The wine must be strong (says Ainsworth) because it was a figure of the blood of Christ, the memorial of which is still left to the church in wine, and of the blood of the martyrs, which was poured out as a drink-offering upon the sacrifice and service of our faith, Phil. ii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The evening lamb repeats the morning one exactly. John Calvin says the daily rite reminded Israel to keep God before their eyes at their daily food. Matthew Henry draws an application for Christian readers, that they should at least pray every morning and every evening.
Sabbaths and the beginnings of months
Numbers 28:9-10
on the sabbath day: No Sabbath burnt offering had been commanded before this verse, as Barnes and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown each note, and the day doubles the daily lambs, the same rite at twice the measure. Ezekiel 46:4 gives "six unblemished male lambs and an unblemished ram" for the Sabbath in the temple vision. Matthew Henry reads that increase as Sabbath keeping enlarged rather than ended.
Numbers 28:9
“What was omitted in the former passage is here supplied, i.e., that on the Sabbath the continual sacrifice was to be doubled, and two lambs offered instead of one; for it was reasonable that, as the seventh day was peculiarly dedicated to God, it should be exalted above other days by some extraordinary and distinctive mark.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
Matthew Henry notes that the Hebrew reads the burnt offering of the sabbath in its sabbath. Each week's offering belonged to its own day. Henry draws from this that one sabbath's duty is not to be put off to another. John Calvin says the seventh day was given a distinctive mark because it was dedicated to God.
Numbers 28:10
“Though we observe not any feast of new moons, yet we must not forget to give God the glory of all the precious things put forth by the moon which he has established for ever, a faithful witness in heaven, Ps. lxxxix.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Numbers 28:11-15
The monthly offering is commanded here for the first time, the largest yet in the chapter. With it comes "one male goat" as a sin offering, so atonement is written into the calendar month by month, where Numbers 15:22-26 had waited on known guilt. Colossians 2:16 names "a New Moon" with a feast and a Sabbath when it tells the church to let no one judge them.
Numbers 28:11
“The New-moon offering is here also commanded for the first time. The goat as a sin-offering, though mentioned last, would seem in fact to have been offered first (compare the precedents in Exo. 29; Lev. 5; 8; 9; 14; 16). The sin-offering, which Num 15:22-26 had been contemplated in cases where a sin had been committed ignorantly without the knowledge of the congregation, was henceforth not to be offered merely at discretion, as circumstances might seem to require, but to be regularly repeated, not less frequently than once a month.”
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 28:11
“The beginning of the month was known, not by astronomical calculations, but, according to Jewish writers, by the testimony of messengers appointed to watch the first visible appearance of the new moon; and then the fact was announced through the whole country by signal-fires kindled on the mountain tops.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The grain offering grows with the size of the animal: three-tenths of an ephah for a bull, two-tenths for a ram and one tenth for a lamb. John Gill notes that the same scale returns for the Passover offerings at verse 20. The measure follows the animal.
The lamb takes the smallest measure, one tenth of an ephah, as at the daily offering in verse 5. Matthew Henry reports Bishop Patrick's observation that the chapter appoints no peace offerings. Burnt offerings were wholly for God. Henry calls them confessions of His dominion.
The wine rises with the animal as the flour does, from a quarter hin for a lamb to half a hin for a bull. Later practice added more to the day. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown cite trumpets over the sacrifices at Numbers 10:10, rest from work at Amos 8:5 and family feasts at 1 Samuel 20:5.
Albert Barnes notes that the goat, though named last, was probably offered first, as the sin offering is in the precedents of Exodus 29 and Leviticus. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown stress the words to the LORD. They read them as setting Israel's new moon apart from the moon feasts of Egypt and Syria.
Numbers 28:15
“For, when we give glory to God by confessing his mercies, we must give glory to him likewise by confessing our own sins; and, when we rejoice in the gifts of common providence, we must make the sacrifice of Christ, that great gift of special grace, the fountain and spring-head of our joy.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Passover and seven days of offerings
Numbers 28:16-19
the fourteenth day of the first month: The Passover is fixed by date and the Feast of Unleavened Bread runs seven days from the next day, as Exodus 12:6 and Leviticus 23:5-6 had set them. This chapter adds the altar offering for those days, which Barnes observes had not been prescribed before. The household lamb of Exodus 12 goes unmentioned, since the subject is what the nation brings, and verse 19 repeats the new moon's offering.
Numbers 28:16
“And in the fourteenth day of the first month,.... The month Nisan, as the Targum of Jonathan or Abib, which, upon the Israelites coming out of Egypt, and on that account, was made the first month; otherwise Tisri or September was the first month, see Exo 12:2, is the passover of the Lord; a feast in which a lamb was killed and eaten, in memory of the Lord's passing over the houses of the Israelites, when he slew the firstborn in Egypt; see Exo 12:6.”
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 28:16
“The Passover offering was the same as that of the New moon, and was repeated on each of the seven days of the festival, thus marking the importance and the solemnity of the occasion. The details of the offering had not been previously prescribed.”
John Gill notes that the Jews call this feast the Chagigah. It is the week of unleavened bread, and the Passover itself fell the day before. Matthew Henry points to 1 Corinthians 5:8, where Paul calls the Christian life the keeping of this feast.
Numbers 28:17
“And in the fifteenth day of this month is the feast,.... Not of the passover, that was the day before, but of unleavened bread, which began on this day, and lasted seven days, Lev 23:6 which is what the Jews call the Chagigah: seven days shall unleavened bread be eaten; see Exo 12:15.”
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 28:17
“A gospel conversation, in gratitude for Christ our passover who was sacrificed, is called the keeping of this feast ( 1 Cor. v. 8 ); for it is not enough that we purge out the leavened bread of malice and wickedness, but we must offer the bread of our God, even the sacrifice of praise, continually, and continue herein unto the end.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The first day opens with a holy assembly and rest from ordinary labour. John Gill notes one exception, the preparing of food, which Exodus 12:16 allowed. Verse 25 gives the seventh day the same rule.
Numbers 28:18
“In the first day shall be an holy convocation,.... The first of the seven days, which was kept in a very religious manner: ye shall do no manner of servile work therein; except by preparing food to eat; see Exo 12:16.”
Matthew Henry reads the size of the offering, given on every day of the week, as thanks for the deliverance from Egypt. Every animal had to be unblemished. The Passover lamb commemorated the night itself, and these offerings filled the week that followed.
Numbers 28:19
“But ye shall offer a sacrifice made by fire for a burnt offering unto the Lord,.... Which was to be of the creatures next mentioned: two young bullocks, &c. the same with the burnt offering on the first day of the month, Num 28:11.”
Numbers 28:20-25
Verse 24 orders "the same food each day for seven days", so the week keeps its full measure and the daily lambs continue beneath it. A goat for sin in a week of gladness is, for Matthew Henry, confession keeping company with joy.
Numbers 28:20
“And their meat offering,.... The quantity of flour for which is the same for a bullock, a ram, and a lamb, as in Num 28:12.”
Each of the seven lambs receives its own tenth of an ephah, so the lambs alone take seven tenths. With the bulls and the ram, each day of the feast used an ephah and a half of flour. That comes to ten and a half ephahs for the week. Matthew Henry says the people were to be liberal in their sacrifices on each of the seven days.
John Gill notes that even a holy convocation needed a sin offering, since guilt clung to the worshippers' holy things. He cites Maimonides that the goat of this offering was eaten on the sixteenth of Nisan. Gill reads it as a figure of Christ.
Numbers 28:22
“And one goat for a sin offering, to make atonement for you. For notwithstanding all their services and sacrifices, and though this day was an holy convocation, yet there was need of a sin offering to expiate their guilt, typical of Christ, who takes away the sins of our holy things as well as all other sins: this sin offering also was of that sort which were eaten; for Maimonides says (k), the goat of the sin offering was eaten on the second day of the passover, which was the sixteenth of Nisan. (k) Maimon. Hilchot Tamidin, c. 7. sect.”
Only the morning lamb is named, and John Wesley explains why. The feast began with it, and a morning crowded with sacrifices might have seemed a reason to drop it. The evening lamb raised no such question. John Gill adds that the daily offering was never to be left off, however many others the day held.
Numbers 28:23
“Ye shall offer these beside the burnt offering in the morning,.... The daily morning sacrifice, and also besides the daily evening sacrifices, though it is not expressed: which is for a continual burnt offering; and not to be intermitted on any account, let the sacrifices of the day be ever so numerous; great care is taken to observe this.”
The word food ties this verse back to verse 2, where the offerings are called the food for My offerings. Over seven days the rule yields fourteen bulls, seven rams and forty-nine lambs. The total is large. Albert Barnes says the daily repetition marks the importance and solemnity of the feast.
The week ends as it began, with a sacred assembly and rest. Matthew Henry notes that the first and last days were kept like sabbaths, with a holy rest and a holy gathering, while all seven days carried the full offering. John Gill adds that food could still be prepared.
Numbers 28:25
“And on the seventh day ye shall have an holy convocation,.... As on the first: ye shall do no servile work; unless in dressing food.”
The day of the firstfruits
Numbers 28:26-31
This feast has no date in any month, since Leviticus 23:15-16 places it by counting: "You shall count off fifty days". It is the one appointment in the chapter fixed by a tally, and Acts 2:1 has the disciples together "When the day of Pentecost came". The offerings of the seventh month, the trumpets, the day of atonement and the booths, are held over to chapter 29.
Numbers 28:26
“It was at this feast that the Spirit was poured out ( Acts ii. 1 , &c.), and thousands were converted by the preaching of the apostles, and were presented to Christ, to be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures. The sacrifice that was to be offered with the loaves of the first-fruits was appointed, Lev. xxiii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read this as an added sacrifice, laid beside the offering that went with the loaves of firstfruits at Leviticus 23:18. Albert Barnes notes that the two lists nearly agree without matching exactly. Both passages stand side by side.
The grain measures repeat the earlier feasts. Matthew Henry sets this feast at the end of harvest: a sheaf of barley had opened the harvest at the Passover season, and a new grain offering now closed it. Henry says it thanked God for keeping the crop as well as giving it.
Each lamb again takes its own tenth of an ephah, the same scale used three times in this chapter. Matthew Henry comments on the size of the harvest offering. When God sows plentifully on His people, he says, He expects to reap accordingly from them.
Each feast since the new moon carries one. John Gill says of these goats that they were a different sort of offering, a sin offering of the kind that was eaten. Matthew Henry reports Bishop Patrick's reading that the sin offerings pictured Christ's sacrifice, by which the worshippers and their service are made perfect.
The Berean names the animals, and Adam Clarke applies the same demand to the flour, wine and oil. Everything was to be perfect of its kind. Ambrose of Milan carries the demand into the life of faith, where a believer strives for works as whole and perfect as the offerings of the feast days.
Numbers 28:31
“Without blemish - This is to be understood as applying, not only to the animals, but also to the flour, wine, and oil; every thing must be perfect in its kind.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: Ritual law, given as a public calendar of offerings rather than as narrative, as Barnes classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The calendar walked from the shortest cycle to the longest | The chapter moves outward through the units of Israel's time. It gives the daily offering first at verses 3 to 8, then the Sabbath at verses 9 and 10. Then comes the new moon at verses 11 to 15, and the spring festivals from verse 16 to the end. Each unit is longer than the one before it. | Numbers 28:3-8, Numbers 28:9-10, Numbers 28:11-15, Numbers 28:16-31 |
| In addition to the regular burnt offering | One clause returns at the close of every section and does the chapter's main work. Whatever is added for a Sabbath, a new moon or a feast, the daily pair of lambs stands underneath it. The phrase appears at verses 10, 15, 23, 24 and 31. | Numbers 28:10, Numbers 28:15, Numbers 28:23, Numbers 28:24, Numbers 28:31 |
| Morning answered by twilight | The daily offering is built as a matched pair. Verse 4 puts one lamb in the morning and the other at twilight. Verse 8 gives the second lamb the same grain offering and the same drink offering as the first. The day is bracketed at both ends by the same act. | Numbers 28:4, Numbers 28:8 |
The offering the day is built on
7 more paragraphs on the patterns
The daily burnt offering is the fixed point of the chapter. Verse 6 ties it back to Mount Sinai as something already established. Albert Barnes notes that the daily offering had already been commanded at Exodus 29:38. What this chapter does is set the rest of the year around it.
The new moon and how a month began
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown record that the beginning of a month was fixed by observation rather than by calculation. Messengers were appointed to watch for the first visible appearance of the new crescent, and the fact was then announced through the country. That is why verse 11 can give a month its own offering. The day it fell on was something the nation had to see and then declare.
Where the New Testament takes it up
Matthew Henry reads the day of firstfruits at verse 26 forward to Acts 2:1. The Spirit was poured out at that same feast, and thousands were converted by the preaching of the apostles. John Gill reads the daily lamb of verses 3 to 8 alongside John 1:29, where the Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world.
What the chapter claims for itself
Verse 2 calls the offerings the food for God's offerings by fire. John Calvin treats that as a hard expression given deliberately to a people who needed the rite made plain. They were to learn that the offering pleased God in the way food pleases a man. The expression is answered from God's own side inside Scripture at Psalm 50:12 and 50:13.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, on Numbers 28:1 and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on Numbers 28:2.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Ambrose of Milan, On Cain and Abel; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown; John Calvin; John Gill; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry.