Numbers 28:2

Command the children of Israel, and say unto them,.... For what follows concerned them all; namely, the offering of their daily, weekly, monthly, and anniversary sacrifices, which were not for

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.

God here repeats some of the former laws about sacrifices, not without great reason, partly, because they had been generally discontinued for thirty-eight years together; partly, because the generation to which the former laws had been given about these things was wholly dead, and it was fit the new generation should be instructed about them, as their parents were; partly, to renew the testimonies of God’ s grace and mercy, notwithstanding their frequent forfeitures thereof by their horrid apostacies and rebellions; and principally, because they were now ready to enter into that land, in which they were obliged to put these things in practice, , &c. Made by fire. According to this translation the sense is, My offering, i.e. my offering or sacrifices, and my bread, i.e. either my shew-bread, or rather my meat-offering made of bread or meal, for my sacrifices made by fire, i.e. which is to accompany my burnt-offerings. Or thus, My offering, to wit, my bread, i. e. my meat-offering, which was made of bread or meal, which is oft expressed by this very name of corban or offering, as 6:20; but because corban signifies not only a meatoffering, but other offerings also, as ,38, therefore he limits that general word by adding my bread with (so the Hebrew lamed is oft used, as 2:63, &c.) my sacrifices made by fire, which may be understood either, 1. Generally for all the sacrifices, as that phrase is sometimes taken, as , where it must needs be so meant, because the burntofferings properly so called were not given to the priest, but reserved to God himself, and the priest’ s portion lay in the other sacrifices only; or, 2. Specially and properly for burnt-offerings; and so under them, as the most eminent kind, are contained all other sacrifices; as under the meat-offering here is contained the drink-offering. And according to this translation and explication these words contain a full and general rule, comprehending all the particulars following in this chapter, as in reason they ought to do, and which otherwise they do not.

Numbers 28:2 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.Ver. 2. My offering.] He is owner of all; and of his own we give him. Tασαεκτωνσων, said that great emperor. And my bread.] Called their bread for their souls; that is, the bread for their natural sustenance, common bread, when not rightly offered. So Jeremiah 7:21. God in scorn calls their sacrifice flesh, ordinary flesh, such as is sold in the shambles. So at the Lord’ s Supper impenitent communicants receive no more than the bare elements; panem Domini, but not panem Dominum. In their due season.] Which for eight and thirty years they had intermitted. Get a settlement, or Sabbath of spirit, or else God shall be but ill, if at all, served. August.

(2) My offering, and my bread . . . —Better, My oblation (even) my bread, &c. The offering, though presented by the hands of men, was God’s, not theirs. “The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts” (Haggai 2:8). “Every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills” (Ps. 1.10). The word korban is a general term for an oblation. It may denote in this place the minchah, or meal offering, or the shew-bread, offerings which were directly connected with a settled life in Canaan rather than with a nomadic life in the wilderness. Or the word lehem (bread) may be used to denote food generally, the sacrificial offerings being symbolically regarded as the Lord’s food. (Comp. Leviticus 3:11; Leviticus 3:16, where the same word is rendered food, and where the reference is to a portion of the flesh of the lamb and of the goat of the peace offering. See also Malachi 3:7.)

Verse 2. Command the children of Israel, c.] It is not easy to account for the reason of the introduction of these precepts here, which had been so circumstantially delivered before in different parts of the books of Exodus and Leviticus. It is possible that the daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly services had been considerably interrupted for several years, owing to the unsettled state of the people in the wilderness, and that it was necessary to repeat these laws for two reasons: 1. Because they were now about to enter into the promised land, where these services must be established and constant. 2. Because the former generations being all dead, multitudes of the present might be ignorant of these ordinances. In their due season] Moses divides these offerings into: - 1. DAILY. The morning and evening sacrifices: a lamb each time, Numbers 28:3-4. 2. WEEKLY. The Sabbath offerings, two lambs of a year old, Numbers 28:9, c. 3. MONTHLY. At the beginning of each month two young bullocks, one ram, and seven lambs of a year old, and a kid for a sin-offering, Numbers 28:11, &c. 4. ANNUAL. 1. The passover to last seven days the offerings, two young bullocks, one ram, seven lambs of a year old, and a he-goat for a sin-offering, Numbers 28:16, &c. 2. The day of FIRST-FRUITS. The sacrifices, the same as on the beginning of the month, Numbers 28:26, &c. With these sacrifices were offered libations, or drink-offerings of strong wine, Numbers 28:7, Numbers 28:14, and minchahs, or meat-offerings, composed of fine flour mingled with oil, Numbers 28:8, Numbers 28:12, &c. For an ample account of all these offerings, See Clarke on Leviticus 7:38 and Exodus 12:1-51.

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: LambsRamsBullocksst day of each month712Each of the 7 days of Unleavened Cakes712Feast of Weeks712st day of 7th month711th day of 7th month711Each of the 7 days of the Feast of Booths also 13 bullocks on the 1st day, and decreasing by one on each succeeding day.142th day of the Feast of Booths711

My offering, and my bread ... - Or, my offering, even my bread, etc.

BY JEHOVAH, Numbers 28:1-2. 2. My offering — Korban. Leviticus 1:2, note. My bread — Leviticus 3:11, note. By fire… sweet savour — Leviticus 1:9, note.