Numbers · Chapter 29

Verse 1. And in the seventh month, &c.] This was the beginning of their civil year, and was a time of great festivity, and was ushered in by the blowing of trumpets. It answers to a part of our September. In imitation of the Jews different nations began their new year with sacrifices and festivity. The ancient Egyptians did so; and the Persians still celebrate their [Persian] nawi rooz, or new year’s day, which they hold on the vernal equinox. The first day of the year is generally a time of festivity in all civilized nations. On this day the Israelites offered one young bullock, one ram, seven lambs, and a kid, for a sin-offering, besides minchahs or meat-offerings.

Verse 1. The sixth national sacrifice, which was also annual, was to be performed on the festival of trumpets, upon the first day of the seventh month of the ecclesiastical year, being the first month of the civil year, answering to our September. It was to be kept in the manner of a sabbath, with great rejoicings, solemn worship, and abstinence from all common labour, in order to usher in the new year. See Leviticus 23:24.

THE OFFERINGS AT THE FEAST OF TRUMPETS, 1-6.

1-6. Seventh month — Ethanim, (1 Kings 8:2,) Tisri — our September. It was the going out or revolution, the end and beginning of the civil and jubilee year. Exodus 23:16; 34:22; Leviticus 25:9, 10, notes. But to signalize the exode, Abib or March was reckoned the first month of the ecclesiastical or ritual year, and Tisri became the seventh month of the same calendar. The feasts were reckoned according to this new calendar. Exodus 12:2; Leviticus 23:24, notes. Blowing the trumpets — For their form and the design of the signal see Leviticus 23:23-25, notes. Three sets of offerings were made on this day: (1) the daily or continual; (2) the ordinary monthly; and (3) the special seventh month sacrifices, making in all twenty-three victims; and, if this day was the sabbath, two lambs were added. Leviticus 23:25, note; Numbers 28:9, 10. Their manner — Prescribed order. See Introduction to Leviticus, (5.)

Verse 2. Ye shall offer a burnt-offering, &c. — As this was a double festival, it was to be solemnized with these additional sacrifices, besides the sacrifices appointed on the foregoing festivals, (Numbers 28:19, 27,) which were also to be offered upon this day, on account of its being the beginning of the month.

THE OFFERINGS AT THE FEAST OF TRUMPETS, 1-6.

1-6. Seventh month — Ethanim, (1 Kings 8:2,) Tisri — our September. It was the going out or revolution, the end and beginning of the civil and jubilee year. Exodus 23:16; 34:22; Leviticus 25:9, 10, notes. But to signalize the exode, Abib or March was reckoned the first month of the ecclesiastical or ritual year, and Tisri became the seventh month of the same calendar. The feasts were reckoned according to this new calendar. Exodus 12:2; Leviticus 23:24, notes. Blowing the trumpets — For their form and the design of the signal see Leviticus 23:23-25, notes. Three sets of offerings were made on this day: (1) the daily or continual; (2) the ordinary monthly; and (3) the special seventh month sacrifices, making in all twenty-three victims; and, if this day was the sabbath, two lambs were added. Leviticus 23:25, note; Numbers 28:9, 10. Their manner — Prescribed order. See Introduction to Leviticus, (5.)

THE OFFERINGS AT THE FEAST OF TRUMPETS, 1-6.

1-6. Seventh month — Ethanim, (1 Kings 8:2,) Tisri — our September. It was the going out or revolution, the end and beginning of the civil and jubilee year. Exodus 23:16; 34:22; Leviticus 25:9, 10, notes. But to signalize the exode, Abib or March was reckoned the first month of the ecclesiastical or ritual year, and Tisri became the seventh month of the same calendar. The feasts were reckoned according to this new calendar. Exodus 12:2; Leviticus 23:24, notes. Blowing the trumpets — For their form and the design of the signal see Leviticus 23:23-25, notes. Three sets of offerings were made on this day: (1) the daily or continual; (2) the ordinary monthly; and (3) the special seventh month sacrifices, making in all twenty-three victims; and, if this day was the sabbath, two lambs were added. Leviticus 23:25, note; Numbers 28:9, 10. Their manner — Prescribed order. See Introduction to Leviticus, (5.)

THE OFFERINGS AT THE FEAST OF TRUMPETS, 1-6.

1-6. Seventh month — Ethanim, (1 Kings 8:2,) Tisri — our September. It was the going out or revolution, the end and beginning of the civil and jubilee year. Exodus 23:16; 34:22; Leviticus 25:9, 10, notes. But to signalize the exode, Abib or March was reckoned the first month of the ecclesiastical or ritual year, and Tisri became the seventh month of the same calendar. The feasts were reckoned according to this new calendar. Exodus 12:2; Leviticus 23:24, notes. Blowing the trumpets — For their form and the design of the signal see Leviticus 23:23-25, notes. Three sets of offerings were made on this day: (1) the daily or continual; (2) the ordinary monthly; and (3) the special seventh month sacrifices, making in all twenty-three victims; and, if this day was the sabbath, two lambs were added. Leviticus 23:25, note; Numbers 28:9, 10. Their manner — Prescribed order. See Introduction to Leviticus, (5.)

THE OFFERINGS AT THE FEAST OF TRUMPETS, 1-6.

1-6. Seventh month — Ethanim, (1 Kings 8:2,) Tisri — our September. It was the going out or revolution, the end and beginning of the civil and jubilee year. Exodus 23:16; 34:22; Leviticus 25:9, 10, notes. But to signalize the exode, Abib or March was reckoned the first month of the ecclesiastical or ritual year, and Tisri became the seventh month of the same calendar. The feasts were reckoned according to this new calendar. Exodus 12:2; Leviticus 23:24, notes. Blowing the trumpets — For their form and the design of the signal see Leviticus 23:23-25, notes. Three sets of offerings were made on this day: (1) the daily or continual; (2) the ordinary monthly; and (3) the special seventh month sacrifices, making in all twenty-three victims; and, if this day was the sabbath, two lambs were added. Leviticus 23:25, note; Numbers 28:9, 10. Their manner — Prescribed order. See Introduction to Leviticus, (5.)

V. 6. Of the month-Belonging to every new moon.

Verse 6. According unto their manner — Or the order which God appointed: first, the daily morning sacrifice was offered; then the sacrifices for the first day of every month; then those additional sacrifices for the first day of the seventh month.

THE OFFERINGS AT THE FEAST OF TRUMPETS, 1-6.

1-6. Seventh month — Ethanim, (1 Kings 8:2,) Tisri — our September. It was the going out or revolution, the end and beginning of the civil and jubilee year. Exodus 23:16; 34:22; Leviticus 25:9, 10, notes. But to signalize the exode, Abib or March was reckoned the first month of the ecclesiastical or ritual year, and Tisri became the seventh month of the same calendar. The feasts were reckoned according to this new calendar. Exodus 12:2; Leviticus 23:24, notes. Blowing the trumpets — For their form and the design of the signal see Leviticus 23:23-25, notes. Three sets of offerings were made on this day: (1) the daily or continual; (2) the ordinary monthly; and (3) the special seventh month sacrifices, making in all twenty-three victims; and, if this day was the sabbath, two lambs were added. Leviticus 23:25, note; Numbers 28:9, 10. Their manner — Prescribed order. See Introduction to Leviticus, (5.)

V. 7. Afflict your souls-Yourselves, by fasting and abstinence from all delightful things, and by compunction for your sins, and the judgments of God, either deserved by you or inflicted upon you.

Verse 7. On the tenth day] See Clarke’s notes on “Leviticus 16:29”; and “Leviticus 23:24”.

Verse 7. And — on the tenth day — a holy convocation — On this day was offered annually their seventh national sacrifice. It was the great day of atonement, a day of special humiliation, fasting, and prayer; concerning the particular ceremonies whereof, see on Leviticus 16:29; and 23:27. Afflict your souls — Yourselves, by abstinence from all delightful things, and by compunction for your sins, and the judgments of God, either deserved by you, or inflicted upon you.

OFFERINGS ON THE DAY OF ATONEMENT, 7-11.

7-11. On this day the sacrifices were the same as on the day of new moon of the seventh month, in addition to the sin offering peculiar to the yom kippur, the day of atonement, which is minutely described in Leviticus 16 and 23:26-32, notes. This atonement was a lively figure of reconciliation to God by the death of Christ. Ye shall afflict your souls — This betokens repentance and humiliation for sins, and prefigures our fellowship in the afflictions of Christ. Romans 6:3, 4, 6.

THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES — SACRIFICES, 12-40.

The cycle of Jewish feasts culminated in this, the grandest and most joyful of all. While the number of lambs and rams was double the number offered at the passover and feast of Pentecost, the number of oxen was fivefold; for, instead of fourteen, there were seventy offered during the week, so distributed that there were thirteen offered on the first day, twelve on the second, and so on, till there were only seven, the sacred number, on the seventh day. This multiplication of sacrifices was adapted to the rich harvest of splendid and costly fruits which they had just gathered: it constituted a suitable expression of the nation’s gratitude to Jehovah, the bountiful Giver. The burnt offerings, symbols of the people’s blessedness, all rested on the basis of the sin offering, prefiguring that all acceptable praise must rest upon the great sin offering, Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5:20; Hebrews 13:5.

OFFERINGS ON THE DAY OF ATONEMENT, 7-11.

7-11. On this day the sacrifices were the same as on the day of new moon of the seventh month, in addition to the sin offering peculiar to the yom kippur, the day of atonement, which is minutely described in Leviticus 16 and 23:26-32, notes. This atonement was a lively figure of reconciliation to God by the death of Christ. Ye shall afflict your souls — This betokens repentance and humiliation for sins, and prefigures our fellowship in the afflictions of Christ. Romans 6:3, 4, 6.

THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES — SACRIFICES, 12-40.

The cycle of Jewish feasts culminated in this, the grandest and most joyful of all. While the number of lambs and rams was double the number offered at the passover and feast of Pentecost, the number of oxen was fivefold; for, instead of fourteen, there were seventy offered during the week, so distributed that there were thirteen offered on the first day, twelve on the second, and so on, till there were only seven, the sacred number, on the seventh day. This multiplication of sacrifices was adapted to the rich harvest of splendid and costly fruits which they had just gathered: it constituted a suitable expression of the nation’s gratitude to Jehovah, the bountiful Giver. The burnt offerings, symbols of the people’s blessedness, all rested on the basis of the sin offering, prefiguring that all acceptable praise must rest upon the great sin offering, Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5:20; Hebrews 13:5.

OFFERINGS ON THE DAY OF ATONEMENT, 7-11.

7-11. On this day the sacrifices were the same as on the day of new moon of the seventh month, in addition to the sin offering peculiar to the yom kippur, the day of atonement, which is minutely described in Leviticus 16 and 23:26-32, notes. This atonement was a lively figure of reconciliation to God by the death of Christ. Ye shall afflict your souls — This betokens repentance and humiliation for sins, and prefigures our fellowship in the afflictions of Christ. Romans 6:3, 4, 6.

THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES — SACRIFICES, 12-40.

The cycle of Jewish feasts culminated in this, the grandest and most joyful of all. While the number of lambs and rams was double the number offered at the passover and feast of Pentecost, the number of oxen was fivefold; for, instead of fourteen, there were seventy offered during the week, so distributed that there were thirteen offered on the first day, twelve on the second, and so on, till there were only seven, the sacred number, on the seventh day. This multiplication of sacrifices was adapted to the rich harvest of splendid and costly fruits which they had just gathered: it constituted a suitable expression of the nation’s gratitude to Jehovah, the bountiful Giver. The burnt offerings, symbols of the people’s blessedness, all rested on the basis of the sin offering, prefiguring that all acceptable praise must rest upon the great sin offering, Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5:20; Hebrews 13:5.

OFFERINGS ON THE DAY OF ATONEMENT, 7-11.

7-11. On this day the sacrifices were the same as on the day of new moon of the seventh month, in addition to the sin offering peculiar to the yom kippur, the day of atonement, which is minutely described in Leviticus 16 and 23:26-32, notes. This atonement was a lively figure of reconciliation to God by the death of Christ. Ye shall afflict your souls — This betokens repentance and humiliation for sins, and prefigures our fellowship in the afflictions of Christ. Romans 6:3, 4, 6.

THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES — SACRIFICES, 12-40.

The cycle of Jewish feasts culminated in this, the grandest and most joyful of all. While the number of lambs and rams was double the number offered at the passover and feast of Pentecost, the number of oxen was fivefold; for, instead of fourteen, there were seventy offered during the week, so distributed that there were thirteen offered on the first day, twelve on the second, and so on, till there were only seven, the sacred number, on the seventh day. This multiplication of sacrifices was adapted to the rich harvest of splendid and costly fruits which they had just gathered: it constituted a suitable expression of the nation’s gratitude to Jehovah, the bountiful Giver. The burnt offerings, symbols of the people’s blessedness, all rested on the basis of the sin offering, prefiguring that all acceptable praise must rest upon the great sin offering, Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5:20; Hebrews 13:5.

OFFERINGS ON THE DAY OF ATONEMENT, 7-11.

7-11. On this day the sacrifices were the same as on the day of new moon of the seventh month, in addition to the sin offering peculiar to the yom kippur, the day of atonement, which is minutely described in Leviticus 16 and 23:26-32, notes. This atonement was a lively figure of reconciliation to God by the death of Christ. Ye shall afflict your souls — This betokens repentance and humiliation for sins, and prefigures our fellowship in the afflictions of Christ. Romans 6:3, 4, 6.

THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES — SACRIFICES, 12-40.

The cycle of Jewish feasts culminated in this, the grandest and most joyful of all. While the number of lambs and rams was double the number offered at the passover and feast of Pentecost, the number of oxen was fivefold; for, instead of fourteen, there were seventy offered during the week, so distributed that there were thirteen offered on the first day, twelve on the second, and so on, till there were only seven, the sacred number, on the seventh day. This multiplication of sacrifices was adapted to the rich harvest of splendid and costly fruits which they had just gathered: it constituted a suitable expression of the nation’s gratitude to Jehovah, the bountiful Giver. The burnt offerings, symbols of the people’s blessedness, all rested on the basis of the sin offering, prefiguring that all acceptable praise must rest upon the great sin offering, Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5:20; Hebrews 13:5.

V. 12. Seven days-Not by abstaining so long from all servile work, but by offering extraordinary sacrifices each day. This was the Feast of Tabernacles. And all the days of their dwelling in booths, they must offer sacrifices. While we are in these tabernacles, ‘tis our interest as well as duty, to keep up our communion with God. Nor will the unsettledness of our outward condition, excuse our neglect of God’s worship.

Verse 12. On the fifteenth day of the seventh month] On this day there was to be a solemn assembly, and for seven days sacrifices were to be offered; on the first day thirteen young bullocks, two rams, and fourteen lambs. On each succeeding day one bullock less, till on the seventh day there were only seven, making in all seventy. What an expensive service! How should we magnify God for being delivered from it! Yet these were all the taxes they had to pay. At the public charge there were annually offered to God, independently of trespass-offerings and voluntary vows, fifteen goats, twenty-one kids, seventy-two rams, one hundred and thirty-two bullocks, and eleven hundred and one lambs! But how little is all this when compared with the lambs slain every year at the passover, which amounted in one year to the immense number of 255,600 slain in the temple itself, which was the answer that Cestius, the Roman general, received when he asked the priests how many persons had come to Jerusalem at their annual festivals; the priests, numbering the people by the lambs that had been slain, said, “twenty-five myriads, five thousand and six hundred.”-For an account of the feast of tabernacles, see Clarke on “Leviticus 23:34”.

Verse 12. The eighth and last of these national sacrifices, which was also annual, was to be at the feast of tabernacles, to be observed on the fifteenth day of this same seventh month, in solemn commemoration of their travels in the wilderness, and as a thanksgiving for their happy settlement in the land of Canaan: see Leviticus 23:34. Seven days — Not by abstaining so long from all servile work, but by offering extraordinary sacrifices each day. For all the seven days of their dwelling in booths they were to offer sacrifices. And while we are in these tabernacles, it is our duty and interest to keep up our communion with God. Nor will the unsettledness of our outward condition excuse our neglect of God’s worship.

Verse 13. Thirteen young bullocks — Thus they continued to be offered seven days successively, with the decrease only of one bullock every day, till on the seventh day only seven bullocks were offered, which in all made seventy bullocks. The rams also were in double proportion to what was usual. This was a vast charge, but more easy at this time of the year than at any other; for this was a time of leisure and plenty; now their barns were full, their wine-presses overflowed, and their hearts were enlarged with joy and gratitude to God for the blessings of the harvest. Yet this troublesome and expensive service made their religion a very grievous yoke, under which the best men among them groaned, longing for the coming of the Messiah, when their own doctors have said, no sacrifices shall remain but those of thanksgiving, praise, and prayer.

Verse 35. On the eighth day ye shall have a solemn assembly] This among the Jews was esteemed the chief or high day of the feast, though fewer sacrifices were offered on it than on the others; the people seem to have finished the solemnity with a greater measure of spiritual devotion, and it was on this day of the feast that our blessed Lord called the Jews from the letter to the spirit of the law, proposing himself as the sole fountain whence they could derive the streams of salvation, John 7:37. On the subject of this chapter see the notes on Lev. 12., 16. and 23. NUMBERS

35. The eighth day — This in later times was called the great day of the feast, (John 7:37,) but it belonged to it only as the sabbath rest and holy meeting of the seventh day were transferred to it. In point of sacrifice it was like the first and the tenth day of the seventh month. Leviticus 23:36, note. In Leviticus 23:36, a Hebrew word of doubtful meaning is added, which in the margin of the Revision is rendered “a closing festival,” inasmuch as it closed not only that particular feast, but the whole series for the year. The joy attending the celebration of this feast is indicated in Psalm 42:4, and Isaiah 30:29. It was the occasion of prophetic addresses also; Haggai 2:1, and Isaiah 29 and 32:9, to the end. The most significant of all allusions to this feast is that in Isaiah 12:3, which points to the typical meaning of the daily ceremony of pouring on the altar water drawn from the pool of Siloam. This custom is enforced by our Lord in John 7:37-39. For the great future feast of tabernacles see Revelation 7:9.

Verse 36. One bullock, one ram, &c. — This was the last and great day of the feast, (John 7:37,) and yet the sacrifices were fewer than on any other day; which served both to render the public worship less toilsome and expensive, and to teach them not to trust in the multitude of their sacrifices, nor to expect remission of sins from them, but from the one and only sacrifice of the Messiah, in consequence of repentance and faith in him.

Verse 39. Besides your vows and free-will-offerings — Your ordinary sacrifices shall not be omitted because of the extraordinary, which ye offer on special occasions. It appears by this account that there were every year sacrificed at the tabernacle and temple, at the stated national charge, the following number of beasts, namely; lambs, one thousand one hundred and one; bullocks, one hundred and thirty-two; rams, seventy-two; kids, twenty-one; goats, two; in all, one thousand three hundred and twenty-eight. Besides which, there was a vast number of voluntary, vow, and trespass-offerings, which, could they be computed, would swell the account to a much greater degree. We may learn from all this, three important lessons: 1st, That the expiation of sin, and reconciliation with God, for which this multitude of sacrifices was appointed, are not such trivial things as many would make them, but matters of infinite moment. 2d, That the sacrifice of Christ, which these sacrifices were intended to prefigure and typify, is of unspeakable worth and importance, and should never be thought of without reverence and gratitude. 3d, That we ought to be very thankful that by the coming of the Messiah, and the oblation of his blessed body for the expiation of sin, the necessity and use of these legal and typical sacrifices have been superseded, and the church of God freed from the intolerable yoke and burden of such numerous, expensive, and continually repeated offerings.

Verse 39. Beside your vows, and your free-will offerings,—for your peace-offerings. See Leviticus 7:11, 16, and 22:21-23.

39. Beside your vows — The sacrifices in this chapter and the last were set feasts for the entire nation, and were exclusive of the countless individual and family offerings. For burnt offerings and peace offerings vowed, see Numbers 15:3, 8; Leviticus 22:18, 21, notes. Verse 40 shows that this whole system of sacrifices rests on the basis of divine authority.

CONCLUDING NOTES.

(1.) “We notice the connexion of the three great feasts — the passover, the feast of weeks, and that of tabernacles — agriculturally (and, in that respect, socially) as those at the beginning of the barley harvest, of the wheat harvest, and at the completion of all — marking, at the same time, that the agricultural character of all the great festivals points to a primitive condition of the nation very different from the complicated relations of later times. The same connexion appears from the historical point of view; the passover pointing to the exodus, the feast of weeks to the legislation at Sinai, and the feast of tabernacles to the wanderings and the rest of Israel. Lastly, typically: The passover had its reality in the death of our Lord; the feast of weeks in Pentecost; and that of tabernacles in the final ingathering of all nations — the great harvest feast of the Church. In truth, the feast of tabernacles is the only unfulfilled type of the Old Testament, although each missionary festival may be described as a commemoration of it.” — Edersheim.

(2.) From an inspection of these two chapters it will be found that the number of animal victims offered by Israel, aside from countless multitudes of individual offerings, was as follows: Lambs, 1,101; bullocks, 132; rams, 72; kids, 21; goats, 15; total, 1,341. We have no data by which to estimate the number of private sacrifices. When Cestius, the Roman general, at one of the passover feasts, asked the priests how many persons had come to Jerusalem at their annual festivals, they multiplied the number of paschal lambs by ten, and replied 2,565,000. Hence there were 256,500 paschal lambs.