1. Standing public bnritt-nff rings were those used daily morning and evening (Num. xxviii. :'<■, Exod. xxix. 38), and on the three great festivals (Lev. xxiii, 37; Num. xxviii, 11 27; xxix, 2-22; Lev. xvi, 3; comp. 2 Chron. xxxv, 12-16). Thus there were, (1.) The daily bin;)/-,,;; ring, a lamb of the first year, sacri- ficed every morning and evening (with an offering of flour and wine) for the people (Exod. xxix. 38 12; Num. xxviii, 3-8). (2.) The Sabbath bumUoffering,
| double of that which was offered every day (Num. xxviii, 8 10). (3.) The offering at the new moon, at the
\three great festivals, ih great 1> ig of Atonement, and feast of trumpets: generally two bullocks, a ram, and seven lambs. (See Num. xxviii, 11-xxix, 39.)
2. Private burnt-offerings were appointed at the con- secration of priests (Exod. xxix, 15; Lev. viii, 18; ix, 12), at the purification of women (Lev. xii, 6, 8), at the cleansing of Lepers ( Lev. xiv, 19), and remov- al of other ceremonial uncleanness (xv, 15, 80), on any accidental breach of the Nazaritic vow, or at its conclusion (Num. vi ; comp. Acts xxi, 26), etc.
.'!. But fr< i -irill hnrnt-ii \j'< rings were offered and ac- cepted by God on any solemn occasion-, as. for ex- ample, at the dedication of the tabernacle (Num. vii) and of the Temple (1 Kings viii. CD. when they were offered in extraordinary abundance. But, except on Bueh occasions, the nature, the extent, and the place of the sacrifice were expressly limited by God, SO that. while all should be unblemished and pure, there should be no idea (as among the heathen i of buying His favor
by costliness of sacrifice. ( )f this law Jephthah's VOW
I if. as some think, his daughter be the sacrifice meant i was a transgression, consistent with the semi-heathen- ish character of his early day- (see Judg. \i. '■'•. 24).
The sacrifice of cows in 1 Sam. vi, 11 was also a formal
BURNT-OFFERING
932
BURNT-OFFERING
infraction of it, excised by the probable ignorance of the people and the Bpeci il nature of the occasion. In short, burnt-offering were ill use almost on all impor- tant occasions, events, and solemnities, whether pri- vate or public, and often in very large numbers (comp. Judg. xx, 26 ; 1 Sam. vii. 9; 2 Chron. xxxi, 2; 1 Kings iii, 4: 1 Chron. xxix, 21; 2 Chron. xxix, 21; Ezra vi, 17; viii, 35). Heathens also were allowed to offer burnt-offerings in the temple, and Augustus gave or- ders to sacrifice for him every day in the temple at Jerusalem a burnt-offering, consisting of two lambs and one ox (Philo, Opp. ii, 592; Josephus, War, ii, 17, 2 : Apian, ii, 6). See Reland, Antiq. Sacr. iii, 2, p. 294 m[. ; Lightfoot, Minister. Templi, viii, 1; Bauer, Gottesd. Verfass. i, 174 sq. ; Sperbach, De Htbrcpor. holocaustis (Viteb. 1769).— Kitto ; Smith. See Offering.
BlTiXT-OFFERIXG, ALTAR OF. It does not appear that any peculiar form of altar had been deliv ered to the true worshippers of God down to the period of the giving of the law ; and, as far as can be gathered from the records of the patriarchal religion, the simplest structures seem to have been deemed sufficient. But at the institution of the tabernacle worship specific in structions were given for the erection of the altar, or of the two altars, that of burnt-offering and that of in- cense. It was the former of these, however, that was emphatically called the altar, as it was on it that all sacrifices of blood were presented, while the other was simply placed as a stand or table within the taberna- cle for the officiating priest to use in connection with the pot of incense. With regard to this altar, prior to any instructions concerning the erection of the taber- nacle, and immediately after the delivery of the ten commandments from Sinai, the following specific di- rections were given: "An altar of earth shalt thou make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt- offerings," etc. ; "And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not make it of hewn stone ; for if thou lift up thy tool upon it thou hast polluted it; nei- ther shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon" (Exod. xx, 24-26). There is here an evident repudiation of all pomp and ornament in connection with this altar of burnt-offering — the preferable material to be used in it being earth, or, if stone, yet stone unhewn, and con- sequently not graven by art or man's device. The reason of this cannot be sought in any general dislike to the costly and ornamental in divine worship, for in the structure of tli3 tabernacle itself, and still more, afterward, in the erection of the temple, both the rich- est materials and the most skillful artificers were em- ployed. It is rather to be sought in the general'pur- port and design of the altar, which was such as to con- sist best with the simplest form, and materials of the plainest description; for it was peculiarly the monu- ment and remembrancer of man's sin — the special meeting-place between God and his creatures, as sin- ful; (in which account it must be perpetually receiv- ing the blood of slain victims, since the way to fellow- ship with God for guilty beings could only be found through an avenue of death (Fairbairn, Ttmoloqii, ii.