The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 201

EXPOSITION. are amongst the simplest and most universal CHAPTER XV. of offerings to the unseen powers. For one VARIOUB LAWS OP' SACRIFICE (vers.1-31). lamb. ~1~• lamb or kid. Ver. 1.-The Lord apake unto lloaea. It Ver. 6.-0r for a ram. The meat e.nd must have been during the years of wander• drink offer.ngs were to be proportionate in ing, but within those limits it is impossible amount to the size of the victim. ~ven to conjecture the probable date. There Ver. 8.-Peace offerings. The sacrifices is no external evidence, e.nd the interns.I made of free-will, or made on solemn feast. -evidence is wholly indecisive. Neither ce.n days, would commonly be peace offerings (see it be reasonably maintained that these regu- on Levit. vii). lations were designed to revive the hope and Ver. 9.-Then shall he bring. The rapid sustain the fa.ith of the rising generation. interchange of the second e.nd third persons Incidentally they me.7 he.ve had some effect in these verses is awkward and perplerina. in that way, but it IS evident the.t the pri- No doubt it is due to some sufficiently simpYe mary object of their promulgation was simply cause in the inditing of the original record, to supply certain defects e.nd omissions in the but we are not in a position even to guess at Levities.I legislation. Why the.t legislation its nature. Meanwhile the broken construc- should he.ve had the fragmentary e.nd Wlfin. tion remains as a witness to the faithfulness ished character which it so evidently bears, with which the record ha.a been handed down. requiring to be supplemented, here by e.n Ver. 12.-According to the number. The isolated commandment, and there by oral strict proportion of the meat e.nd drink offer• ti:adition, is an interesting and diflicult ques- ings was to be carried out with respect to the tion ; but there can be no doubt as to the numbers, as well 811 the individual value, of fact, e.nd it is superfluous to look any further the sacrifices. for the reason of theenactment.s here following. Ver. 13.-All that a.re bomof the country. Ver. 2.-When ye be come into the land. The so.me formula is used in Levit. xriii. 10 n'Wfl-,::,., e.11 the native born. Septuagint, concerning the wave-sheaf. It is only re- 1riii; o auroxlwv. The phrase is used no markable here bees.use it tacitly assumes-(1) doubt from the point of view of a resident in that the burnt offerings e.nd sacrifices men- Conaan; but it was only to such residents tioned would not be offered any more in the that these ordinances applied. These things. wilderness ; (2) that the nation to which it The regulations just mentioned. was spoken would surely enter into Canaan Ver. U.-A stranger. Septuagint, 1rpo• at last. af,>..uroi;. Ver. 3.-A burnt offering, or a aacri11.ce, Ver. 16.-0ne ordinance shall be both for i. e. e. whole burnt offering, or a slain offer- you of the congrega\i_on, &c. Rather, "As for ing. There should be n. comma after the the congregation (',Q~iJ, construed a.bso- word "sacrifice." In performing a vow, or in lutely), one law for you, and for t~e stranger a free-will offering, or in your solemn fee.at&. that sojourneth, an eternal ordma.nc~ for The burnt offering, or slain offering, might be your generations ; 11s with you so she.11 1t be offered in either of these three ways, in addi- with the stranger before the Lord." tion to the more ordinary sacrifices which do Ver. 17.-And the Lord 1pa.ke unto lloses. not come into question here. Whether on the same or on some other occa- Ver. 4.-A meat offering. See on Levit. sion we cannot tell. The two ena.ctments ii The command to add the meat offering have the same eupplemental and (humanly in every such case had not been given before, speaking) trivial character. . but it had apparently been the l>ractice (see Ver. 19.-When ye eat of the bread of Levit. xxiii. 18) in accordanco with the law the land. A thing which the younger Is- of the daily sacrifice given in Exod. xxix. r11elites, few of whom hud ever tasted bread, 40, 41. must have eagerly looked forward to (seo on Ver. 5.-A drink olfering. This is no• Josh. v. 11, 12). An heave offering. Seo where eeparately treated of in Leviticus, but on Exod. xxix. 27 ; Levit. vii. 14. Ths it is mentioned along with the meat offering dedication of first-fruits had been or<lereu i11 in the pase11ges just n!erred to, Libations general terms in Exod. xxii. 29 ; uiii. 19, 182 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [CH. XV. 1-3f.