The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 394

Ver. 3.-This is the off'ering made by lire. Ver. 10. -The b11l'Jlt off'ering of every The da.ily offering prescribed at Exod. xxix. aabbath. Literally, "the sa.bbath burnt 88--42, and which had presumably never offering for its sabba.th." been intermitted since, is specified again here Ver. 11. - In the beginnings of your because it formed the foundation of the whole month•: . The new-moon _offering also is i;acrificial system. Whatever else was of. here eDJoIDed for the first time, the festival fcrcd was in addition to it, not in lieu of it. itself having only been incidenta.lly men- The snbbath and festival use of the Jews tioned in eh. x. 10. There can be no doubt was developed out of the feria.l use, and that this (unlike the sabbath) was a na.ture- rested upon it. Hence in a. connected re- festival, observed more or less by a.ll na.tions. publication of the law of offering it could not As such it did not require to be instituted, be omitted. Without spot. CQ'Q)'.I. Sep- but only to be regulated and sanctified in tuagint, aµwµ,ov,. This necessary qualifica- ord~r ~t it might not lend itself to idolatry, tion had not been expressed in the original as 1t did a.mong the heathen (cf. Deut. iv. ordinance, but in respect of other sacrifices 19 ; Job xxxi. 26, 27; J er. vii 18 ; viii. 2). had been continually required (see on Exod. The new-moon feast, depending upon uo :xii. 5; Levit. i 8; eh. xix. 2; Heb. ix. 14; calendar but tha.t of the sky, a.nd more l Pet. i 19). ~ ~- clearly ma.rked iD tha.t than any other recur- Ver. 7.-In the holy place. ~j:)~. Sep- ring period, was certs.in to fi.x itself deeply tuagint, iv rrj ayiq,. Josephus para.phrases in the social and religious ha.bits of a simple this by ,npi rov {3wpov (' .Ant.,' iii 10), and pastoral or a.gricultural people. Accordinaly so the Targum of Onkelos ; J ona.tha.n and we find it incidentally mentioned as a. da.y of the Targum of Palestine render, " from social gathering (1 Sam. xx. 6), a.nd as a. day the vessels of the sanctuary." The former for religious instruction (2 Kings iv. 23). would seem to be the real meaning of the From the latter ;passage, and from such pas- originaL The1e is nowhere any specific sages as Isa. l:xvi 23; Ezek. xlvi. I ; Amos direction as t.l the ritual of the drink offer• viii 6, it is evident tha.t the feast of the ing (see on Levit. xxiii. and eh. :xv. 7, 10), new moon became to the month exactly wha.t nor is it certain whether it was poured at the sa.bbath was to the week- day of rest; the foot of the altar (as apparently stated in a.nd of worship (see also Judith viii 6). Ecclus. L 15) or poured upon the flesh of Ver. 15.--0ne kid of the goats. "One the sacrifice on the altar (as seems to be im- hairy one (11l/~) of the she goa.ts (),V.)." See plied in Philip. ii 17). The strong wine. on eh. vii 16. This was proba.bly offered ~w. Septuagint, airEpa. The Targnms first in order, according to the usual analogy of such sacrifices (Exod. xx:ix.10-14). There render it " old wine," because the drink offering was in every other iDste.nce or- is no a.uthority for supposing tha.t this sin dered to be made with wine (Exod. :xxix. 40, offering superseded the one mentioned in eh. &c.). Sh«ar, however, was not wine, but xv. 24 sq. TM,a was essentia.lly pa.rt of the strong drink other than wine (such as we customary routine of sacrifice ; tJ,,at wa.s call " spirits "), and it is in variably used in essentially occaaiona.l, a.nd :proP.8r to some that sense in contradistinction to wine (see unforeseen contingency. It 18 likely enough on Levit. L 9; eh. vi 8, kc.). It ca.n only that the na.tional conscience would in fa.et be supposed that the difficulty of procuring content itself with the first, but it does not wine in the wilderness had caused the coarser iD the least follow tha.t such was the inten• and co=oner liquor to be substituted for tion of the legislator. it. It is certainly remarkable that the - Ver. 17.-In the fifteenth day of thia .mention of SM(,(J,r &hould be retained at a month ia the feast. The fourteenth day of time when wine must have been easily ob- Abib, or Nise.n, the day of the passover proper, tainable, and was a.bout to become abund- was not a. feast, but a fast ending with the ant (Deut. viii 8). As it would seem im- sacred meal of the eveniDg. Only the ordin- possible that BM(,(J,T should have been sub· a.ry daily sacrifice wa.s offered on this day. stitnted for wine after the settlement in Unleavened bread. n,~P (mattBotl,,). Sep- Canaan, its mention here msy be accepted as tuagint, tiCvµa, unleavened cakes. evidence of the wilderneas-origin of this par- Ver. 18.-In the first day, i. d. on the ticular ordiDance. The quantity ordained fifteenth (see on Exod. xii. 16 ; Levit. :uiii (about a. quart for each lamb) was very con- 7). siderable. Ver. 19.~Yeshall oft'er a aaori11.oe. This V~r. 9.-~d on the sabbath day. The offering, the same for each day of Mattsoth spec1a.l offermg for the sabbath is ordered as for the feast of the new moon, had not herefor the first time. It does not say wh,n been prescribed before, and almost certa.i.nly t~e t~o lambs were to be sla.in, but in prac- not observed a.t the one passover kept in the tice. 1t we.a immedi.a.tely after the morning wilderness (eh. iL 6). 1111-Crifice of the da.y. Ver. 23.-Ye shall oft'er these beside the OHS. XXVIII., XXJX.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 38)