In this chapter is a repetition of several laws concerning sacrifices, as the law of the daily sacrifice morning and evening, Num 28:1 of those that were offered every week on the sabbath day, Num 28:9 and every month on the first day of the month, Num 28:11 and on the seven days of unleavened bread, Num 28:16, and at the feast of weeks, Num 28:26.
saying; as follows.
my offering, and my bread; by "offering" may be meant in general all sacrifices which were offered to the Lord, and by his command; and more especially the burnt offering, which was wholly and peculiarly his, and is after explained by sacrifices made by fire, and it is chiefly of burnt offerings this chapter treats; and by "bread" may be meant either the shewbread, which was set upon a table before the Lord continually, as his bread; so the Targum of Jonathan,"my oblation, the bread of the order of my table, shall the priests eat, but what ye offer on the altar no man has power to eat;''or else the meat offering, or rather, as it may be called, the bread offering, which always went along with burnt offerings; though the copulative "and", which is not in the text, may be omitted, and both may signify the same, "my offering", that is, "my bread"; for the sacrifices were the food of God, the provisions of his house, of which there were all sorts in the sacrifices, flesh, bread, and wine; particularly the daily sacrifice was his food every day, and the fat of sacrifices burnt is called the food of the offering made by fire, Lev 3:16, so Jarchi interprets it, "my offering", this is the blood; "my bread", the "amurim", or fat that covereth the inward parts, which were burnt on the altar:
for my sacrifices made by fire for a sweet savour unto me; which respects burnt offerings, wholly consumed by fire, and were entirely the Lord's, and which he smelled a sweet savour in, or were acceptable to him: these the children of Israel were
to observe to offer unto him in their due season; the daily sacrifice, morning and evening; not before morning, nor after evening, as Aben Ezra observes; and so all the rest at the proper time fixed, whether weekly, monthly, or yearly. The Jews, from this phrase, "observe to offer unto me", conclude the necessity of fixing stations, or stationary men, as Jarchi notes; so the tradition is,"these are the stations, as it is said, "command the children of Israel, &c." but how can the offering of a man be offered, and he not stand by it? wherefore the former prophets appointed twenty four courses, and to every course there was a station at Jerusalem of priests, Levites, and Israelites; and when the time of each course came to go up, the priests and Levites went up to Jerusalem, and the Israelites who belonged to that course went into their cities, and read the history of the creation (d):''now these stations, or stationary men, were substitutes for, or representatives of all Israel, and stood by the sacrifices when they were offered, in which all Israel were concerned, as particularly in the daily sacrifice, which is here first taken notice of.
(d) Taanith, c. 4. sect. 2.
this is the offering made by fire, which ye shall offer unto the Lord; the daily burnt offering, which was wholly consumed by fire:
two lambs of the first year without spot, day by day for a continual burnt offering; this law was made before, and is directed to in Exo 29:38 where the same things are said as here, only, as a further descriptive character of the lambs, they are here said to be "without spot"; so all sacrifices were to be without blemish, whether expressed or not; and in this, as in other things, these lambs were typical of Christ, the Lamb of God, without spot and blemish; and are said to be a "continual" burnt offering, because they were offered every day in the week, without any intermission, on any account whatever, which is frequently observed in this chapter: and this was to continue, and did continue until the Messiah came, who put an end to it by the sacrifice of himself, as to any real use of it; and was in fact made to cease a few years after, by the utter destruction of Jerusalem, and was before that a little while interrupted in the times of Antiochus, Dan 8:11.
and the other lamb shall thou offer at even; or "between the two evenings", to make atonement for the sins of the day, as the same Targum; in which they prefigured Christ, the Lamb of God, who continually, every day, morning and night, and every moment, takes away the sins of his people, through the virtue and efficacy of his sacrifice, Joh 1:29; see Gill on Exo 29:39.
mingled with the fourth part of an hin of beaten oil: which in those times and countries was used instead of butter; and fine flour and this mingled together made a "minchah", or bread offering, as it should rather be called; of the measures used; see Gill on Exo 29:40.
which was ordained in Mount Sinai for a sweet savour, a sacrifice made by fire unto the Lord; that is, this law concerning the daily burnt offering was made on Mount Sinai, so long ago as the children of Israel were there; and it was then ordered that they should continually offer such a sacrifice by fire, which would be grateful and acceptable unto God, especially when done in faith of the sacrifice of his Son it was a type of; or which sacrifice was "made" (e) or offered at Mount Sinai, when the law of it was first given there: hence Aben Ezra observes, that this is a sign that they did not offer burnt offerings in the wilderness after they journeyed from Sinai; but then, though sacrifices were not so frequently offered by them as afterwards, yet one would think that the daily sacrifice would not be omitted, which seemed to be always necessary; nor would there be any, or but little use of the altar, and the fire continually burning on it, if this was the case; see Amo 5:25.
(e) "quod obtulistis", V. L. "quod factum est", Pagninus; "quod sacrificatum fucrat", Piscator.
in the holy place shalt thou cause the strong wine to be poured unto the Lord for a drink offering; that is, in the court of the tabernacle upon the altar of burnt offering, which stood there: the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem interpret it of old choice wine, old wine being reckoned best, see Luk 5:39, and though this wine was poured out on the altar, and not properly drank by any, yet it was to be the strongest, best, and choicest that could be got, as it was reasonable it should; since it was poured out as a libation or drink offering to the Lord, which was his way of drinking it, as the burning of the sacrifice was his way of eating that; all which was typical of the sufferings, sacrifice, and bloodshed of Christ, which are well pleasing and acceptable to the Lord; see Isa 53:10.
as the meat offering of the morning, and as the drink offering thereof, shalt thou offer it; some think that "caph", "as", is put for "beth", "with", the letters being similar, and so render the words, "with the meat offering of the morning, and with the drink offering thereof"; but there is no need of such a version, nor is it with propriety; and the meaning is, that a meat offering and a drink offering were to go with the lamb offered at evening, of the same sort, and in like manner, as were offered with the lamb of the morning:
a sacrifice made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord; this is repeated, to encourage the people to offer it, and to show how very acceptable it was to the Lord, especially the antitype of it.
and two tenth deals of flour for a meat offering, mingled with oil; that is, two tenth parts of an ephah of flour mixed with two fourth parts of an hin of oil; of oil olive, as the Targum of Jonathan expresses it, which is always meant, wherever oil is mentioned; which made one meat offering to them doubled for both lambs, or two meat offerings of the same quantity with those of the daily sacrifice, one for one lamb, and the other for the other:
and the drink offering thereof: which was of a like quantity of wine doubled, in proportion to the meat offering; when these lambs, with the meat and drink offerings, were offered up, is not said, whether the one in the morning after, and the other in the evening before the daily sacrifice, which is not improbable, or both together.
beside the continual burnt offering, and its drink offering; and meat offering also, over and above the two lambs of the daily sacrifice; with the offerings that were appendages to them, two other lambs, with proportionate meat and drink offerings, were offered also; the other were not to be omitted on account of these, showing that more religions service was to be performed on sabbath days than on others: it may be rendered "after" or "upon", to which sense Aben Ezra interprets it, after the daily sacrifice; because, says he, he puts upon it the burnt offering of the sabbath; which seems to confirm what has been suggested on the preceding verse, that these lambs were offered morning and evening after the daily sacrifice, and indeed there was nothing offered before that.
(f) "sabbathi in sabbatho ejus", Pagninus, Montanus, Fagius, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.
two young bullocks, and one ram, seven rams of the first year without spot; this was the burnt offering, and a very large and costly one it was: more creatures were offered on this day than on a sabbath day; not that this was a more holy day than that, but this was but once a month, and therefore the expense might be the more easily bore, whereas that was every week.
this is the burnt offering of every month throughout the year; or, "of the month in its month" (g); it was to be offered at its appointed time every month, and not to be deferred to another: Jarchi has the same remark here as on verse ten. See Gill on Num 28:10.
(g) "mensis in mense ejus", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus.
besides the continual burnt offering, and his drink offering; though the burnt offering of this day was so very large, consisting of so many creatures; and besides that a goat for a sin offering; yet the daily sacrifice was not to be omitted, and what belonged to that.
(h) Maimon. Hilchot Tamidin, c. 7. sect. 2. (i) Moreh Nevochim, par. 3. c. 46. p. 488.
is the passover of the Lord; a feast in which a lamb was killed and eaten, in memory of the Lord's passing over the houses of the Israelites, when he slew the firstborn in Egypt; see Exo 12:6.
seven days shall unleavened bread be eaten; see Exo 12:15.
ye shall do no manner of servile work therein; except by preparing food to eat; see Exo 12:16.
two young bullocks, &c. the same with the burnt offering on the first day of the month, Num 28:11.
(k) Maimon. Hilchot Tamidin, c. 7. sect. 3.
which is for a continual burnt offering; and not to be intermitted on any account, let the sacrifices of the day be ever so numerous; great care is taken to observe this.
the meat of the sacrifice made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord; it seems by this that only the burnt offering was offered up every day, but not a goat of the sin offering, that was peculiar to the first day:
it shall be offered beside the continual burnt offering, and his drink offering; which is again repeated, that it might be diligently observed.
ye shall do no servile work; unless in dressing food.
when ye bring a new meat offering unto the Lord; that is, a meat offering made of the new corn, which were two wave loaves of two tenth deals of fine flour, baked with leaven, Lev 23:15.
after your weeks be out; the seven weeks from the passover to Pentecost, even seven complete sabbaths or weeks, Lev 23:15.
ye shall have an holy convocation, ye shall do no servile work; see Lev 23:21.
they shall be unto you without blemish, and their drink offerings; the flour, of which the meat offerings were made, was to be pure and clean, and free from vermin; and the wine for the drink offering was not to be palled, and dead, and dreggy: of the former, it is said in the Misnah (l),"the treasurer puts his hand into it (the flour); if there comes any dust with it,''it is rejected; if it produces worms, it is rejected: this, the commentators say (m), is to be understood, if the greatest part of it is such; and with respect to the latter, Jarchi says, our Rabbins learn from hence (this passage of Scripture) that wine in which flour rises (or a dregginess like flour) it is unfit for drink offerings, for they should be perfect: this denotes the purity of Christ, the bread of life, and his spotless and perfect sacrifice, when his soul was poured out unto death.
(l) Menachot, c. 8. sect. 2. (m) Maimon. & Bartenora in Misn. Menachot, c. 8. sect. 2.