How does Numbers 28 set the offering schedule while retaining the continual sacrifice?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

The law gives morning and evening lambs, then specifies Sabbath, monthly and feast offerings with their stated flour and wine measures. It explicitly keeps the perpetual sacrifice alongside the monthly sin offering, the feast’s morning offering, and the firstfruits offerings.

Chapter breakdown

The Lord tells Moses to command Israel to offer his offering, bread and burnt sacrifice of most sweet smell in their due seasons. The daily perpetual burnt offering is two unblemished year-old lambs: one in the morning and one in the evening. It has a tenth of an ephi of flour mixed with the purest oil, a quarter of a hin. This is the continual burnt offering offered at Mount Sinai as a sweet-smelling sacrifice by fire to the Lord. For each lamb, a quarter-hin wine offering is to be given in the Lord’s sanctuary. The evening lamb follows all the morning sacrifice’s rites and wine offerings, as a sweet-smelling offering to the Lord.

On the Sabbath, the law requires two unblemished year-old lambs, two tenths of flour mixed with oil, and wine offerings. These are regularly poured out every Sabbath for the perpetual burnt offering. The passage gives this Sabbath rule without an additional flour unit or wine amount in these verses.

On the first day of each month, Israel must offer a burnt offering to the Lord: two calves of the herd, one ram and seven unblemished year-old lambs. Each calf receives three tenths of flour mixed with oil, and each ram two tenths. For each lamb the admitted text says “the tenth of a tenth” of flour mixed with oil. This is a most sweet-smelling burnt offering and an offering by fire to the Lord. The wine measures are half a hin for each calf, a third for a ram and a quarter for a lamb. This offering is required for every month as they follow through the year. A buck goat is also offered to the Lord for sin, over and above the perpetual burnt offering with its wine offerings. The lamb-flour wording is retained as it stands rather than silently changed to one tenth.

In the first month, the Lord’s phase—the Passover—is on the fourteenth day. The solemn feast is on the fifteenth, and they must eat unleavened bread for seven days. The first day is to be venerable and holy, with no servile work.

The feast’s burnt offering to the Lord is two calves of the herd, one ram and seven unblemished year-old lambs. The flour mixed with oil is three tenths for each calf and two tenths for each ram. For every one of the seven lambs the text again gives “the tenth of a tenth.” One buck goat is offered for sin to make atonement for the people, besides the morning burnt offering they must always offer. They must do this every day of the seven days as food for the fire and a most sweet smell to the Lord, rising from the burnt offering and each wine offering. The seventh day also is most solemn and holy, with no servile work.

The day of firstfruits, when the weeks are completed and new fruits are offered to the Lord, must be venerable and holy, with no servile work. The sweet-smelling burnt offering is two calves of the herd, one ram and seven unblemished year-old lambs. Its flour mixed with oil is three tenths for each calf and two for each ram; for each of the seven lambs it is “the tenth of a tenth.” A buck goat is also killed for purification, besides the perpetual burnt offering and its wine offerings. All are to be offered without blemish with their wine offerings. This span says the weeks are completed but does not give their number.

The story inside

The schedule changes the occasion and offering without losing the stated regular sacrifice. Daily worship uses the morning and evening lambs, with an explicit instruction that the evening follows the morning rites. The monthly rule gives separate wine amounts for calf, ram and lamb, then places the sin offering above the perpetual burnt offering.

The feast requires its offering each of seven days and retains the morning sacrifice. Firstfruits also keeps the perpetual burnt offering and its wine offerings. The work restrictions are separately attached to the first and seventh feast days and the firstfruits day; they are not stated for every day of the seven-day feast here. Exact measures and timing remain the law’s content. The chapter does not report a completed celebration or explain a separate cause for each animal and quantity.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Keep the regular sacrifice alongside the occasion-specific rules. The text expressly preserves it in the monthly, seven-day feast and firstfruits instructions.
2
Measures must be carried over accurately. The monthly wine amounts differ by animal, and the admitted lamb-flour wording is “the tenth of a tenth” in all three listed festival groups. It should not be silently normalized.
3
Dates and work rules have a stated scope. Passover is the fourteenth day and the feast starts on the fifteenth; the first and seventh feast days and firstfruits day have no-servile-work rules.

Test your recall

Which clauses keep the regular sacrifice in place during the monthly, seven-day feast and firstfruits offerings?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 17461–17490
Numbers Chapter 28 Sacrifices are appointed as well for every day as for sabbaths, and other festivals. 28:1. The Lord also said to Moses: 28:2. Command the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them: Offer ye my oblation and my bread, and burnt sacrifice of most sweet odour, in their due seasons. 28:3. These are the sacrifices which you shall offer: Two lambs of a year old without blemish every day for the perpetual holocaust: 28:4. One you shall offer in the mornings, and the other in the evening: 28:5. And the tenth part of an ephi of flour, which shall be tempered with the purest oil, of the measure of the fourth part of a hin. 28:6. It is the continual holocaust which you offered in mount Sinai for a most sweet odour of a sacrifice by fire to the Lord. 28:7. And for a libation you shall offer of wine the fourth part of a hin for every lamb in the sanctuary of the Lord. 28:8. And you shall offer the other lamb in like manner in the evening according to all the rites of the morning sacrifice, and of the libations thereof, an oblation of most sweet odour to the Lord.
Lines 17491–17497
28:9. And on the sabbath day you shall offer two lambs of a year old without blemish, and two tenths of flour tempered with oil in sacrifice, and the libations, 28:10. Which regularly are poured out every sabbath for the perpetual holocaust.
Lines 17498–17516
28:11. And on the first day of the month you shall offer a holocaust to the Lord, two calves of the herd, one ram, and seven lambs of a year old, without blemish, 28:12. And three tenths of flour tempered with oil in sacrifice for every calf: and two tenths of flour tempered with oil for every ram: 28:13. And the tenth of a tenth of flour tempered with oil in sacrifice for every lamb. It is a holocaust of most sweet odour and an offering by fire to the Lord. 28:14. And these shall be the libations of wine that are to be poured out for every victim: Half a hin for every calf, a third for a ram, and a fourth for a lamb. This shall be the holocaust for every month, as they succeed one another in the course of the year. 28:15. A buck goat also shall be offered to the Lord for a sin offering over and above the perpetual holocaust with its libations.
Lines 17517–17525
28:16. And in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, shall be the phase of the Lord, 28:17. And on the fifteenth day the solemn feast: seven days shall they eat unleavened bread. 28:18. And the first day of them shall be venerable and holy: you shall not do any servile work therein.
Lines 17526–17546
28:19. And you shall offer a burnt sacrifice a holocaust to the Lord, two calves of the herd, one ram, seven lambs of a year old, without blemish: 28:20. And for the sacrifice of every one three tenths of flour which shall be tempered with oil to every calf, and two tenths to every ram, 28:21. And the tenth of a tenth, to every lamb, that is to say, to all the seven lambs: 28:22. And one buck goat for sin, to make atonement for you, 28:23. Besides the morning holocaust which you shall always offer. 28:24. So shall you do every day of the seven days for the food of the fire, and for a most sweet odour to the Lord, which shall rise from the holocaust, and from the libations of each. 28:25. The seventh day also shall be most solemn and holy unto you, you shall do no servile work therein.
Lines 17547–17566
28:26. The day also of firstfruits, when after the weeks are accomplished, you shall offer new fruits to the Lord, shall be venerable and holy: you shall do no servile work therein. 28:27. And you shall offer a holocaust for a most sweet odour to the Lord, two calves of the herd, one ram, and seven lambs of a year old, without blemish: 28:28. And in the sacrifices of them three tenths of flour tempered with oil to every calf, two to every ram, 28:29. The tenth of a tenth to every lamb, which in all are seven lambs: a buck goat also, 28:30. Which is slain for expiation: besides the perpetual holocaust and the libations thereof. 28:31. You shall offer them all without blemish with their libations.