Exodus 29:38-42

29:38 “Now this is what you are to prepare ¹  on the altar every day continually: two lambs a year old. 29:39 The first lamb you are to prepare in the morning, and the second lamb you are to prepare around sundown. ²  29:40 With the first lamb offer a tenth of an ephah ³  of fine flour mixed with a fourth of a hin ⁴  of oil from pressed olives, and a fourth of a hin of wine as a drink offering. 29:41 The second lamb you are to offer around sundown; you are to prepare for it the same meal offering as for the morning and the same drink offering, for a soothing aroma, an offering made by fire to the Lord.

29:42 “This will be a regular ⁵  burnt offering throughout your generations at the entrance of the tent of meeting before the Lord, where I will meet ⁶  with you to speak to you there.

Numbers 28:3-8

28:3 You will say to them, ‘This is the offering made by fire which you must offer to the Lord: two unblemished lambs one year old each day for a continual ⁷  burnt offering. 28:4 The first lamb you must offer in the morning, and the second lamb you must offer in the late afternoon, ⁸  28:5 with one-tenth of an ephah ⁹  of finely ground flour as a grain offering mixed with one quarter of a hin ¹⁰  of pressed olive oil. 28:6 It is a continual burnt offering that was instituted on Mount Sinai as a pleasing aroma, an offering made by fire to the Lord.

28:7 “‘And its drink offering must be one quarter of a hin for each lamb. ¹¹  You must pour out the strong drink ¹²  as a drink offering to the Lord in the holy place. 28:8 And the second lamb you must offer in the late afternoon; just as you offered the grain offering and drink offering in the morning, ¹³  you must offer it as an offering made by fire, as a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

Numbers 28:1

Daily Offerings

28:1 ¹⁴ The Lord spoke to Moses:

Numbers 18:29

18:29 From all your gifts you must offer up every raised offering due ¹⁵  the Lord, from all the best of it, and the holiest part of it.’ ¹⁶ 

Numbers 18:2

18:2 “Bring with you your brothers, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, so that they may join ¹⁷  with you and minister to you while ¹⁸  you and your sons with you are before the tent of the testimony.

Numbers 2:4

2:4 Those numbered in his division ¹⁹  are 74,600.

Numbers 31:3

31:3 So Moses spoke to the people: “Arm ²⁰  men from among you for the war, to attack the Midianites and to execute ²¹  the Lord’s vengeance on Midian.

Ezra 3:3

3:3 They established the altar on its foundations, even though they were in terror of the local peoples, ²²  and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, both the morning and the evening offerings.

Ezekiel 46:13-15

46:13 “‘You ²³  will provide a lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering daily to the Lord; morning by morning he will provide it. 46:14 And you ²⁴  will provide a grain offering with it morning by morning, a sixth of an ephah, and a third of a gallon ²⁵  of olive oil to moisten the choice flour, as a grain offering to the Lord; this is a perpetual statute. 46:15 Thus they will provide the lamb, the grain offering, and the olive oil morning by morning, as a perpetual burnt offering.

Daniel 9:21

9:21 yes, while I was still praying, ²⁶  the man Gabriel, whom I had seen previously ²⁷  in a vision, was approaching me in my state of extreme weariness, ²⁸  around the time of the evening offering.

Amos 4:4

Israel has an Appointment with God

4:4 “Go to Bethel ²⁹  and rebel! ³⁰ 

At Gilgal ³¹  rebel some more!

Bring your sacrifices in ³²  the morning,

your tithes on ³³  the third day!

[29:38]  ¹ tn The verb is “you will do,” “you will make.” It clearly refers to offering the animals on the altar, but may emphasize all the preparation that was involved in the process.

[29:39]  ² tn Heb “between the two evenings” or “between the two settings” (בֵּין הָעַרְבָּיִם, ben ha’arbayim). This expression has had a good deal of discussion. (1) Tg. Onq. says “between the two suns,” which the Talmud explains as the time between the sunset and the time the stars become visible. More technically, the first “evening” would be the time between sunset and the appearance of the crescent moon, and the second “evening” the next hour, or from the appearance of the crescent moon to full darkness (see Deut 16:6 – “at the going down of the sun”). (2) Saadia, Rashi, and Kimchi say the first evening is when the sun begins to decline in the west and cast its shadows, and the second evening is the beginning of night. (3) The view adopted by the Pharisees and the Talmudists (b. Pesahim 61a) is that the first evening is when the heat of the sun begins to decrease, and the second evening begins at sunset, or, roughly from 3-5 p.m. The Mishnah (m. Pesahim 5:1) indicates the lamb was killed about 2:30 p.m. – anything before noon was not valid. S. R. Driver concludes from this survey that the first view is probably the best, although the last view was the traditionally accepted one (Exodus, 89-90). Late afternoon or early evening seems to be intended, the time of twilight perhaps.

[29:40]  ³ tn The phrase “of an ephah” has been supplied for clarity (cf. Num 28:5). The ephah was a commonly used dry measure whose capacity is now uncertain: “Quotations given for the ephah vary from ca. 45 to 20 liters” (C. Houtman, Exodus, 2:340-41).

[29:40]  ⁴ tn “Hin” is a transliterated Hebrew word that seems to have an Egyptian derivation. The amount of liquid measured by a hin is uncertain: “Its presumed capacity varies from about 3,5 liters to 7,5 liters” (C. Houtman, Exodus, 3:550).

[29:42]  ⁵ tn The translation has “regular” instead of “continually,” because they will be preparing this twice a day.

[29:42]  ⁶ tn The relative clause identifies the place in front of the Tent as the place that Yahweh would meet Moses. The main verb of the clause is אִוָּעֵד (’ivva’ed), a Niphal imperfect of the verb יָעַד (ya’ad), the verb that is cognate to the name “tent of meeting” – hence the name. This clause leads into the next four verses.

[28:3]  ⁷ sn The sacrifice was to be kept burning, but each morning the priests would have to clean the grill and put a new offering on the altar. So the idea of a continual burnt offering is more that of a regular offering.

[28:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “between the evenings” meaning between dusk and dark.

[28:5]  ⁹ sn That is about two quarts.

[28:5]  ¹⁰ sn That is about one quart.

[28:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the one lamb,” but it is meant to indicate for “each lamb.”

[28:7]  ¹² tn The word שֵׁכָר (shekhar) is often translated “strong drink.” It can mean “barley beer” in the Akkadian cognate, and also in the Hebrew Bible when joined with the word for wine. English versions here read “wine” (NAB, TEV, CEV); “strong wine” (KJV); “fermented drink” (NIV, NLT); “strong drink” (ASV, NASB, NRSV).

[28:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “as the grain offering of the morning and as its drink offering.”

[28:1]  ¹⁴ sn For additional reading on these chapters, see G. B. Gray, Sacrifice in the Old Testament; A. F. Rainey, “The Order of Sacrifices in the Old Testament Ritual Texts,” Bib 51 (1970): 485-98; N. H. Snaith, The Jewish New Year Festival.

[18:29]  ¹⁵ tn The construction is “every raised offering of the Lord”; the genitive here is probably to be taken as a genitive of worth – the offering that is due the Lord.

[18:29]  ¹⁶ tn Or “its hallowed thing.”

[18:2]  ¹⁷ sn The verb forms a wordplay on the name Levi, and makes an allusion to the naming of the tribe Levi by Leah in the book of Genesis. There Leah hoped that with the birth of Levi her husband would be attached to her. Here, with the selection of the tribe to serve in the sanctuary, there is the wordplay again showing that the Levites will be attached to Aaron and the priests. The verb is יִלָּווּ (yillavu), which forms a nice wordplay with Levi (לֵוִי). The tribe will now be attached to the sanctuary. The verb is the imperfect with a vav (ו) that shows volitive sequence after the imperative, here indicating a purpose clause.

[18:2]  ¹⁸ tn The clause is a circumstantial clause because the disjunctive vav (ו) is on a nonverb to start the clause.

[2:4]  ¹⁹ tc The expression “and his divisions and those numbered of them” is somewhat tautological. The words are synonyms used for statistical purposes, and so neither should be simply deleted.

[31:3]  ²⁰ tn The Niphal imperative, literally “arm yourselves,” is the call to mobilize the nation for war. It is followed by the jussive, “and they will be,” which would then be subordinated to say “that they may be.” The versions changed the verb to a Hiphil, but that is unnecessary: “arm some of yourselves.”

[31:3]  ²¹ tn Heb “give.”

[3:3]  ²² tn Heb “the peoples of the lands.”

[46:13]  ²³ tc A few Hebrew mss, the LXX, and the Vulgate read the verb as third person singular (referring to the prince), both here and later in the verse.

[46:14]  ²⁴ tc Two medieval Hebrew mss, the LXX, the Syriac, and the Vulgate read the verb as third person singular.

[46:14]  ²⁵ tn Heb “a hin of oil.” A hin was about 1/16 of a bath. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:266, and O. R. Sellers, “Weights,” IDB 4:835 g.

[9:21]  ²⁶ tn Heb “speaking in prayer.”

[9:21]  ²⁷ tn Heb “in the beginning.”

[9:21]  ²⁸ tn The Hebrew expression בִּיעָף מֻעָף (mu’af bi’af) is very difficult. The issue is whether the verb derives from עוּף (’uf, “to fly”) or from יָעַף (ya’af, “to be weary”). Many ancient versions and modern commentators take the first of these possibilities and understand the reference to be to the swift flight of the angel Gabriel in his coming to Daniel. The words more likely refer to the extreme weariness, not of the angel, but of Daniel. Cf. 7:28; 8:27; 10:8-9, 16-17; also NASB.

[4:4]  ²⁹ sn Bethel and Gilgal were important formal worship centers because of their importance in Israel’s history. Here the Lord ironically urges the people to visit these places so they can increase their sin against him. Their formal worship, because it was not accompanied by social justice, only made them more guilty in God’s sight by adding hypocrisy to their list of sins. Obviously, theirs was a twisted view of the Lord. They worshiped a god of their own creation in order to satisfy their religious impulses (see 4:5: “For you love to do this”). Note that none of the rituals listed in 4:4-5 have to do with sin.

[4:4]  ³⁰ tn The Hebrew word translated “rebel” (also in the following line) could very well refer here to Israel’s violations of their covenant with God (see also the term “crimes” in 1:3 [with note] and the phrase “covenant transgressions” in 2:4 [with note]; 3:14).

[4:4]  ³¹ sn See the note on Bethel earlier in this verse.

[4:4]  ³² tn Or “for.”

[4:4]  ³³ tn Or “for.”