Numbers 15:5-23

15:5 You must also prepare one-fourth of a hin of wine for a drink offering ¹  with the burnt offering or the sacrifice for each lamb. ²  15:6 Or for a ram, you must prepare as a grain offering two-tenths of an ephah of finely ground flour mixed with one-third of a hin of olive oil, 15:7 and for a drink offering you must offer one-third of a hin of wine as a pleasing aroma to the Lord. 15:8 And when you prepare a young bull as a burnt offering or a sacrifice for discharging a vow or as a peace offering to the Lord, 15:9 then a grain offering of three-tenths of an ephah of finely ground flour mixed with half a hin of olive oil must be presented ³  with the young bull, 15:10 and you must present as the drink offering half a hin of wine with the fire offering as a pleasing aroma to the Lord. 15:11 This is what is to be done ⁴  for each ox, or each ram, or each of the male lambs or the goats. 15:12 You must do so for each one according to the number that you prepare.

15:13 “‘Every native-born person must do these things in this way to present an offering made by fire as a pleasing aroma to the Lord. 15:14 If a resident foreigner is living ⁵  with you – or whoever is among you ⁶  in future generations ⁷  – and prepares an offering made by fire as a pleasing aroma to the Lord, he must do it the same way you are to do it. ⁸  15:15 One statute must apply ⁹  to you who belong to the congregation and to the resident foreigner who is living among you, as a permanent ¹⁰  statute for your future generations. You and the resident foreigner will be alike ¹¹  before the Lord. 15:16 One law and one custom must apply to you and to the resident foreigner who lives alongside you.’”

Rules for First Fruits

15:17 The Lord spoke to Moses: 15:18 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘When you enter the land to which I am bringing you ¹²  15:19 and you eat ¹³  some of the food of the land, you must offer up a raised offering ¹⁴  to the Lord. 15:20 You must offer up a cake of the first of your finely ground flour ¹⁵  as a raised offering; as you offer the raised offering of the threshing floor, so you must offer it up. 15:21 You must give to the Lord some of the first of your finely ground flour as a raised offering in your future generations.

Rules for Unintentional Offenses

15:22 ¹⁶ “‘If you ¹⁷  sin unintentionally and do not observe all these commandments that the Lord has spoken to Moses – 15:23 all that the Lord has commanded you by the authority ¹⁸  of Moses, from the day that the Lord commanded Moses and continuing through your future generations –

[15:5]  ¹ sn The drink-offering was an ancient custom, mentioned in the Ugaritic tablets of Ras Shamra (14th century b.c.). The drink offering was poured out at the base of the altar (see Sir 50:15 and Josephus, Ant. 3.9.4 [3.234]).

[15:5]  ² tn Heb “for the one lamb,” but it clearly means “for each lamb.”

[15:9]  ³ tn The text changes from direct address here to the third person form of the verb. If the MT is correct, then to make a smooth translation it would need to be made a passive (in view of the fact that no subject is expressed).

[15:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “according to thus shall it be done.”

[15:14]  ⁵ tn The word גּוּר (gur) was traditionally translated “to sojourn,” i.e., to live temporarily in a land. Here the two words are from the root: “if a sojourner sojourns.”

[15:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “in your midst.”

[15:14]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew text just has “to your generations,” but it means in the future.

[15:14]  ⁸ tn The imperfect tenses must reflect the responsibility to comply with the law, and so the classifications of instruction or obligation may be applied.

[15:15]  ⁹ tn The word “apply” is supplied in the translation.

[15:15]  ¹⁰ tn Or “a statute forever.”

[15:15]  ¹¹ tn Heb “as you, as [so] the alien.”

[15:18]  ¹² tn The relative clause is literally, “which I am causing you to enter there.” The final adverb is resumptive, and must be joined with the relative pronoun.

[15:19]  ¹³ tn The verse has a temporal clause that actually continues or supplements the temporal clause of the preceding verse. It is made up of the temporal indicator, the infinitive construct with the preposition, and the suffixed subjective genitive: “and it shall be when you eat.” Here it is translated simply “and eat” since the temporal element was introduced in the last verse.

[15:19]  ¹⁴ tn This is the תְּרוּמָה (tÿrumah), the “raised offering” or “heave offering” (cf. KJV, ASV). It may simply be called a “contribution” (so NAB). The verb of the sentence is from the same root: “you shall lift up/raise up.” It was to be an offering separated from the rest and raised up to the Lord in the sight of all. It was designed to remind the Israelites that the produce and the land belonged to God.

[15:20]  ¹⁵ tn Or “the first of your dough.” The phrase is not very clear. N. H. Snaith thinks it means a batch of loaves from the kneading trough – the first batch of the baking (Leviticus and Numbers [NCB], 251).

[15:22]  ¹⁶ sn These regulations supplement what was already ruled on in the Levitical code for the purification and reparation offerings. See those rulings in Lev 4-7 for all the details. Some biblical scholars view the rules in Leviticus as more elaborate and therefore later. However, this probably represents a misunderstanding of the purpose of each collection.

[15:22]  ¹⁷ tn The verb is the plural imperfect; the sin discussed here is a sin committed by the community, or the larger part of the community.

[15:23]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “hand.”