1And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2“Charge the Israelites, and you shall say to them, ‘My offering, My bread, for My fire offerings, My fragrant odor, you shall keep, to offer up to Me at its fixed time.’ 3And you shall say to them, ‘This is the fire offering that you will offer to the LORD: two unblemished yearling lambs a day, a perpetual burnt offering. 4One lamb you shall do in the morning and the second lamb you shall do at twilight. 5And a tenth of an ephah of fine semolina flour for the grain offering mixed with a fourth of a hin of beaten oil. 6A perpetual burnt offering like the one done on Mount Sinai as a fragrant odor, a fire offering to the LORD. 7And its libation, a quarter of a hin for each lamb in the sanctuary to pour out in libation of strong drink to the LORD. 8And the second lamb you shall do at twilight like the grain offering of the morning and its libation, you shall do a fire offering, a fragrant odor to the LORD. 9And on the sabbath day, two unblemished yearling lambs and two-tenths of fine semolina flour, a grain offering mixed with oil, and its libation. 10The burnt offering for one sabbath to the next, besides the perpetual burnt offering and its libation. 11And on your new moons you shall offer up a burnt offering to the LORD, two bulls from the herd and one ram, seven unblemished yearling lambs. 12And three-tenths of fine semolina flour, a grain offering mixed with oil for each bull, and two-tenths of fine semolina flour, a grain offering mixed with oil for each ram. 13And one-tenth of fine semolina flour, a grain offering mixed with oil for every lamb, a burnt offering, a fragrant odor, a fire offering to the LORD. 14And their libations, these will be half a hin for the bull and a third of a hin for the ram and a quarter of a hin for the lamb—wine. This is the burnt offering for the new moon on each new moon of the year. 15And one goat as an offense offering to the LORD, besides the perpetual burnt offering, will be done, and its libation.
16“‘And in the first month on the fourteenth day of this month, a Passover offering to the LORD. 17And on the fifteenth day of this month, a festival, seven days flatbread shall be eaten. 18On the first day a sacred assembly: no task of work shall you do. 19And you shall offer up a fire offering, a burnt offering to the LORD, two bulls from the herd and one ram and seven yearling lambs, unblemished they shall be for you. 20And their grain offering, fine semolina flour mixed with oil, three-tenths for the bull and two-tenths for the lamb shall you do. 21One-tenth you shall do for every lamb and two-tenths for the seven lambs you shall do. 22And one offense-offering goat to atone for you. 23Besides the morning’s burnt offering which pertains to the perpetual burnt offering you shall do these. 24Like these you shall do each day seven days, bread of the fire offering, a fragrant odor to the LORD, besides the perpetual burnt offering shall it be done, and its libation. 25And on the seventh day a sacred assembly shall you have, no task of work shall you do.
26“‘And on the day of First Fruits when you offer up an offering of new grain to the LORD in your Festival of Weeks, a sacred assembly shall you have, no task of work shall you do. 27And you shall offer up a burnt offering as a fragrant odor to the LORD, two bulls of the herd, one ram, seven yearling lambs. 28And their grain offering mixed with oil, three-tenths for the single bull, two-tenths for the single ram. 29A tenth for every single lamb of the seven lambs. 30One goat to atone for you. 31Besides the perpetual burnt offering and its grain offering you shall do. Unblemished shall they be for you, and their libation.’”
CHAPTER 28 NOTES
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2. My offering, My bread. Although Moses is to be the speaker, he is enjoined to quote God’s direct discourse to the Israelites.
My offering. The end of the previous chapter was clearly what should have been the penultimate moment of the Moses story: Moses summoned to the mountaintop where he will be gathered to his kin and where he is enjoined to pass the leadership on to Joshua. Now, however, the Priestly redactors, pursuing their own professional concern with the cult, introduce a large block of material stipulating regulations for sacrifices (chapters 28–29). This will be followed by a sequence of passages pertaining to the conquest and the division of the land, but since in these sections Moses still holds the reins of leadership, they would have to be anterior to the end of chapter 27. One could scarcely find a more emphatic illustration of the rabbinic principle that “there is neither early nor late in the Torah,” i.e., that the text of the Torah passed down to us does not exhibit consistent chronological sequence.
My bread. As elsewhere, this is a synecdoche for food, since the burnt flesh of animals as well as grain offerings is involved. The sacrificial laws reflect the strongest nexus of biblical religion with antecedent paganism, and this link is reflected in the archaic survivals of the language, in which the sacrifices are represented as the food of the gods and the smoke from the altar as a “fragrant odor” in the nostrils of the gods, predisposing them in favor of those who offer the sacrifices. Although biblical monotheism by stages transcended this mechanical conception of sacrifice, as polemic passages against it in the Prophets demonstrate, one may assume that it had a powerful appeal, quite literally understood, for many ordinary Israelite worshippers.
3. perpetual. That is, a fixed and repeated requirement, performed daily.
5. beaten oil. The top-grade oil was produced with mortar and pestle rather than extracted with a press.
6. like the one done on Mount Sinai. The literal sense of the somewhat enigmatic Hebrew is “that is done on Mount Sinai.” Abraham ibn Ezra shrewdly infers that the sacrifices, first established and performed at Sinai, were not done during the forty years of wandering in the wilderness.
7. strong drink. The Hebrew shekhar is derived from the verbal root that means “to intoxicate.” Some think it means “beer” (widely used in the ancient Near East), but since it is unlikely that beer, a fermented substance otherwise prohibited in the cult, was used for libations, it probably refers to some sort of wine distinct from the ordinary kind or, even more likely, to grappa.
17. a festival. The Hebrew ḥag implies a pilgrim festival. The noun derives from the verb ḥug, “to move about in a circle,” and in all likelihood refers to the trajectory of the pilgrim procession making its way to the sanctuary. As several recent commentators have noted, ḥag is not mentioned in connection with the Feast of First Fruits, and this may not have been a pilgrim festival in the earlier biblical period.
26. Festival of Weeks. The Hebrew simply says “Weeks,” shavuʿot. The name refers to the seven weeks counted from the inception of Passover to this festival (hence the Christian Pentecost, festival of the fiftieth day, the day following seven weeks).