Numbers 29

Numbers 28 prescribes the offerings to be presented daily, on the Sabbath, at the new moon (the first day of each month), at Passover, and at the Feast of Weeks. This chapter continues that list with the feasts of the seventh month. The two chapters are read as a single unit of sacrificial regulations.

Outline

• Verses 1–6: The first day of the seventh month is the day of blowing the trumpets; the people gather for a holy convocation and do no work. The burnt offering consists of one young bullock, one ram, and seven lambs of the first year. A meat offering (grain offering) of fine flour mingled with oil accompanies them, and one kid of the goats is offered as a sin offering. These are offered in addition to the new moon offerings and the continual burnt offering (the burnt offering presented daily).
• Verses 7–11: On the tenth day of the seventh month the people gather for a holy convocation, "afflict [their] souls," and do no work. The kinds and numbers of offerings are the same as on the first day of the month.
• Verses 12–16: Beginning on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, a feast is kept for seven days. On the first day, thirteen young bullocks, two rams, and fourteen lambs are offered as a burnt offering, and one kid of the goats as a sin offering.
• Verses 17–34: From the second day through the seventh, the number of bullocks decreases by one each day, from twelve down to seven. The two rams, fourteen lambs, and one kid of the goats remain the same each day. The bullocks offered over the seven days total seventy.
• Verses 35–38: On the eighth day the people gather for a solemn assembly, and offerings on the same scale as those of the first day of the month are presented.
• Verses 39–40: These offerings are presented in addition to vows and freewill offerings (offerings given voluntarily). Moses conveys all these commands to the children of Israel.

Key Verses

• Numbers 29:1, "it is a day of blowing the trumpets unto you": this day announces the beginning of the feasts of the seventh month.
• Numbers 29:7, "ye shall afflict your souls: ye shall not do any work therein": a brief summary of the distinctive features of the Day of Atonement.
• Numbers 29:12, "ye shall keep a feast unto the LORD seven days": the sacrificial regulations for the Feast of Tabernacles begin here.

People and Places

• Moses: the one who conveys the commands of the LORD to the children of Israel.
• No place is named in the text. However, the setting from Numbers 26 onward is the plains of Moab east of the Jordan.

Points for Reflection

• This chapter deals only with the list of offerings. The meaning of the feasts and the manner of their observance appear in Leviticus 23, and the detailed ritual of the Day of Atonement appears in Leviticus 16.
• In Jewish tradition, "afflicting the soul" has been understood as fasting. There is also a well-known rabbinic interpretation that explains the seventy bullocks of the Feast of Tabernacles as offerings on behalf of the seventy nations of the world. Both are later interpretations rather than statements made directly by the text.
• Christian tradition, following passages such as Hebrews 10:1, often regards such repeated sacrifices as "a shadow of good things to come" and reads them in connection with Christ's once-for-all sacrifice.
• Some interpreters connect the Feast of Trumpets with the trumpet of the Second Coming and the Feast of Tabernacles with the eschatological prophecy of Zechariah 14. This, too, is a typological reading (one that sees Old Testament institutions or events as foreshadowing the New Testament), and interpreters differ in their assessment of it.
• In John 7, Jesus taught on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles.

In the Korean Church

The Feast of Tabernacles is frequently mentioned in Thanksgiving sermons in Korean churches. However, Leviticus 23 or Deuteronomy 16 is more commonly used as the sermon text, and this chapter, centered on a list of offerings, is rarely preached as a stand-alone text.