Three features distinguish this system in a marked manner from the celebrations of festivals before the exile: (_a_) the exact dates, (_b_) the fixed quantity of the offerings, (_c_) the nature of the offerings, (_a_) Before the exile the festivals of Unleavened Cakes1 [Note: This was observed -in t... [ Continue Reading ]
_my food_ In primitive days in Israel (as in many other nations, e.g. Babylonians, Greeks and Romans) it was believed that the deity really ate and drank the offerings (cf. Judges 9:13). By the time that this chapter was written, such notions had, of course, long passed away, but the ancient ritual... [ Continue Reading ]
_which was ordained_ in Exodus 29:38-42.... [ Continue Reading ]
_ye shall afflict your souls_ An expression which denoted _fasting_; cf. Numbers 30:13; Psalms 35:13; Isaiah 58:3; Isaiah 58:5. Here it is the great annual fast, still strictly observed by orthodox Jews, on the Day of Atonement; cf. Leviticus 16:29; Leviticus 23:27-29; Leviticus 23:32.... [ Continue Reading ]
_beside the sin offering of atonement_ An incidental reference to the solemn ceremony which gave its name to the day. It is described in Leviticus 16, on which Hebrews 9:7-12; Hebrews 9:23-28 is based.... [ Continue Reading ]
The verse prescribes no offerings, but merely mentions the Passover as one of the holy-days of the year. It may have been a later insertion, taken from Leviticus 23:5 (H). If so, it is probable that Numbers 29:17 originally began -And in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the month.... [ Continue Reading ]
_ye shall do no_ LABORIOUS _work_ The expression is found only in H (Leviticus 23:7-8 &c.) and in this and the following chapter. It is not only the work of slaves that is forbidden, as E.VV. might suggest, but all business or occupation that requires labour. Numbers 29:1. _a day of blowing of trum... [ Continue Reading ]
_a solemn assembly_ AN ASSEMBLY. The Heb. word _-aẓereth_contains nothing which implies that the assembly was of a specially solemn character. Before the exile an _-aẓereth_was held on the seventh day of the Feast of Unleavened Cakes (Deuteronomy 16:8); and see Isaiah 1:13 (R.V. -solemn meeting"), A... [ Continue Reading ]