Numbers 28 · a question people ask
Leviticus 23 and Numbers 28 give different animals for the feast of weeks. Which is it?
Leviticus 23 lists, "with the bread", seven lambs, one young bull and two rams for a burnt offering, then "one male goat for a sin offering, and two male lambs a year old for a sacrifice of peace offerings" (Leviticus 23:18-19). Numbers lists "two young bulls, one ram, seven male lambs a year old" (28:27) and "one male goat, to make atonement for you" (28:30). Neither passage mentions the other or says how the two fit together. Both call the day a holy convocation with no regular work (Leviticus 23:21; Numbers 28:26), and both have seven lambs a year old and a male goat. Readers put the two lists together in two main ways.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Two sets, both offered that day
Those who hold this view note that Leviticus ties its animals to the new bread: "You shall present with the bread seven lambs without defect a year old, one young bull, and two rams" (Leviticus 23:18), and the priest waves the two lambs "with the bread of the first fruits" (Leviticus 23:20). They read Numbers' list as the day's own set offering, given in the same form as the new moon's and each day of unleavened bread's (28:11, 28:19, 28:27), and note that this chapter sets its offerings beside others already being made (28:10, 28:23, 28:31). On this reading, both sets were offered on the day.
Leviticus 23:18 · Leviticus 23:20 · Numbers 28:11 · Numbers 28:19 · Numbers 28:27 · Numbers 28:10 · Numbers 28:23 · Numbers 28:31
One offering, recorded twice
Those who hold this view note that both passages give the burnt offering for the same day, "the day of the first fruits" (28:26), when "a new meal offering" is brought (Leviticus 23:16), each with seven lambs a year old and one male goat (Leviticus 23:18-19; Numbers 28:27, 28:30). They read the two lists as two records of one offering, which number the bulls and rams differently: "one young bull, and two rams" (Leviticus 23:18), "two young bulls, one ram" (28:27).
Numbers 28:26 · Leviticus 23:16 · Leviticus 23:18-19 · Numbers 28:27 · Numbers 28:30