Numbers 28 · a question people ask
Exodus 29 and Leviticus 23 already gave these offerings. Why say them again here?
The chapter knows it is repeating: the daily offering "was ordained in Mount Sinai" (28:6), and Exodus 29 had given it there (Exodus 29:38-42). What Numbers adds is one list that gives the offerings day by day, including amounts Leviticus 23 hadn't given. For the feast of unleavened bread, Leviticus 23 had said only, "you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD seven days" (Leviticus 23:8); Numbers says what: two young bulls, one ram and seven lambs a day, with a male goat (28:19-24). Leviticus 23 sets no offering for the beginnings of the months. Numbers 10 had spoken of trumpets blown "in the beginnings of your months" over "your burnt offerings" (10:10), and this chapter says what those burnt offerings are (28:11-15). The chapter doesn't say why it comes at this point in the book. What comes just before it is a new count of the people, among whom "there was not a man of them who were counted by Moses and Aaron the priest" in the wilderness of Sinai (26:64), and the LORD telling Moses that he "shall be gathered to your people" (27:13). That count was made "in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho" (26:63), and Numbers ends by placing its commandments there (36:13): these words are given to the generation counted in chapter 26.
The verses
“It is a continual burnt offering which was ordained in Mount Sinai for a pleasant aroma, an offering made by fire to the LORD.”
“But you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD seven days. In the seventh day is a holy convocation. You shall do no regular work.’””
““Also in the day of your gladness, and in your set feasts, and in the beginnings of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; and they shall be to you for a memorial before your God. I am the LORD your God.””
“These are those who were counted by Moses and Eleazar the priest, who counted the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho. But among these there was not a man of them who were counted by Moses and Aaron the priest, who counted the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai. For the LORD had said of them, “They shall surely die in the wilderness.” There was not a man left of them, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.”