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 the month Abib.’] , Weeks and Booths were connected with the stages in the harvest, the dates of which would necessarily vary in different years, and in different parts of the country. (b) The quantities of the offerings were proportional to the wealth and willingness of the individual worshipper (Deuteronomy 16:10; Deuteronomy 16:17). (c) There were no sin-offerings, and the sacrifices included ‘peace-offerings,’ in which the worshippers had a share, so that they could ‘rejoice’ at the festal meal (id. Numbers 29:11; Numbers 29:15).

2. 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. Jdg 9:13). By the time that this chapter was written, such notions had, of course, long passed away, but the ancient ritual language survived. See W. R. Smith, Rel. Sem. 2 p. 224. On the following words see note on Numbers 15:3.

6. which was ordained] in Exodus 29:38-42.

7. ye shall afflict your souls] An expression which denoted fasting; cf. Numbers 30:13, Psalm 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.

11. 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.

16. 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.’

18. 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 trumpets] See Numbers 10:10.

35. 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’), Amos 5:21. After the exile it was used, as here, of an assembly on the additional eighth day of the Feast of Booths (Leviticus 23:36, Nehemiah 8:18), and on a special fast day (Joel 1:14; Joel 2:15); and the Chronicler relates that such an assembly was held as the climax of rejoicing on the eighth day (contrast 1 Kings 8:66) at the dedication of Solomon’s temple (2 Chronicles 7:9).