Numbers 28:11

And in the beginnings of your months ye shall offer a burnt offering unto the LORD; two young bullocks, and one ram, seven lambs of the first year without spot;

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(11) In the beginnings of your months . . . —The beginning of the month was announced by the blowing of the silver trumpets (Numbers 10:10). Increased respect was paid to the beginning of the month in later times. Trade was suspended (Amos 8:5), and religious instruction appears to have been given at this time (2Kings 4:23).

Benson Commentary

Numbers 28:11. In the beginning of your months — The third stated sacrifice was monthly, to be offered on the first day of every month. This sacrifice to God is thought to have been ordained in opposition to the idolatry of the Gentiles, who were wont to worship the new moon with great rejoicings. Besides the celebration of the new moon by sacrifices, and sound of trumpet, (Numbers 10:10,) the Jews were wont upon those days to assemble for receiving instruction from their prophets, (2 Kings 4:23,) and to feast together, 1 Samuel 20:5; 1 Samuel 20:18. And it was customary on those days to shut up their shops, and abstain from ordinary and servile labour, as is hinted Amos 8:5.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

28:9-15 Every sabbath day, beside the two lambs offered for the daily burnt-offering, there must be two more offered. This teaches us to double our devotions on sabbath days, for so the duty of the day requires. The sabbath rest is to be observed, in order more closely to apply ourselves to the sabbath work, which ought to fill up the sabbath time. The offerings in the new moons showed thankfulness for the renewing of earthly blessings: when we rejoice in the gifts of providence, we must make the sacrifice of Christ, that great gift of special grace, the fountain and spring-head of our joy. And the worship performed in the new moons is made typical of gospel solemnities, Isa 66:23. As the moon borrows light from the sun, and is renewed by its influences; so the church borrows her light from Jesus Christ, who is the Sun of righteousness, renewing the state of the church, especially under the gospel.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The New-moon offering is here also commanded for the first time. The goat as a sin-offering, though mentioned last, would seem in fact to have been offered first (compare the precedents in Exodus 29; Leviticus 5; 8; 9; 14; 16). The sin-offering, which Numbers 15:22-26 had been contemplated in cases where a sin had been committed ignorantly without the knowledge of the congregation, was henceforth not to be offered merely at discretion, as circumstances might seem to require, but to be regularly repeated, not less frequently than once a month.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

11-15. And in the beginnings of your months ye shall offer a burnt offering unto the Lord—These were held as sacred festivals; and though not possessing the character of solemn feasts, they were distinguished by the blowing of trumpets over the sacrifices (Nu 10:10), by the suspension of all labor except the domestic occupations of women (Am 8:5), by the celebration of public worship (2Ki 4:23), and by social or family feasts (1Sa 20:5). These observations are not prescribed in the law though they obtained in the practice of a later time. The beginning of the month was known, not by astronomical calculations, but, according to Jewish writers, by the testimony of messengers appointed to watch the first visible appearance of the new moon; and then the fact was announced through the whole country by signal-fires kindled on the mountain tops. The new-moon festivals having been common among the heathen, it is probable that an important design of their institution in Israel was to give the minds of that people a better direction; and assuming this to have been one of the objects contemplated, it will account for one of the kids being offered unto the Lord (Nu 28:15), not unto the moon, as the Egyptians and Syrians did. The Sabbath and the new moon are frequently mentioned together.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

In the beginnings of your months, which though not reckoned among the solemn feasts, Le 23, yet were celebrated as such, by the sound of trumpets, Numbers 10:10, by extraordinary sacrifices, by abstinence from servile works, Amos 8:5, and by attendance upon the ministry of God’s word, 2 Kings 4:23. And God ordained it thus, partly that by giving God the first-fruits of every month they should acknowledge him as the Lord of all their time, and own his providence, by which all times and seasons, and all the fruits and blessings of them, and actions done in them, are ordered; and partly that it might be a type of the future renovation of the world by Christ.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And in the beginnings of your months ye shall offer a burnt offering unto the Lord,.... On the first day of every month, when the new moon appeared; that this was religiously observed appears from the blowing of the trumpets over the sacrifices on this day, from attendance on the word of the Lord, by his prophets, on this day, and from abstinence from worldly business on it, Numbers 10:10.

two young bullocks, and one ram, seven rams of the first year without spot; this was the burnt offering, and a very large and costly one it was: more creatures were offered on this day than on a sabbath day; not that this was a more holy day than that, but this was but once a month, and therefore the expense might be the more easily bore, whereas that was every week.

Geneva Study Bible

And in the beginnings of your months ye shall offer a burnt offering unto the LORD; two young bullocks, and one ram, seven lambs of the first year without spot;

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 11. - In the beginnings of your months. The new-moon offering also is here enjoined for the first time, the festival itself having only been incidentally mentioned in Numbers 10:10. There can be no doubt that this (unlike the sabbath) was a nature-festival, observed more or less by all nations. As such it did not require to be instituted, but only to be regulated and sanctified in order that it might not lend itself to idolatry, as it did among the heathen (cf. Deuteronomy 4:19; Job 31:26, 27; Jeremiah 7:18; Jeremiah 8:2). The new-moon feast, depending upon no calendar but that of the sky, and more clearly marked in that than any other recurring period, was certain to fix itself deeply in the social and religious habits of a simple pastoral or agricultural people. Accordingly we find it incidentally mentioned as a day of social gathering (1 Samuel 20:5), and as a day for religious instruction (2 Kings 4:23). From the latter passage, and from such passages as Isaiah 66:23; Ezekiel 46:1; Amos 8:5, it is evident that the feast of the new moon became to the month exactly what the sabbath was to the week - a day of rest and of worship (see also Judith 8:6). Numbers 28:11

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

At the beginnings of the month, i.e., at the new moons, a larger burnt-offering was to be added to the daily or continual burnt-offering, consisting of two bullocks (young oxen), one ram, and seven yearling lambs, with the corresponding meat and drink-offerings, as the "month's burnt-offering in its (i.e., every) month with regard to the months of the year," i.e., corresponding to them. To this there was also to be added a sin-offering of a shaggy goat (see at Leviticus 4:23). The custom of distinguishing the beginnings of the months of new moon's days by a peculiar festal sacrifice, without their being, strictly speaking, festal days, with sabbatical rest and a holy meeting,

(Note: In later times, however, the new moon grew more and more into a feast-day, trade was suspended (Amos 8:5), the pious Israelite sought instruction from the prophets (2 Kings 4:23), many families and households presented yearly thank-offerings (1 Samuel 20:6, 1 Samuel 20:29), and at a still later period the most devout abstained from fasting (Judith 8:6); consequently it is frequently referred to by the prophets as a feast resembling the Sabbath (Isaiah 1:13; Hosea 2:13; Ezekiel 46:1).)

arose from the relation in which the month stood to the single day. "If the congregation was to sanctify its life and labour to the Lord every day by a burnt-offering, it could not well be omitted at the commencement of the larger division of time formed by the month; on the contrary, it was only right that the commencement of a new month should be sanctified by a special sacrifice. Whilst, then, a burnt-offering, in which the idea of expiation was subordinate to that of consecrating surrender to the Lord, was sufficient for the single day; for the whole month it was necessary that, in consideration of the sins that had been committed in the course of the past month, and had remained without expiation, a special sin-offering should be offered for their expiation, in order that, upon the ground of the forgiveness and reconciliation with God which had been thereby obtained, the lives of the people might be sanctified afresh to the Lord in the burnt-offering. This significance of the new moon sacrifice was still further intensified by the fact, that during the presentation of the sacrifice the priests sounded the silver trumpets, in order that it might be to the congregation for a memorial before God (Numbers 10:10). The trumpet blast was intended to bring before God the prayers of the congregation embodied in the sacrifice, that God might remember them in mercy, granting them the forgiveness of their sins and power for sanctification, and quickening them again in the fellowship of His saving grace" (see my Archaeologie, i. p. 369).