H. P. Mansfield Bible notes — checked and arranged in verse-by-verse Expositor style
Primary source: H. P. Mansfield’s annotations in his HP Bible, HPB 03-Lev12-Num36.PDF, mainly p. 83. The separately published Numbers Expositor is a distinct work and was used only as a secondary cross-check.
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
Before Israel enters the land, Numbers 28 orders the national sacrificial calendar: daily, weekly, monthly and annual worship. Time itself is disciplined around Yahweh’s appointed service.
The special offerings never displace the continual burnt offering. Sabbath, new moon and festival sacrifices are repeatedly described as being “beside” the ordinary daily offering.
THE DAILY OFFERING — NUMBERS 28:1–8
Numbers 28:1–2 — “my offering … in their due season”
Yahweh calls the offerings “my offering, and my bread for my sacrifices made by fire” and commands Israel to observe them at their mo‘ed, appointed time.
Regularity belongs to obedience; worship is not left to occasional enthusiasm.
Numbers 28:3–4 — two lambs every day
Two year-old unblemished lambs are offered daily as a continual burnt offering: one in the morning and one “between the evenings.”
The Hebrew phrase ben ha‘arbayim is traditional Passover/sacrificial terminology. Exact clock-time reconstructions vary; Mansfield’s precise 3–6 p.m. definition should not be presented as the only certain meaning.
Numbers 28:5–8 — grain, oil and drink offerings
Each lamb is accompanied by one tenth ephah of fine flour mixed with one quarter hin of beaten oil and a one-quarter-hin drink offering.
Verse 7 calls the drink shekar, strong/fermented drink. It is a poured offering to Yahweh; the text should not be modernised into an assumption of unfermented grape juice.
KJV “meat offering” means grain/meal offering.
THE SABBATH — NUMBERS 28:9–10
Numbers 28:9–10 — additional, not replacement
On the Sabbath two additional year-old lambs are offered with two tenths ephah of flour mixed with oil and the associated drink offering.
This is explicitly “beside the continual burnt offering.” The weekly holy day intensifies the national offering schedule rather than cancelling the morning/evening sacrifice.
NEW MOONS — NUMBERS 28:11–15
Numbers 28:11 — beginning of months
At each month’s beginning Israel offers two young bulls, one ram and seven year-old lambs without blemish.
Numbers 10:10 had already associated trumpets with new moons; Numbers 28 supplies the sacrificial schedule.
Numbers 28:12–14 — proportional grain and wine
Each bull receives three tenths ephah flour; the ram two tenths; each lamb one tenth, all mixed with oil. Drink offerings are one half hin per bull, one third per ram and one quarter per lamb.
The differing measures are explicit administrative requirements; elaborate numerological meanings are secondary exposition.
Numbers 28:15 — goat for sin offering beside the continual
One male goat is added as a sin/purification offering, besides the continual burnt offering and its drink offering.
Dedication and acknowledgment of sin occur together at the monthly beginning.
PASSOVER AND UNLEAVENED BREAD — NUMBERS 28:16–25
Numbers 28:16–17 — fourteenth Passover; fifteenth feast
On the fourteenth day of the first month is Yahweh’s Passover; on the fifteenth begins the seven-day feast, during which unleavened bread is eaten.
This preserves the standard Torah distinction between the Passover date and the following feast period.
Passover terminology — caution with `pasach`
Mansfield argues that pasach fundamentally means “hover over/protect” rather than “pass over.” The verb can indeed carry senses of sparing/protecting in Passover contexts, and Isaiah 31:5 uses related imagery, but its etymology and semantic history are debated.
The familiar “pass over/spare/protect” range should therefore be retained rather than asserting one reconstructed root meaning as certain.
Numbers 28:18–24 — festival sacrifices every day
The first day is a holy convocation with no servile work. Each festival day brings two bulls, one ram, seven lambs, their grain offerings and a goat for sin offering.
These are offered in addition to the continual burnt offering. The seven-day sequence is repeated daily.
Numbers 28:25 — seventh-day convocation
The seventh day is also a holy convocation without servile work.
DAY OF FIRSTFRUITS / FEAST OF WEEKS — NUMBERS 28:26–31
Numbers 28:26 — new grain offering and holy convocation
On the day of firstfruits, at the Feast of Weeks, Israel presents a new grain offering and holds a holy convocation with no servile work.
Leviticus 23 gives the counting of seven weeks and additional rites, including the two wave loaves.
Numbers 28:27–30 — two bulls, one ram, seven lambs and a goat
The Numbers schedule prescribes two young bulls, one ram and seven lambs with their grain/drink offerings, plus a goat for sin offering.
Leviticus 23:18–19 gives a different list in connection with the wave loaves: one bull, two rams, seven lambs, one goat and two peace-offering lambs. The most natural reading is that the texts preserve distinct/additional festival prescriptions, but Scripture does not spell out a detailed timetable explaining how the two lists were combined.
Numbers 28:31 — “beside the continual burnt offering”
The special firstfruits offerings are again expressly additional to the continual burnt offering and its grain/drink offering.
The daily covenant rhythm remains underneath every special celebration.
PRINCIPAL THEMES
• National worship is organised by appointed time as well as appointed sacrifice.
• The continual morning/evening offering remains in place beneath Sabbath and festival additions.
• `ben ha‘arbayim` is the traditional “between the evenings” phrase; exact modern clock boundaries are debated.
• `shekar` in the daily drink offering is fermented/strong drink, not automatically unfermented juice.
• KJV “meat offering” is grain/meal offering.
• New-moon offerings combine dedication with a goat for sin/purification.
• Passover is on the fourteenth; the seven-day Unleavened Bread feast begins on the fifteenth.
• `pasach` has a pass-over/spare/protect semantic range; Mansfield’s single “hover” derivation is not treated as certain.
• Numbers 28 and Leviticus 23 give differing Feast-of-Weeks offering lists; likely complementary/additional rites should not be harmonised with invented precision.
• Special festivals never displace the continual burnt offering.