Numbers 28 - Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The daily offering had been already commanded Exodus 29:38, and no doubt additional offerings had become customary on festivals. But no such elaborate system as is here prescribed was or could possibly have been observed in the wilderness: compare Deuteronomy 12:8-9. The regulations of this and the next chapter therefore point to the immediate prospect of that settlement in Canaan which alone could enable the Israelites to obey them. Compare the ordinances in Numbers 15.

My offering, and my bread ... - Or, my offering, even my bread, etc. Offering is here קרבן qorbân (compare Leviticus 1:2; Mark 7:11), a term in itself of quite general import, but often especially applied, as apparently in this instance, to the meat-offering which accompanied the sacrifices. This meat-offering connected itself, from its very nature, with the life of the Israelites in Canaan, not with their life in the wilderness; and it was annexed to the animal sacrifices as a token that the people must dedicate to God their property and the fruits of their labor as well as their own persons. See Numbers 15:2 note and Leviticus 21:6.

The original of the word “strong wine” שׁכר shêkār is a term usually employed to describe strong drink other than wine (Leviticus 10:9 note). The Israelites in the wilderness had, in their lack of wine, substituted shechar made from barley for it. They had thus observed the spirit, though not the letter of the ordinance. The drink-offering was either poured round the foot of the altar; or on the altar, and so upon the flesh of the sacrifice by which the altar was covered (compare Exodus 30:9).

The Sabbath-offering, not previously enjoined, consisted of two lambs, properly accompanied, in addition to the regular daily offering.

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; Leviticus 8; Leviticus 9; Leviticus 14; Leviticus 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.

The Passover offering was the same as that of the New moon, and was repeated on each of the seven days of the festival, thus marking the importance and the solemnity of the occasion. The details of the offering had not been previously prescribed.

The festival offering at the season of first-fruits was to be offered on one day only; and was the same with that of the new moon and Passover. It nearly though not entirely accords with the sacrificial offering prescribed in Leviticus 23:18 ff.