The Day of Atonement (Numbers 29:7-11).
Sacred in the Israelite calendar was the Day of Atonement on the tenth day of the seventh month. It was a day of affliction of the person (compare Leviticus 16:29), although we are never told in what way. On this day they were to ‘afflict themselves'. This probably represented some form of indicating penitence, although we are not told what it was. It may have been the loosening of the hair, the ritual tearing of clothes, and the covering of the upper lip (Leviticus 13:45). (Compare Numbers 10:6; Numbers 21:10; Ezekiel 24:17; Ezekiel 24:22; Genesis 37:34; Numbers 14:6; 2 Samuel 1:11; 2Ki 11:14; 2 Kings 19:1; 2 Kings 22:11; 2 Kings 22:19; Ezra 9:5; Micah 3:7). It would later be related to fasting, but there is no hint of that here. In Isaiah 58:3-5 it is related to fasting but rather as something done while fasting, possibly ‘bowing down his head as a rush, and spreading sackcloth and ashes under him'.
But it was not specifically spelled out, probably so that men could choose how they expressed themselves without it becoming just a formal response. This day yearly was the day when Israel specially remembered their sins. It was a sorrowful day for that reason, but behind it lay joy, for on that day the High Priest discreetly and reverently entered behind the veil in the Holy Place into the Holy of Holies itself, and there presented before Yahweh at the very Mercy Seat (the Ark), the blood, first of his own purification for sin offering (a bull ox), and then of their purification for sin offering (a he-goat). And on that day also a further he-goat, the ‘scapegoat', was driven into the wilderness, having had the sins of the people confessed over it, never to return, in one way or another bearing on it as their representative the sins of Israel (see Leviticus 16 for details).
a The tenth day of the seventh month to be a holy convocation for affliction of their souls and no manner of work (Numbers 29:7).
b Whole burnt offerings of one young ox bull and a ram and seven he-lambs to be offered to Yahweh as a pleasing odour (Numbers 29:8).
c The grain offerings to be offered with the whole burnt offerings (Numbers 29:9-10).
b A he-goat to be offered as a purification for sin offering (Numbers 29:11 a).
a This to be offered beside the purification for sin offering of atonement, and the continual whole burnt offerings, with their grain and drink offerings (Numbers 29:11 b).
‘And on the tenth day of this seventh month you shall have a holy convocation, and you shall afflict your souls. You shall do no manner of work,'
That day was a day of affliction of the person, and a holy convocation (gathering together) on which no work must be done. All must be allowed to fully participate in that day.
‘But you shall offer a whole burnt offering to Yahweh, for a pleasing odour; one young ox bull, one ram, seven he-lambs a year old; they shall be to you without blemish; and their grain offering, milled grain mingled with oil, three tenth parts for the ox bull, two tenth parts for the one ram, a tenth part for every lamb of the seven lambs: one he-goat for a purification for sin offering of atonement, and the continual whole burnt offering, and its grain offering, and their drink-offerings.'
On that day special offerings would be offered as here described, but these would be additional to the whole burnt offerings of a ram for the priest (Leviticus 16:3) and a ram for the people (Leviticus 16:5), and the purification for sin offerings of an ox bull for the priest and a he-goat for the people (Leviticus 16:3; Leviticus 16:5) and the scapegoat. Thus would atonement be made followed by the offerings of worship, dedication, praise and thanksgiving, which also included an element of atonement.
Each year this solemn day would be seen as allowing a new beginning. The past was behind them and the future before them. Whatever had been they could begin again, being fully reconciled to Yahweh. Although this did depend on the attitude of heart with which they had come (see Isaiah 1:11-20). Their offerings had to be genuine. They did not work automatically.