28
Numbers
Passover Offerings
Numbers 28:16-25
Key words in this passage
Cross-references
Study notes
The fourteenth day of the first month marks a Passover to the LORD, opening seven days when unleavened bread must be eaten. Daily burnt offerings of two bulls, one ram, and seven year-old male lambs, with measured grain offerings and a he-goat for atonement, must be presented each day in addition to the continual morning sacrifice. Holy assemblies and rest from labor on the first and seventh days enclose the feast. This structure shows that worship during the feast follows the same standards of precision and wholeness as ordinary days, yet adds a sustained acknowledgment of the LORD's deliverance through enlarged offerings that remain anchored to the daily routine.
What is Passover Offerings about?
Numbers 28 moves from the monthly burnt offerings to the requirements for the Passover. The fourteenth day of the first month marks a Passover to the LORD, and the fifteenth begins seven days when unleavened bread must be eaten. The first of those days calls for a holy assembly with no laborious work, and the same rule returns on the seventh day. Each day of the feast requires its own set of animals for the burnt offering: two bulls, one ram, and seven year-old male lambs, all unblemished. Fine flour mixed with oil accompanies them in fixed portions, three tenths for each bull, two tenths for the ram, and one tenth for every lamb. A single he-goat supplies the sin offering that makes atonement. These gifts are presented in addition to the continual morning burnt offering that never stops. The instructions therefore spell out exactly how the annual observance of Passover and Unleavened Bread is to be funded by the same sacrificial system that already governs daily and monthly worship.
Where does this passage sit in Numbers?
Numbers 28 moves from the monthly burnt offerings straight into the Passover requirements. The fourteenth day of the first month opens the new section with the same date formula already used for the new-moon sacrifices, so the annual observance slots into the existing calendar without any separate introduction. The seven-day feast of unleavened bread then repeats the exact daily offering list given for the new moon—two bulls, one ram, seven year-old male lambs—yet adds the explicit reminder that these gifts stand apart from the continual morning burnt offering. That reminder keeps the daily sacrifice in view even while the larger feast unfolds.
The same pattern of holy assembly and rest from laborious work appears on the first and seventh days of the feast, echoing the Sabbath instructions only a few verses earlier. Because the chapter continues immediately with the feast of weeks and the seventh-month festivals, the Passover rules supply the template that governs every subsequent annual observance. Each later feast will again list the same animals, the same grain offerings measured in tenths, and the same he-goat for atonement, always presented on top of the continual burnt offering. The effect is cumulative: the regular daily, weekly, and monthly gifts remain fixed while the annual cycle adds its own layer of offerings at set times.
How is the passage structured?
The verses open by fixing two successive dates in the first month. Verse 16 names the fourteenth day as the Passover itself. Verse 17 immediately shifts to the fifteenth and introduces the seven-day feast of unleavened bread, thereby moving from a single-day observance to a longer period. Verse 18 then isolates the first of those seven days, adding the requirement of a holy assembly and the prohibition of laborious work. The next block, verses 19 through 22, supplies the precise animals and grain portions that must accompany that opening day, ending with the single he-goat presented for atonement. Verse 23 inserts a brief qualification that these gifts stand apart from the morning continual burnt offering, preserving the daily routine while adding the festival requirements. Verse 24 extends the same list of animals, grain, and drink offerings across the remaining days, repeating the phrase “like these” to signal uniformity. The final verse returns to the seventh day, restating the holy assembly and the ban on laborious work and thereby framing the entire feast with matching restrictions on its first and last days. The movement therefore proceeds from dated announcement to daily specification to repeated application, with the continual offering mentioned only once as a boundary marker rather than a repeated element.
What is the historical background?
The fourteenth day of the first month stood apart in the Israelite year because it opened the spring festival cycle tied to the exodus. The text places the Passover itself on that single day and then shifts to a seven-day period beginning on the fifteenth when unleavened bread alone could be eaten. The first and seventh days of this period required a holy assembly, a gathering at the sanctuary that suspended ordinary labor. These assemblies framed the entire week and set its rhythm apart from ordinary weeks.
The offerings listed for each of the seven days were presented at the central sanctuary rather than in local households. Two bulls, one ram, and seven year-old male lambs formed the burnt offering, with accompanying grain offerings measured in tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil. A single he-goat supplied the sin offering whose purpose the text states plainly: to make atonement. All these animals had to be unblemished, a standard that applied to every major public sacrifice and reflected the requirement that gifts brought before the LORD be whole.
The instructions repeatedly separate these festival gifts from the continual burnt offering offered every morning. The daily sacrifice continued unchanged, and the festival animals were added to it. Drink offerings accompanied the daily and festival burnt offerings alike. This layering shows that the Passover week did not replace the regular service but enlarged it for the duration of the feast.
The quantities prescribed—larger than the daily offering yet fixed and repeated—point to a communal observance funded and presented on behalf of the whole people. The same set of animals and grain measures appears for every day, indicating that the week maintained a steady level of sacrificial activity rather than building to a single peak. Such regulations assume a functioning priesthood and a central place of worship where priests could receive, slaughter, and arrange the offerings according to the stated portions.
What does this passage teach about God?
The fourteenth day of the first month stands fixed as a Passover to the LORD, and the fifteenth opens seven days of eating unleavened bread. These dates tie the required offerings directly to the LORD’s prior act of deliverance, so that each year’s worship reenacts the same moment of release. The command for a holy assembly on the first and seventh days, with no laborious work permitted, marks those days as belonging to the LORD in a way ordinary days do not.
The daily burnt offering during the feast consists of two bulls, one ram, and seven unblemished male lambs a year old, accompanied by exact grain offerings measured in tenths of fine flour mixed with oil. A single he-goat supplies the sin offering that makes atonement. The repetition of these numbers and measures for seven consecutive days shows that the LORD receives worship only when it matches the pattern given. Nothing in the instructions suggests that fewer animals or altered portions would suffice.
These sacrifices stand apart from the continual morning burnt offering, yet they rest upon it. The text states that the feast offerings are made upon the continual burnt offering and its drink offering, so the annual observance does not replace daily devotion but enlarges it. The phrase “a food offering of soothing aroma to the LORD” appears for each day, indicating that the LORD accepts the gifts as pleasing when they follow the stated proportions.
Human participation appears in the repeated “you shall present” and “you shall prepare.” The people must bring the animals and the grain, yet the purpose remains “to make atonement for you.” The LORD both receives the offerings and supplies the means by which the people remain in covenant relation. The seven-day structure, with identical requirements each day and a second holy assembly at the end, frames the entire period as sustained acknowledgment that deliverance and ongoing life come from the LORD alone.
What are the interpretive difficulties?
The instructions open by naming the fourteenth day simply as a Passover to the LORD, then shift without further comment to the seven-day feast that begins the next morning. Nothing in these verses describes the lamb or goat required for the Passover meal itself. That detail remains outside the present list, so readers must consult earlier legislation to learn how the fourteenth-day sacrifice is prepared and eaten. The present text therefore concentrates on the additional daily burnt offerings that accompany the feast rather than replacing or repeating the Passover rite.
A second question concerns the relation between these offerings and the continual morning burnt offering. Verse 23 states that the listed animals are presented apart from that morning sacrifice, and verse 24 repeats the requirement that the new gifts rest upon the continual offering. The wording leaves open whether the morning sacrifice on these days is performed exactly as on ordinary days or receives any adjustment in quantity. The text supplies no further clarification, yet the repeated insistence that the new offerings stand alongside the continual one indicates that the daily requirement never ceases even during the feast.
The single he-goat offered each day for a sin offering raises a further point. The phrase “to make atonement for you” appears without specifying which sins are in view or whether the same goat serves the whole congregation or only the priests who present it. Earlier chapters in Numbers distinguish unintentional sins from defiant ones, but these verses do not invoke that distinction. The passage therefore registers the need for daily atonement during the feast without resolving how that atonement relates to other sin-offering regulations given elsewhere.
Finally, the requirement of a holy assembly on the first and seventh days, with the prohibition of laborious work, stands without comment on whether these assemblies occur at the tabernacle or in local settlements once Israel enters the land. The text records the command but supplies no further instruction on its observance beyond the offerings themselves.
Movement by movement
Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread28:16-17
The fourteenth day of the first month stands fixed as a Passover to the LORD. The wording places this single day without elaboration on any accompanying meal or sacrifice, simply marking the date itself as belonging to him. Verse 17 then moves directly to the fifteenth day of the same month and names a feast whose central requirement is that unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days. The shift from one day to seven occurs without any bridging explanation, so the Passover stands as the opening marker while the longer period of restricted bread begins the next morning. The phrase “a feast: unleavened bread shall be eaten” ties the entire week to this one concrete action rather than to additional assemblies or offerings at this point in the text. By locating both dates inside the first month, the verses embed the observance inside the existing calendar already used for monthly sacrifices, letting the annual cycle follow the same monthly rhythm without separate introduction.
Holy Assembly on the First Day28:18
On the first day a holy assembly stands as the opening requirement once the fifteenth arrives. The verse places this command directly after the introduction of the seven-day feast, before any mention of the bulls, ram, or lambs. The assembly gathers the people at the sanctuary, and the accompanying rule forbids any laborious work. That double instruction marks the day as set apart from the six that follow, even though the same animals will be offered each morning. The text returns to the identical pair of requirements only on the seventh day, so the two assemblies enclose the entire period of unleavened bread. Between those boundaries the daily food offering continues without further mention of rest or gathering. The wording therefore treats the assembly and the cessation of ordinary labor as the distinctive features of the first day itself, rather than as additions to the sacrifices. The people receive both instructions together, binding the community’s presence and its refraining from work into one act of observance tied to the LORD’s appointed time.
Burnt Offerings and Sin Offering28:19-22
Two bulls of the herd, one ram, and seven unblemished male lambs a year old form the core of the food offering presented on the opening day of the feast. The text specifies these animals without variation from the new-moon pattern yet places them inside the Passover week, so the same numbers now mark the first of seven successive days. Fine flour mixed with oil accompanies each animal in fixed portions: three tenths for every bull, two tenths for the single ram, and one tenth for each of the seven lambs. These measured grain offerings sit directly beside the animals in the command, showing that the full daily gift consists of both flesh and flour. The list then adds one he-goat for a sin offering to make atonement for you. That single goat stands apart from the larger burnt-offering group and receives its own stated purpose, linking the day’s gifts to the need for covering. The verse supplies no further description of how the goat is handled, leaving the atonement act tied only to its presentation. Together the animals, the grain portions, and the goat constitute the complete requirement for that first assembly day.
Offerings Added to the Daily Sacrifice28:23-24
The instructions insist that the animals and grain portions listed for the first day stand apart from the burnt offering of the morning, which is the continual burnt offering. Verse 23 makes this separation explicit so that the Passover feast does not absorb or displace the regular morning sacrifice. The same set of offerings must then be prepared each of the seven days. Verse 24 repeats the command to make offerings like these, now adding that the whole presentation includes a food offering of soothing aroma to the LORD made upon the continual burnt offering together with its drink offering. This daily repetition keeps the feast from becoming a single concentrated act of worship. Instead the week receives its own layered gifts that accompany the ordinary morning rite without replacing it. The drink offering completes each day's added presentation, though the text leaves open whether this libation belongs only to the festival gifts or somehow joins the continual offering itself.
Holy Assembly on the Seventh Day28:25
On the seventh day a holy assembly shall be for you; you shall not do any laborious work. The verse repeats the wording already given for the first day, so the same two requirements now stand at both ends of the seven-day feast. Between these two markers the daily burnt offering of two bulls, one ram, and seven year-old male lambs continues without change, each day accompanied by its grain offering and the single he-goat for the sin offering, all presented in addition to the morning continual burnt offering. The repetition therefore draws a clear line around the entire period of unleavened bread. The people are summoned once more to the sanctuary on the final day, and ordinary work is again suspended, so that the week does not simply taper off but ends under the same conditions that began it. Nothing in the verse adds extra animals or alters the daily list; the only new element is the return of the holy assembly itself, which brings the feast to its appointed close.
Notes accompany the Anselm Project Bible, an AI translation from the original languages. Tap any verse above for the committee's word-level decisions.
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