Exodus 29:38

Now this is that which thou shalt offer upon the altar,.... An altar being ordered to be built, and this sanctified and expiated, and priests being appointed and consecrated to the service of it; an

Now this is that which thou shalt offer upon the altar; two lambs of the first year day by day continually. Two lambs.

This is that which thou shalt offer: this is the chief end and use of this altar, though it served also for other sacrifices. Day by day continually; to show, partly, that men do daily contract new defilement, and daily need new pardons; and partly, that God is not only to be worshipped upon rite sabbath days, and other set and solemn times, but every day.

Exodus 29:38 Now this [is that] which thou shalt offer upon the altar; two lambs of the first year day by day continually.Ver. 38. Day by day continually.] When this daily sacrifice was intermitted, - as in the days of Antiochus, that little Antichrist, - they counted it an "abomination of desolation."

THE LAW OF THE DAILY , AND THE PROMISE OF GOD’S .(38-42) The consecration of the altar, which took place during the consecration of the priests, was to be followed immediately by the establishment of the daily sacrifice. Two lambs were to be offered every day, one in the morning, the other “between the evenings” (Exodus 29:39); partly in expiation of the daily sins of the nation, but mainly as a sign that the nation daily renewed its self-dedication to Jehovah, and offered itself afresh to be “a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice” to Him. Meat and drink offerings were to accompany the burnt sacrifice—signs of the gratitude due to God for His perpetual mercies, and acknowledgments of His protecting care and lovingkindness. At the same time incense was to be burnt upon the golden altar before the vail, as a figure of the perpetual prayer that it behoved the nation to send up to the Throne of Grace for a continuance of the Divine favour. (See Exodus 30:7-8.) (38) Two lambs of the first year.—See Note on Exodus 12:5. The LXX. insert ἀ ?ìώ ?ìïõò, “without blemish;” but this general requirement (Leviticus 22:22; Leviticus 22:24-25), relaxed only in the case of free-will offerings (Leviticus 22:23), does not need to be perpetually repeated. (39) At even.—Heb., between the two evenings. (On the meaning of the phrase, see Note 2 on Exodus 12:6.) (40) A tenth deal.—Heb., a tenth. A tenth of what measure is not said, but we may presume an ephah to be intended. The tenth part of an ephah was an omer (Exodus 16:36). The omer is reckoned at rather less than half a gallon. An hin.—The hin was, like the omer and the ephah, an Egyptian measure. It is estimated at about three-quarters of a gallon. Beaten oil.—See Note 1 on Exodus 27:20. (41) The meat offering . . . the drink offering.—A “handful” of each meat offering was thrown upon the altar and burnt (Leviticus 2:2); the remainder belonged to the priests (Leviticus 2:3). Scripture says nothing of the disposal of the drink offering. According to Josephus (Ant. Jud. iii. 9, § 4), it was poured out in libation upon the altar. According to others, a portion only was thus disposed of, while the rest was the priests’. The latter view seems the more probable. (42) The tabernacle of the congregation.—Rather, the tent of meeting.Where I will meet you.—This passage determines the meaning of the expression, “tent of meeting.” It was not the place where the congregation met together, for the congregation were forbidden to enter it, but the place where God met His people through their mediator and representative, the high priest, who could there commune with God and obtain replies from Him on all practical matters that were of national importance.

38–42. The burnt-offering, to be offered daily, morning and evening, on behalf of the community. A law in great measure verbally identical, but somewhat fuller, recurs in Numbers 28:3-8, in a table, Numbers 28-29, of public sacrifices prescribed for different days in the year. Here it interrupts the connexion between vv. 37 and 43; so it is probable (Di. al.) that it has been introduced here from Numbers 28 with some abridgements, and adjustments in vv. 38a, 42b, fitting it to its new place, by a later hand, just as Exodus 27:20 f. seems to have been similarly introduced from Leviticus 24:2 f. Its position (after v. 36 f.) is suitable: for the daily burnt-offering was a central and fundamental element in the worship (cf. Wellh. Hist. p. 80)—notice the terms in which its suspension by Antiochus Epiphanes is alluded to in Daniel 8:12 f., Daniel 11:31, Daniel 12:11—and its proper maintenance was one of the chief duties to be performed on the altar of v. 36 f. The law, like Numbers 28:3-8 (cf. also Leviticus 6:9), regulates the post exilic usage. Before the exile, as 2 Kings 16:15 shews, it was the custom to offer a burnt-offering in the morning, but only a minḥ ?âh, i.e. a cereal, or ‘meal,’ offering in the evening; Ezek. also (Ezekiel 48:13-15) prescribes for the restored temple only a morning burnt-offering (with accompanying meal-offering: he prescribes no evening offering at all). Before the exile the minḥ ?âh thus held an independent position, as the evening offering: the present law duplicates the burnt-offering, and at the same time subordinates the evening minḥ ?âh to the evening burnt-offering (cf. on v. 40).

Exodus 29:38 The continual burnt-offering - The primary purpose of the national altar is here set forth.

THE BURNT , Exodus 29:38-46. 38. Two lambs… day by day continually — In immediate connexion with the consecration of the altar, the main purpose for which it was established is now indicated, namely,