Day 62: Sacrifices and offerings

Well, before anything exciting happens, like going in to the promised land, we need a break for a few more laws. After all, it’s more than a page since we’ve had any. Do I sound cynical? Can’t think why.

The daily sacrifice

Numbers 28:1-8

Sabbath and new moon offerings

Numbers 28:9-15

Passover and first fruits offerings

Numbers 28:16-31

Feast of Trumpets and Day if Atonement offering

Numbers 29:1-11

Offerings at the Feast of Tabernacles

Numbers 29:12-40

Laws about vows

Numbers 30:1-2

When vows might be released

Numbers 30:3-16

So, 43 lambs, two bulls, one ram and one goat were required to be offered every month, not counting the special festivals times like Passover, Tabernacles etc. Admittedly most of the lambs to be killed are male ones, which I guess would be slaughtered anyway, most of them. It’s interesting to speculate how many animals were sacrificed during the forty years Israel was in the the wilderness, it must have been a couple of thousand lambs alone. Is this a huge amount or not? After all, there were 600,000 men of fighting age, so we’re talking about a sizeable chunk of humanity, and they would need flocks and herds as part of their survival. I’m not sure what the animals were fed on, though. Did they eat manna?