Later text
During the seven days of the feast that begins on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, he is to make the same provision for sin offerings, burnt offerings, grain offerings, and oil.'
Intertextuality Pair
Ezekiel 45:25 → Numbers 29:12-38
Allusion
Earlier text
On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, you are to hold a sacred assembly; you must not do any regular work, and you shall observe a feast to the LORD for seven days. As a pleasing aroma to the LORD, you are to present an offering made by fire, a burnt offering of thirteen young bulls, two rams, and fourteen male lambs a year old, all unblemished, along with the grain offering of three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil with each of the thirteen bulls, two-tenths of an ephah with each of the two rams, and a tenth of an ephah with each of the fourteen lambs. Include one male goat as a sin offering, in addition to the regular burnt offering with its grain offering and drink offering. On the second day you are to present twelve young bulls, two rams, and fourteen male lambs a year old, all unblemished, along with the grain and drink offerings for the bulls, rams, and lambs, according to the number prescribed. Include one male goat as a sin offering, in addition to the regular burnt offering with its grain offering and drink offering. On the third day you are to present eleven bulls, two rams, and fourteen male lambs a year old, all unblemished, along with the grain and drink offerings for the bulls, rams, and lambs, according to the number prescribed. Include one male goat as a sin offering, in addition to the regular burnt offering with its grain offering and drink offering. On the fourth day you are to present ten bulls, two rams, and fourteen male lambs a year old, all unblemished, along with the grain and drink offerings for the bulls, rams, and lambs, according to the number prescribed. Include one male goat as a sin offering, in addition to the regular burnt offering with its grain offering and drink offering. On the fifth day you are to present nine bulls, two rams, and fourteen male lambs a year old, all unblemished, along with the grain and drink offerings for the bulls, rams, and lambs, according to the number prescribed. Include one male goat as a sin offering, in addition to the regular burnt offering with its grain offering and drink offering. On the sixth day you are to present eight bulls, two rams, and fourteen male lambs a year old, all unblemished, along with the grain and drink offerings for the bulls, rams, and lambs, according to the number prescribed. Include one male goat as a sin offering, in addition to the regular burnt offering with its grain offering and drink offering. On the seventh day you are to present seven bulls, two rams, and fourteen male lambs a year old, all unblemished, along with the grain and drink offerings for the bulls, rams, and lambs, according to the number prescribed. Include one male goat as a sin offering, in addition to the regular burnt offering with its grain offering and drink offering. On the eighth day you are to hold a solemn assembly; you must not do any regular work. As a pleasing aroma to the LORD, you are to present an offering made by fire, a burnt offering of one bull, one ram, and seven male lambs a year old, all unblemished, along with the grain and drink offerings for the bulls, rams, and lambs, according to the number prescribed. Include one male goat as a sin offering, in addition to the regular burnt offering with its grain offering and drink offering.
Significance
Numbers 29:12-38 and Ezekiel 45:25 legislate the offerings of the same feast, dated identically — the fifteenth day of the seventh month, seven days — and they share the daily שָׂעִיר (sa'ir, "male goat") as a חַטָּאת (chatta't, "sin offering"; Numbers 29:38, Ezekiel 45:23, 25). Everything else about the arithmetic differs. Numbers prescribes a descending sequence of bulls: thirteen on the first day, twelve on the second, eleven on the third, tapering to seven on the seventh, seventy in all, with two rams and fourteen year-old lambs each day, and then an eighth day with a single bull, a single ram, and seven lambs (29:35-36). Ezekiel prescribes seven bulls and seven rams תָּמִים (tamim, "without blemish") every day of the seven, no lambs at all, and no eighth day. Numbers' feast counts down; Ezekiel's does not move. Numbers' totals are supplied by the congregation; Ezekiel's are supplied by one man, the נָשִׂיא (nasi', "prince"), out of his own portion (45:17, 22-24). That shift is the point of Ezekiel's whole temple vision. In Numbers the volume of sacrifice is enormous and diminishing, as though the feast were working something off. In Ezekiel it is constant, adequate, and paid by another — a settled provision rather than a mounting account. Neither can end the need for offerings; that is the confession the sacrificial system keeps making about itself, "because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins" (Hebrews 10:4). But Ezekiel's flat, prince-supplied constancy is the nearer sketch of what finally arrives: "when this Priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God" (Hebrews 10:12). Seventy bulls or seven, the account is closed by a Prince who brings Himself.
- Found via
- Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
- Reference Type
- Allusion
- Connection Method(s)
- Redemptive-Historical Progression + Longitudinal Theme — both prescribe the offerings of the seventh-month feast, but Ezekiel replaces Numbers' descending bull sequence and eighth-day remainder with a flat, unvarying daily provision supplied by the prince