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Numbers28:9–10

The Sabbath Offerings

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Numbers 28:9–10 — The Sabbath Offerings. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

9

On the Sabbath day, present two unblemished year-old male lambs, accompanied by a grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, as well as a drink offering.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

haš·šab·bāṯ ū·ḇə·yō·wm šə·nê- tə·mî·mim bə·nê- šā·nāh ḵə·ḇā·śîm min·ḥāh ū·šə·nê ‘eś·rō·nîm sō·leṯ bə·lū·lāh ḇaš·še·men wə·nis·kōw

Word by word14 · parsed
הַשַּׁבָּ֔תhaš·šab·bāṯOn the SabbathH7676
√ shabbâth — intermission, iArticleNouncommon singular
haš·šabbāṯ (H7676), "the Sabbath" — the rest-day named for itself; the offering is keyed not to a number of days but to the recurring seventh.
וּבְיוֹם֙ū·ḇə·yō·wmdayH3117
√ yôwm — a day (as the warm hours), whether literal (from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next), or figurative (a space of time defined by an associated term), (often used adverb)Conjunctive waw, Preposition-bNounmasculine singular construct
שְׁנֵֽי־šə·nê-present twoH8147
√ shᵉnayim — twoNumbermasculine dual construct
šᵊnê (H8147), "two" in the dual construct — the Sabbath ration is precisely double the single morning lamb of the daily tāmîd (v. 3-4), so the day of rest is the day of more sacrifice, not less.
תְּמִימִ֑םtə·mî·mimunblemishedH8549
√ tâmîym — entire (literally, figuratively or morally)Adjectivemasculine plural
tᵊmîmim (H8549) — "whole, sound, without defect." This is the cultic non-negotiable: only the unflawed may approach (Leviticus 22:21). The same adjective describes Noah as tāmîm "in his generations" (Genesis 6:9) and is the standard God sets before Abram, "walk before Me and be tāmîm" (Genesis 17:1); it names not mere veterinary fitness but completeness of integrity. Here it governs the whole sacrificial logic and reaches forward to the "lamb without blemish and without spot" of 1 Peter 1:19.
בְּנֵֽי־bə·nê-year-oldH1121
√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine plural construct
שָׁנָ֖הšā·nāh. . .H8141
√ shâneh — a year (as a revolution of time)Nounfeminine singular
כְבָשִׂ֥יםḵə·ḇā·śîmmale lambsH3532
√ kebes — a ram (just old enough to butt)Nounmasculine plural
מִנְחָ֛הmin·ḥāhaccompanied by a grain offeringH4503
√ minchâh — a donationNounfeminine singular
minḥāh (H4503), "grain-offering" — a tribute or gift, the bloodless companion to the burnt lamb; bread and animal ascend together.
וּשְׁנֵ֣יū·šə·nêof two-tenths of an ephahH8147
√ shᵉnayim — twoConjunctive wawNumbermasculine dual construct
עֶשְׂרֹנִ֗ים‘eś·rō·nîm. . .H6241
√ ʻissârôwn — (fractional) a tenth partNounmasculine plural
‘eśrōnîm (H6241), "tenth-parts" — the rare measure-word (only 22 verses) that fixes this verse into the standing liturgical formula; two tenths here is exactly double the one-tenth that accompanies a single daily lamb (Numbers 28:5).
סֹ֧לֶתsō·leṯof fine flourH5560
√ çôleth — flour (as chipped off)Nounfeminine singular
sōleṯ (H5560), "fine flour" — the finest sifted wheat, "chipped off" the grain; the best of the harvest, not the leftovers.
בְּלוּלָ֥הbə·lū·lāhmixedH1101
√ bâlal — to overflow (specifically with oilVerbQalQalPassParticiplefeminine singular
bᵊlûlāh (H1101) — saturated with oil; in the cult, oil-drenched flour is the standard mark of a consecrated gift, anticipating the language of anointing.
בַשֶּׁ֖מֶןḇaš·še·menwith oilH8081
√ shemen — grease, especially liquid (as from the olive, often perfumed)Preposition-b, ArticleNounmasculine singular
וְנִסְכּֽוֹ׃wə·nis·kōwas well as a drink offeringH5262
√ neçek — a libationConjunctive wawNounmasculine singular constructthird person masculine singular
wᵊniskōw (H5262), "and its drink-offering" — the libation of wine poured out alongside; the suffix "its" binds the poured wine to the burning lamb as one composite act of worship.
10

This is the burnt offering for every Sabbath, in addition to the regular burnt offering and its drink offering.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

‘ō·laṯ šab·baṯ bə·šab·bat·tōw ‘al- hat·tā·mîḏ ‘ō·laṯ wə·nis·kāh

Word by word7 · parsed
עֹלַ֥ת‘ō·laṯThis is the burnt offeringH5930
√ ʻôlâh — a step or (collectively, stairs, as ascending)Nounfeminine singular construct
‘ōlaṯ (H5930), "burnt-offering" — from a root meaning "to go up, ascend": the whole-offering that rises entire in smoke (Leviticus 1:9), nothing eaten, all given up. It is the costliest category of sacrifice — the same word names Abraham's offering of Isaac on Moriah (Genesis 22:2) — and the Sabbath calls for it doubled.
שַׁבַּ֖תšab·baṯfor every SabbathH7676
√ shabbâth — intermission, iNouncommon singular construct
šabbaṯ (H7676) in construct — "the burnt-offering of a Sabbath," binding the rite to the day.
בְּשַׁבַּתּ֑וֹbə·šab·bat·tōw. . .H7676
√ shabbâth — intermission, iPreposition-bNouncommon singular constructthird person masculine singular
bᵊšabbattôw (H7676), "in its Sabbath" — the repetition of the same root in successive words is deliberate Hebrew emphasis: every Sabbath without exception, each in its own turn.
עַל־‘al-in addition toH5921
√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition
‘al (H5921), "upon, in addition to" — additive, not substitutionary; the marker that this offering is surplus over the daily floor.
הַתָּמִ֖ידhat·tā·mîḏthe regularH8548
√ tâmîyd — properly, continuance (as indefinite extension)ArticleAdverb
hattāmîd (H8548), "the continual" — the perpetual daily burnt-offering of Numbers 28:3-6; the unbroken baseline of Israel's worship onto which festal abundance is stacked.
עֹלַ֥ת‘ō·laṯburnt offeringH5930
√ ʻôlâh — a step or (collectively, stairs, as ascending)Nounfeminine singular construct
‘ōlaṯ (H5930) — the noun repeated, now of the continual offering, tying Sabbath and weekday into one ascending fire.
וְנִסְכָּֽהּ׃סwə·nis·kāhand its drink offeringH5262
√ neçek — a libationConjunctive wawNounmasculine singular constructthird person feminine singular
wᵊniskāh (H5262), "and its drink-offering" — the feminine suffix here (her/its) refers back to the continual offering, sealing the verse: the constant gift keeps its own libation even as the Sabbath gift is added above it.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The first command for the Sabbath altar — 28:9

Five independent witnesses agree on a single, easily-missed fact: this is the first time Scripture commands a sacrifice for the Sabbath. Ellicott states it plainly — "The Sabbath offering which was to be added to the daily sacrifice is here enjoined for the first time" — and Keil & Delitzsch concur, that it "is appointed here for the first time; whereas the sabbatical feast had already been instituted at Exodus 20:8-11 and Leviticus 23:3." Jamieson, Fausset & Brown say the same negatively: "There is no previous mention of a Sabbath burnt offering." The day of rest had long been law (Exodus 20); what is new here is that rest is to be filled with doubled gift. The Hebrew is exact: šᵊnê — "two" lambs against the daily one, ūšᵊnê ‘eśrōnîm — "two tenths" of sōleṯ (fine flour) against the daily one tenth. Rest is not subtraction of worship but its multiplication.

ii. Whole flour, drenched oil, poured wine — 28:9

The grain-offering is not an afterthought to the lamb. Gill, leaning on the Targum of Jonathan, fixes the detail: "two tenth parts of an ephah of flour mixed with two fourth parts of an hin of oil; of oil olive... which is always meant, wherever oil is mentioned." The Hebrew participle bᵊlûlāh (H1101) does not mean a flour lightly seasoned but flour saturated, drenched, overflowed with oil. Set beside the tᵊmîmim — the "whole, without-defect" lambs — the unit builds a single picture: the best of the flock and the best of the field, each complete, each soaked in oil, each accompanied by wine poured out. The Sabbath gift is total: blood, bread, and libation together.

iii. Added, never instead of — 'a Sabbath in its Sabbath' — 28:10

Verse 10's grammar carries the theology. The Sabbath offering comes ‘al hattāmîd — "upon the continual" — and Keil flags the very particle: "(על, upon it)." The doubled Sabbath gift is stacked on top of the perpetual daily fire, never as a replacement for it. The Pulpit Commentary renders the haunting Hebrew phrase literally — "the sabbath burnt offering for its sabbath" — šabbaṯ bᵊšabbattôw, a Sabbath in its own Sabbath. Gill, citing Rashi (Jarchi), draws out the consequence: "the burnt offering of one sabbath was not to be offered on another, but only on its own; so that if the sabbath was past, and the offering not offered, it ceased." Each Sabbath's worship is non-transferable. Today's rest cannot be banked for next week; the gift belongs to its own day or is lost.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

Read under Sola Scriptura, these two verses say something the calendar-driven mind resists: the holiest day is the day of the most offering, not the least. The world's rest empties; God's Sabbath fills — doubled lambs, doubled flour drenched in oil, a libation poured out, all of it laid upon a fire that already burns continually and is never allowed to go out. And the rhythm is honest about loss: "a Sabbath in its Sabbath" means each day's worship is its own and cannot be hoarded. The continual offering is the floor (it never stops), and the Sabbath is the surplus (it must be given on its day). When the New Testament calls Christ "a lamb without blemish and without spot" (1 Peter 1:19) — the precise idea of tᵊmîmim here — it reads this altar as a shadow whose substance is a single whole offering that does not need to be repeated week by week (Hebrews 10). This is the tool's fallible reading, offered to be tested against the text: the Sabbath sacrifice both magnifies rest and confesses its own insufficiency, always pointing past itself to the one ascending Lamb who fulfills the perpetual fire once for all.

The day of rest is the day of more sacrifice — rest that fills rather than empties. (A reading to be tested, not a verse.)

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The standing libation formula: flour, oil, and drink-offering structural / thematic — confirmed

Numbers 28:9 reuses the fixed liturgical recipe for an accompanying grain- and drink-offering set down in Numbers 15. The shared vocabulary is the moderately-rare measure-word ‘eśrōnîm ("tenth-parts," H6241, 22 occurrences in the whole canon) together with bᵊlûlāh ("mixed/drenched," H1101) and sōleṯ ("fine flour," H5560). This is not a literary quotation but a recurring cultic formula — the same standing instruction reused, which is why the link is tiered structural rather than verbal — and it is precisely why the Sabbath text can proceed "according to the general rule laid down in Numbers 15:3" (Keil & Delitzsch) without re-explaining itself.

Numbers 15:4 · Numbers 15:6 · Numbers 15:9

basis: Verifier-computed shared lexemes with Numbers 15:4: H6241 ʻissârôwn (22 vv), H1101 bâlal (41 vv), H5560 çôleth (52 vv), H8081 shemen (176 vv). Tiered structural (downgraded from the Verifier's default "verbal"): ‘eśrōnîm is only moderately rare and none of these is a hapax, and the relationship is a reused standing liturgical recipe shared across the sacrificial corpus, not one text quoting another. Under-claimed deliberately.

Tied to the festal calendar of Leviticus 23 and Exodus 29 structural / thematic — confirmed

The same oil-drenched fine-flour-and-libation formula recurs across the festal legislation — at the daily Tamid in Exodus 29:40 and at the Firstfruits sheaf in Leviticus 23:13 — binding Sabbath, daily, and feast offerings into one liturgical idiom. The shared lexemes again include the rare ‘eśrōnîm (H6241, 22 vv) plus çôleth, bâlal, and neçek (the drink-offering). Ellicott and Keil both cross-reference Exodus 20:8-11 and Leviticus 23:3 as the calendar backdrop that this Numbers text presupposes rather than restates.

Exodus 29:40 · Leviticus 23:13

basis: Verifier-computed shared lexemes (Exodus 29:40 / Leviticus 23:13): H6241 ʻissârôwn (22 vv), H1101 bâlal (41 vv), H5560 çôleth (52 vv), H5262 neçek (62 vv). Downgraded from the Verifier's default "verbal" to structural: this is one shared cultic recipe recurring across the sacrificial corpus, not a quotation of one passage by another, and none of the shared lexemes is rare enough to force a quotation claim.

Laid upon the continual fire (the Tamid) structural / thematic — confirmed

Verse 10's "upon the continual burnt offering" reaches back to the perpetual daily offering of Numbers 28:3-6, where tāmîd ("continual," H8548) and ‘ōlāh ("burnt-offering," H5930) are established. The Sabbath gift is additive, stacked on the never-extinguished fire. This is a structural/thematic link within the same chapter — the same two technical terms recurring — rather than a rare-word quotation; Keil flags the connecting particle ‘al ("upon it") as the hinge.

Numbers 28:6 · Numbers 28:3

basis: Verifier-computed shared lexemes with Numbers 28:6: H8548 tâmîyd (103 vv), H5930 ʻôlâh (261 vv). Common cultic terms, not rare — a shared structural pattern (Sabbath offering added to the daily continual offering), not a verbal quotation.

The whole, unblemished lamb structural / thematic — confirmed

The lambs are tᵊmîmim ("whole, without defect," H8549) and kᵊḇāśîm ("lambs," H3532). The same demand for an unflawed lamb threads through Exodus 29:40's daily offering and is gathered up in the New Testament's confession of Christ as "a lamb without blemish and without spot." The Old Testament links here are by shared Hebrew lexeme; the New Testament link (1 Peter 1:19) is conceptual, since Greek and Hebrew cannot share a Strong's number.

Exodus 29:40 · 1 Peter 1:19

basis: Hebrew↔Hebrew with Exodus 29:40 via H3532 kebes (100 vv) and the whole-offering pattern; the 1 Peter 1:19 connection is cross-Testament (Greek↔Hebrew) and so cannot rest on a shared Strong's number — it is a thematic/typological resonance on the idea of the unblemished lamb, named as such, not a verbal link.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The unblemished Lamb and the once-for-all offering widely-held

The Sabbath altar demands tᵊmîmim lambs — "whole, without defect" — and a continual fire that is never to go out. The New Testament reads this twin demand christologically: Christ is "a lamb without blemish and without spot" (1 Peter 1:19), the very wholeness the Hebrew word names; and Hebrews 10 reads the endlessly repeated Sabbath-upon-daily offerings as a shadow whose substance is a single offering that need not be repeated. Matthew Henry already moves in this direction on this passage: "we must make the sacrifice of Christ, that great gift of special grace, the fountain and spring-head of our joy." The repetition that this text commands (every Sabbath, in its own Sabbath, never carried over) is, on the typological reading, precisely what Christ's one ascending offering ends.

Numbers 28:9 · 1 Peter 1:19 · Hebrews 10:1

Sabbath rest filled, not emptied — fulfilled in Christ widely-held

These verses make the day of rest the day of doubled gift, and the New Testament names Christ as the substance of the Sabbath shadow (Colossians 2:16-17), the one in whom God's people "enter that rest" (Hebrews 4:9-10). The Sabbath here is not vacancy but ascending offering laid upon a perpetual fire — a fitting type of a rest that is full of Christ rather than empty of work. Matthew Henry, on this very passage, draws the gospel out: as the church "borrows her light from Jesus Christ, who is the Sun of righteousness, renewing the state of the church, especially under the gospel."

Numbers 28:10 · Hebrews 4:9 · Colossians 2:16

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Keil & Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1860s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Both verses are sourced from the Berean Standard Bible with per-word Strong's parses; the ⚙ synthesis adds only the machine layer. Tiering honesty: the Verifier returns "verbal / quotation — confirmed" by default for the Numbers 15, Leviticus 23, and Exodus 29 candidates because they share a moderately-rare measure-word (‘eśrōnîm / H6241, 22 occurrences) alongside bâlal, çôleth, and neçek. I have downgraded all of these to structural / thematic, because the true relationship is one reused standing liturgical recipe recurring across the sacrificial corpus — not one passage quoting another, and not anchored by a hapax. Under-claiming is deliberate here. The Numbers 28:6 link shares only common cultic terms (tāmîd, ‘ōlāh) and is likewise structural. Cross-Testament caution: the 1 Peter 1:19 and Hebrews connections are Greek↔Hebrew and so cannot rest on shared Strong's numbers; they are marked thematic/typological, never verbal, and named as conceptual resonances on the unblemished-lamb and once-for-all-offering motifs. The Targum citation in Gill (oil = olive oil) and the Rashi/Jarchi citation (offering not carried over) are reported as the commentators' own attributions, not independently verified here.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)