Numbers 7:31

7:10-89 The princes and great men were most forward in the service of God. Here is an example to those in authority, and of the highest rank; they ought to use their honour and power, their estate and interest, to promote religion and the service of God in the places where they live. Though it was a time of joy and rejoicing, yet still, in the midst of their sacrifices, we find a sin-offering. As, in our best services, we are conscious that there is sin, there should be repentance, even in our most joyful services. In all approaches to God we must by faith look to Christ as the Sin-offering. They brought their offerings each on a day. God's work should not be done confusedly, or in a hurry; take time, and we shall have done the sooner, or, at least, we shall have done the better. If services are to be done for twelve days together, we must not call it a task and a burden. All their offerings were the same; all the tribes of Israel had an equal share in the altar, and an equal interest in the sacrifices offered upon it. He who now spake to Moses, as the Shechinah or Divine Majesty, from between the Cherubim, was the Eternal Word, the second Person in the Trinity; for all God's communion with man is by his Son, by whom he made the world, and rules the church, who is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.

18-83. On the second day Nethaneel … prince of Issachar, did offer—This tribe being stationed on the right side of Judah, offered next through its representative; then Zebulun, which was on the left side; and so on in orderly succession, every tribe making the same kind of offering and in the same amount, to show that, as each was under equal obligation, each rendered an equal tribute. Although each offering made was the same in quantity as well as quality, a separate notice is given of each, as a separate day was appointed for the presentation, that equal honor might be conferred on each, and none appear to be overlooked or slighted. And as the sacred books were frequently read in public, posterity, in each successive age, would feel a livelier interest in the national worship, from the permanent recognition of the offerings made by the ancestors of the respective tribes. But while this was done in one respect, as subjects offering tribute to their king, it was in another respect, a purely religious act. The vessels offered were for a sacrificial use—the animals brought were clean and fit for sacrifice, both symbolically denoting, that while God was to dwell among them as their Sovereign, they were a holy people, who by this offering dedicated themselves to God.

All the princes brought the same gifts. The order in which the twelve princes, whose names have already been given at Numbers 1:5-15 , made their presentation, corresponded to the order of the tribes in the camp (ch. 2), the tribe-prince of Judah taking the lead, and the prince of Naphtali coming last. In the statements as to the weight of the silver kearoth and the golden cappoth, the word shekel is invariably omitted, as in Genesis 20:16 , etc. - In Numbers 7:84-86 , the dedication gifts are summed up, and the total weight given, viz., twelve silver dishes and twelve silver bowls, weighing together 2400 shekels, and twelve golden spoons, weighing 120 shekels in all. On the sacred shekel, see at Exodus 30:13 ; and on the probable value of the shekel of gold, at Exodus 38:24-25 . The sacrificial animals are added together in the same way in Numbers 7:87 , Numbers 7:88 .

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[Reformed Biblical] ceived. See Jos 21 . Numbers 3:28 ## Keeping, or keepers , &c., i.e. appointed for that work, as soon as they were capable of it. ## Of the sanctuary, i.e. of those holy things contained in or nearly belonging to the sanctuary, expressed Num_3:31. Numbers 3:29 Numbers 3:30 Numbers 3:31 ## The hanging, which covered the most holy place, for all other hangings belonged to the Gershonites. ## All the service thereof, i.e. all the other furniture belonging to it, of which see Num_4:7 ,9,14 . Numbers 3:32 ## Eleazar shall be chief, next under the high priest; whence he is called the second priest, 2Ki_25:18; and in case of the high priest’s absence by sickness or other necessary occasions, he was to perform his work, 1Ki_4:4; and he had a superiority over all the rest of the priests and Levites. ## Over the chief of the Levites, i.e. over those three persons, who were each the chief of their several families; of whom see here, Num_3:24 ,31,35 . Numbers 3:33 Numbers 3:34 Numbers 3:35 Numbers 3:36 Numbers 3:37 Therefore these were for another use than those mentioned Num_3:26. Numbers 3:38 ## For the charge of the children of Israel; either in their stead. that charge which they were obliged to ke ep either by themselves. or by others appointed by them, if God had not

Leviticus 21:22 , Ezekiel 42:13 , Ezra 2:63 , 2 Chronicles 31:14 ); of things ‘devoted’ to Jehovah ( Leviticus 27:28 ); of the entire Temple, with the territory belonging to it, in Ezekiel’s vision ( Ezekiel 43:12 ; Ezekiel 45:3 ; Ezekiel 48:12 ); and once (perhaps) of the priests ( 1 Chronicles 23:13 ), ‘And Aaron was separated, to sanctify him as (a thing) most holy[337], him and his sons for ever, to burn incense, &c.’: ‘ the holy of holies,’ or ‘ the most holy (place),’ is also the name, in particular, of the inmost part of the Tent of meeting, and of the Temple, in which the ark was ( Exodus 26:33 , and frequently). As no object is called in particular ‘a most holy (thing),’ general considerations, viewed in the light of the context, can alone determine what is here intended. A material object, rather than a person, is certainly most naturally denoted by the expression, and most probably either the altar of burnt-offering (which was in particular desecrated by Antiochus Epiphanes), or the Temple generally, is what is meant. The term anoint is used both of the altar of burnt-offering in particular, and of the Tent of meeting and vessels belonging to it in general, in Exodus 29:36 ; Exodus 30:26-28 (cf. Exodus 40:9-11 ; Leviticus 8:10-11 ; Numbers 7:1 ; Numbers 7:10 ; Numbers 7:84 ; Numbers 7:88 ),—each time immediately preceding the passages quoted above for the use in the same connexion of the term ‘most holy.’ The consecration of a temple in the Messianic age (cf.