Numbers 29King James Version
The autumn feasts. The feast of trumpets on the first day of the seventh month. The Day of Atonement on the tenth. The feast of tabernacles for seven days starting on the fifteenth, with detailed offerings each day, the number of bulls decreasing from thirteen on the first day down to seven on the seventh.
The liturgical calendar continues with the seventh month's three great festivals: Rosh Hashanah (trumpets and rest on day one), Yom Kippur (affliction and atonement on day ten), and Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles from day fifteen through twenty-two). Sukkot gets the most detailed treatment, with thirteen bulls offered on the first day, decreasing by one each day, for a total of seventy bulls over the week.
The climax of Israel's sacred calendar is not the spring festivals of Exodus but the seventh month, when memory, repentance, and harvest joy all converge.
12: "And on the fifteenth day of the seventh month ye shall have an holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work, and ye shall keep a feast unto the LORD seven days." The longest festival of the year, requiring more sacrifices than any other period.
Still on the plains of Moab, these laws anticipate the agricultural and pastoral life of Canaan. The Feast of Tabernacles specifically commemorates the wilderness years while celebrating the harvest, a layering of memory and gratitude that only makes full sense once the nation is in the land they are about to enter.
Moses, who receives the instructions; the priests who execute them; the congregation, who observe the days.
The seventy bulls offered during Sukkot became the subject of significant interpretation. Rabbinic tradition connected them to the seventy nations of Genesis 10, reading the Sukkot offerings as a universal atonement. The Feast of Tabernacles becomes linked in the prophets to the eschatological pilgrimage of the nations to Jerusalem, making it one of the most forward-looking of Israel's festivals.
For when the year has worn you down and you need a season set apart for joy and for letting something go. The seventh month in the Torah is deliberately constructed as the emotional and spiritual high point of the year.
1And in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, ye shall have an holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work: it is a day of blowing the trumpets unto you.
2And ye shall offer a burnt offering for a sweet savour unto the LORD; one young bullock, one ram, and seven lambs of the first year without blemish:
3And their meat offering shall be of flour mingled with oil, three tenth deals for a bullock, and two tenth deals for a ram,
4And one tenth deal for one lamb, throughout the seven lambs:
5And one kid of the goats for a sin offering, to make an atonement for you:
6Beside the burnt offering of the month, and his meat offering, and the daily burnt offering, and his meat offering, and their drink offerings, according unto their manner, for a sweet savour, a sacrifice made by fire unto the LORD.
7And ye shall have on the tenth day of this seventh month an holy convocation; and ye shall afflict your souls: ye shall not do any work therein:
8But ye shall offer a burnt offering unto the LORD for a sweet savour; one young bullock, one ram, and seven lambs of the first year; they shall be unto you without blemish:
9And their meat offering shall be of flour mingled with oil, three tenth deals to a bullock, and two tenth deals to one ram,
10A several tenth deal for one lamb, throughout the seven lambs:
11One kid of the goats for a sin offering; beside the sin offering of atonement, and the continual burnt offering, and the meat offering of it, and their drink offerings.
12And on the fifteenth day of the seventh month ye shall have an holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work, and ye shall keep a feast unto the LORD seven days:
13And ye shall offer a burnt offering, a sacrifice made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD; thirteen young bullocks, two rams, and fourteen lambs of the first year; they shall be without blemish:
14And their meat offering shall be of flour mingled with oil, three tenth deals unto every bullock of the thirteen bullocks, two tenth deals to each ram of the two rams,
15And a several tenth deal to each lamb of the fourteen lambs:
16And one kid of the goats for a sin offering; beside the continual burnt offering, his meat offering, and his drink offering.
17And on the second day ye shall offer twelve young bullocks, two rams, fourteen lambs of the first year without spot:
18And their meat offering and their drink offerings for the bullocks, for the rams, and for the lambs, shall be according to their number, after the manner:
19And one kid of the goats for a sin offering; beside the continual burnt offering, and the meat offering thereof, and their drink offerings.
20And on the third day eleven bullocks, two rams, fourteen lambs of the first year without blemish;
21And their meat offering and their drink offerings for the bullocks, for the rams, and for the lambs, shall be according to their number, after the manner:
22And one goat for a sin offering; beside the continual burnt offering, and his meat offering, and his drink offering.
23And on the fourth day ten bullocks, two rams, and fourteen lambs of the first year without blemish:
24Their meat offering and their drink offerings for the bullocks, for the rams, and for the lambs, shall be according to their number, after the manner:
25And one kid of the goats for a sin offering; beside the continual burnt offering, his meat offering, and his drink offering.
26And on the fifth day nine bullocks, two rams, and fourteen lambs of the first year without spot:
27And their meat offering and their drink offerings for the bullocks, for the rams, and for the lambs, shall be according to their number, after the manner:
28And one goat for a sin offering; beside the continual burnt offering, and his meat offering, and his drink offering.
29And on the sixth day eight bullocks, two rams, and fourteen lambs of the first year without blemish:
30And their meat offering and their drink offerings for the bullocks, for the rams, and for the lambs, shall be according to their number, after the manner:
31And one goat for a sin offering; beside the continual burnt offering, his meat offering, and his drink offering.
32And on the seventh day seven bullocks, two rams, and fourteen lambs of the first year without blemish:
33And their meat offering and their drink offerings for the bullocks, for the rams, and for the lambs, shall be according to their number, after the manner:
34And one goat for a sin offering; beside the continual burnt offering, his meat offering, and his drink offering.
35On the eighth day ye shall have a solemn assembly: ye shall do no servile work therein:
36But ye shall offer a burnt offering, a sacrifice made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD: one bullock, one ram, seven lambs of the first year without blemish:
37Their meat offering and their drink offerings for the bullock, for the ram, and for the lambs, shall be according to their number, after the manner:
38And one goat for a sin offering; beside the continual burnt offering, and his meat offering, and his drink offering.
39These things ye shall do unto the LORD in your set feasts, beside your vows, and your freewill offerings, for your burnt offerings, and for your meat offerings, and for your drink offerings, and for your peace offerings.
40And Moses told the children of Israel according to all that the LORD commanded Moses.