Numbers 7:1 - Exposition

On the day that Moses had fully set up the tabernacle. This expression, "on the day", has given rise to considerable difficulty. Strictly speaking it should mean the first day of the first month of the second year ( Exodus 40:17 ); and so the Targum of Palestine, "It was on the day which begins the month Nisan." It is, however, quite clear from the narrative itself, as well as from its position, that the offerings were not actually made until after the taking of the census and the distribution of their respective duties to the Levitical families, i.e; until the eve of the departure from Sinai. Moreover, since the same phrase, בְּיוֹם , occurs in Numbers 7:10 , it is certain that it cannot apply to the actual presentation of the offerings, which was spread over twelve days ( Numbers 7:11 ). The majority, therefore, of the commentators would read בְּיוֹם here as in Genesis 2:4 , "at the time." It is, however, impossible to admit that there is any similarity whatever between the two passages. In Genesis 2:4 the context itself, as well as the subject matter, oblige us to understand the phrase in the looser sense; but in a plain historical account such as the present the obligation is all the other way. Either the date here given is a mistake (which, on any supposition, is most improbable), or it must be referred to the intention and inception of the princely offerings, the actual presentation being made at the time indicated in the narrative, i.e; in the first half of the second month. And had anointed it. From Le Genesis 8:10 , as compared with Exodus 40:35 , it would rather appear that Moses did not anoint the tabernacle on the day it was set up, but on some subsequent day. It is, however, a mistake to suppose that the tabernacle and the holy things were anointed through seven successive days: the statement in Le 8:33-35 refers only to the consecration of the priests. Since the anointing of the tabernacle was connected with the setting of it up, as the last act of one ceremonial, and was only unavoidably postponed, there is nothing remarkable in the two things being spoken of as if they had taken place on one and the same day.