What Does Numbers 28:2 Mean in the King James?
Command the children of Israel, and say unto them, My offering, and my bread for my sacrifices made by fire, for a sweet savour unto me, shall ye observe to offer unto me in their due season.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The word for offering, qorban, carries the motion of drawing near, and its appointed time becomes a meeting-time.
THE MEANING
Your nearness to God is pictured here as concrete and recurring: the offering is named as God’s own bread and kept in an appointed season. What is brought, when it is brought, and the one to whom it is brought are held together. The verse gives this nearness a rhythm expressed through repeated, embodied offering.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It loosens the assumption that nearness is only an inner feeling: here it has a concrete offering and an appointed rhythm.
THE ROOT
קָרְבָּנִי
qorbani
GROWS FROM
קרב
qarav
Draw near; approach.
Qorban carries the movement of coming near within the word translated “offering.” The verse presents the offering as a means of approach, giving its repeated rhythm the shape of nearness.
ALSO GROWS
qarov: Near; close.
קָרוֹב
The shared root places the offering in the language of closeness and approach.
hiqriv: Bring near; offer.
הִקְרִיב
The act of offering is itself described as bringing something near.
בְּמוֹעֲדוֹ
bemo'ado
GROWS FROM
יעד
ya'ad
Appoint, designate, set a meeting.
“due season” in this verse is bemo'ado. Bemo’ado means “at its appointed time”; the related word mo’ed names both an appointed time and a meeting. The season is more than a date on a schedule: it is the appointed moment of encounter.
ALSO GROWS
mo'ed: Appointed time; meeting.
מוֹעֵד
The offering’s due season shares its root with the word for a meeting-time.
no'ad: Meet by appointment; assemble.
נוֹעַד
This root’s meeting sense appears again in the language of gathering and encounter.
תִּשְׁמְרוּ
tishmeru
GROWS FROM
שמר
shamar
Keep, guard, watch over.
“observe” in this verse is tishmeru. The keeping here has the feel of guarding a trust: the appointed offering is watched over and maintained in its season. The same root joins observance with custody, not mere noticing.
ALSO GROWS
shomer: Keeper; guard.
שֹׁמֵר
The one who keeps the offering’s rhythm acts as its guardian.
mishmeret: Charge; watch; guarded duty.
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
The offering belongs to a charge that is kept faithfully over time.
THE PATTERN
Approach takes form through concrete offerings kept in appointed rhythms, a pattern that also reaches praise.
This shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD: where I will meet you, to speak there unto thee.These are the feasts of the LORD, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons.By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.THE THREAD
This shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD: where I will meet you, to speak there unto thee.Numbers says the offering is brought bemo’ado, “in its appointed time”; the “tabernacle of the congregation” in Exodus is the tent of meeting, using the same mo’ed root. Exodus then says, “I will meet you,” making the appointed season an encounter, not merely a calendar marker.
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