1. Daily (morning and evening), the burnt offering, meat-offering, and drink-offering, were presented (Exod. xxix. 38-42 ; Num. xxviii. to which must be added the incense (Exod. xxx. 7, 2. Weekly, which was a double burnt-offering and meat-offering (Num. xxviii. 9, to), with the drink-offering and incense. To these the sliew bread must be added, which may be regarded as a species of meat-offering (Lev. xxiv. 5, 9). See SHEW-BREAD.
3. Monthly; a burnt-offering of two young bullocks, one ram, seven lambs, with a meat offer ing of three tenth-deals of fine flour, mingled with oil, for each bullock ; two tenth-deals for the ram ; and one tenth-deal for each lamb ; and a drink-offer ing of half an hin of wine for each bullock ; one third for the ram ; and one-fourth for each lamb ; and a kid of the goats for a sin-offering, with its appropriate drink-offering (Num. xxviii. 11-15).
4. Yearly; at the Passover, Feast of Taber nacles, Pentecost, Feast of Trumpets, and on the great Day of Atonement ; all of which see in their places.
To these were added sacrifices and offerings for special occasions : (I.) At the purification of women, Lev. xii. See PURIFICATION.
(2.) At the cleansing of lepers, Lev. xiv. 1-32. See LEPROSY.
(3.) At the completion of the Nazaritic vow, Num. vi. 9-21. See NAZARITE.
(4.) At the trial for jealousy, Num. v. 11-31. No sacrifice involving the shedding of blood was offered on this occasion, for if the woman was in nocent, none was needed ; if guilty, none could be accepted ; for the suspected crime, if proved, was one for which no expiation was provided.
The Mosaic law allowed full scope for the offer ing of sacrifices to any amount by private individ uals,—free-will offerings.
3. The Post-Mosaic Period.—Sacrifices in post Mosaic times were but a continuation of the pre ceding. On special occasions, however, there were sacrifices offered on a large scale, ex. gr., at the dedication of the temple by Solomon (r Kings viii. 63) ; by Jehoiada after the death of Athaliah (2 Chron. xxiii. 18) ; and by Hezekiah at the re storation of the temple worship (2 Chron. xxx. 22 24.) ; to which may be added the great Passover kept by Josiah (2 Chron. xxxv. 11-19).
It is, however, fair to observe that, until the time of David, there had been much irregularity in the observance of the enactments of the law ; and that during the period which elapsed between the ban laid upon Israel for their rebellion in the desert and their entering the promised land, there was an almost total suspension of sacrificial worship. To this dismal period, when Israel was under the ban of God, the prophet Amos refers (v. 25, 26) : 'Did ye offer unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, 0 house of Israel ? Yea, ye bore the shrine of your king, and Chitin of your images, the star of your god which ye made for yourselves."fhe sin charged upon Israel is, not
mingling the service of Jehovah with the worship of idols, but abandoning the former for the latter, when they wandered as a horde of covenant breakers in the wilderness, melting away under the anathema of Jehovah. This view is sustained by Acts vii. 42, 43, where Stephen quotes the above words of Amos in proof of his own statement : God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven.' This cessation of sacrificial wor ship, judicially brought to pass as a punishment for their sin, accorded with their dismal reprobate condition at the time.
IV. The ORIGIN of sacrifice demands a few words. Divines are divided in opinion on this question ; some (the orthodox generally) maintain ing their divine, others their human, origin. Of this latter class, some think that the first kind of offerings consisted of vegetables and fruits, which degenerated at length into animal sacrifices ; while others hold that sacrifices took their rise in the consciousness of sin and the felt need of an atone• ment existing in the human heart ; and that, so ori ginating, they, by and by, received the approbation of God, and were adopted into his worship. This view approaches to the very threshold of the ortho dox belief. Great stress is laid by the first class of divines referred to, especially, upon those passages in the Psalms and the Prophets, where strong disapprobation of animal sacrifices seems to be ex pressed. But the reply is very simple : God had no delight in sacrifices for their own sake ; and when brought as a substitute for obedience and piety, they were utterly abominable to him (Ps. 1: 9, 14, 15 ; Is. i. 11-13) ; that when God brought his people out of Egypt, he specially and primarily en forced obedience, the ritual occupying a secondary place in his view (Jer. vii. 21, 22); that it is not the multiplication of external offerings which Jeho vah requires, hut true godliness, manifesting itself in the forms of justice, mercy, and humble com munion with God (Micah vi. 6-8) ; the very soul of sacrifice being the spirit of obedience, self-surrender, and love. Hath the Lord as great delight in sacrifice as in obeying the voice of the Lord ? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rains' (I Sam, xv. 22). In one passage David says—' Thou desirest not sacri fice,' etc., in reference to the fact, that the law had provided none for his sin (Ps. li. 16) ; but at the same time refers to sacrifice as being pleasing to God when expressive of, and embodying righteous ness (19). Psalm xl. 6-8 demands a different inter pretation, simply prophetic, and looking forward to the abolition of animal sacrifices by the sacrifice of the Messiah (Heb. x. 5-1o).