Numbers 28:2

Hebrew Bible

1 The Lord spoke to Moses: 2 “Command the Israelites: ‘With regard to my offering, be sure to offer my food for my offering made by fire, as a pleasing aroma to me at its appointed time.’ 3 You will say to them, ‘This is the offering made by fire that you must offer to the Lord: two unblemished lambs one year old each day for a continual burnt offering. 4 The first lamb you must offer in the morning, and the second lamb you must offer in the late afternoon,

Ezekiel 44:7

Hebrew Bible

6 Say to the rebellious, to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Enough of all your abominable practices, O house of Israel! 7 When you bring foreigners, those uncircumcised in heart and in flesh, into my sanctuary, you desecrate it—even my house—when you offer my food, the fat and the blood. You have broken my covenant by all your abominable practices. 8 You have not kept charge of my holy things, but you have assigned foreigners to keep charge of my sanctuary for you. 9 This is what the Sovereign Lord says: No foreigner who is uncircumcised in heart and flesh among all the foreigners who are among the people of Israel will enter into my sanctuary.

 Notes and References

"... H continues the P tradition as opposed to avoiding the earlier formulations. H does differ from P in a) its use of םחל with a first common singular pronominal suffix referring to YHWH, “my food” (Numbers 28:2); b) its use of the phrase םיהלא םחל “food of your god” (Leviticus 21:6, 8, 17, 21, 22; 22:25); c) and the description of the priestly prebend as “food” for the priests and their families (Leviticus 22:7, 11, 13). Knohl argues that the absence of usages (a) and (b) in P reflect P’s desire to avoid identifying the sacrifices as food for the deity. His claim cannot be sustained. First, his argument that P consciously avoids “my food” to describe YHWH’s sacrifices is misleading. It is true that this form never appears in P, but it appears only once in H. (Numbers 28:2. Also, used once in Ezekiel 44:7. These are in fact the only two instances of this formulation in the entire Hebrew Bible with YHWH as the possessor) That is hardly convincing proof that either H embraced this formulation or that P rejects it. Second, as I will argue below, the instances of םחל in construct with a form of םיהלא are found in H in only Leviticus 21-22. This suggests that this formulation reflects a specific contextual purpose and not a broad agenda promoting divine anthropomorphism ... Knohl’s argument confuses difference for polemic. While P’s language may be indirect it never eschews the idea that sacrifices are a type of food for the deity ..."

Knafl, Anne Katherine Forms of God, Forming God: A Typology of Divine Anthropomorphism in the Pentateuch (p. 116) The University of Chicago, 2011

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