Section 118 of 14729:12–34Numbers

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King James VersionNumbers 29:12–34

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:

And 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:

And 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,

And a several tenth deal to each lamb of the fourteen lambs:

And one kid of the goats for a sin offering; beside the continual burnt offering, his meat offering, and his drink offering.

And on the second day ye shall offer twelve young bullocks, two rams, fourteen lambs of the first year without spot:

And 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:

And one kid of the goats for a sin offering; beside the continual burnt offering, and the meat offering thereof, and their drink offerings.

And on the third day eleven bullocks, two rams, fourteen lambs of the first year without blemish;

And 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:

And one goat for a sin offering; beside the continual burnt offering, and his meat offering, and his drink offering.

And on the fourth day ten bullocks, two rams, and fourteen lambs of the first year without blemish:

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:

And one kid of the goats for a sin offering; beside the continual burnt offering, his meat offering, and his drink offering.

And on the fifth day nine bullocks, two rams, and fourteen lambs of the first year without spot:

And 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:

And one goat for a sin offering; beside the continual burnt offering, and his meat offering, and his drink offering.

And on the sixth day eight bullocks, two rams, and fourteen lambs of the first year without blemish:

And 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:

And one goat for a sin offering; beside the continual burnt offering, his meat offering, and his drink offering.

And on the seventh day seven bullocks, two rams, and fourteen lambs of the first year without blemish:

And 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:

And one goat for a sin offering; beside the continual burnt offering, his meat offering, and his drink offering.

Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.

Scripture text: King James Version, Standardized 1769 text. Public domain in the United States.About this Bible text

Numbers 29:12–34

The Seven-Day Booths Sequence Descends from Thirteen Bulls

Booths opens with thirteen bulls and a week that steps down

On the fifteenth day of the seventh month there is a holy convocation, no servile work, and a feast to the LORD seven days. Day one: thirteen young bullocks, two rams, fourteen lambs, their grain and drink offerings, and one kid of the goats, besides the daily offering. Each following day repeats rams, lambs, goat, and accompaniments, while the bullocks decrease by one: twelve, eleven, ten, nine, eight, seven.

The descent is a festival count, not a cipher

Seventy bulls across seven days is the arithmetic of this sequence, with fourteen lambs every day. The numbers order a week of assembly. They do not encode nations, dates, governments, or a secret scheme. The feast is Israel's; teaching it does not include erasing Jewish ownership of Sukkot.

How this should shape us

Stay with a demanding week of public gifts without mining the bull-count for prophecy. Do not turn thirteen-to-seven into a code, and do not take booths away from the people whose calendar it is.

Teach it back

Explain Numbers 29:12–34 in your own words. Include its place in Numbers' movement from Sinai to Moab, both movements within this thought unit, one material uncertainty, one affected person or group, and one use the complete context rules out.

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Go deeper

The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.

Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties

Where do careful interpreters disagree?

Best judgment: Interpreters debate ritual function, chronology, source layers, historical performance, symbolic systems, and the relationship among Torah calendars. The recorded sequence is firm; reconstructed origins and universal symbolism are not. For “The Seven-Day Booths Sequence Descends from Thirteen Bulls,” confidence is strongest in the received unit's stated sequence and literary function; source, date, demography, geography, mechanism, archaeology, and historical reconstruction remain probable, plausible, or uncertain as the evidence warrants.

How certain? probable

Research trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section

King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006

Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.

Numbers 29:12–34, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus

Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Numbers

Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, numbers, speeches, poems, legal clauses, older-English controls, and translation limits.

Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Num.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 29:12–34

NET Bible: Numbers with translators' notes

Supports: Unit-bounded translation, syntax, lexical, ritual, legal, number, name, poetic, and selected textual notes; silence is not evidence.

NET Bible Numbers PDF, complete 134-page PDF, translation and translator notes attached to 29:12–34

Numbers Part 2

Supports: Moab movement, law, leadership transition, land, war, women, refuge, and compositional framing.

Yale Bible Study, Numbers Part 2, complete two-page study guide sections on Balaam, Baal Peor, second census, women and inheritance, war with Midian, Transjordan, itinerary, boundaries, Levite and refuge cities, and final inheritance, applied to Numbers 29:12–34

Sources for This Section

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Biblical text

King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006

eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society

USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.

Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.

Exact location: Numbers 29:12–34, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus

Open source ↗

hebrew text and morphology

Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Numbers

Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project

Open Scriptures, release 2.2, 2021

Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, numbers, speeches, poems, legal clauses, older-English controls, and translation limits.

Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Num.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 29:12–34

Open source ↗

translation and translator notes

NET Bible: Numbers with translators' notes

Biblical Studies Press

eBible.org distribution of the NET Bible, source files dated 2026-08-08

Supports: Unit-bounded translation, syntax, lexical, ritual, legal, number, name, poetic, and selected textual notes; silence is not evidence.

Exact location: NET Bible Numbers PDF, complete 134-page PDF, translation and translator notes attached to 29:12–34

Open source ↗

modern critical open study guide

Numbers Part 2

Yale Bible Study

Yale Divinity School, 2023 course edition

Supports: Moab movement, law, leadership transition, land, war, women, refuge, and compositional framing.

Exact location: Yale Bible Study, Numbers Part 2, complete two-page study guide sections on Balaam, Baal Peor, second census, women and inheritance, war with Midian, Transjordan, itinerary, boundaries, Levite and refuge cities, and final inheritance, applied to Numbers 29:12–34

Open source ↗

Numbers 29:12–34, King James Version

Booths opens with thirteen bulls and a week that steps down

The descent is a festival count, not a cipher

How this should shape us

Teach it back

Go deeper

Where do careful interpreters disagree?

King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006

Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Numbers

NET Bible: Numbers with translators' notes

Numbers Part 2