36 Seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh. On the eighth day shall be a holy convocation to you; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh. It is a solemn assembly; you shall do no regular work.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Seven days ye shall offer. They only kept holiday on the first and eighth day, yet they dwelt in huts, and for seven successive days offered sacrifices, of which a fuller account was elsewhere given. What, therefore, Moses distinctly treats of in the book of Numbers, I have preferred to introduce in another place, where I have spoken of the sacrifices in general. All are not agreed about the word I have translated "solemnity." [1] tsrt, gnatsereth, is derived from tsr, gnatsar, which means both to restrain and to gather together. Some interpreters, therefore, preserve the first etymology, translating it, "it is the retaining or prohibition of God;" but since this meaning is somewhat obscure, I have not hesitated to take it, as in other passages, for a solemnity; for, without controversy, it sometimes means feast days, sometimes assemblies or conventions. Let my readers, however, make choice of whichever sense they prefer. After Moses has prescribed concerning the rest and the offerings, he adds a caution, that there should be no diminution of the ordinary service; for else they might, have transferred fraudulently the sacrifices, which they were already obliged to offer, to the feast days, and thus, as the saying is, have endeavored to whitewash two walls out of the same pot. Wherefore, at the beginning of verse 39, the particle 'k, ac, seems to be taken adversatively; for there is an antithesis between the peculiar service of this solemnity and the common rites which were to be observed at other times; as if he had said, that when they had done all which the Law required every day, still they were not to fail in this observance; and hence, that they must comply severally with both the general and special command, if they would properly do their duty. Moreover, by reference to the time, he shews that they ought to be cheerful in its performance, because they would then incur but little loss, as the fruits would all be harvested; and this is what he refers to when he says, "when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land;" as if he had said, that he had regard to their convenience, since otherwise they would have been at leisure at home; and thus he takes away all excuse (for neglect.)
1 - A. V., "a solemn assembly." Margin, "Heb., day of restraint." tsrt from tsr to retain, detain, or restrain. S.M. says the Latin interpreters commonly render the noun an assembly; but the Hebrews interpret it a retaining, because the people were still retained a day after the completion of seven days of the solemnity. -- W
An offering made by fire - See Leviticus 23:8. The succession of sacrifices prescribed in Numbers. 29:12-38, which forms such a marked feature in the Feast of Tabernacles, tends to show the distinctness of the "solemn assembly" from the festal week.
Seven days ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD: on the eighth day shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD: it [is] a (p) solemn assembly; [and] ye shall do no servile work [therein].
(p) Or, a day in which the people refrain from all work.
Seven days ye shall offer an offering made, by fire unto the Lord,.... A burnt offering; what this was, and how many were offered on each day, see at large in Numbers 29:13,
on the eighth day shall be an holy convocation unto you; as on the first day; See Gill on Leviticus 23:35,
and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord; which was different from that on all the other days, being one bullock only, &c. Numbers 29:35,
it is a solemn assembly; of all the people, when they were gathered together before the Lord. Some render the word used a "restraint" or "detention", and interpret it of restraining or detaining them from servile work, as in the next clause; so Aben Ezra and Gersom; but this sense seems to make that clause unnecessary and is never used elsewhere where that is:
ye shall do no servile work therein; as on the first day; See Gill on Leviticus 23:35.
Ye shall offer - A several - offering each day. The eighth day - Which though it was not one of the days of this feast strictly taken. Yet in a larger sense it belonged to this feast, and is called the great day of the feast, John 7:37. And so indeed it was, as for other reasons, so because, by their removal from the tabernacles into fixed habitations, it represented that happy time wherein their 40 years tedious march in the wilderness was ended with their settlement in the land of Canaan, which it was most fit they should acknowledge with such a solemn day of thanksgiving as this was.
*More commentary available at chapter level.