10 "Also in the day of your gladness, and in your set feasts, and in the beginnings of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; and they shall be to you for a memorial before your God. I am Yahweh your God."
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Also in the day of your gladness. This was as if God should make it manifest that He approved of no festivals, and that no sacrifices pleased Him, except His command should go before them; for it was not lawful for the people to choose this or that day, but the authority for prescribing them was in the hands of the ministers of sacred things. And, indeed, God Himself had appointed the New-moons (Neomenias, vel novilunia) and the other solemnities; but, lest any change should occur, since men are ever daring in their innovations, He would have their lawful observation sanctioned by the sound of the trumpets; as if, by the mouth of the priests, He Himself published the holy assemblies. The sacrifices, which others have translated "of your peace-offerings," [1] I translate, and not without reason, "of your prosperities." For this is what slmykm, shalmecem, properly means; and it was the name they gave to their supplications and testimonies of thanksgiving, when they had been delivered from some great danger, or were visited by some extraordinary blessing from God. But Moses says that the trumpets were to be "for a memorial before their God;" because when they should have assembled at His command, He would look upon them, and honor them with His paternal favor.
1 - So A.V slmykm, Pacificorum vestrorum, is the rendering of SM. To justify rendering this form of the word your prosperities, the vowel-points should be different. Your sacrifices of thanksgiving, is the ordinary interpretation of the lexicographers. -- W
In the day of your gladness - Compare Numbers 29:1; Leviticus 23:24; 2-Chronicles 29:27; Ezra 3:10; Nehemiah 12:35, Nehemiah 12:41; Psalm 81:3.
In the day of your gladness - On every festival the people shall be collected by the same means.
Also in the day of your (e) gladness, and in your solemn days, and in the beginnings of your months, ye shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; that they may be to you for a memorial before your God: I [am] the LORD your God.
(e) When you rejoice that God has removed any plague.
Also in the day of your gladness,.... When they should return from the enemy's country conquerors, or have vanquished the enemy that came against them into their own land, and so would fix a day of rejoicing, like the days of Purim, and the seven days when Hezekiah rejoiced, as Aben Ezra observes; and so any time of rejoicing on account of any extraordinary deliverance and salvation:
and in your solemn days; or festivals, as the passover, pentecost, and tabernacles, which were proclaimed by sound of trumpet, Leviticus 23:2,
and in the beginnings of your months; their new moons, especially on the first day of the seventh month, which was a feast of blowing of trumpets, Leviticus 23:24,
ye shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over your peace offerings; expressing joy for the acceptance of them, and especially when they had, by faith, a view of the great sacrifice of Christ typified by them: this is a fourth use of the trumpets, and may denote the spiritual joy had by believers, through the ministration of the Gospel, and ordinances of it on the Lord's day, and other seasons, and particularly at the feast of the Lord's supper, in the view of peace and reconciliation, and atonement made by the sacrifice of Christ:
that they may be to you for a memorial before your God; as it were, to put him in mind of the promises he has made, and the blessings he has laid up as a covenant God for his people:
I am the Lord your God; who had a right to appoint such things to be observed by them, and by whom, as their covenant God, they were laid under obligation to regard them.
Also in the day of your gladness, and in your solemn days--Festive and thanksgiving occasions were to be ushered in with the trumpets, as all feasts afterwards were (Psalm 81:3; 2-Chronicles 29:27) to intimate the joyous and delighted feelings with which they engaged in the service of God.
"And on your joyous day, and your feasts and new moons, he shall blow the trumpets over your burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, that they may be to you for a memorial (remembrance) before your God." - השּׂמחה יום is any day on which a practical expression was given to their joy, in the form of a sacrifice. The השּׂמחה are the feasts enumerated in chs. 28 and 29 and Leviticus 23. The "beginnings of the months," or new-moon days, were not, strictly speaking, feast-days, with the exception of the seventh new moon of the year (see at Numbers 28:11). On the object, viz., "for a memorial," see Exodus 28:29, and the explanation, p. 450. In accordance with this divine appointment, so full of promise, we find that in after times the trumpets were blown by the priests in war (Numbers 31:6; 2-Chronicles 13:12, 2-Chronicles 13:14; 2-Chronicles 20:21-22, 2-Chronicles 20:28) as well as on joyful occasions, such as at the removal of the ark (1-Chronicles 15:24; 1-Chronicles 16:6), at the consecration of Solomon's temple (2-Chronicles 5:12; 2-Chronicles 7:6), the laying of the foundation of the second temple (Ezra 3:10), the consecration of the walls of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 12:35, Nehemiah 12:41), and other festivities (2-Chronicles 29:27).
In the days of your gladness - Days appointed for rejoicing and thanksgiving to God for former mercies, or deliverances. Your solemn days - Your stated festivals. For a memorial - That God may remember you for good to accept and bless you. God then takes pleasure in our religious exercises, when we take pleasure in them. Holy work should be done with holy joy.
*More commentary available at chapter level.