John Calvin Commentary Numbers 28:26

"Also in the day of the first-fruits, when ye offer a new meal-offering unto Jehovah in your [feast of] weeks, ye shall have a holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work;" — Numbers 28:26 (ASV)

Also in the day of the firstfruits. Moses delivers the same commandment concerning another festival, namely, the one on which they offered their firstfruits. Then, also, he instructs them that the continual sacrifice was to be increased by the addition of two bullocks, one ram, seven lambs, a goat for a sin-offering, together with the minha and a libation, for the purpose I have already discussed.

A perplexing difficulty arises here because in Leviticus 23, one bullock is mentioned instead of two, and, conversely, two rams instead of one.²³⁸

Some think that an option was left to the priests in this matter; however, when I consider how precisely God’s commands were given in everything, I question whether such an alternative was truly left to their discretion. The notion that God had once been content with a single bullock because, as some believe, they were not abundant in the desert, appears to me a subterfuge. I confess I do not know how to resolve this difficulty, unless perhaps we might say that since sufficiently exact provision had been made in all other details that nothing was to be done without reason, in this respect alone they were reminded that God Himself does not care for more or fewer victims.

Nor does any reverence prevent us from saying that, as sometimes happens in minor matters, a wrong number may have crept in through the carelessness of scribes;²³⁹ and this is probably the most natural solution. In my opinion, the more correct reading is that they should offer two bullocks and one ram; but since it is explained elsewhere why God appointed this day, he only briefly states here: When they bring the minha with the firstfruits.

²³⁸ “Josephus and Maimonides understand that they were distinct sacrifices. Aben-Ezra and others think that it was left to the priest which he would offer.” — Brightwell on the Pentateuch, in loco..

²³⁹ The conjecture of C. receives no support from the modern collections of various readings; for though the number receives no support from the modern collections of various readings; for though the number two is wanting in one of Kennicott’s is wanting in one of Kennicott’s MSS., the word for bullocks is in the plural in that same the word for bullocks is in the plural in that same MS.; and the two most ancient versions, viz., the and the two most ancient versions, viz., the LXX. and the and the Syriac agree with the received text both here and in agree with the received text both here and in Leviticus 23:8. — . — W.