Bible Strands
Numbers 7:21
one young bull, one ram, and one male lamb a year old for a burnt offering;
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — This verse appears in a sequential record of tribal leaders bringing consecrated gifts for the altar’s dedication, positioned between offerings of incense and sin offerings.
The words — בֶּן־בָּקָר (ben-bakar) literally means a young one of cattle, and כֶּבֶשׂ (keves) means a lamb, both specified with the numeral one (אֶחָד, echad) for the burnt offering.
The thread — The burnt offering motif connects to Genesis 8:20, where Noah offers clean animals, and finds its theological fulfillment in the New Testament references to Romans 12:1 and Ephesians 5:2, which frame the believer’s life and Christ’s death as the ultimate sacrificial offering.
Why it lands — It requires the reader to recognize that ritual atonement demands specific, counted provisions, establishing a pattern of complete devotion that points toward a final, unrepeatable sacrifice.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
One young bullock, one ram, one lamb of the first year, for a burnt offering:
Cross-references
- Genesis 8:20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD. And taking from every kind of clean animal and clean bird, he offered burnt offerings on the altar.
- Romans 12:1 Therefore I urge you, brothers, on account of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
- Ephesians 5:2 and walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant sacrificial offering to God.