Shared ground

Numbers 29:20–25 continues a fixed, multi-day festival schedule by giving the required offerings for the third and fourth days. The text is straightforwardly about public worship being ordered, repeatable, and fully supplied. Each day includes: (1) a large burnt offering of bulls, rams, and year-old male lambs “without blemish,” (2) matching grain and drink offerings “according to their number” and “after the ordinance,” and (3) one male goat as a sin offering. The fourth day largely repeats the third, with a single change explicitly stated: the number of bulls decreases from eleven to ten.

A second clear emphasis is layering: these festival sacrifices are “besides the continual burnt offering” and its grain and drink offerings. So the festival does not replace the daily baseline; it adds to it.

Where interpretation differs (only where needed)

Some readers treat the phrase “after the ordinance” as pointing mainly to precise, pre-set quantities already spelled out elsewhere in the Torah (so the focus is strict standardization). Others think it also signals a wider idea of authorized procedure—set amounts plus the correct performance and handling—though the details are not repeated here.

Another smaller difference concerns “besides the continual burnt offering.” Some take it to mean the daily offering happens at its normal time and the festival offerings are additional sacrifices offered separately. Others allow for more overlap in practice (same day, same altar, coordinated sequence), while still agreeing the festival does not cancel the daily requirement.

Why the disagreement exists The excerpt repeatedly refers outward (“after the ordinance,” “besides the continual burnt offering”) without restating what the ordinance contains or how the scheduling works hour-by-hour. That forces interpreters to infer how much is being assumed from earlier instructions such as Numbers 28:3–8.

What this passage clearly contributes This passage contributes a concrete picture of Israel’s worship calendar as both repetitive and deliberately structured: the same template is reused across days, with controlled variation (the bulls decrease by one from day three to day four). It also holds together multiple kinds of offerings on the same day—burnt offerings plus grain/drink accompaniments plus a sin offering—while explicitly stating that festival worship is added on top of the daily baseline rather than replacing it.