Numbers 7:3

Presentation of Dedicatory Gifts by the Princes of the Tribes. - Num 7:1. This presentation took place at the time (יום) when Moses, after having completed the erection of the tabernacle, anointed and sanctified the dwelling and the altar, together with their furniture (Lev 8:10-11). Chronologically considered, this ought to have been noticed after Lev 8:10. But in order to avoid interrupting the connection of the Sinaitic laws, it is introduced for the first time at this point, and placed at the head of the events which immediately preceded the departure of the people from Sinai, because these gifts consisted in part of materials that were indispensably necessary for the transport of the tabernacle during the march through the desert. Moreover, there was only an interval of at the most forty days between the anointing of the tabernacle, which commenced after the first day of the first month (cf. Exo 40:16 and Lev 8:10), and lasted eight days, and the departure from Sinai, on the twentieth day of the second month (Num 10:11), and from this we have to deduct six days for the Passover, which took place before their departure (Num 9:1.); and it was within this period that the laws and ordinances from Lev 11 to Num 6 had to be published, and the dedicatory offerings to be presented. Now, as the presentation itself was distributed, according to Num 7:11., over twelve or thirteen days, we may very well assume that it did not entirely precede the publication of the laws referred to, but was carried on in part contemporaneously with it. The presentation of the dedicatory gifts of one tribe-prince might possibly occupy only a few hours of the day appointed for the purpose; and the rest of the day, therefore, might very conveniently be made use of by Moses for publishing the laws…

God having set up house (as it were) in the midst of the camp of Israel, the princes of Israel here come a visiting with their presents, as tenants to their landlord, in the name of their respective tribes. I. They brought presents, 1. Upon the dedication of the tabernacle, for the service of that (Num 7:1-9). 2. Upon the dedication of the altar, for the use of that (v. 10-88). And, II. God graciously signified his acceptance of them (Num 7:89). The two foregoing chapters were the records of additional laws which God gave to Israel, this is the history of the additional services which Israel performed to God.