Numbers 7:4

"And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, Take it of them that they may be used in doing the service of the tent of meeting; and thou shalt give them unto the Levites, to every man according to his service. And Moses took the wagons and the oxen, and gave them unto the Levites. Two wagons and four oxen he gave unto the sons of Gershon, according to their service: and four wagons and eight oxen he gave unto the sons of Merari, according unto their service, under the hand of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest. But unto the sons of Kohath he gave none, because the service of the sanctuary belonged unto them; they bare it upon their shoulders. And the princes offered for the dedication of the altar in the day that it was anointed, even the princes offered their oblation before the altar. And Jehovah said unto Moses, They shall offer their oblation, each prince on his day, of the dedication of the altar."

"Jehovah spake unto Moses ..." (Numbers 7:4). Apparently, Moses was at first reluctant to accept these magnificent gifts of wagons, since no commandment had been given for such gifts and there was the problem of what to do with them. God promptly supplied the answer, and Moses appointed these gifts to the Levites to be utilized in the transport of the tabernacle.

"Princes offered for the dedication of the altar ... in that day ..." This again is not a definite time limitation as to when the gifts were offered. They were apparently promised on a given day, but the handling of so vast a contribution would have been near to impossible if they had all been tendered at once. God at once specified that the gifts should come over a period of 12 days.

"Dedication of the altar ..." (Numbers 7:10). The word from which "dedication" is translated is alleged by some critics to have been unknown by the Hebrews until the times of Maccabean triumph that led to the rededication of the temple.[7] Such a critical position is absurd. "The root of this word is ancient,"[8] the name Enoch being derived from it (Genesis 4:17), and also other words in Genesis 14:14; 25:4; and Genesis 46:9.[9] The late-daters of the Pentateuch will have to find some better excuse than this one!

This is an appropriate place to note also that in addition to the very ancient words that keep cropping up in the Pentateuch, there is the occasional extravaganza of these elaborate repetitions, an outstanding example of which lies in the very next seventy-two verses of this chapter. (See my discussion of this in the chapter introduction to Exodus 35 in this series, such repetitions being, without doubt, identifiable with the literary customs of the mid-fifteenth century B.C.!)

"They shall offer their oblation, each prince on his day ..." (Numbers 7:11)." This means that all of an entire day would be used for the reception and registration of the gifts of each one of the twelve princes, thus requiring a total of twelve days for the tendering of these gifts. Here is the account of Nahshon's gifts: