Ver. 27_a_ recalls the priestly benediction (Numb. vi. 25), and thankfully recognises its ample fulfilment in Israel's history, and especially in the dawning of new prosperity now. Ver. 27_b_, _c_, is difficult. Obviously it should be a summons to worship, as thanksgiving for the benefits acknowledged in _a_. But what is the act of worship intended is hard to say. The rendering "Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar," has against it the usual meaning of the word rendered _sacrifice_, which is rather _festival_, and the fact that the last words of the verse cannot possibly be translated "_to_ the horns," etc., but must mean "as far as" or "even up to the horns," etc. There must therefore be a good deal supplied in the sentence; and commentators differ as to how to fill the gap. Delitzsch supposes that "the number of the sacrificial animals is to be so great that the whole space of the courts of the priests becomes full of them, and the binding of them has therefore to take place even up to the horns of the altar." Perowne takes the expression to be a pregnant one for "till [the victim] is sacrificed and its blood sprinkled on the horns of the altar." So Hupfeld, following Chaldee and some Jewish interpreters. Others regard the supposed ellipsis as too great to be natural, and take an entirely different view. The word rendered _sacrifice_ in the former explanation is taken to mean a _procession_ round the altar, which is etymologically justifiable, and is supported by the known custom of making such a circuit during the Feast of Tabernacles. For "cords" this explanation would read _branches_ or _boughs_, which is also warranted. But what does "binding a procession with boughs" mean? Various answers are given. Cheyne supposes that the branches borne in the hands of the members of the procession were in some unknown way used to bind or link them together before they left the Temple. Baethgen takes "with boughs" as = "bearing boughs," with which he supposes that the bearers touched the altar horns, for the purpose of transferring to themselves the holiness concentrated there. Either explanation has difficulties,--the former in requiring an unusual sense for the word rendered _sacrifice_; the latter in finding a suitable meaning for that translated _bind_. In either _c_ is but loosely connected with _b_, and is best understood as an exclamation. The verb rendered _bind_ is used in 1 Kings xx. 14, 2 Chron. xiii. 3, in a sense which fits well with "procession" here--_i.e._, that of marshalling an army for battle. If this meaning is adopted, _b_ will be the summons to order the bough-bearing procession, and _c_ a call to march onwards, so as to encircle the altar. This meaning of the obscure verse may be provisionally accepted, while owning that our ignorance of the ceremonial referred to prevents complete understanding of the words.