Exodus 22:29

22:29 “Do not hold back offerings from your granaries or your vats. ¹  You must give me the firstborn of your sons.

Exodus 34:26

34:26 “The first of the firstfruits of your soil you must bring to the house of the Lord your God.

You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.” ² 

Leviticus 23:10-17

23:10 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘When you enter the land that I am about to give to you and you gather in its harvest, ³  then you must bring the sheaf of the first portion of your harvest ⁴  to the priest, 23:11 and he must wave the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted for your benefit ⁵  – on the day after the Sabbath the priest is to wave it. ⁶  23:12 On the day you wave the sheaf you must also offer ⁷  a flawless yearling lamb ⁸  for a burnt offering to the Lord, 23:13 along with its grain offering, two tenths of an ephah of ⁹  choice wheat flour ¹⁰  mixed with olive oil, as a gift to the Lord, a soothing aroma, ¹¹  and its drink offering, one fourth of a hin of wine. ¹²  23:14 You must not eat bread, roasted grain, or fresh grain until this very day, ¹³  until you bring the offering of your God. This is a perpetual statute throughout your generations ¹⁴  in all the places where you live.

The Festival of Weeks

23:15 “‘You must count for yourselves seven weeks from the day after the Sabbath, from the day you bring the wave offering sheaf; they must be complete weeks. ¹⁵  23:16 You must count fifty days – until the day after the seventh Sabbath – and then ¹⁶  you must present a new grain offering to the Lord. 23:17 From the places where you live you must bring two loaves of ¹⁷  bread for a wave offering; they must be made from two tenths of an ephah of fine wheat flour, baked with yeast, ¹⁸  as first fruits to the Lord.

Numbers 18:12-13

18:12 “All the best of the olive oil and all the best of the wine and of the wheat, the first fruits of these things that they give to the Lord, I have given to you. ¹⁹  18:13 And whatever first ripe fruit in their land they bring to the Lord will be yours; everyone who is ceremonially clean in your household may eat of it.

Deuteronomy 12:5-7

12:5 But you must seek only the place he ²⁰  chooses from all your tribes to establish his name as his place of residence, ²¹  and you must go there. 12:6 And there you must take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the personal offerings you have prepared, ²²  your votive offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. 12:7 Both you and your families ²³  must feast there before the Lord your God and rejoice in all the output of your labor with which he ²⁴  has blessed you.

Deuteronomy 26:10

26:10 So now, look! I have brought the first of the ground’s produce that you, Lord, have given me.” Then you must set it down before the Lord your God and worship before him. ²⁵ 

Nehemiah 10:35

10:35 We also accept responsibility for ²⁶  bringing the first fruits of our land and the first fruits of every fruit tree year by year to the temple of the LORD.

Nehemiah 10:1

10:1 On the sealed documents were the following names: ²⁷ 

Nehemiah the governor, son of Hacaliah, along with Zedekiah,

Colossians 1:20

1:20 and through him to reconcile all things to himself by making peace through the blood of his cross – through him, ²⁸  whether things on earth or things in heaven.

Revelation 14:4

14:4 These are the ones who have not defiled themselves ²⁹  with women, for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These were redeemed from humanity as firstfruits to God and to the Lamb,

[22:29]  ¹ tn The expressions are unusual. U. Cassuto renders them: “from the fullness of your harvest and from the outflow of your presses” (Exodus, 294). He adds the Hittite parallel material to show that the people were to bring the offerings on time and not let them overlap, because the firstfruits had to be eaten first by the priest.

[34:26]  ² sn See the note on this same command in 23:19.

[23:10]  ³ tn Heb “and you harvest its harvest.”

[23:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “the sheaf of the first of your harvest.”

[23:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “for your acceptance.”

[23:11]  ⁶ sn See Lev 7:30 for a note on the “waving” of a “wave offering.”

[23:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “And you shall make in the day of your waving the sheaf.”

[23:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “a flawless lamb, a son of its year”; KJV “of the first year”; NLT “a year-old male lamb.”

[23:13]  ⁹ sn See the note on Lev 5:11.

[23:13]  ¹⁰ sn See the note on Lev 2:1.

[23:13]  ¹¹ sn See the note on Lev 1:9.

[23:13]  ¹² tn Heb “wine, one fourth of the hin.” A pre-exilic hin is about 3.6 liters (= ca. 1 quart), so one fourth of a hin would be about one cup.

[23:14]  ¹³ tn Heb “until the bone of this day.”

[23:14]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “for your generations.”

[23:15]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “seven Sabbaths, they shall be complete.” The disjunctive accent under “Sabbaths” precludes the translation “seven complete Sabbaths” (as NASB, NIV; cf. NAB, NRSV, NLT). The text is somewhat awkward, which may explain why the LXX tradition is confused here, either adding “you shall count” again at the end of the verse, or leaving out “they shall be,” or keeping “they shall be” and adding “to you.”

[23:16]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and.” In the translation “then” is supplied to clarify the sequence.

[23:17]  ¹⁷ tc Smr, LXX, Syriac, Tg. Onq., and Tg. Ps.-J. insert the word חַלּוֹת (khallot, “loaves”; cf. Lev 2:4 and the note there). Even though “loaves” is not explicit in the MT, the number “two” suggests that these are discrete units, not just a measure of flour, so “loaves” should be assumed even in the MT.

[23:17]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “with leaven.” The noun “leaven” is traditional in English versions (cf. KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV), but “yeast” is more commonly used today.

[18:12]  ¹⁹ tn This form may be classified as a perfect of resolve – he has decided to give them to them, even though this is a listing of what they will receive.

[12:5]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[12:5]  ²¹ tc Some scholars, on the basis of v. 11, emend the MT reading שִׁכְנוֹ (shikhno, “his residence”) to the infinitive construct לְשָׁכֵן (lÿshakhen, “to make [his name] to dwell”), perhaps with the 3rd person masculine singular sf לְשַׁכְּנוֹ (lÿshakÿno, “to cause it to dwell”). Though the presupposed nounשֵׁכֶן (shekhen) is nowhere else attested, the parallel here with שַׁמָּה (shammah, “there”) favors retaining the MT as it stands.

[12:6]  ²² tn Heb “heave offerings of your hand.”

[12:7]  ²³ tn Heb “and your houses,” referring to entire households. The pronouns “you” and “your” are plural in the Hebrew text.

[12:7]  ²⁴ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 12:5.

[26:10]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 26:2.

[10:35]  ²⁶ tn The words “we accept responsibility” are not included in the Hebrew text, but are inferred from v. 33 (so also in v. 37).

[10:1]  ²⁷ tn The words “were the following names” are not in the Hebrew text but have been supplied in the translation for clarity. Cf. vv. 9, 10, 14.

[1:20]  ²⁸ tc The presence or absence of the second occurrence of the phrase δι᾿ αὐτοῦ (di’ autou, “through him”) is a difficult textual problem to solve. External evidence is fairly evenly divided. Many ancient and excellent witnesses lack the phrase (B D* F G I 0278 81 1175 1739 1881 2464 al latt sa), but equally important witnesses have it (Ì⁴⁶ א A C D¹ Ψ 048^vid 33 Ï). Both readings have strong Alexandrian support, which makes the problem difficult to decide on external evidence alone. Internal evidence points to the inclusion of the phrase as original. The word immediately preceding the phrase is the masculine pronoun αὐτοῦ (autou); thus the possibility of omission through homoioteleuton in various witnesses is likely. Scribes might have deleted the phrase because of perceived redundancy or awkwardness in the sense: The shorter reading is smoother and more elegant, so scribes would be prone to correct the text in that direction. As far as style is concerned, repetition of key words and phrases for emphasis is not foreign to the corpus Paulinum (see, e.g., Rom 8:23, Eph 1:13, 2 Cor 12:7). In short, it is easier to account for the shorter reading arising from the longer reading than vice versa, so the longer reading is more likely original.

[14:4]  ²⁹ tn The aorist passive verb is rendered as a reflexive (“defiled themselves”) by BDAG 657 s.v. μολύνω 2.