Leviticus 2:12-16

2:12 You can present them to the Lord as an offering of first fruit, ¹  but they must not go up to the altar for a soothing aroma. 2:13 Moreover, you must season every one of your grain offerings with salt; you must not allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be missing from your grain offering ²  – on every one of your grain offerings you must present salt.

2:14 “‘If you present a grain offering of first ripe grain to the Lord, you must present your grain offering of first ripe grain as soft kernels roasted in fire – crushed bits of fresh grain. ³  2:15 And you must put olive oil on it and set frankincense on it – it is a grain offering. 2:16 Then the priest must offer its memorial portion up in smoke – some of its crushed bits, some of its olive oil, in addition to all of its frankincense – it is ⁴  a gift to the Lord.

Exodus 22:29

22:29 “Do not hold back offerings from your granaries or your vats. ⁵  You must give me the firstborn of your sons.

Exodus 23:16

23:16 “You are also to observe ⁶  the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors that you have sown in the field, and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year ⁷  when you have gathered in ⁸  your harvest ⁹  out of the field.

Exodus 23:19

23:19 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. ¹⁰ 

Exodus 34:22

34:22 “You must observe ¹¹  the Feast of Weeks – the firstfruits of the harvest of wheat – and the Feast of Ingathering at the end ¹²  of the year.

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.” ¹³ 

Numbers 15:2

15:2 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘When you enter the land where you are to live, ¹⁴  which I am giving you, ¹⁵ 

Numbers 15:18-21

15:18 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘When you enter the land to which I am bringing you ¹⁶  15:19 and you eat ¹⁷  some of the food of the land, you must offer up a raised offering ¹⁸  to the Lord. 15:20 You must offer up a cake of the first of your finely ground flour ¹⁹  as a raised offering; as you offer the raised offering of the threshing floor, so you must offer it up. 15:21 You must give to the Lord some of the first of your finely ground flour as a raised offering in your future generations.

Numbers 28:26

Firstfruits

28:26 “‘Also, on the day of the first fruits, when you bring a new grain offering to the Lord during your Feast of Weeks, you are to have a holy assembly. You must do no ordinary work.

Deuteronomy 16:9

The Festival of Weeks

16:9 You must count seven weeks; you must begin to count them ²⁰  from the time you begin to harvest the standing grain.

Joshua 3:15

3:15 When the ones carrying the ark reached the Jordan and the feet of the priests carrying the ark touched the surface ²¹  of the water – (the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest time) ²²  –

[2:12]  ¹ sn The “first fruit” referred to here was given to the priests as a prebend for their service to the Lord, not offered on the altar (Num 18:12).

[2:13]  ² tn Heb “from upon your grain offering.”

[2:14]  ³ tn The translation of this whole section of the clause is difficult. Theoretically, it could describe one, two, or three different ways of preparing first ripe grain offerings (J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 27). The translation here takes it as a description of only one kind of prepared grain. This is suggested by the fact that v. 16 uses only one term “crushed bits” (גֶּרֶשׂ, geres) to refer back to the grain as it is prepared in v. 14 (a more technical translation is “groats”; see J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:178, 194). Cf. NAB “fresh grits of new ears of grain”; NRSV “coarse new grain from fresh ears.”

[2:16]  ⁴ tn See the note on “it is” in 2:9b.

[22:29]  ⁵ 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.

[23:16]  ⁶ tn The words “you are also to observe” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[23:16]  ⁷ tn An infinitive construct with a preposition and a pronominal suffix is used to make a temporal clause: “in the going in of the year.” The word “year” is the subjective genitive, the subject of the clause.

[23:16]  ⁸ tn An infinitive construct with a preposition and a pronominal suffix is used to make a temporal clause: “in the ingathering of you.”

[23:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “gathered in your labors.” This is a metonymy of cause put for the effect. “Labors” are not gathered in, but what the labors produced – the harvest.

[23:19]  ¹⁰ sn On this verse, see C. M. Carmichael, “On Separating Life and Death: An Explanation of Some Biblical Laws,” HTR 69 (1976): 1-7; J. Milgrom, “You Shall Not Boil a Kid in Its Mother’s Milk,” BRev 1 (1985): 48-55; R. J. Ratner and B. Zuckerman, “In Rereading the ‘Kid in Milk’ Inscriptions,” BRev 1 (1985): 56-58; and M. Haran, “Seething a Kid in Its Mother’s Milk,” JJS 30 (1979): 23-35. Here and at 34:26, where this command is repeated, it ends a series of instructions about procedures for worship.

[34:22]  ¹¹ tn The imperfect tense means “you will do”; it is followed by the preposition with a suffix to express the ethical dative to stress the subject.

[34:22]  ¹² tn The expression is “the turn of the year,” which is parallel to “the going out of the year,” and means the end of the agricultural season.

[34:26]  ¹³ sn See the note on this same command in 23:19.

[15:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the land of your habitations.”

[15:2]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew participle here has the futur instans use of the participle, expressing that something is going to take place. It is not imminent, but it is certain that God would give the land to Israel.

[15:18]  ¹⁶ tn The relative clause is literally, “which I am causing you to enter there.” The final adverb is resumptive, and must be joined with the relative pronoun.

[15:19]  ¹⁷ tn The verse has a temporal clause that actually continues or supplements the temporal clause of the preceding verse. It is made up of the temporal indicator, the infinitive construct with the preposition, and the suffixed subjective genitive: “and it shall be when you eat.” Here it is translated simply “and eat” since the temporal element was introduced in the last verse.

[15:19]  ¹⁸ tn This is the תְּרוּמָה (tÿrumah), the “raised offering” or “heave offering” (cf. KJV, ASV). It may simply be called a “contribution” (so NAB). The verb of the sentence is from the same root: “you shall lift up/raise up.” It was to be an offering separated from the rest and raised up to the Lord in the sight of all. It was designed to remind the Israelites that the produce and the land belonged to God.

[15:20]  ¹⁹ tn Or “the first of your dough.” The phrase is not very clear. N. H. Snaith thinks it means a batch of loaves from the kneading trough – the first batch of the baking (Leviticus and Numbers [NCB], 251).

[16:9]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the seven weeks.” The translation uses a pronoun to avoid redundancy in English.

[3:15]  ²¹ tn Heb “dipped into the edge.”

[3:15]  ²² tn Heb “and the Jordan overflows all its banks all the days of harvest.”