Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Numbers 15:20
Ye shall offer up a cake of the first of your dough [for] a heave offering: as [ye do] the heave offering of the threshingfloor, so shall ye heave it.
20. the first of your dough ] The word r’shth ‘the first’ need not necessarily mean ‘first-fruits,’ which were offered annually. It may be simply ‘the first part,’ i.e. a small fixed amount, perhaps at the getting in of each fresh supply for the household.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Dough – Coarse meal Neh 10:37; Eze 44:30.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 20. Ye shall offer – the first of your dough] Concerning the offerings of first-fruits, See Clarke on Ex 22:29.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
i.e. Of the corn in the threshing-floor, as Deu 16:13, when you have gathered in your corn.
So shall ye heave it, i.e. you shall offer this in the same proportion, to the same persons, i.e. the priests, and with the same rites.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
20. heave offering of thethreshing-floormeaning the corn on the threshing-floor; thatis, after harvest.
so shall ye heave ittothe priests accompanying the ceremony with the same rites.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Ye shall offer up a cake of the first of your dough [for] an heave offering,…. Of the first dough made of the first corn that was threshed, winnowed and ground, they were to make a cake, and offer it an heave offering unto the Lord; the quantity of it is not expressed, but was left to the people’s generosity; no stinted measure was fixed by the law; but according to the Scribes, or the traditions of the elders, the quantity of the cake was the twenty fourth part of the first dough that was kneaded; not the forty fourth, as Buxtorf p through mistake says; so the Targum of Jonathan,
“of the first of your dough, one out of twenty four (i.e. the twenty fourth part of it), ye shall separate a separation for the priests,”
with which agrees the Misnah q, though according to that, if made to sell publicly it was the forty eighth part of it. Some, because
Nu 15:21 begins and ends with , “mem”, which numerically signifies “forty”, think this is an instruction to a bountiful person to give the fortieth part r:
as [ye do] the heave offering of the threshing floor, so shall ye heave it; as the two wave loaves and firstfruits of their harvest,
Le 23:16.
p Synagog. Jud. c. 34. p. 602. q Challah, c. 2. sect. 7. so Schulchan Aruch, par. 2. c. 322. so Jarchi & Ben Gersom in loc. r Baal Hatturim in loc.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
20. Ye shall offer up a cake. Here another kind of first-fruits is required, to offer up sacred cakes of the first of their dough. First-fruits were offered of their fruits and ears of corn; but the representation was more lively in the bread itself; and, consequently, God would have them present tokens of their gratitude, not only from the barn, but from the mill, and the oven, so that whilst they eat their bread also, they might have Him before their eyes.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(20) Of the first of your dough.Or, mixed meal. The word arisoth is used only in the plural number, and is found only in Neh. 10:37 and Eze. 44:30, besides this and the following verse.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
20. The first of your dough This command is not addressed to the nation as in the case of “the sheaf of the firstfruits,” (see Lev 23:10, note,) but to every private family, and the Jews consider a woman as very culpable who neglects it. They interpret the command as requiring not merely a portion of the first dough made from the new harvest, but a portion of every bread-making through the year, whenever the lump of dough exceeds the bulk of forty eggs. This sacred portion was given to the priests or Levites in order to sanctify the rest. In the absence of any of these it was thrown into the fire. Paul refers to this usage in Rom 11:16. See note. Its symbolism is thus explained: “The cake signified in mystery the congregation of Israel, called the firstfruits of the world; which, when it is put into the oven that burneth with the fire of the blessed God, it is necessary to separate therefrom a cake, that it be not partaker of severe judgment; and therefore is a blessing reserved in the world.” Rabbi Menahem. A still wider mystical import is found in the sons of God by adoption, who “are a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.” Jas 1:18.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Num 15:20. As ye do the heave-offering of the threshing floor The precise quantity of this offering is not specified, any more than that of the first fruits; but St. Jerome says, that on account of the avarice of the priests, who were wont to exact upon the people, it was limited to a sixtieth part, or, the sixth part of an ephah of an homer; that is, a sixtieth part, an ephah being the tenth part of an homer: and since it is here required that they should do in this offering of the first of their dough, as in the offering of their first fruits, this seems to intimate that the same quantity was to be offered in both.
REFLECTIONS.God had spared them at Moses’s request, and in the opening of the chapter intimates his fixed purpose of bringing them into the land of Canaan, which even all their rebellions shall not prevent. He here prescribes the offerings hereafter to be made at his altar, as the sacrifices had been enjoined before.
1. Meat offerings and drink offerings must accompany every sacrifice. As the priest’s provision was to arise from the altar, they had thus a table furnished richly. Note; They who minister before the Lord deserve a sufficient maintenance.
2. In the things of God, there was to be no difference between an Israelite and a stranger; hereby they were invited to communion with God’s altar, and an intimation given, that not the seed of Abraham’s loins, so much as the children of his faith, were accepted of God. In Christ Jesus, there is no difference of nation, sex, or person; none who come to him shall be in any wise cast out: every partition-wall is now thrown down, and whosoever will, let him come and take of the water of life freely.
3. Though they were now fed with manna, God intended to give them by and by the corn of Canaan; and they are commanded to offer, from the first corn which was threshed and ground, a portion of dough, as an acknowledgment of God’s right in all they enjoyed; and this was appropriated for the use of the priest’s family. Our daily bread is God’s gift, and we may expect, when we break a portion of it to the hungry, that his blessing will be on the remainder.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Num 15:20 Ye shall offer up a cake of the first of your dough [for] an heave offering: as [ye do] the heave offering of the threshingfloor, so shall ye heave it.
Ver. 20. Ye shall offer up a cake. ] As a homage penny, as acknowledging God the chief Lord of all; and as craving his leave to partake of his creatures.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
cake = pierced cake.
heave offering. See note on Exo 29:27.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
a cake: Num 18:12, Exo 23:19, Deu 26:2-10, Neh 10:37, Pro 3:9, Pro 3:10, Eze 44:30, Mat 6:33, Rom 11:16, 1Co 15:20, Jam 1:18, Rev 14:4
the heave offering: Lev 2:14, Lev 23:20, Lev 23:16, Lev 23:17
Reciprocal: Exo 29:28 – is an heave Lev 2:12 – the oblation Num 18:27 – the corn
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
15:20 Ye shall offer up a cake of the first of your {e} dough [for] an heave offering: as [ye do] the heave offering of the threshingfloor, so shall ye heave it.
(e) Which is made from the first corn you harvest.