Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 22:29
Thou shalt not delay [to offer] the first of thy ripe fruits, and of thy liquors: the firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give unto me.
29 31. A group of fundamental ceremonial injunctions. Jehovah’s customary due from the first annual produce of the threshing-floor and the wine-press to be promptly paid: firstborn males, both of men and animals, to be given to Him; flesh torn of beasts not to be eaten. The laws are stated here tersely and generally: more detailed, and sometimes discrepant, regulations are given in the later codes.
29a. thy fulness and thy trickling thou shalt not delay ] A paraphrase is a necessity for English idiom: but it obliterates the characteristic curtness of the original. The two substantives are paraphrased by LXX., no doubt correctly, by ‘the firstfruits of thy threshing-floor and of thy wine-press.’ Both expressions are, however, peculiar, and no doubt archaic. ‘Fulness’ is used similarly in Num 18:27 (P) ‘like the fulness [in the parallel, v. 30, ‘increase,’ ‘produce’] from the wine-vat, and the corn from the threshing-floor’ (offered viz. by the Israelites as tithe): it seems to mean properly full yield (RVm. abundance) here of the newly threshed corn, as in Nu. l.c. of the freshly expressed grape-juice. Naturally it does not signify here the whole yield of the year, but only that part of it which was offered to Jehovah as ‘firstfruits’ (cf. Exo 23:16; Exo 23:19). ‘Trickling’ (the masc. of the ordinary Heb. word for ‘tear’), whatever the true explanation of the expression may be 1 [190] , pretty clearly denotes the freshly extracted juice of the grape ( tirsh, ‘must’), perhaps also (but see footnote) of the olive ( yihr, ‘fresh oil’) as well.
[190] Lane, Arab. Lex. p. 913, cites the expression ‘ tear of the vine’ for wine; and A. R. S. Kennedy ( EB. iv. 5314, s.v. Wine and Strong Drink) refers to the Spanish lagrima, ‘tear,’ the name for wine made from grape-juice which has exuded from the grapes without pressure. Such wine has always been considered superior to that made from juice extracted by treading the grapes; and as this method of obtaining grape-juice is mentioned in the Mishnah, and is still practised in Syria, the grapes being laid out for some days on a misht, or ‘spreading-place,’ from which the exuding juice trickled down into the wine-vat (see ibid.), it is possible that the choice juice so obtained is what is here meant. If this explanation is correct, however, ‘oil’ will not have been included in the term; and the inclusion of this in the firstfruits (Deu 18:4, &c.) will not have taken place till later.
The dedication to the deity of a portion of the new produce of the year is a widely prevalent custom. ‘Primitive peoples often partake of the new corn sacramentally, because they suppose it to be instinct with a divine spirit of life. At a later age, when the fruits of the earth are conceived as created rather than as animated by divinity, the new fruits are no longer partaken of sacramentally; but a portion of them is presented as a thank-offering to the divine beings who are supposed to have produced them. Till the firstfruits have been presented to the deity, people are not at liberty to eat of the new crops’ (Frazer, The Golden Bough, 2 ii. 459, with numerous examples, pp. 318 340, 459 471, some excerpted by Dr Gray, Numbers, p. 225 f.). Cf. Lev 23:14 a (H), Deu 26:1-11.
29b, 30. Like the firstfruits of the soil, the firstborn of men and animals are also to be given to Jehovah. This principle has been laid down before, Exo 13:1-2 (P), 11 16 (J): see on Exo 13:1-2, and p. 409.
shalt thou give unto me ] how it is to be given is not stated: exactly the same expression is used in v. 30 of animals (which were sacrificed). The principle is formulated in general terms, which must have been interpreted in the light of the usage of the time: how it was understood in practice is stated by J (Exo 13:13 b = Exo 34:20 b).
30. The firstling of a cow or sheep to be given to Jehovah on the eighth day after birth. The ‘eighth day’ agrees with the general principle (Lev 22:27 H), that no animal might be offered in sacrifice till it was of that age. The present law evidently presupposes a plurality of local sanctuaries (cf. on Exo 20:24): a journey to Jerusalem, every time that a firstling of cow or sheep was born, would naturally be out of the question. In Dt. (Deu 15:19 f.) no age-limit is prescribed, but the firstlings are to be taken ‘year by year,’ i.e. no doubt mostly, as cattle in Arabia chiefly yean in spring (p. 411; Rel. Sem. 2 [191] 465), at Maoth, to the central sanctuary, and eaten there at a sacred meal by the owner and his household: the older usage has thus been accommodated to the later principle of a single sanctuary. Nothing is said here about the firstlings of unclean animals: see in J Exo 13:13 a = Exo 34:20 a.
[191] W. R. Smith, The Religion of the Semites, ed. 2, 1894.
31a. Flesh torn by wild beasts not to be eaten.
holy men ] ‘Holy’ is a word with a history; and the ideas expressed by it in the OT. do not appear to have been always the same. ‘Its connotation would seem to have been at first physical and ceremonial, and to have become gradually more and more ethical and spiritual’ (Sanday-Headlam on Rom 1:7). Originally, like all such words, it had naturally a physical sense, now completely lost both in Heb. and in the other Semitic languages, but conjectured to have been that of separation. In actual usage it expresses the idea of belonging to deity, whether of the character of deity itself (cf. on Exo 15:11), or of the character of men or things as belonging to Him: as the conception of deity became elevated and purified, the idea expressed by ‘holy’ became elevated and purified likewise, till at last it expressed the idea of most absolute purity and sanctity. Here the context shews that it must be used in one of its lower senses: it is followed by a command, not to shun and abhor every kind of evil, for instance, or to be morally pure or saintly, but by the purely ceremonial command not to eat flesh torn by beasts: the ‘holiness’ is thus not moral, but ritual. In Deu 7:6; Deu 14:2; Deu 26:19, it is used in a higher sense: for it is in each case connected with some prohibition of idolatry or superstition, or an exhortation to obey Jehovah’s moral commands. See farther, on the idea of Holiness, Sanday-Headlam, l.c.; A. B. Davidson, Theol. of OT., pp. 144 160; Skinner, art. Holiness in DB.; Simcox, art. Clean and Unclean in EB.
and flesh in the field, a torn animal, ye shall not eat ] The Heb. is not very natural; and perhaps, with LXX. (who express ‘flesh torn of beasts’ alone), Budde, B., we should read simply, ‘and the flesh of a torn animal ye shall not eat,’ regarding ‘in the field’ as a dittograph of ‘flesh.’ For e rphh, ‘that which is torn (by wild beasts),’ or ‘a torn animal,’ see v. 13, Gen 31:39. With the present law, comp. Lev 17:15 (P), where lustrations are prescribed for those who have eaten either n e bhlh (‘a carcase,’ ‘that which dieth of itself’) or e rphh, but neither is in so many words prohibited as food 1 [192] , and Deu 14:21, where the eating of n e bhlh is prohibited, but nothing is said about e rphh. The reason of both prohibitions is doubtless to be found in the fact that such flesh had not been properly drained of blood (Deu 12:16; Deu 12:23, &c.).
[192] Both were prohibited absolutely to priests (Lev 22:8; Eze 44:31; cf. Eze 4:14).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The offering of firstfruits appears to have been a custom of primitive antiquity and was connected with the earliest acts of sacrifice. See Gen 4:3-4. The references to it here and in Exo 23:19 had probably been handed down from patriarchal times. The specific law relating to the firstborn of living creatures was brought out in a strong light in connection with the deliverance from Egypt Exo 13:2, Exo 13:12-13; compare Exo 23:19; Lev 22:27; Deu 26:2-11; Neh 10:35.
The first of thy ripe fruits, and of thy liquors – See the margin. The rendering of our King James Bible is a paraphrase.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Exo 22:29-30
The firstborn.
First fruits to God
God asks for nothing that we have not to give. He asks that we will give to Him of what He has given to us, that we will put to its true and highest use what He for that end has bestowed. We cannot give fruit that we do not bear, or that is green and unripe, but only that which is fresh and mature, waiting to be gathered in.
I. God asks for the first ripe fruits of our education. The wise mans education is never finished. To cease to learn is to cease to grow; to cease to grow is to decay in force and faculty. Yet there is a special sense in which education ceases. The youth leaves school, the scholar the university, the apprentice is out of his time. Then we have to think and act for ourselves, and use the knowledge we have acquired. We have to face the great questions that concern mans life and destiny. Then God asks from us the first ripe fruits of our education in the use of our intelligence and feeling and conscience. He asks us to face these great questions; to think soberly and ponder the path of our feet.
II. God asks from us the first ripe fruits of our toil. The Jews gave this in kind–from flock, vineyard, or field. We give an equivalent–money. The first money earned is the first-fruits of toil. From that lay by something for God.
III. God asks from us the first ripe fruits of our conversion. I have often seen a child so overcome with an unexpected gift that he has forgotten to say Thank you, but surely Christ does not expect such forgetfulness from those whom He has snatched from the burning.
IV. Then there are some first-fruits of experience which God commands us to offer to Him. I have learned by experience is the confession sometimes of self-convicted folly, sometimes of grateful wonder. How near have we been to spiritual death! How well hidden the pitfalls under our feet! How strong the arms that have held us up! How wonderful the consolations! How sweet the grace of the Divine! So experience enriches the soil in which we are planted to produce a lustier and richer growth. Now to offer to God the first ripe fruits of experience is surely to learn and profit by its lessons. It is to remember; to take warning; to know our own selves–our peculiar weaknesses and danger; it is to trust God more and self less; to look for larger answers to prayer, and more wonderful vindications of faith.
V. Does not God want those lovely and precious fruits which grow on the household vine? The only true dedication of children to God is that Christian nurture which leads to their dedicating themselves. (R. B. Brindley.)
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Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 29. The first of thy ripe fruits] This offering was a public acknowledgment of the bounty and goodness of God, who had given them their proper seed time, the first and the latter rain, and the appointed weeks of harvest.
From the practice of the people of God the heathens borrowed a similar one, founded on the same reason. The following passage from Censorinus, De Die Natali, is beautiful, and worthy of the deepest attention: –
Illi enim (majores nostri) qui alimenta, patriam, lucem, se denique ipsos deorum dono habebant, ex omnibus aliquid diis sacrabant, magis adeo, ut se gratos approbarent, quam quod deos arbitrarentur hoc indigere. Itaque cum perceperant fruges, antequam vescerentur, Diis libare instituerunt: et cum agros atque urbes, deorum munera, possiderent, partem quandam templis sacellisque, ubi eos colerent, dicavere.
“Our ancestors, who held their food, their country, the light, and all that they possessed, from the bounty of the gods, consecrated to them a part of all their property, rather as a token of their gratitude, than from a conviction that the gods needed any thing. Therefore as soon as the harvest was got in, before they had tasted of the fruits, they appointed libations to be made to the gods. And as they held their fields and cities as gifts from their gods, they consecrated a certain part for temples and shrines, where they might worship them.”
Pliny is express on the same point, who attests that the Romans never tasted either their new corn or wine, till the priests had offered the FIRST-FRUITS to the gods. Ac ne degustabant quidem, novas fruges aut vina, antequam sacerdotes PRIMITIAS LIBASSENT. Hist. Nat., lib. xviii., c. 2.
Horace bears the same testimony, and shows that his countrymen offered, not only their first-fruits, but the choicest of all their fruits, to the Lares or household gods; and he shows also the wickedness of those who sent these as presents to the rich, before the gods had been thus honoured: –
—Dulcia poma,
Et quoscumque feret cultus tibi fundus honores,
Ante Larem gustet venerabilior Lare dives.
Sat., lib. ii., s. v., ver. 12.
“What your garden yields,
The choicest honours of your cultured fields,
To him be sacrificed, and let him taste,
Before your gods, the vegetable feast.”
DUNKIN.
And to the same purpose Tibullus, in one of the most beautiful of his elegies: –
Et quodcumque mihi pomum novus educat annus,
Libatum agricolae ponitur ante deo.
Flava Ceres, tibi sit nostro de rure corona
Spicea, quae templi pendeat ante fores.
Eleg., lib. i., eleg. i. ver. 13.
“My grateful fruits, the earliest of the year,
Before the rural god shall daily wait.
From Ceres’ gifts I’ll cull each browner ear,
And hang a wheaten wreath before her gate.”
GRAINGER.
The same subject he touches again in the fifth elegy of the same book, where he specifies the different offerings made for the produce of the fields, of the flocks, and of the vine, ver. 27: –
Illa deo sciet agricolae pro vitibus uvam,
Pro segete spicas, pro grege ferre dapem.
“With pious care will load each rural shrine,
For ripen’d crops a golden sheaf assign,
Cates for my fold, rich clusters for my wine.
Id.-See Calmet.
These quotations will naturally recall to our memory the offerings of Cain and Abel, mentioned Ge 4:3-4.
The rejoicings at our harvest-home are distorted remains of that gratitude which our ancestors, with all the primitive inhabitants of the earth, expressed to God with appropriate signs and ceremonies. Is it not possible to restore, in some goodly form, a custom so pure, so edifying, and so becoming? There is a laudable custom, observed by some pious people, of dedicating a new house to God by prayer, &c., which cannot be too highly commended.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Thou shalt not delay beyond the times appointed, lest this delay grow to a total neglect. And delay may here be put for neglect, as that word is used, Deu 7:10; 23:21; Hab 2:3; which may seem to be favoured by the following clause, which commands the giving or offering of the first-born without any mention of the hastening or delaying of it.
Thy ripe fruits, Heb thy fulness; and whereas this word is sometimes applied to seed or corn, as Num 18:27, and sometimes to the vintage, as Deu 22:9, the circumstances must determine, as it doth in like cases, how it must be taken; which here seem to restrain it to dry fruits, as corn, &c., because it is opposed to
liquors; and so all sorts of fruits are comprehended here. Unless you will make this a usual figure called hendyadis, as judgment and justice, Deu 16:18, is put for judgment of justice, or just judgment; so here the fulness and liquors, for the fulness of thy liquors; and so this may be one kind mentioned for all the rest, than which nothing more frequent.
Shalt thou give unto me, not in kind, but by a price of redemption to be paid to me in their stead.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Thou shall not delay to offer the first of thy ripe fruits,…. Which, according to Maimonides k, were of seven kinds only; for he says,
“they do not bring the firstfruits, but of the seven kinds, said in the praise of the land, (the land of Canaan), De 8:8 and they are wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, and dates;”
and how much of these were to be offered is not fixed by the law, but were left to the generosity of the people: the above mentioned writer asks l,
“what measure do the wise men set? a good eye (or a bountiful man) brings one of forty (or the fortieth part of his fruits); a middling one (one that is neither liberal nor niggardly) brings one of fifty (or the fiftieth part); and an evil one (a covetous man) one of sixty (or the sixtieth part), but never less than that.”
Now this was not to be delayed, but to be brought as soon and as early as could be: the Jewish writers seem to understand this of postponing things, or inverting the order of them, bringing that first which should be last, and that last which should be first; so Jarchi interprets it,
“thou shall not change the order of their separation, to postpone that which should be first, and to put before that which should be last; for the first oblation should not be brought before the firstfruits, and the tithes before the first oblation.”
And thus runs one of their canons or traditions m,
“if anyone brings the first oblation before the firstfruits, the first tithe before the first oblation, the second tithe before the first, it is as if he transgressed a negative precept: “thou shalt not delay or postpone”, c. Ex 22:29‘
And of thy liquors: and these, according to Maimonides n, were only the firstfruits of liquors of olives and grapes:
the firstborn of thy sons thou shall give unto me which is a repetition of the law. [See comments on Ex 13:2].
k Hilchot Biccurim, c. 2. sect. 2. l Hilchot Trumot, c. 3. sect. 2. m Misn. Trumot, c. 3. sect. 6. n Biccurim, ut supra. (k)
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
“ Thy fulness and thy flowing thou shalt not delay (to Me).” fulness, signifies the produce of corn (Deu 22:9); and (lit., tear, flowing, liquor stillans ), which only occurs here, is a poetical epithet for the produce of the press, both wine and oil (cf. , lxx; arborum lacrimae , Plin. 11:6). The meaning is correctly given by the lxx: . That the command not to delay and not to withhold the fulness, etc., relates to the offering of the first-fruits of the field and vineyard, as is more fully defined in Exo 23:19 and Deu 26:2-11, is evident from what follows, in which the law given at the exodus from Egypt, with reference to the sanctification of the first-born of man and beast (Exo 13:2, Exo 13:12), is repeated and incorporated in the rights of Israel, inasmuch as the adoption of the first-born on the part of Jehovah was a perpetual guarantee to the whole nation of the right of covenant fellowship. (On the rule laid down in Exo 22:30, see Lev 22:27.)
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Verses 29, 30:
The text affirms the “law of the first-fruits.” This includes: (1) the first-born of the children; (2) the first-born of all livestock; and (3) the first-fruit of all produce, whether grain, oil, wine, fruit of any kind. There was to be no reluctance to offer the first-fruits.
The significance: offering of the first-fruit was testimony of God’s ownership of the entire crop.
Among the animals: the offspring was to remain with its dam (mother) for seven days. One reason: to give relief to the dam, by suckling.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
29. Thou shalt not delay. We may gather from this passage that the first-fruits were offered, to the end that the Israelites should devote themselves and their possessions to God; for Moses enjoins these two things in conjunction, that they should not delay to consecrate to God of the abundance of their fresh fruits, and their first-born. But we know that, in offering the first-born, the recollection of their deliverance was revived, by the acknowledgment of the preservation of their race, and of their cattle. And there was, moreover, added to the grace of their redemption, the continual supply of food to them from day to day. I do not assent to their opinion who restrict the word fullness (339) to wine, because it flows more abundantly from the press, and take the word tear (340) to mean oil, because it runs less freely; nor do I approve of their notion who apply fullness only to dry fruits. It seems to me more proper to take fullness as the generic term, whilst tear is taken to denote liquids, as if Moses commanded them not only to offer grapes, and olive-berries, but the very drops which were expressed from the fruit. The other passages confirm this command, that they should not defraud God of the first-fruits, and so bury the remembrance of their redemption, and profane themselves in their very eating and drinking, but rather by this portion of the fruits sanctify the food of the whole year. Nor is it causelessly that Moses so often inculcates a point by no means obscure, since all these admonitions were despised and neglected by the Jews, as soon as they had returned from the Babylonish captivity, as Malachi complains in his third chapter.
(339) Vide margin, — A. V.
(340) Vide margin, — A. V.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(29) The first of thy ripe fruits.Heb., of thy fulness. Firstfruits were the spontaneous tribute of natural piety among almost all nations. They were called by the Greeks , by the Romans primitive. Abels offering (Gen. 4:4) was one of the firstlings of his flock, and Cains probably one of firstfruits. In the present passage it is assumed that firstfruits are due, and the stress is laid upon offering them promptly, without delay. Delay would show a grudging spirit.
Of thy liquors.As wine and oil. (Compare Neh. 10:37; Neh. 10:39.)
The firstborn of thy sons.See the Note on Exo. 13:2; and on the means of redeeming firstborn sons, see Exo. 13:13, and Num. 17:15, 16.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
29. First of thy ripe fruits, and of thy liquors Literally, thy fulness and thy tear thou shalt not delay . The first full or ripe produce, and the droppings of oil and wine as pressed from the fruit, are intended . The offering to God of firstfruits and firstlings was a custom of most remote antiquity, (comp . Gen 4:3-4,) and a most appropriate exhibition of gratitude and of a sense of dependence .
The firstborn of thy sons See notes on Exo 13:2.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Exo 22:29. Thou shalt not delay to offer the first of thy ripe fruits, &c. The Hebrew here is, thy fulness, and thy tears, or liquors, which distil in drops like tears from the press; as wine and oil. See Deu 18:4. Num 18:12; Num 24:25. Fulnesses signify the first full-ripe fruits of the earth, the tenths or tythes consecrated to the Lord. See ch. Exo 23:19. The LXX render these two words, the first fruits of thy threshing-floor, and of thy wine-press. These they are ordered to bring without delay to the Lord, as a just acknowledgment of his bounty and providence, and of their holding their land under his lordship and sovereign dominion. See Deu 26:1-10. The heathens, impressed with a sense of a superior power, from whom all temporal blessings spring, were careful to offer first-fruits to their gods: Pliny, speaking of the old Romans, tells us, that they did not so much as taste of their wines or new fruits, till the priests had offered a libation to the gods. This custom seems to have been as old as the world itself. See Gen 4:3-4.
Note; They were not to delay to offer their first-fruits. Nothing is so dangerous as procrastination: how many souls have perished, by putting off to a more convenient season what present duty required! Happy they, who offer their youngest days to God, and devote to him not the dregs of age, but the prime of life.
The first-born of thy sons shalt thou give unto me See Num 18:15-16.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Was not this typical of the Lord Jesus Christ? Luk 2:21-23 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Exo 22:29 Thou shalt not delay [to offer] the first of thy ripe fruits, and of thy liquors: the firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give unto me.
Ver. 29. Theft shalt not delay. ] True obedience is prompt and present, ready and speedy, without demurs and consults. “Wings, and wind in their wings.” Zec 5:9
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
ripe fruits, and . . . liquors = thy corn and wine and oil. Figure of speech Synecdoche (of Species). App-6.
give. On the eighth day.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
shalt not delay: Exo 23:16, Exo 23:19, Deu 26:2-10, 2Ki 4:42, 2Ch 31:5, Pro 3:9, Pro 3:10, Eze 20:40, Mic 7:1, Mat 6:33, Rom 8:23, Jam 1:18
the first of thy ripe fruits: Heb. thy fulness
liquors: Heb. tear.
the firstborn: Exo 13:2, Exo 13:12, Exo 34:19
Reciprocal: Lev 2:12 – the oblation Lev 19:23 – uncircumcised Lev 23:10 – and shall Lev 23:17 – the firstfruits Num 3:13 – Because Num 18:12 – the firstfruits Num 18:13 – whatsoever Num 18:15 – openeth Deu 18:4 – firstfruit Deu 26:10 – And thou Jer 2:3 – the firstfruits Eze 44:30 – all the firstfruits Eze 48:14 – they shall Mat 1:25 – she Luk 2:23 – Every Rom 11:16 – if the firstfruit
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Exo 22:29. The firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give unto me And much more reason have we to give ourselves and all we have to God, who spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all. The first ripe of their corn they must not delay to offer; there is danger if we delay our duty, lest we wholly omit it; and by slipping the first opportunity in expectation of another, we suffer Satan to cheat us of all our time.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
22:29 Thou shalt not delay [to offer] the {k} first of thy ripe fruits, and of thy liquors: the firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give unto me.
(k) Your abundance of your corn.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The law for firstfruits required the Israelites to offer several offerings to the Lord. Perhaps the purpose of allowing animals to stay with their mothers for the first seven days of their lives was to allow them to develop safely. [Note: Durham, p. 330.] It may also have been to give natural relief to the dam by suckling its offspring. [Note: Kaiser, "Exodus," p. 440.]