Exodus 22:29

Exodus 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.

(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 ἀπαρχαί , by the Romans primitive. Abel’s offering ( Genesis 4:4 ) was one of the “firstlings of his flock,” and Cain’s 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 Nehemiah 10:37; Nehemiah 10:39.) The firstborn of thy sons.—See the Note on Exodus 13:2; and on the means of redeeming firstborn sons, see Exodus 13:13, and Num. 17:15, 16.

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 Habakkuk 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 Numbers 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.

The offering of firstfruits appears to have been a custom of primitive antiquity and was connected with the earliest acts of sacrifice. See Genesis 4:3-4 . The references to it here and in Exodus 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 Exodus 13:2 , Exodus 13:12-13 ; compare Exodus 23:19 ; Leviticus 22:27 ; Deuteronomy 26:2-11 ; Nehemiah 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.

Verses 29, 30. - Law concerning first-fruits . God required as first-fruits from his people, 1. The first-born of their children; 2. The firstborn of all their cattle; and 3. The first of all the produce of their lands, whether wet or dry; wine, oil, grain of all kinds, and fruits. The first-born of their children were to be redeemed by a money payment ( Exodus 13:13 ; Numbers 3:46-48 ); but the rest was to be offered in sacrifice. The phrase, "thou shalt not delay ," implies that there would be reluctance to comply with this obligation, and that the offering would be continually put off. In Nehemiah's time the entire custom had at one period fallen into disuse. ( Nehemiah 10:35, 36 .) The first of thy ripe fruits . Literally, "thy fulness." The paraphrase of the A. V. no doubt gives the true meaning. The first-born of thy sons, Compare above, Exodus 13:2, 12 . Exodus 22:29

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 Numbers 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.

Exodus 23:16 ; Exodus 23:19 ). ‘Trickling’ (the masc. of the ordinary Heb. word for ‘tear’), whatever the true explanation of the expression may be1[190], pretty clearly denotes the freshly extracted juice of the grape ( tirôsh , ‘must’),—perhaps also (but see footnote) of the olive ( yiẓhâr , ‘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 mishtâḥ , 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 ( Deuteronomy 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.