Leviticus 2:12

2:12-16 Salt is required in all the offerings. God hereby intimates to them that their sacrifices, in themselves, were unsavoury. All religious services must be seasoned with grace. Christianity is the salt of the earth. Directions are given about offering their first-fruits at harvest. If a man, with a thankful sense of God's goodness in giving him a plentiful crop, was disposed to present an offering to God, let him bring the first ripe and full ears. Whatever was brought to God must be the best in its kind, though it were but green ears of corn. Oil and frankincense must be put upon it. Wisdom and humility soften and sweeten the spirits and services of young people, and their green ears of corn shall be acceptable. God takes delight in the first ripe fruits of the Spirit, and the expressions of early piety and devotion. Holy love to God is the fire by which all our offerings must be made. The frankincense denotes the mediation and intercession of Christ, by which our services are accepted. Blessed be God that we have the substance, of which these observances were but shadows. There is that excellency in Christ, and in his work as Mediator, which no types and shadows can fully represent. And our dependence thereon must be so entire, that we must never lose sight of it in any thing we do, if we would be accepted of God.

As for the oblation of the firstfruits, ye shall offer them unto the Lord,.... Or "in" or "with the oblation", as some render it; that is, along with the oblation of the firstfruits leaven and honey might be offered: the Arabic version is very express, "but for a sacrifice of firstfruits ye" shall offer both to God; as they might be, as before observed; so the Targum of Jonathan,"for the leavened bread of the firstfruits shall be offered, and dates in the time of the firstfruits; the fruits with their honey shall be offered, and the priest shall eat them:" but they shall not be burnt on the altar for a sweet savour; which they could not make, and besides were to be the portion of the priests.

Or, the offering, or, for the offering of the first-fruits you shall or may offer them, or either of them, to wit, leaven or honey, which were offered and accepted in that case, Leviticus 23:17 2 Chronicles 31:5 . They shall not be burnt; but reserved for the priests, Numbers 18:13 Deu 18:4 .

As for the oblation of the firstfruits - Rather, As an oblation of firstfruits. The words refer to the leaven and honey mentioned in Leviticus 2:11 which might be offered among the firstfruits and tithes ( Deuteronomy 26:2 , Deuteronomy 26:12 ; compare 2 Chronicles 31:5 ). Honey, being used to produce fermentation, and leaven (or, a small piece of fermented dough) were excluded because fermentation was an apt symbol of the working of corruption in the human heart.

(12) As for the oblation. —Better, as an oblation of firstfruits ye may offer them. This verse mentions an exception to the rule laid down in the previous one. i.e., leaven and honey, which are excluded from the meat offerings, may be used with firstfruits. Hence they are mentioned with firstfruits ( Leviticus 23:17 ; 2Chronicles 31:5 ).

The presentation of the minchah "made of these things," i.e., of the different kinds of pastry mentioned in Leviticus 2:4-7 , resembled in the main that described in Leviticus 2:1-3 . The מן הרים in Leviticus 2:9 corresponds to the מן קמץ in Leviticus 2:2 , and does not denote any special ceremony of heaving, as is supposed by the Rabbins and many archaeological writers, who understand by it a solemn movement up and down. This will be evident from a comparison of Leviticus 3:3 with Leviticus 4:8 , Leviticus 4:31 , Leviticus 4:35 , and Leviticus 7:3 . In the place of ממּנּוּ ירים in Leviticus 4:8 we find מזּבח הקריב in Leviticus 4:10 , חלב חוּסר כּאשׁר חוּ in Leviticus 4:31 and Leviticus 4:35 ; so that מן הרים evidently denotes simply the lifting off or removal of those parts which were to be burned upon the altar from the rest of the sacrifice (cf. Bhr, ii. 357, and my Archologie i. p. 244-5). - In Leviticus 2:11-13 there follow two laws which were applicable to all the meat-offerings: viz., to offer nothing leavened ( Leviticus 2:11 ), and to salt every meat-offering, and in fact every sacrifice, with salt ( Leviticus 2:13 ). Every minchah was to be prepared without leaven: "for all leaven, and all honey, ye shall not burn a firing of it for Jehovah. As an offering of first-fruits ye may offer them (leaven and honey, i.e., pastry made with them) to Jehovah, but they shall not come upon the altar." Leaven and honey are mentioned together as things which produce fermentation.

Honey has also an acidifying or fermenting quality, and was even used for the preparation of vinegar (Plin. h. n. 11, 15; 21, 14). In rabbinical writings, therefore, הדבישׁ signifies not only dulcedinem admittere, but corrumpsi, fermentari, fermentescere (vid., Buxtorf, lex. chald. talm. et rabb. p. 500). By "honey" we are to understand not grape-honey, the dibs of the Arabs, as Rashi and Bhr do, but the honey of bees; for, according to 2 Chronicles 31:5 , this alone was offered as an offering of first-fruits along with corn, new wine, and oil; and in fact, as a rule, this was the only honey used by the ancients in sacrifice (see Bochart, Hieroz. iii. pp. 393ff.). The loaves of first-fruits at the feast of Weeks were leavened; but they were assigned to the priests, and not burned upon the altar ( Leviticus 23:17 , Leviticus 23:20 ). So also were the cakes offered with the vow-offerings, which were applied to the sacrificial meal ( Leviticus 7:13 ); but not the shew-bread, as Knobel maintains (see at Leviticus 24:5 .). Whilst leaven and honey were forbidden to be used with any kind of minchah, because of their producing fermentation and corruption, salt on the other hand was not to be omitted from any sacrificial offering. "Thou shalt not let the salt of the covenant of thy God cease from thy meat-offering," i.e., thou shalt never offer a meat-offering without salt.