Leviticus 23:17

17 of all your dwelling places, two loaves of the first fruits, of two tenth parts of [tried] (wheat) flour, dighted with sourdough, which loaves ye shall bake into the first fruits to the Lord. (brought from all your dwelling places, as a special gift, two loaves made out of two tenths of an ephah of fine wheat flour, and baked with yeast, or with leaven; these shall be the first fruits, given to the Lord.)

Leviticus 23:17 Meaning and Commentary

Leviticus 23:17

And ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of
two tenth deals
Out of their habitations in the land of Canaan; and not out of those without the land, as Jarchi observes; and not out of all of them, as Ben Gersom remarks; though the Vulgate Latin version has it, out of "all" of our habitations, but wrongly; and indeed out of no one particular habitation, because it was at the public expense; but they were brought from some part of the country or another, even the quantity of two tenth parts of an ephah, or two omers of wheat flour made into two loaves, which were to be, and were waved before the Lord, and hence so called; and are the same with the new meat offering, or rather bread offering, made of the new corn, in the preceding verse, so Jarchi:

they shall be of fine flour;
of wheat flour, the finest of it, of which all meat or bread offerings were made; and this was particularly on account of the wheat harvest, and therefore it was proper that the finest of the wheat should be used on this occasion; (See Gill on Leviticus 2:1); each loaf or cake, according to Maimonides F23, was seven hands' breadths long, four hands' breadths broad, and four fingers high:

they shall be baked with leaven;
the common meat offering was unleavened, part of which was burnt on the altar, where no leaven might be burnt, ( Leviticus 2:4 Leviticus 2:5 Leviticus 2:11 ) ; and from hence it may be concluded that no part of these loaves was to be burnt, but the whole of them fell to the share of the priests:

[they are] the firstfruits unto the Lord;
which he claimed as his, and gave unto his priests; and it was but right and just he should have them, as an acknowledgment of all coming from his hands, and as expressive of gratitude for them, and for the sanctification of the rest; hence this is called the feast of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, ( Exodus 34:22 ) .


FOOTNOTES:

F23 Hilchot Tamidin c. 8. sect. 10.

Leviticus 23:17 In-Context

15 Therefore ye shall number from the tother day of the sabbath, in which ye offered handfuls of the first fruits, seven full weeks, (And so ye shall count seven full weeks from the day after the sabbath, that is, after the Passover, in which ye offered the sheaves as a special gift,)
16 till to the tother day of (the) filling of the seventh week, that is (in all), fifty days; and so ye shall offer [a] new sacrifice to the Lord, (until the day after the filling of the seventh week, that is in all, fifty days; and then ye shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord,)
17 of all your dwelling places, two loaves of the first fruits, of two tenth parts of [tried] (wheat) flour, dighted with sourdough, which loaves ye shall bake into the first fruits to the Lord. (brought from all your dwelling places, as a special gift, two loaves made out of two tenths of an ephah of fine wheat flour, and baked with yeast, or with leaven; these shall be the first fruits, given to the Lord.)
18 And ye shall offer with the loaves seven lambs of one year without wem, and one calf of the drove, and two rams; and these shall be in(to) burnt sacrifice, with their flowing offerings, into the sweetest odour to the Lord. (And ye shall offer with the loaves seven lambs of one year, and one calf from the herd, and two rams, all without blemish, or without fault; and these shall be for a burnt sacrifice, with the proper grain offering, and the proper wine offering, to make the sweetest aroma to the Lord.)
19 Ye shall make also a goat buck for sin, and two lambs of one year, [the] sacrifices of peaceable things. (Ye shall also offer a goat buck for a sin offering, and two lambs of one year for a peace offering.
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.