Leviticus 2:14

And if thou offer a meat offering of thy firstfruits unto the LORD, thou shalt offer for the meat offering of thy firstfruits green ears of corn dried by the fire, even corn beaten out of full ears.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(14) And if thou offer.—The third kind of meat offering (Leviticus 2:14-16) is of the firstfruits. These verses should properly come immediately after Leviticus 2:12, since Leviticus 2:13 concludes the directions about the different kinds of minchas or bloodless offerings, with general remarks applying to all animal sacrifices. Such transpositions are not uncommon in the Hebrew Scriptures. Parched or roasted corn, as here described, was, and still is, a favourite article of food in the East (Leviticus 23:14; Joshua 5:11; 1Samuel 17:17; 1Samuel 25:18; 2Samuel 17:28; Ruth 2:14). It was, therefore, an appropriate meat offering. Hence the regulations about it, Leviticus 2:14-16, are the same as those given with regard to the other two kinds of bloodless offerings.

Benson Commentary

Leviticus 2:14. First-fruits — Of thine own free-will; for there were other first- fruits, and that of several sorts, which were prescribed, and the time, quality, and proportion of them appointed by God.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Green ears of corn - Rather, "fresh ears of corn;" that is, just-ripe grain, freshly gathered. Parched grain, such as is here spoken of, is a common article of food in Syria and Egypt, and was very generally eaten in ancient times.

Beaten out - Not rubbed out by the hands, as described in Luke 6:1, but bruised or crushed so as to form groats.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

14. a meat offering of thy first-fruits—From the mention of "green ears," this seems to have been a voluntary offering before the harvest—the ears being prepared in the favorite way of Eastern people, by parching them at the fire, and then beating them out for use. It was designed to be an early tribute of pious thankfulness for the earth's increase, and it was offered according to the usual directions.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

If thou offer a meat-offering of thy first-fruits, to wit, of thine own free will; for there were other first-fruits, and that of several sorts, which were prescribed, and the time, quality, and proportion of them appointed by God. See Leviticus 23:10.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And if thou offer a meat offering of thy firstfruits unto the Lord,.... This, according to Aben Ezra, was not any of the offerings of the firstfruits, which they were obliged to, as at the passover or pentecost, or feast of tabernacles, but a free will offering; but Jarchi thinks it is to be understood of the meat offering of the Omer, Leviticus 23:13 and so Gersom, which was offered up on the sixteenth of Nisan; and this is the general sense of the Jewish writers (b):

thou shalt bring for the meat offering of thy firstfruits green ears of corn dried by the fire; these were ears of barley, which began to be ripe in the month Abib, which month had its name from hence, and is the word here used; these were dried by the fire, being green and moist, or otherwise they could not have been ground; for, according to Gersom, these were afterwards ground into fine flour:

even corn beaten out of full ears; and so made the finest flour: the firstfruits were a type of Christ, who is so called, 1 Corinthians 15:23 the beating of the ears of corn, and drying of them by the fire, and the grinding of them, denoted the sufferings of Christ.

(b) Maimon. & Bartenora in Misn. Menachot, c. 10. sect. 4.

Geneva Study Bible

And if thou offer a meat offering of thy firstfruits unto the LORD, thou shalt offer for the meat offering of thy firstfruits green ears of corn dried by the fire, even corn beaten out of full ears.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

14. corn in the ear] Heb. Âbîb, from which the Passover month is named.

parched with fire] Cp. Ruth 2:14.

bruised corn of the fresh ear] Heb. géres karmel. The first word occurs only here and in Leviticus 2:16; karmel is found Leviticus 23:14 and 2 Kings 4:42. The bruised corn is treated as the fine flour of Leviticus 2:1; a memorial of it is burnt, and the remainder would be for the priests. Cp. Leviticus 2:1-3 and Leviticus 2:10.

14–16. Meal-Offering of firstfruits (Heb. bikkûrîm). The rçshîth of Leviticus 2:12 is not to be offered on the altar, while the ‘memorial’ of the bikkûrîm is offered (Leviticus 2:16) as ‘an offering made by fire unto the Lord.’

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 14-16. - The third form of meat offering, parched grains of corn, with oil, salt, and frankincense. The mark of a new paragraph should be transferred from verse 12 to the beginning of verse 14.



Leviticus 2:14

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The third kind was the meat-offering of first-fruits, i.e., of the first ripening corn. This was to be offered in the form of "ears parched or roasted by the fire; in other words, to be made from ears which had been roasted at the fire. To this is added the further definition כּרמל גּרשׂ "rubbed out of field-fruit." גּרשׂ, from גּרשׂ equals גּרס, to rub to pieces, that which is rubbed to pieces; it only occurs here and in Leviticus 2:14 and Leviticus 2:16. כּרמל is applied generally to a corn-field, in Isaiah 29:17 and Isaiah 32:16 to cultivated ground, as distinguished from desert; here, and in Leviticus 23:14 and 2 Kings 4:42, it is used metonymically for field-fruit, and denotes early or the first-ripe corn. Corn roasted by the fire, particularly grains of wheat, is still a very favourite food in Palestine, Syria, and Egypt. The ears are either burnt along with the stalks before they are quite ripe, and then rubbed out in a sieve; or stalks of wheat are bound up in small bundles and roasted at a bright fire, and then the grains are eaten (Seetzen, i. p. 94, iii. p. 221; Robinson, Biblical Researches, p. 393). Corn roasted in this manner is not so agreeable as when (as is frequently the case in harvest, Ruth 2:14) the grains of wheat are taken before they are quite dry and hard, and parched in a pan or upon an iron plate, and then eaten either along with or in the place of bread (Robinson, Pal. ii. 394). The minchah mentioned here was prepared in the first way, viz., of roasted ears of corn, which were afterwards rubbed to obtain the grains: it consisted, therefore, not of crushed corn or groats, but only of toasted grains. In the place of קלוּי אביב we find קלי (Leviticus 23:14), or קלוּי (Joshua 5:11), afterwards employed. Oil and incense were to be added, and the same course adopted with the offering as in the case of the offering of flour (Leviticus 2:2, Leviticus 2:3).

If therefore, all the meat-offerings consisted either of flour and oil-the most important ingredients in the vegetable food of the Israelites, - or of food already prepared for eating, there can be no doubt that in them the Israelite offered his daily bread to the Lord, though in a manner which made an essential difference between them and the merely dedicatory offerings of the first-fruits of corn and bread. For whilst the loaves of first-fruits were leavened, and, as in the case of the sheaf of first-fruits, no part of them was burnt upon the altar (Leviticus 23:10-11; 17, 20), every independent meat-offering was to be prepared without leaven, and a portion given to the Lord as fire-food, for a savour of satisfaction upon the altar; and the rest was to be scrupulously kept from being used by the offerer, as a most holy thing, and to be eaten at the holy place by the sanctified priests alone, as the servants of Jehovah, and the mediators between Him and the nation. On account of this peculiarity, the meat-offerings cannot have denoted merely the sanctification of earthly food, but were symbols of the spiritual food prepared and enjoyed by the congregation of the Lord. If even the earthly life is not sustained and nourished merely by the daily bread which a man procures and enjoys, but by the power of divine grace, which strengthens and blesses the food as means of preserving life; much less can the spiritual life be nourished by earthly food, but only by the spiritual food which a man prepares and partakes of, by the power of the Spirit of God, from the true bread of life, or the word of God. Now, as oil in the Scriptures is invariably a symbol of the Spirit of God as the principle of all spiritual vis vitae, so bread-flour and bread, procured from the seed of the field, are symbols of the word of God (Deuteronomy 8:3; Luke 8:11). As God gives man corn and oil to feed and nourish his bodily life, so He gives His people His word and Spirit, that they may draw food from these for the spiritual life of the inner man. The work of sanctification consists in the operation of this spiritual food, through the right use of the means of grace for growth in pious conversation and good works (Matthew 5:16; 1 Peter 2:12). The enjoyment of this food fills the inner man with peace, joy, and blessedness in God. This fruit of the spiritual life is shadowed forth in the meat-offerings. They were to be kept free, therefore, both from the leaven of hypocrisy (Luke 12:1) and of malice and wickedness (1 Corinthians 5:8), and also from the honey of the deliciae carnis, because both are destructive of spiritual life; whilst, on the other hand, the salt of the covenant of God (i.e., the purifying, strengthening, and quickening power of the covenant, by which moral corruption was averted) and the incense of prayer were both to be added, in order that the fruits of the spiritual life might become well-pleasing to the Lord. It was upon this signification that the most holy character of the meat-offerings was founded.