Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When you are come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest unto the priest:
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George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Land of Chanaan, at which time these feasts began to be observed. (Menochius) See Leviticus ii. 14.
Before the harvest commenced, first-fruits were offered to the Lord. A gomer containing about three pints of barley was given to the priests, by the nation at large, as each individual was not bound to make a particular solemn offering. The judges deputed three men to gather this barley on the evening of the 15th iii. 10; Private people offered also in kind or in money their first-fruits, or between the 40th and the 60th part of what their land produced. This custom is almost as ancient as the world, (Genesis iv. 3,) and we may say that it forms a part of natural religion, which all nations have observed. Porphyrius esteems it an impiety to neglect it. He says that the Thoes, living on the borders of Thrace, were in a moment destroyed, because they offered neither sacrifices nor first-fruits. (De Abstin. ii. 7.) The ancient Romans and Greeks were very punctual in this respect. (Pliny, xviii. 20.) Those officers who collected the first-fruits among the latter were styled Parasites. Many of the festivals among the heathens, occurred at the end of harvest. (Aristotle, ad Nicom. viii.) The Jews might reap their wheat, but they could not taste it, before they had offered the first-fruits, at Pentecost. (Chap. xxiii. 17; Exodus xxiii. 16.)
Of ears. Hebrew homer, or gomer, "a sheaf "denotes also a measure, which was called an assaron, containing almost three pints.
