What is a firstfruit?
It seems the scholars of the Biblical Calendar and the general barley inspectors have lost their way. Even though the etymology of what is required for a first-fruit (biccur בוכר) is still evident they seem to get lost when they reserach in the extra biblical writings and get lost in romantic idealism. The purity of the intent and the clear message of the root of the words are still easily available. We will be looking at this purity within the verses.
Firstfruits: H1061 biccur From H1069; the first fruits of the crop: – first fruit (-ripe [figuratively), : H1061 biccur From H1069; the first fruits of the crop: – first fruit (-ripe [figuratively), hasty fruit.
Rt H1069 A primitive root; properly to burst the womb, that is, (causatively) bear make early fruit (of woman or tree); also (as denominatively from H1061) (of woman or tree); also (as denominatively from H1061) to give the birthright: – make : – make firstborn, be firstling, bring forth first child (new fruit).
There is nothing about the word ‘firstfruit’ that represents a general harvest being taken first and the hasty fruit from the general harvest is delivered to the priest. The etymology clearly points to something that has a beginning position as in a ‘first born son’ in a family of children. I will use the term early hasty fruit to better understand the scriptures.
Here are some of the passages that deal with the subject of firstfruits:
Exo 22:29-30
(29) Thou shalt not delay to offer the first of thy ripe fruits full (mele’ah) and of thy juice liquors (dema): the firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give unto me.
(30) Likewise shalt thou do with thine oxen, and with thy sheep: seven days it shall be with his dam; on the eighth day thou shalt give it me.
Deu 22:9
Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seeds: lest the fruit (mele’ah)of thy seed which thou hast sown, and the fruit of thy vineyard, be defiled.
Num 18:27
And this your heave offering shall be reckoned unto you, as though it were the corn of the threshingfloor, and as the fulness of the winepress.
Through the other verses that use the same term, we can see this is speaking directly to the juice of the grape that would supply the drink-offerings in the temple.
Deu 18:4 The first of thy barley and wheat
The firstfruit (raysheet, first) also of thy corn (grains: barley and wheat), of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the first of the fleece of thy sheep, shalt thou give him.
The term firstfruits is added by the KJV translators when the Hebrew uses the word ‘raysheet’ or first . In Hebrew it would say: The first of your grains,….
Raysheet: From the same as H7218; the first, in place, time, order or rank (specifically a firstfruit): – beginning, chief (-est), first (-fruits, part, time), principal thing.
This literally says the barley and wheat that are in first were to be given to the temple.
Exo 23:19 The first of the early hasty fruit of thy adamah
The first (raysheet) of the early hasty fruit (firstfruits) of thy land (adamah) thou shalt bring into the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk.
Exo 34:26 The beginning of the early hasty fruit of thy land
The first (reysheet, beginning) of the firstfruits (early hasty fruit) of thy land (adamah) thou shalt bring unto the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk.
The nation was being commanded, but the acts were being made as individuals. To understand this, I want to take you to a proof text before I move forward.
Deu 26:2
That thou shalt take of the first (reysheet) of all the fruit (p’riy) of the earth (Adamah), which thou shalt bring of thy land that the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt put it in a basket, and shalt go unto the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to place his name there.
If I were to take you through an entire scriptural word search on the Hebrew term Adamah. You would discover, starting with Adam when the Adamah was cursed (Gen 3:17), that this term is reserved in its usage for barley and wheat that grew annually from the adamah, the ground, or soil. When the other category of firstfruits came from a category called etz, trees, continued to grow annually without being replanted as the barley and wheat needed to be.
With this scriptural understanding, we now know that what is being given in a basket is the barley firstfruits.
Why? Because the command for the firstfruits of wheat was to bring leavened loaves of wheat for Shavuot. Shavuot was not a grain offering; it was a leavened wheat bread offering from the first dough of the people.
Lev 23:17
Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the LORD.
Num 15:21
Of the first of your dough ye shall give unto the LORD an heave offering in your generations.
To this day, it is a Jewish custom to burn a piece of the Friday bread called Challah, which is leavened wheat bread, as a form of offering it.
Lev 23:10 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest:
This is a bit difficult verse, so I’ll show the Hebrew and transliterate the Hebrew into a more accurate English understanding.
דבר אל־בני ישׂראל ואמרת אלהם כי־תבאו אל־הארץ אשׁר אני נתן לכם וקצרתם את־קצירה והבאתם את־עמר ראשׁית קצירכםאל־הכהן׃
Hebrew to English:
(Speak to the sons Israel and say to them when you will come to the land that I give to you and you cut (et) harvest and you all will bring (et) omer first harvest of you allto the priest.)
The omer is the first harvest!
To understand this completely, the barley only produced one annual harvest. So, the FIRST part of the annual harvest went to the temple.
When the (et) harvest started, The (et) Omer was deliver it to the priest.
We see something similar in the rededication of the temple during Hezekiah’s days.
When Hezekiah ordered the cleansing of the temple, the work was not completed until after the Pesach date (2Ch 27:19). Hezekiah then ordered a second month Pesach (2 Ch 30:15) and week of Unleavened Barley. Then he commanded the people to bring in the firstfruits, the increase, and the tithes (2Ch 31:5).
2Ch 31:7 In the third month, they began to lay the foundation of the heaps (arem, sheaves), and finished them in the seventh month.
2Ch 31:8 And when Hezekiah and the princes came and saw the heaps (arem, sheaves), they blessed the LORD, and his people Israel.
By the actions of Hezekiah, we learn that every man was required to offer a firstfruits of barley in the temple.
Deu 26:2 take the first of all of the fruit of the Adamah (remember, Adamah is a term used to define the source of barley and wheat as opposed to fruit from the tree)
That thou shalt take of the first (raysheet) of all the fruit of the earth (adamah), which thou shalt bring of thy land that the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt put it in a basket, and shalt go unto the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to place his name there.
Deu 26:10 I have brought the hasty early fruit of the Adamah (barley and wheat)
And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits (hasty early fruit) of the land (adamah), which thou, O LORD, hast given me. And thou shalt set it before the LORD thy God, and worship before the LORD thy God:
It’s also essential to note that although the translator used the word firstfruits, which usually has the term biccur behind it, this scripture does not use ‘biccur’ early hasty fruit. This verse delivers explicitly the idea that a beginning (reysheet) fruit (p’riy) of the season was delivered to יהוה. Literally, it says whatever fruit is FIRST from your field is offered.
This scripture assures us that fields did not ripen uniformly!
Num 18:12
All the best of the oil, and all the best of the wine, and of the wheat, the firstfruits (early hasty fruit) of them which they shall offer unto the LORD, them have I given thee. Num 18:13 And whatsoever is first ripe (early hasty fruit) in the land (eretz, not adamah, ALL OF THE LAND), which they shall bring unto the LORD, shall be thine; every one that is clean in thine house shall eat of it. Num 18:14 Every thing devoted in Israel shall be thine.
Now we have clear sight. There was a national biccur of barley by using the term eretz, (all of the terrain or nation). There were personal biccurim of barley as we understand by the term adamah.
Neh 10:35
And to bring the early hasty fruit (firstfruits) of our ground (Adamah), and the early hasty fruit (firstfruits) of all fruit of all trees, year by year, unto the house of the LORD: Neh 10:36 Also the firstborn of our sons, and of our cattle, as it is written in the law, and the firstlings of our herds and of our flocks, to bring to the house of our God, unto the priests that minister in the house of our God:
Again in this scripture, we see the idea of the unique restricted quantity at the beginning of something….as a first born son/beast. Nehemiah rightly ties them together
Verse 1-3 of Isa 28 are about Ephraim
Isa 28:1
Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower (tzitzah, think fringe), which are on the head (rosh) of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!:2 Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand. 3 The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet:
Verse 4, 5 is about the Messiah
Isa 28:4
And the glorious beauty, which is on the head (rosh) of the fat valley (gorge), shall be a fading flower (tzitzah, think fringe), and as the hasty fruit (biccur) before the summer (kytz, harvest); which when he that looketh upon it seeth, while it is yet in his hand he eateth it up.
In this verse, the KJV translators used the description of the word firstfruits. We can see hasty fruits are ready before summer (the general harvest)
קַיִץ
kytz
kah’-yits
From H6972; harvest (as the crop), whether the product (grain or fruit) or the (dry) season.
The firstfruits, early hasty fruit, were the beginning part of the harvest that was offered from the adamah of each son of Adam; sons of Israel and brought to the priest.