BRINGING FORTH AND SETTING APART THE FIRSTFRUITS

FIRST FRUITS OF THE GROUND

1. Deut.26:1 When you have come to the land YHWH your Elohim is giving you as your inheritance, taken possession of it and settled there. you are to take the firstfruits of all the crops the ground yields, which you will harvest from your land that YHWH your Elohim is giving you, put them in a basket and go to the place where YHWH your Elohim will choose to have his name live. You will approach the cohen (priest) holding office at the time and say to him, “Today I declare to YHWH your Elohim that I have come to the land YHWH swore to our ancestors that he would give us.” The cohen (priest) will take the basket from your hand and put it down in front of the altar of YHWH your Elohim. Then, in the presence of YHWH your Elohim, you are to say, “My ancestor was a nomad from Aram. He went down into Egypt few in number and stayed. There he became a great, strong, populous nation. But the Egyptians treated us badly. They oppressed us and imposed harsh slavery on us. So we cried out to YHWH your Elohim of our ancestors. YHWH heard us and saw our misery, toil and oppression. And YHWH brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand and a stretched-out arm, with great terror, and with signs and wonders. Now he has brought us to this place and given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. Therefore, as you see, I have now brought the firstfruits of the land which you, YHWH have given me.” Gen.4:3 Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto YHWH. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof.

Prov.3:9 Honor YHWH with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your income. Then your granaries will be filled and your vats overflow with new wine.

Nehem.10:35 And (we obligate ourselves) to bring the firstfruits of our ground and the first of all the fruit of all trees year by year to the house of YHWH, as well as the firstborn of our sons and of our cattle, as is written in the Torah, and the firstlings of our herds and flocks, to bring to the house of our YHWH, to the priests who minister in His house. And we shall bring the first and best of our coarse meal, our contributions, the fruit of all kinds of trees, of new wine, and of oil to the priests, to the chambers of the house of our YHWH.

2. Deut.26:10 And now, behold, I bring the firstfruits of the ground which You, O YHWH, have given me. And you shall set it down before YHWH your Elohim and worship before YHWH your Elohim. Ex.23:19 The first of the firstfruits of your land you shall bring into the house of YHWH your Elohim.

3. Num.15:18 When you come into the land to which I bring you, then it will be, when you eat of the bread of the land, that you shall offer up a heave offering to YHWH. You shall offer up a cake of the first of your ground meal as a heave offering as a heave offering of the threshing floor, so shall you offer it up. Of the first of your ground meal you shall give to YHWH a heave offering throughout your generations. Lev.23:14 You shall eat neither bread nor parched grain nor fresh grain until the same day that you have brought an offering to your YHWH. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.

THE FIRSTBORN OF THE CATTLE 

4. Ex.13:2 Sanctify (consecrate, set apart) to Me all the firstborn (males) whatever is the first one to come from the womb among the Israelites, both of man and of beast, is Mine. Ex.13:12 You shall set apart to YHWH all that is first from the womb. All the firstlings of your livestock that are males shall be YHWH every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb and if you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. Ex.34:19 All that open the womb are Mine, and every male firstborn among your livestock, whether ox or sheep. But the firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb. And if you will not redeem him, then you shall break his neck.

5. Deut.15:19 All the firstborn males that come from your herd and your flock you shall sanctify to YHWH your Elohim. You shall do no work with the firstborn of your herd, nor shear the firstborn of your flock. You and your household shall eat it before YHWH your Elohim year by year in the place which YHWH chooses. But if there is a defect in it, if it is lame or blind or has any serious defect, you shall not sacrifice it to YHWH your Elohim. You may eat it within your gates. The unclean and the clean person alike may eat it, as if it were a gazelle or a deer. Only you shall not eat its blood. You shall pour it on the ground like water. Deut.14:23 And you shall eat before YHWH your Elohim, in the place where He chooses to make His name abide, the tithe of your grain and your new wine and your oil, of the firstborn of your herds and your flocks, that you may learn to fear YHWH your Elohim always. 

6. Ex.22:29 It shall be with its mother seven days. On the eighth day you shall give it to Me. Lev.22:27 When a bull or a sheep or a goat is born, it shall be seven days with its mother. And from the eighth day and thereafter it shall be accepted as an offering made by fire to YHWH. And whether (the mother) is a cow or a ewe, you shall not kill her and her young both in one day. And when you sacrifice an offering of thanksgiving to YHWH, sacrifice it so that you may be accepted. It shall be eaten on the same day; you shall leave none of it until the next day. I am YHWH. 

7. Lev.27:26 But the firstling of the animals, since a firstling belongs to YHWH, no man may dedicate, whether it be ox or sheep. It (already) belongs YHWH.

THE FIRSTBORN SON

8. Ex.13:13 And all the firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem. Ex.34:20 All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem. And none shall appear before Me empty-handed. Ex.13:2 Sanctify (consecrate, set apart) to Me all the firstborn (males) whatever is the first one to come from the womb among the Israelites, both of man and of beast, is Mine.

Lk.2:22 When the time came for their purification according to the Torah, they took him up to Yerushalayim to present him to YHWH as it is written in the Torah of YHWH, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to YHWH.”

9. Ex.13:14 So it shall be, when your son asks you in time to come, saying, “What is this?” that you shall say to him, “By strength of hand YHWH brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. And it came to pass, when Pharaoh was stubborn about letting us go, that YHWH killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of beast. Therefore I sacrifice to YHWH all males that open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.”

10. Ex.22:29 You shall not delay to bring to Me from the fullness (of your harvested grain) and the outflow (of your grape juice and olive oil). The first-born of thy sons shalt thou give unto Me.