Numbers 15:20 - Exposition

A cake of the first of your dough. עַרִסֹת , only used here and in the two passages which refer to this enactment ( Nehemiah 10:1-39 :87; Ezekiel 44:30 ). It probably means whole meal coarsely ground, the first preparation of the new corn available for baking and eating. Septuagint has ἀπαρχὴ φυράματος , an expression used by St. Paul in Romans 11:16 . As … the heave offering of the threshing floor, so shall ye heave it, i.e; the offering of bread from the home was to be made in addition to the offering of ears or grains from the threshing-floor, and in the same manner. No doubt this latter offering was a very ancient ( Genesis 4:3 ) and general one, but it is not clearly described in the Law (see, however, Le Romans 2:14 ; 23:10). All these heave offerings were the perquisite of the priest.