John Gill Commentary Deuteronomy 26

And it shall be, when you are come in unto the land The land of Canaan, which they were now on the borders of, and just entering into.

which the Lord your God gives you [for] an inheritance which is often mentioned, to observe that it was not through their merits, but his gift, that they should enjoy the land; and the rather here to enforce the following law concerning the basket of firstfruits.

and possess it, and dwell therein not only had entered into it, but got the possession of it, and settled there. This shows as Jarchi observes, that they were not bound to the firstfruits till they had subdued the land and divided it; not as soon as they were in it.

That thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the
earth
This oblation of firstfruits was different from the sheaf of the firstfruits brought at barley harvest in the time of the passover, and from the two wave loaves of wheaten flour, at wheat harvest, at Pentecost; and from the cake of the first of their dough; see (Leviticus 23:10Leviticus 23:17) (Numbers 15:21) . They were of one sort only, these of various kinds; though, as Jarchi observes, not all firstfruits, or the first of all sorts of fruits, were to be brought; for all were not bound to firstfruits, but the seven kinds only, called here the fruit of the earth, and are particularly mentioned in (Deuteronomy 8:8) ; and their manner of observing, selecting, and gathering their firstfruits, as the same writer notes, was this;

``a man goes into his field, and sees a mature fig, he binds a rush about it for a sign, and says, lo, this is firstfruits: and so, if he sees a bunch of grapes, or a pomegranate, more mature than the rest, he does the same,'' as is observed in the Misnah ^F26 :

which thou shalt bring of thy land which the Lord thy God giveth thee ;
and the land being given them, and such a fruitful one as it was, they needed not to grudge bringing the firstfruits of it to the Lord. The quantity they were to bring is not fixed; this was left to their generosity; but, according to tradition, they were to bring the sixtieth part; so says Maimonides ^F1 ,

``the firstfruits have no measure (no fixed measure) from the law; but from the words of the wise men, a man ought to separate one out of sixty:'' and shalt put [it] in a basket ;
for the more convenient carriage of them and for the more decent oblation and waving of them together, The rich brought their firstfruits in baskets of silver and of gold, the poor in wicker baskets of willows barked <sup>F2</sup> . The firstfruits of the seven several kinds were all put together in one basket, not into separate ones, or into as many as there were kinds; but then, as the last mentioned writer observes <sup>F3</sup> , ``they did not bring them mixed, but the barley (was put) beneath, or lowermost, and the wheat over that; and the olives above that, and the dates over them, and the pomegranates over them, and the figs uppermost in the vessel; and there was some one thing which separated between every kind, as leaves, and the like; and they put about the figs clusters of grapes without:''

and shalt go unto the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to
place his name there ;
which, as the event showed, was the city of Jerusalem; hither from all parts of the country were the firstfruits to be brought. All which may teach us, that we are to honour God with the firstfruits of our increase; that we are to be thankful in every thing, and for everything we have; and that our mercies should be acknowledged publicly in the place of public worship; and that all our sacrifices of praise should be offered in faith, which may be signified by the basket in which the firstfruits were brought, without which we cannot please God; and this being bore on the shoulder all the while, may denote reverence of God, and a sense of former state and condition, as this might put the Israelites in mind of their carrying loads in Egypt.

FOOTNOTES:

• F26: Misn. Biccurim, c. 3. sect. 1.
• F1: Maimon. Hilchot Biccurim, c. 2. sect. 17.
• F2: Misn. Biccurim, c. 3. sect. 8.
• F3: Hilchot Biccurim, c. 3. sect. 7.

And you shall go unto the priest that shall be in those
days
Whose course and turn it would be to minister before the Lord; though, according to the Targum of Jonathan, it was the high priest they were to apply to on this occasion; and so Aben Ezra observes, that this law is obligatory all the time there is an high priest, as if it was not binding when there was none, and all depended on him; who in this case was typical of Christ our high priest, to whom we must bring, and by him offer up, the sacrifice of praise, even the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to God for all his mercies:

and say unto him ;
what follows, and the basket of firstfruits all the while on his shoulder ^F4 , even if a king:

I profess this day ;
it being done once in a year, and not twice, as Jarchi notes:

unto the Lord your God ;
directing his speech to the priest:

that I am come into the country which the Lord swore unto our fathers
for to give us ;
and not only come into it, but was in the possession of it, and in the enjoyment of the fruits of it; of which the basket of firstfruits he had brought on his shoulder was a token. The natural and moral use of these firstfruits to the Israelites, and the bringing of them, was hereby to own and acknowledge that God was the proprietor of the land of Canaan; that they had it by gift from him, and that they held it of him, the firstfruits being a sort of a small rent they brought him; and that he was faithful to his oath and promise he had made to their fathers, and which they professed with great humility and thankfulness.

The typical use of them was to direct to Christ himself, the firstfruits of them that sleep in him, the first begotten from the dead, the pledge and earnest of the resurrection of his people; to the Spirit of God and his grace, which are the earnest of glory; and to the first converts among Jews and Gentiles, in the first times of the Gospel; to Christians in general, who are the firstfruits of God and of the Lamb, and to their sacrifices of praise and thankfulness they are to offer up to God through Christ, which are acceptable to him through him; and whereby they glorify him as the author of all their mercies, to whom they are to bring their best, and in the first place; see (1 Corinthians 15:20 1 Corinthians 15:23) (Romans 8:23) (11:16) (16:5) (Revelation 14:4) (Hebrews 13:15) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F4: Misn. Biccurim, c. 3. sect. 4, 6. Maimon. Biccurim, c. 3. sect. 12.

And the priest shall take the basket out of your hand To wave it, as Jarchi says, putting his hand under the hand of the owner, and so waving it; and this being waved to and fro towards the several corners of the earth, was an acknowledgment of the Lord being the proprietor of it:

and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God ; that it might have some appearance of a sacrifice, and be a fit emblem of the spiritual sacrifice of praise, which is accepted upon the altar Christ, which sanctifies every gift.

And you shall speak and say before the Lord your God
Speak with a loud voice, lifting up the voice, as Jarchi interprets it; or "answer" ^F5, to the question the priest will ask, saying, what is this you have brought? as Aben Ezra remarks; and this being said in the tabernacle, and before the priest of the Lord, and as in the presence of the Lord, is represented as said before him, which is as follows:

a Syrian ready to perish [was] my father;
meaning Jacob, who though born in Canaan, his mother was a Syrian, and his grandfather Abraham was of Chaldea, a part of Syria; and Jacob married two wives in Syria, and all his children were born there but Benjamin, and where he lived twenty years; and sometimes persons are denominated, as from the place of their birth, so from the place of their dwelling, as Christ was called a Nazarene from Nazareth, where he dwelt, though he was born at Bethlehem, (Matthew 2:23); and Jether, though an Israelite, as Aben Ezra observes, is called an Ishmaelite, perhaps because he dwelt some time among that people, (1 Chronicles 2:17). Now Jacob might be said to be ready to perish when he fled for his life from his brother Esau, and was poor and penniless when he came to Laban; so the last mentioned writer interprets this phrase; to which may be added, that when in his service he was exposed to cold and heat, and had his wages frequently changed, and afterwards, when obliged to flee from Laban, was pursued by him with an intention to do him mischief, had not the Lord prevented him.

The reason of this part of the confession was to show that it was not owing to the greatness of their ancestors from where they sprung, whose condition was mean, but to the gift of God, and his goodness, that they enjoyed the land of Canaan. So every sensible soul, when he brings his sacrifice of praise to God for his mercies, especially spiritual ones, frankly acknowledges his lost perishing condition by nature, of which he is sensible; and that in order to magnify the riches of the grace of God in his salvation, to endear Christ as a Saviour the more, and to keep humble, and make thankful:

and he went down into Egypt;
not directly, but some years after his former afflicted circumstances; so the Targum of Jonathan expresses it,

``after these things he went down into Egypt;'' after he had been in perishing circumstances in Syria, and when he was sore pressed with famine in Canaan:

and sojourned there with a few;
with seventy souls, as Jarchi:

and became there a great nation, mighty and populous;
insomuch that the king of Egypt was jealous of them, lest through their strength and numbers they should get away from them, when any favourable incident happened; they being when they came out from thence six hundred thousand men able to bear arms, besides women and children.

FOOTNOTES:

• F5: (tynew) "et respondebis", Montanus, Vatablus; "et respondens dices", Munster.