First Fruits

Passages on this topic

From Nave’s Topical Bible (1896), a historical reference index. The groupings are Nave’s; the verses are shown in the text used across this site.

First ripe of fruits, grain, oil, wine, and first of fleece, required as an offering

• Exodus 22:29 You must not hold back offerings from your granaries or vats. You are to give Me the firstborn of your sons.
• Leviticus 2:12–16 You may bring them to the LORD as an offering of firstfruits, but they must not go up on the altar as a pleasing aroma. And you shall season each of your grain offerings with salt. You must not leave the salt of the covenant of your God out of your grain offering; you are to add salt to each of you…
• Numbers 18:12 I give you all the freshest olive oil and all the finest new wine and grain that the Israelites give to the LORD as their firstfruits.
• Deuteronomy 18:4 You are to give them the firstfruits of your grain, new wine, and oil, and the first wool sheared from your flock.
• 2 Chronicles 31:5 As soon as the order went out, the Israelites generously provided the firstfruits of the grain, new wine, oil, and honey, and of all the produce of the field, and they brought in an abundance — a tithe of everything.
• Nehemiah 10:35 We will also bring the firstfruits of our land and of every fruit tree to the house of the LORD year by year.
• Nehemiah 10:37 Moreover, we will bring to the priests at the storerooms of the house of our God the firstfruits of our dough, of our grain offerings, of the fruit of all our trees, and of our new wine and oil. A tenth of our produce belongs to the Levites, so that they shall receive tithes in all the towns where…
• Nehemiah 10:39 For the Israelites and the Levites are to bring the contributions of grain, new wine, and oil to the storerooms where the articles of the sanctuary are kept and where the ministering priests, the gatekeepers, and the singers stay. Thus we will not neglect the house of our God.”
• Proverbs 3:9 Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your crops;
• Jeremiah 2:3 Israel was holy to the LORD, the firstfruits of His harvest. All who devoured her were found guilty; disaster came upon them,’” declares the LORD.

Offerings of, must be free from blemish

• Numbers 18:12 I give you all the freshest olive oil and all the finest new wine and grain that the Israelites give to the LORD as their firstfruits.

Presented at the tabernacle

• Exodus 22:29 You must not hold back offerings from your granaries or vats. You are to give Me the firstborn of your sons.
• Exodus 23:19 Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God. You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.
• Exodus 34:26 Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God. You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.”
• Deuteronomy 26:3–10 to the priest who is serving at that time, and say to him, “I declare today to the LORD your God that I have entered the land that the LORD swore to our fathers to give us.” Then the priest shall take the basket from your hands and place it before the altar of the LORD your God, and you are to decl…

Belonged to the priests

• Leviticus 23:20 The priest is to wave the lambs as a wave offering before the LORD, together with the bread of the firstfruits. The bread and the two lambs shall be holy to the LORD for the priest.
• Numbers 18:12–13 I give you all the freshest olive oil and all the finest new wine and grain that the Israelites give to the LORD as their firstfruits. The firstfruits of everything in their land that they bring to the LORD will belong to you. Every ceremonially clean person in your household may eat them.
• Deuteronomy 18:3–5 This shall be the priests’ share from the people who offer a sacrifice, whether a bull or a sheep: the priests are to be given the shoulder, the jowls, and the stomach. You are to give them the firstfruits of your grain, new wine, and oil, and the first wool sheared from your flock. For the LORD yo…

Freewill offerings of, given to the prophets

• 2 Kings 4:42 Now a man from Baal-shalishah came to the man of God with a sack of twenty loaves of barley bread from the first ripe grain. “Give it to the people to eat,” said Elisha.

Wave offering of

• Leviticus 23:10–14 “Speak to the Israelites and say, ‘When you enter the land that I am giving you and you reap its harvest, you are to bring to the priest a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest. And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD so that it may be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the…
• Leviticus 23:17 Bring two loaves of bread from your dwellings as a wave offering, each made from two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour, baked with leaven, as the firstfruits to the LORD.

As a heave offering

• Numbers 15:20 From the first of your dough, you are to lift up a cake as a contribution; offer it just like an offering from the threshing floor.
• Nehemiah 10:37 Moreover, we will bring to the priests at the storerooms of the house of our God the firstfruits of our dough, of our grain offerings, of the fruit of all our trees, and of our new wine and oil. A tenth of our produce belongs to the Levites, so that they shall receive tithes in all the towns where…
• Ezekiel 44:30 The best of all the firstfruits and of every contribution from all your offerings will belong to the priests. You are to give your first batch of dough to the priest, so that a blessing may rest upon your homes.

To be offered as a thank-offering upon entrance into the Land of Promise

• Deuteronomy 26:3–10 to the priest who is serving at that time, and say to him, “I declare today to the LORD your God that I have entered the land that the LORD swore to our fathers to give us.” Then the priest shall take the basket from your hands and place it before the altar of the LORD your God, and you are to decl…

Figurative

• Romans 8:23 Not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
• Romans 11:16 If the first part of the dough is holy, so is the whole batch; if the root is holy, so are the branches.
• 1 Corinthians 15:20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
• 1 Corinthians 15:23 But each in his own turn: Christ the firstfruits; then at His coming, those who belong to Him.
• James 1:18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we would be a kind of firstfruits of His creation.