the altar : the more valuable baskets were returned to the owners {Bik. iii, 6, 8). After passing the night at Jerusalem, the pilgrims returned on the following day to their homes (Dent, xvi, 7 ; Terum. ii, 4). It is men- tioned tliat Iving Agrii)pa bore his part in this liighlj- picturesque national ceremony by caiTying his basket like the rest to tlie Temj)le {Bik. iii, 4). Among other by-laws were the following: 1. He who ate his first' fruits elsewhere than in Jerusalem, and without the proper form, was liable to punishment {JIaccoth, iii, 3, vol. iv, 284, Surenh.). 2. Women, slaves, deaf and dumb persons, and some others, were exempt from the verbal oblation before the priest, which was not gener- ally used after the feast of Tabernacles (^Bik. i, 5, G).
4. Exemption from the Offering or the connected iSer- vice. — Those who simply possessed the trees and not the land were exempted from the offering of first- fruits, for they could not say '• the land which thou hast ffieen me" (Jlaimonides, Ililchoth Bikurim, ii, 13). Those, too, who lived beyond the Jordan could not bring first-fruits in the proper sense of tlie libation, in- asmuch as tliey could not say the words of the service, from "the land that floweth with milk and honey" (Dent, xxvi, 15 ; compare Mishna, Bikurim, i, 10). A proselyte, again, though lie could bring tlie offering, was not to recite the service, because he could not use the words occurring therein (Deut. xxvi, 3), "I am come to the country which the Lord sware unto our fidhers to give us'' (^Bikurim, i, 4). Stewards, servants, slaves, women, sexless persons, and hermaphrodites were also not allowed to recite the service, though they could offer the libation, because they could not use the words, "I have brought tha first-fruits of t?ie land which thou, 0 Lord, hast given me" (Deut. xxvi, J.0), they having originally had no share in the land (^Bikurim, i, 5).
5. Offering of the prepared Produce. — In this, too, the quantity to be offered was left to the generosity of the people. But it was understood, says Mainioni- des, that "a liberal man will give a fortieth part of his first-fruits ; one who is neither liberal nor illiberal will give a fiftieth part, and a covetous man will give a sixtieth" (^Hilchoth Teruma, iii, 2). They had to be presented even from the produce of Jewisli fields in foreign countries, and were not allowed to be taken from the portion intended for tithes, nor from the cor- ners left for the poor (Terjima, i, 5; iii, 7), and were not required to be delivered in the Temple, but might be given to the nearest priest (/6. iv, 3 ; Bikurim, ii, 2). They consisted of wine, wool, bread, oil, date-honej', onions, cucumbers (Terum.. ii, 5, 6 ; Numl). xv, 19, 21 ; Deut. xviii, 4). The measuring-basket was to be thrice estimated during the season (lb. iv, 3). He who ate or drank his offering by mistake was bound to add one fifth, and present it to the priest (Lev. v, 16 ; xxii, 14), who was forbidden to remit the penalty (Terum. vi, 1, 5). The oflxjrings were to be eaten cr used only liy those who were clean from ceremonial defilement (Numb, xviii, 11 ; Deut. xviii, 4).
G. The First-fruit of the Dough. — Besides the offer- ing of the first-fruits themselves, the Israelites were also required to give to the Lord a cake made of the first corn that was threshed, winnowed, and ground (Numb. XV, 18-21). Tradition restricts this to wheat, barley, casmin, or rye, fox-ear (barley), and oats (Chain, i, 1 ; Mainionides, Bikurim, vi, 1), of which a twenty-fourth part had to be given, but the baker who made it for sale had to give a forty-eiglitli part (Mai- nionides, Ililchoth Bikurim, v, 2, 3). Tliis was tlie per- quisite of the priest, and it is to this that the apostle refers in Rom. xi, 16.
7. First-fruits of Fruit-trees.- — According to the law, the fruits of every newh'-planted tree were not to be eaten or sold, or used in any way for the first tliree years, but considered " uncircumcised" or unclean. In the fourth year, however, the first-fruits were to be consecrated to the Lord, or, as the traditional explana«
FIRST-FRUIT
574
FISH
tion is, eaten in Jerusalem, and in the fifth year be- came available to tlic owner (Lev. xix, 23-25). The three j'cars, aecortliiig to Kabbinio law, began with the tirst of Tls^-i, if the tree was planted before the six- teenth of .46. The reason of this is that the fruits of those three j'ears were considered imperfect ; such im- perfect fruit could not, therefore, be offered to God ; and as man was not allowed to partake of the produce before he consecrated the first instalment of God's blessings to the giver of all good things, the planter had to wait till the fifth year (comp. Josephus, Ant. iv, 8, 19 ; and Aben Ezra on Lev. xix, 23). The law may also have had the ulterior object of excluding from use crude, immature, and therefore unwholesome fruits. jNIichaelis (iii, 267-8), indeed, finds a benefit to the trees themselves in this regulation : "The economical object of the law is very striking. Every gardener will teach us not to let fruit-trees bear in their earliest years, but to pluck oft" the blossoms ; and for this rea- son, that they will thus thrive the better, and bear more abundantly afterwards, since, if we may not taste the fruit the first three years, we shall be the more disposed to pinch off" the blossoms, and the son will learn to do this of his father. The very expres- sion 'to regard them as uncircumcised' suggests the propriety of pinching them off"; I do not say cutting them off, because it is generally the hand, and not a knife, that is employed in the opei'ation." The trees found growing Viy the Jews at the conquest were treat- ed as exempt from this rule (Mishna, Oiiak, i, 2). See Fruit.