asmuch as the poor tithe took its place (Maimonides, lad Ha-Chezuka, Hilrhoth Mathamith Anjim, vi, 4). The poor could go into a field where the poor tithe was lying and demand of tlie owner to satisfy their wanls. The minimum quantity to be given to them was de- fined as follows: If the tithe be of wheat, i cab; tiarley, 1 cab; spelt, 1 cab; leuten-figs, 1 cab; cake-figs, the weight of 25 sicli; wine, ^ log; oil, \ log; rice, \ cab; olives, 1 pound; pulse, 3 cabs; nuts, 10 nuts: peaches, 5 peaches; pomegranates, 2; citrons, 1 ; and if of any other fruit, it shall not be less than may be sold for such a sum as will buj' food sufficient for two meals. If the owner's means are slender and the poor so numerous that he is unable to give to each the specified measure, h^ is to produce the whole tithe and place it before them so that they may divide it among themselves. The owner may only give one half of tlie tithe to bis own poor relatives, and the other he must distribute among the poor generally. If a man and woman ap- ply together, the woman is to be satisfied first. No debts are allowed to be paid out of the poor tithe, nor a recompense to be made for benefits, nor captives re- deemed, nor is it to be devoted to nuptial feasts or alms, nor is it to be taken out of Palestine into a foreign land (Maimonides, ibid, vi, 7-17). Though no tithes were paid in Palestine in the sal)batical year, when all was in common [see Sabhaticai. Yeais], yet the land of Egypt, Amnion, and jNbiab bad to |)ay them for the support of the poor of Israel, because the iSabbath of the soil was not observed in these countries, while the Babylonians had to pay the second titlie (INIishna, Ya- daiiii, iv, 3 ; Maimonides, lad Ha-Chezaka, llilvhoth Ma- thamith A iijiin, vi, 5).
III. Orij/in and Observance of the Tiilad Laii\ — With- out inquiring into the reason for which the number ten (q. v.) has so frequently been preferred as a num- ber of selection in the cases of tribute-offerings (Philo derives StKa from liy^ta^ai \_lJe X. Orac. ii, 184]), both sacred and secular, voluntary and compulsory, we may remark that the practice of paying tithes obtained among different nations from the remotest anti(iuity. Thus the ancient Pha?nicians and the Carthaginians sent tithes annually to the Tyrian Hercides (Diod. Sic. xx, 14; Justin, xviii, 7); the southern Arabians could not dispose of their incense before paying a tenth there- of to the priests at Sabota in honor of their god Sabis (Pliny, Hist. A'(/^ xii, 32); the ancient Pelasgians paid a tithe of the produce of the soil and the increase of their herds to their deities (Dionys. Halic. i, 19, 23, etc.); and the Hellenes consecrated to their deities a tenth of their annual produce of the soil (Xenoph. Ilellen. i, 7, 10), of their business profits (Herod, iv, 152), of con- fiscated estates (Xenoph. Hellen. i, 7, 10), of their spoils (Herod, v, 77 ; ix, 81 ; Xenoph. A nab. v, 3, 4 ; Hellen. iv, 3, 21; Diod. Sic. xi, 33; Pausan. iii, 18, 5; v, 10, 4; x, 10, 1 ; TciQ SeKiiTag noi' 7r£pcyii'0|i/£)'ti)j' to7c Sfoit; ko- ^itpuiii'; Harpocration, s. v. AfKaru'fiv; and Knobel, Comment, on Lev. xxvii, 30). Among other passages the following may be cited: 1 ISIacc. xi, 35; Herod, i, 89; vii, 132;'^ Diod. Sic. v, 42; Pausan. v, 10,2; Justin, XX, 3; Arist. (Econ. ii, 2; Livy, v, 21 ; Polyb. ix, 39; Cicero, Verr. ii, 3, 6, and 7 (where tithes of wine, oil, and "minutse fruges" are mentioned); Pro Leg. Manil. G ; Pint. Ages. ch. xix, p. 389 ; Pliny, Hist. Nat. xii, 14: Macrob. Sat. iii, 6; Pose, Jnscr. (Jr. p. 215; Gibbon, iii, 301, ed. Smith; and a remarkable instance of fruits tithed and offered to a deity, and a feast made, of which the people of the district partook, in Xenoph. A nab. v, 3, 9, answering thus to the Hebrew poor man's tithe- feast mentioned above.
In IJiblical history the two prominent instances of early occurrence are: 1. Abram presenting the tenth of all his property, according to the Syriac antl Arabic versions of Heb. vii, and Kashi in his Commentary, but, as the passages themselves appear to show, of the spoils of his victory, to Melchizedek ((ien. xiv, 20; Heb. vii, 2, (5 ; Josephus, A nt. i, 10, 2 ; Selden, On Tithes,
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ch. i). 2. Jacob, after his vision at Luz. devoting a tenth of all his property to Goil in case he should re- turn home in safi'ty ((Jen. xxviii. 'i-i). These instances bear witness to the ;inti(|iiity of tithes in some shape or other previous to the ^losaie tithe system. 'I'liere can therefore he no doul)t that, like many other Pentateu- chal ordinances, the ins|)ired leijjislator adojited the titlial law into tlie divine code because he found that, with some moditications, this primarily voluntary ta.\ was a proper stipend for the servants of the sanctuary, and that it would, at the same time, be a means of promoting pilgriumge to the national sanctuary on the great fes- tivals, and social intercourse between the rich and the poor.