Numbers 15:20
in Numbers 15From 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.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Of the first of your dough ye shall offer up a cake for a heave-offering: as the heave-offering of the threshing-floor, so shall ye heave it.
KJV
Ye shall offer up a cake of the first of your dough for an heave offering: as ye do the heave offering of the threshingfloor, so shall ye heave it.
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This verse in Numbers 15
Commentary
8 notes on this verseThis site's exposition
Then the LORD said to Moses
on Numbers 15:17-21
The first of your dough is claimed as a contribution, so the demand moves from the threshing floor to the household oven. Barnes traces the principle to Exodus 23:19, where the firstfruits of the field were already the Lord's.
This site's exposition
From the first of your dough
The cake is lifted up like grain from the threshing floor, so bread baked at home counts as a firstfruit of the harvest. Nehemiah 10:37 brings the first of the dough to the priests, and Ezekiel 44:30 gives it so that a blessing rests on the house.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
The holy movements of our senses, which are according to virtues, themselves are the firstfruits of a spiritual ark: therefore they are likened to a rural ark, in which the corn is winnowed.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
28 And the priest shall make an atonement for the soul that sinneth ignorantly, when he sinneth by ignorance before the L ORD , to make an atonement for him; and it shall be forgiven him. 29 Ye shall have one law for him that sinneth through ignorance, both for him that is born among the children of Israel, and for the stranger that sojourneth among them.
quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — scripture-overlap:97%@v28-29
Ye shall offer up a cake of the first of your dough for an heave offering,....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
heave offering of the threshing-floor--meaning the corn on the threshing-floor; that is, after harvest. so shall ye heave it--to the priests accompanying the ceremony with the same rites.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
Ye shall offer - the first of your dough - Concerning the offerings of first-fruits, see the notes on Exo 22:29.
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Dough - “Coarse meal” Neh 10:37; Eze 44:30.
The words behind it
10 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| רֵאשִׁית֙ | reshit | [the] first of | H7225 → | 51 times |
| עֲרִסֹ֣תֵכֶ֔ם | ʾarisotekhem | dough<s> your | H6182 → | |
| חַלָּ֖ה | chalah | a cake | H2471 → | 14 times |
| תָּרִ֣ימוּ | tarimu | you will offer up | H7311 → | 190 times |
| תְרוּמָ֑ה | terumah | a contribution | H8641 → | 76 times |
| כִּתְרוּמַ֣ת | kitrumat | like a contribution of | H8641 → | 76 times |
| גֹּ֔רֶן | goren | [the] threshing floor | H1637 → | 36 times |
| כֵּ֖ן | ken | so | H3651 → | 771 times |
| תָּרִ֥ימוּ | tarimu | you will offer up | H7311 → | 190 times |
| אֹתָֽהּ׃ | ʾotah | <obj.> it | H853 → | 10935 times |
רֵאשִׁית֙[the] first of
reshitH7225 →51 times
עֲרִסֹ֣תֵכֶ֔םdough<s> your
ʾarisotekhemH6182 →
חַלָּ֖הa cake
chalahH2471 →14 times
תָּרִ֣ימוּyou will offer up
tarimuH7311 →190 times
תְרוּמָ֑הa contribution
terumahH8641 →76 times
כִּתְרוּמַ֣תlike a contribution of
kitrumatH8641 →76 times
גֹּ֔רֶן[the] threshing floor
gorenH1637 →36 times
כֵּ֖ןso
kenH3651 →771 times
תָּרִ֥ימוּyou will offer up
tarimuH7311 →190 times
אֹתָֽהּ׃<obj.> it
ʾotahH853 →10935 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Exodus 23:19Bring 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.
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 14:21
You are not to eat any carcass; you may give it to the foreigner residing within your gates, and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- 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 26:10
And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land that You, O LORD, have given me.” Then you are to place the basket before the LORD your God and bow down before…
- 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.
- Exodus 22:29
You must not hold back offerings from your granaries or vats. You are to give Me the firstborn of your sons.
- Deuteronomy 14:21
Through
Exodus 34:26Bring 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.”
it leads to
- 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 23:19
Through
Leviticus 2:14If you bring a grain offering of firstfruits to the LORD, you shall offer crushed heads of new grain roasted on the fire.
it leads to
- 1 Corinthians 15:20
But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- 1 Corinthians 15:20
Through
Nehemiah 10:37Moreover, 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…
it leads to
- 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.
- Leviticus 23:17
Where this verse is studied
About Numbers

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Ambrose of Milan, On Cain and Abel; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
