4. Exemptions !min Ike offering or the service connected thercwith.—Those who simply possessed the trees and not the land were exempted froin the offering of first-fruits, for they could not say ' the land which thou hast given me' (Maimonides, Hi/choth Biknrinr, ii. 13). Those, too, who lived beyond the Jordan could not bring first-fruits in the proper sense of the libation, inasmuch as they could not say the words of the service, from the land that floweth with milk and honey' (Dent. xxvi. 15) ; comp. Alishna, Bikurim,i. Jo. A pro selyte, again, thoug,h he could bring the offering, was not to recite the service, because he could not use the words occurring therein (Dent. xxvi. 3), 'I am come to the country whicb the Lord sware unto our fathers to give us' (Bikurim, i. 4). Stew ards, servants, slaves, women, sexless persons, and hermaphrodites, were also not allowed to re cite the service, though they could offer the liba tion, because they could not use the words, I have brought the first-fruits of the land which thou, 0 Lord, hest given me' (Bid. xxvi. If)), they having originally had no share in the land (Biku rim, i. 5).
5. The offering of the tretared produce.—In this, too, the quantity to be offered was left to the generosity of the people. But it was understood, says Maimonides 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 Theru ma,iii. 2). They had to be presented even from the produce of Jewish fields in foreign countries, and were not allowed to be taken from the portion intended for tithes, nor from the corners left for the poor (Theruma i. 5 ; 7), and were not quired to be delivered in the Temple, but might be given to the nearest priest (Ibid. iv. 3 ; Bikurim ii. 2).
6. 77ze first-fruit of the a'ough.—Besides the offering 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 (Num. xv. 18-21). Tradition reslricts this
x.vheat, 'barley, casmin, or rye, fox-ear (barley), and oats (Chala • Maimonides, Bikurim, vi. r), of which a twenty-fo' urth part had to be given, but the baker who made it for sale had to give a forty eighth part Bikurim, v. 2, 3). This was the perquisite of the priest, and it is to this that the Apostle refers in Rom. xi. 16.
7. The firstfruits of fruit-hres. —According to the law, the fruits of every newly planted tree were not to be eaten or sold, or used in any way for the first three years but considered 'uncircumcised' or unclean. In tl;e fourth year, however, the first fruits were to be consecrated to the Lord, or, as the traditional explanation is, eaten in Jerusalem, and in the fifth year became available to the owner (Lev. xix. 23-25). The three years, according to Rabbinic law, began with the first of Tishri, if the tree was planted before the sixteenth of Ab. The reason of this is that the fruits of those three years were considered imperfect ; such imperfect 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 Joseph. Antiq. iv. 8. to ; and Ibn Ezra on Lev. xix. 23.
8. Literature. —The Mishna, tzucts &kudzu, Theruma, Chola and Orla ; Maimonides, .7ed Ha Chczaka, Hilchath Bikurim, vol. iii. p. 121 ; Lewis, The Antiquities of the Ilebrew Republic, vol. i. p. 145, etc., London, 1724 ; Saalschiitz, Mosaische Redd, p. 343 ff., 416 ff., 433 ff. ; Herzfeld, Ge st-hie/de des Volkcs Israel, vol. p. 128 ff. ; Jost, Gerchichte des yudenthums, vol. i. p, 172 ff.— C. D. G.