Deuteronomy 26:2 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Ver. 2. Shalt put it in a basket, &c.— The baskets used by the rich upon this occasion were sometimes of silver, or overlaid with gold, and these the priest restored to the owner; but if it was a wicker-basket, or the like, the priest had it, together with the first-fruits. Bishop Patrick thinks it probable, that the heathens derived from hence their custom of carrying their first-fruits, as a tithe, every year to the island of Delos, where Apollo was supposed to have his special residence: and this not only from the neighbouring islands and countries, but from all parts of the world; as the Jews, we find, sent every where, from all the countries where they dwelt, a sum of money every year, instead of first-fruits and tithes, to Jerusalem; a privilege which, as we learn from Josephus, the Romans allowed them after they had conquered them. The reader will find, in Callimachus's Hymn to Delos, a very particular account of the custom just now mentioned, of which there are also other footsteps among the heathens; the mystica vannus Jacchi, spoken of by Virgil, being nothing else, according to the learned Servius, than a wicker-basket, in which their first-fruits were carried.