Thou shalt not delay to offer the first of thy ripe fruits, &c.— The Hebrew here is, thy fulness, and thy tears, or liquors, which distil in drops like tears from the press; as wine and oil. See Deuteronomy 18:4.Numbers 18:12; Numbers 24:25. Fulnesses signify the first full-ripe fruits of the earth, the tenths or tythes consecrated to the Lord. See ch. Exodus 23:19. The LXX render these two words, the first fruits of thy threshing-floor, and of thy wine-press. These they are ordered to bring without delay to the Lord, as a just acknowledgment of his bounty and providence, and of their holding their land under his lordship and sovereign dominion. See Deuteronomy 26:1-10. The heathens, impressed with a sense of a superior power, from whom all temporal blessings spring, were careful to offer first-fruits to their gods: Pliny, speaking of the old Romans, tells us, that they did not so much as taste of their wines or new fruits, till the priests had offered a libation to the gods. This custom seems to have been as old as the world itself. See Genesis 4:3-4.
Note; They were not to delay to offer their first-fruits. Nothing is so dangerous as procrastination: how many souls have perished, by putting off to a more convenient season what present duty required! Happy they, who offer their youngest days to God, and devote to him not the dregs of age, but the prime of life.
The first-born of thy sons shalt thou give unto me— See Numbers 18:15-16.