As ye do the heave-offering of the threshing floor— The precise quantity of this offering is not specified, any more than that of the first fruits; but St. Jerome says, that on account of the avarice of the priests, who were wont to exact upon the people, it was limited to a sixtieth part, or, the sixth part of an ephah of an homer; that is, a sixtieth part, an ephah being the tenth part of an homer: and since it is here required that they should do in this offering of the first of their dough, as in the offering of their first fruits, this seems to intimate that the same quantity was to be offered in both.
REFLECTIONS.—God had spared them at Moses's request, and in the opening of the chapter intimates his fixed purpose of bringing them into the land of Canaan, which even all their rebellions shall not prevent. He here prescribes the offerings hereafter to be made at his altar, as the sacrifices had been enjoined before.
1. Meat offerings and drink offerings must accompany every sacrifice. As the priest's provision was to arise from the altar, they had thus a table furnished richly. Note; They who minister before the Lord deserve a sufficient maintenance.
2. In the things of God, there was to be no difference between an Israelite and a stranger; hereby they were invited to communion with God's altar, and an intimation given, that not the seed of Abraham's loins, so much as the children of his faith, were accepted of God. In Christ Jesus, there is no difference of nation, sex, or person; none who come to him shall be in any wise cast out: every partition-wall is now thrown down, and whosoever will, let him come and take of the water of life freely.
3. Though they were now fed with manna, God intended to give them by and by the corn of Canaan; and they are commanded to offer, from the first corn which was threshed and ground, a portion of dough, as an acknowledgment of God's right in all they enjoyed; and this was appropriated for the use of the priest's family. Our daily bread is God's gift, and we may expect, when we break a portion of it to the hungry, that his blessing will be on the remainder.