(4.) Every individual, besides, was required to consecrate to God a portion
of the first-fruits of the land (Exodus 22:29; 23:19; 34:26; Numbers 15:20,
21).
(5.) The law enjoined that no fruit was to be gathered from newly-planted
fruit-trees for the first three years, and that the first-fruits of the fourth
year were to be consecrated to the Lord (Leviticus 19:23-25). Jeremiah
(2:3) alludes to the ordinance of “first-fruits,” and hence he must have been
acquainted with the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, where the
laws regarding it are recorded.
- FISH called dag by the Hebrews, a word denoting great fecundity
(Genesis 9:2; Numbers 11:22; Jonah 2:1, 10). No fish is mentioned by
name either in the Old or in the New Testament. Fish abounded in the
Mediterranean and in the lakes of the Jordan, so that the Hebrews were no
doubt acquainted with many species. Two of the villages on the shores of
the Sea of Galilee
derived their names
from their fisheries,
Bethsaida (the “house
of fish”) on the east
and on the west.
There is probably no
other sheet of water in
the world of equal
dimensions that
contains such a
variety and profusion
of fish. About
thirty-seven different
kinds have been
found. Some of the
FISH FROM THE SEA OF GALILEE fishes are of a
European type, such
as the roach, the barbel, and the blenny; others are markedly African and
tropical, such as the eel-like silurus. There was a regular fish-market
apparently in Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 33:14; Nehemiah 3:3; 12:39;