Ye shall offer up a cake of the first of your dough for an heave offering: as ye do the heave offering of the threshingfloor, so shall ye heave it.

NUMBERS 15:20KJV
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Numbers 15:20 (KJV)

What does Numbers 15:20 mean?

Numbers 15:20 commands the Israelites to offer a portion of the first dough they make as a special offering to God, similar to how they would offer a portion from the threshing floor. This act sets aside the first part of their bread-making as a gift to God, showing gratitude and recognition of His provision.

In this verse, God is speaking to the Israelites through Moses, giving instructions for when they settle in the Promised Land. The focus is on the first dough they prepare from their grain harvest, highlighting a practice of dedicating the first and best part of their daily food to God. This offering is called a "heave offering," which means it was lifted up as a symbolic gesture of giving it to God.

The Hebrew behind Numbers 15:20

  • "Cake" (חַלָּה, challah): This word refers to a round or flat loaf made from dough. Here, it is not just any bread, but a specific portion set aside as an offering, which later Jewish tradition also calls "challah."
  • "First" (רֵאשִׁית, reishit): This word means "the beginning" or "the first part." It emphasizes that the offering comes from the very start of their produce, not leftovers.
  • "Dough" (עֲרִסָה, arisah): This term means the raw, kneaded dough, not yet baked. The offering is taken before the bread is finished, showing trust and thankfulness before enjoying the final product.
  • "Heave offering" (תְּרוּמָה, terumah): This is the technical term for an offering that is lifted up or set apart for God, often given to the priests. It marks the act as a sacred and intentional giving.

Why Numbers 15:20 matters

  • Numbers 15:20 clarifies that the offering is not just from the harvest but specifically from the dough, tying worship to everyday life and daily bread.
  • The verse connects the act of giving to God with the process of making food, showing that gratitude and dedication are meant to be woven into ordinary routines.
  • This command links to the broader theme in Numbers 15 of remembering God’s provision and keeping Him at the center of community life, especially as the Israelites prepare to live in the land God promised them.

Where else these words appear

“dough” Hebrew H6182 · used in 4 verses

  • Numbers 15:21 Of the first of your dough ye shall give unto the LORD an heave offering in your generations.
  • Nehemiah 10:37 And that we should bring the firstfruits of our dough, and our offerings, and the fruit of all manner of trees, of wine and of oil, unto the priests, to the chambers of the house of our God; and the tithes of our ground unto the Levites, that the same Levites might have the tithes in all the cities of our tillage.
  • Ezekiel 44:30 And the first of all the firstfruits of all things, and every oblation of all, of every sort of your oblations, shall be the priest's: ye shall also give unto the priest the first of your dough, that he may cause the blessing to rest in thine house.

“cake” Hebrew H2471 · used in 11 verses

  • Exodus 29:2 And unleavened bread, and cakes unleavened tempered with oil, and wafers unleavened anointed with oil: of wheaten flour shalt thou make them.
  • Leviticus 7:12 If he offer it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer with the sacrifice of thanksgiving unleavened cakes mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and cakes mingled with oil, of fine flour, fried.
  • Leviticus 24:5 And thou shalt take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes thereof: two tenth deals shall be in one cake.

“threshingfloor” Hebrew H1637 · used in 36 verses

  • Genesis 50:10 And they came to the threshingfloor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father seven days.
  • 1 Samuel 23:1 Then they told David, saying, Behold, the Philistines fight against Keilah, and they rob the threshingfloors.
  • 1 Chronicles 21:22 Then David said to Ornan, Grant me the place of this threshingfloor, that I may build an altar therein unto the LORD: thou shalt grant it me for the full price: that the plague may be stayed from the people.

“first” Hebrew H7225 · used in 49 verses

  • Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
  • 1 Samuel 2:29 Wherefore kick ye at my sacrifice and at mine offering, which I have commanded in my habitation; and honourest thy sons above me, to make yourselves fat with the chiefest of all the offerings of Israel my people?
  • Ecclesiastes 7:8 Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.