Leviticus 23:10

Land of Chanaan, at which time these feasts began to be observed. (Menochius) See Leviticus ii. 14.

Before the harvest commenced, first-fruits were offered to the Lord. A gomer containing about three pints of barley was given to the priests, by the nation at large, as each individual was not bound to make a particular solemn offering. The judges deputed three men to gather this barley on the evening of the 15th [of] Nisan, where the neighbourhood assembled near Jerusalem. It was gathered by them in three different fields, after having been thrice assured that the sun was set, and that they had leave to reap, in answer to their triple demands on each head. Then they placed the ears in three boxes, which they brought to the court of the sanctuary, and having ground the barley, and poured a log of oil and an handful of incense upon it, presented it to the priest, who heaving it in the form of a cross, threw as much as he could hold in his hand upon the altar, and kept the rest for himself. (Josephus, [Antiquities?] iii. 10; &c. Private people offered also in kind or in money their first-fruits, or between the 40th and the 60th part of what their land produced. This custom is almost as ancient as the world, (Genesis iv. 3,) and we may say that it forms a part of natural religion, which all nations have observed. Porphyrius esteems it an impiety to neglect it. He says that the Thoes, living on the borders of Thrace, were in a moment destroyed, because they offered neither sacrifices nor first-fruits. (De Abstin. ii. 7.) The ancient Romans and Greeks were very punctual in this respect. (Pliny, xviii. 20.) Those officers who collected the first-fruits among the latter were styled Parasites. Many of the festivals among the heathens, occurred at the end of harvest. (Aristotle, ad Nicom. viii.) The Jews might reap their wheat, but they could not taste it, before they had offered the first-fruits, at Pentecost. (Chap. xxiii. 17; Exodus xxiii. 16.)