Numbers 15:21

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Of the first of your dough you shall give to Yahweh a heave-offering throughout your generations.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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Word by word

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עֲרִסֹ֣תֵיכֶ֔ם

ʻărîyçâh

H6182

“dough · your”

Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Construct + Suffix, Personal, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural

Appears 4× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Numbers 15:20

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from an unused root meaning to comminute

TWOT: 1699a

dough, meal, coarse meal, kneading trough - meaning dubious

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

6: words
6: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is עֲרִסֹ֣תֵיכֶ֔ם dough H6182 — appearing just 4 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

עֲרִסֹ֣תֵיכֶ֔ם dough H6182 occurs in 4 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

1 verb
5 nouns

Verb forms

תִּתְּנ֥וּ Qal · Imperfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 16 words from the Hebrew and 18 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 6 Hebrew tokens and 11 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Numbers 15:21 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Exodus 29:28 and it shall be for Aaron and his sons as their portion forever from the children of Israel; for it is a heave-offering: and it shall be a heave-offering from the children of Israel of the sacrifices of their peace-offerings, even their heave-offering to Yahweh.
Numbers 18:26 Moreover you shall speak to the Levites, and tell them, When you take of the children of Israel the tithe which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then you shall offer up a heave-offering of it for Yahweh, a tithe of the tithe.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Numbers 15:21 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

מֵרֵאשִׁית֙ עֲרִסֹ֣תֵיכֶ֔ם תִּתְּנ֥וּ לַיהוָ֖ה תְּרוּמָ֑ה לְדֹרֹ֖תֵיכֶֽם

Of the first of your dough you shall give to Yahweh a heave-offering throughout your generations.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Numbers 15:21 Septuagint · lemma form

ἀπαρχή φύραμα σύ καί δίδωμι κύριος ἀφαίρεμα εἰς ὁ γενεά σύ

even the first fruits of your dough, and you⌃ shall give the Lord a heave-offering throughout your generations.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

מֵרֵישׁ אַצְוַתְכוֹן תִּתְּנוּן קֳדָם יְיָ אַפְרָשׁוּתָא לְדָרֵיכוֹן

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

מִן שֵׁירוּי אַצְוַותְכוֹן תִּתְּנוּן אַפְרָשׁוּתָא קֳדָם יְיָ לְדָרֵיכוֹן

Of the first of your dough you shall give a separation before the Lord in your generations.

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Numbers 15:21 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

John Gill's Exposition

And if ye have erred,.... Gone astray from the law of God, and any of its precepts; every sin is an error, a missing of the mark, a wandering from the way of God's commandments. Jarchi, and the Jews in general, interpret this of idolatry, but it rather respects any deviation from the law, moral or ceremonial, especially the latter:

and not observed all these commandments which the Lord hath spoken unto Moses; in this chapter, more particularly concerning the meat offerings and drink offerings, and the quantity of them, to be brought along with their burnt offerings and peace offerings, and concerning the cake of the first dough to be heaved before the Lord and given to the priest.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

מראשית ערסתיכם OF THE FIRST OF YOUR DOUGH [YE SHALL GIVE UNTO THE LORD A HEAVE OFFERING] — Why is this stated at all? (What does it add to the command in v. 20)? Because it states there ראשית ערסתכם, I might understand this to mean that only the first amongst several doughs which you are kneading at the same time shall you set aside entirely as a heave-offering and all the other doughs are exempt! It therefore states here מראשית “of (some of) the first of the dough”, implying part of it but not all of it (not an entire dough) (Sifrei Bamidbar 110:2).

תתנו לה׳ תרומה YE SHALL GIVE UNTO THE LORD A HEAVE OFFERING — Because we have not heard any mention of a definite minimum quantity for the Challah it is stated here “ye shall give”, implying that it shall contain sufficient to constitute a “gift” (Sifrei Bamidbar 110:2).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Numbers, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 6 words (6 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is ʻărîyçâh (“dough”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “dough” (ʻărîyçâh) shape what this verse is saying?
How does Numbers 15:20, which shares the word «dough», read alongside this verse?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
«תִּתְּנ֥וּ» is a Qal Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how John Gill's Exposition and Rashi read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 6 Hebrew ↔ 11 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 8 words in this verse.
6 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 6 words in this verse.