Deuteronomy 14:22

Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed,.... This was a different tithe from that which was made and given to the Levites, and out of which a tithe was taken and given to the priests, and

Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed, that the field bringeth forth year by year. Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed.

This is to be understood of the second tithes, which seem to be the same with the tithes of the third year, mentioned here below, 26:12, on which see above, on . And to confirm this opinion, (though I would not lay too great a stress upon criticisms,) yet I cannot but observe that this tithing is spoken of only as the people’ s act here, and , and the Levites are not at all mentioned in either place as receivers or takers of them, but only as partakers of them together with the owners, and therefore they are so severely charged here upon their consciences, thou shalt truly tithe all thine increase, because the execution of this was left wholly to themselves, whereas the first tithes were received by the Levites, who therefore are said to take or receive those tithes, .

Deuteronomy 14:22 Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed, that the field bringeth forth year by year.Ver. 22. Thou shalt truly tithe.] He seems to mean that second tithe, wherewith they were to feast before the Lord, and not the tithe given to the Levites.

(22) Thou shalt truly tithe.—The Talmud and Jewish interpreters in general are agreed in the view that the tithe mentioned in this passage, both here and in Deuteronomy 14:28, and also the tithe described in Deuteronomy 26:12-15, are all one thing—“the second tithe;” and entirely distinct from the ordinary tithe assigned to the Levites for their subsistence in Numbers 18:21, and by them tithed again for the priests (Numbers 18:26). The tithe described in Numbers was called “the first tithe,” and was not considered sacred. The second tithe, on the contrary, was always regarded as a holy thing.

Verse 22. Thou shalt truly tithe] Meaning the second tithe which themselves were to eat, Deuteronomy 14:23, for there was a first tithe that was given to the Levites, out of which they paid a tenth part to the priests, Numbers 18:24-28; Nehemiah 10:37-38. Then of that which remained, the owners separated a second tithe, which they ate before the Lord the first and second year; and in the third year it was given to the Levites and to the poor, Deuteronomy 14:28-29. In the fourth and fifth years it was eaten again by the owners, and in the sixth year was given to the poor. The seventh year was a Sabbath to the land, and then all things were common, Exodus 23:10-11, where see the notes, See Clarke on Exodus 23:11, and see Ainsworth on this verse.

22–29. Of Tithes A tithe shall be taken of all the yearly produce of what is sown in the field, further defined as corn, wine and oil, and carried to the Sanctuary and eaten before God by the offerers along with the firstlings of oxen and sheep (Deuteronomy 14:22 f.); but Israelites who dwell too far from the Sanctuary for this may turn their tithes into money, purchase at the Temple whatever they desire, and feast before God along with their households and Levites (Deuteronomy 14:24-27). Every third year, however, they are to retain all the tithe within their gates for the Levites and other landless poor to consume (Deuteronomy 14:28 f.).—In the Sg. address throughout, like the third form of the law of the Single Sanctuary, Deuteronomy 12:13 ff., with which also it has in common some phrases and ideas not found in the Pl. form of that law:—the definition of the tithe, corn, wine and oil; thou shalt not forsake the Levite (unless this be an addition, see on Deuteronomy 14:27); the wide permission to eat whatsoever thy soul desireth = after all the desire of thy soul, Deuteronomy 12:20 f.; another qualification of the law, in order to meet the needs of those at a distance, with the identical phrase because the place is too far from thee which etc., Deuteronomy 12:21 (Steuernagel’s statement that the phrases eat before Jehovah, eat and be satisfied, etc., are also peculiar to the Sg. is very doubtful). There is no law of tithes (so-called) in E or J; those in P, Numbers 18:21-32 (with the corresponding practice, Nehemiah 10:37 f.) and Leviticus 27:30 f., fundamentally differ from D’s law of tithes. On this and the questions it raises and their solution in the later law of Israel, see Additional Note below.

These words recall in general terms the command of the earlier legislation respecting tithes (compare Leviticus 27:30; Numbers 18:26), but refer more particularly to the second or festival tithe,

22. Tithe all the increase of thy seed — It seems taken for granted that the people are familiar with the earlier legislation concerning tithes.Leviticus 27:30; Numbers 18:26. Moses adds new requirements.