Deuteronomy 28:5

Blessed [shall be] thy basket,.... Which the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem restrain to the basket of firstfruits, and the cake of the first of their dough; but it intends any and every vessel in

Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. Thy basket and thy store , [ uwmish'artekaa (H4863). This word (cf. Deuteronomy 28:17; Exodus 8:3) "store" is rendered "kneading trough," Exodus 12:34.

i.e. It shall always be well replenished, and the provision thou hast there shall be preserved for, and in due time brought forth to, thy use and service. See ,10.

Deuteronomy 28:5 Blessed [shall be] thy basket and thy store.Ver. 5. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store.] Or, Thy dough trough. The Greek hath it, Thy barns and thy remainders. The meaning is, Thou shalt know no want. Cicero saith, One friend should wish to another three things only, to enjoy health, to possess honour, and not suffer necessity. He that observeth God’ s commands to do them, as Deuteronomy 28:1, shall have all these and more. Ad Attic.

(5) Thy basket—(Only here and in Deuteronomy 28:17, and Deuteronomy 26:2; Deuteronomy 26:4)—i.e., the portion which is brought out for the present occasion. Thy store, that which is left, and put away for future use. But this view rests upon the LXX. translation of the word for “store.” All the Targums, and all the Jewish commentators I have been able to consult, and the lexicons also, take a different view. The word is identical in form with that used for “kneading troughs” in Exodus 8:3; Exodus 12:34. And so the contrast is taken to be, either (1) between firstfruits in their natural condition (Deuteronomy 26:2) and the dough offered when already prepared for food, as in the wave-loaves (Leviticus 23:17); or (2) between the basket in which the corn is carried and the receptacle for the meal or dough, or (as Rashi takes it) between the vessel for things moist and the vessel for things dry. But the view taken by the LXX. is as old as any, and the contrast indicated by “basket” and “store” is simpler and more comprehensive than that which is drawn from a reference to the details of the law. The Authorised Version is, therefore, distinctly to be preferred, in my opinion. There are other technical reasons, which cannot be given here.

Verse 5. Thy basket] Thy olive gathering and vintage, as the basket was employed to collect those fruits. Store.] משארת mishereth, kneading-trough, or remainder; all that is laid up for future use, as well as what is prepared for present consumption. Some think that by basket all their property abroad may be meant, and by store all that they have at home, i. e., all that is in the fields, and all that is in the houses. The following note of Mr. Harmer is important: - "Commentators seem to be at a great loss how to explain the basket and the store mentioned Deuteronomy 28:5; Deuteronomy 28:17. Why Moses, who in the other verses mentions things in general, should in this case be so minute as to mention baskets, seems strange; and they that interpret either the first or the second of these words of the repositories of their corn, c., forget that their barns or storehouses are spoken of presently after this in Deuteronomy 28:8. Might I be permitted to give my opinion here, I should say that the basket, טנא tene, in this place means their travelling baskets, and the other word משארת mishereth, (their store,) signifies their leathern bags, in both which they were wont to carry things in travelling. The first of these words occurs nowhere else in the Scriptures but in the account that is given us of the conveyance in which they were to carry their first-fruits to Jerusalem the other nowhere but in the description of the hurrying journey of Israel out of Egypt, where it means the utensils in which they then carried their dough, which I have shown elsewhere in these papers means a piece of leather drawn together by rings, and forming a kind of bag. Agreeably to this, Hasselquist informs us that the Eastern people use baskets in travelling; for, speaking of that species of the palm tree which produces dates, and its great usefulness to the people of those countries, he tells us that of the leaves of this tree they make baskets, or rather a kind of short bags, which are used in Turkey on journeys and in their houses; pages 261, 262. Hampers and panniers are English terms denoting travelling baskets, as tene seems to be a Hebrew word of the same general import, though their forms might very much differ, as it is certain that of the travelling baskets mentioned by Hasselquist now does. "In like manner as they now carry meal, figs, and raisins, in a goat's skin in Barbary for a viaticum, they might do the same anciently, and consequently might carry merchandise after the same manner, particularly their honey, oil, and balm, mentioned Ezekiel 27:17. They were the proper vessels for such things. So Sir J.

5. basket] See on Deuteronomy 26:2. kneading-bowl] See Dri. on Exodus 8:3. Cp. mill, Deuteronomy 24:6.

3-6. Blessed shall thou be — The manifold blessings in all the relations of life are expressed by six beatitudes.