What Does Deuteronomy 18:4 Mean in the King James?

The firstfruit also of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the first of the fleece of thy sheep, shalt thou give him.

Deuteronomy 18:4 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The word for “first” grows from the word for “head,” so even the flock’s first fleece is the leading share that is given.

THE MEANING

The first share of your grain, wine, oil, and flock’s fleece is given to him. Harvest and shearing belong to the same pattern: each has a first portion that enters the giving.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The first share concerns only food or saleable harvest. The verse includes the flock’s first fleece alongside grain, wine, and oil.

THE ROOT

רֵאשִׁית

reshit

GROWS FROM

רֹאשׁ

rosh

Head, chief, or top; the leading part.

“firstfruit” in this verse is reshit. Reshit grows from rosh, “head,” so “first” carries the sense of what leads, not only what comes earliest. The same leading share applies to the flock’s fleece as to its grain, wine, and oil.

ALSO GROWS

rosh: The head or leading part.

רֹאשׁ

This shared root reveals the “first” as the portion at the head of the whole.

rishon: What comes first or stands before what follows.

רִאשׁוֹן

Like reshit, it carries the idea of a leading position in a sequence.

תִּתֶּן

titten

GROWS FROM

נָתַן

natan

To give, put, or set in place.

“give” in this verse is titten. The verb belongs to a root that can mean both giving and placing. The first share is made tangible by being set into someone else’s hands.

ALSO GROWS

mattanah: A gift or present.

מַתָּנָה

This noun from the same root names the act of giving as a tangible gift.

natun: Something given or set in place.

נָתוּן

It echoes the verse’s movement from a portion identified as first to a portion placed with its recipient.

THE PATTERN

The first portion is set apart as the opening share of a larger increase.

The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk.

Exodus 23:19 · KJVThe first produce is brought as its own share before the rest of the land’s increase.

Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase:

Proverbs 3:9 · KJVThe firstfruits mark the opening portion of increase as something set apart.

But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.

1 Corinthians 15:20 · KJVThe first raised from death is named as the beginning of a larger harvest of life.

THE THREAD

And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land, which thou, O LORD, hast given me. And thou shalt set it before the LORD thy God, and worship before the LORD thy God:

Deuteronomy 26:10 · KJV

This verse uses the same Hebrew word, reshit, for the land’s first produce and describes it as something already given. The first share sits at the seam between receiving provision and giving it onward.

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