The Land, the Harvest and the Poor
Sefer Zera’im, the Book of Seeds · commandments 234–300
← Oaths, Vows and Dedications · The Commandments: all subjects · The Sanctuary and Its Service →
The fruit of the land and who shares in it: forbidden mixtures, the portions of the poor, the priest’s and Levite’s share, the tithes, the firstfruits, the seventh year and the Jubilee.
On this page: Forbidden Mixtures (234–238) · The Portions of the Poor (239–251) · The Priests’ Portion (252–259) · The Tithe (260) · The Second Tithe and the Fourth-Year Fruit (261–269) · Firstfruits and the Priests’ Gifts (270–278) · The Seventh Year and the Jubilee (279–300)
Forbidden Mixtures
Kilayim · 5 commandments
234. Not to sow with two kinds of seed. DO NOT
You shall keep My law. Do not mate your livestock with a different stock. Do not sow your vineyard with a different kind. Do not put on a spurious garment woven from two materials.
Leviticus 19:19
235. Not to sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed. DO NOT
Do not sow your vineyard with a different crop, lest the produce and the seed you sow together with your vineyard’s produce become consecrated.
Deuteronomy 22:9
236. Not to breed your cattle with a different kind. DO NOT
You shall keep My law. Do not mate your livestock with a different stock. Do not sow your vineyard with a different kind. Do not put on a spurious garment woven from two materials.
Leviticus 19:19
237. Not to plow with an ox and a donkey together. DO NOT
Do not plow with a calf and a donkey together.
Deuteronomy 22:10
238. Not to wear cloth of wool and linen mixed together. DO NOT
Do not wear an adulterated fabric, wool and linen together.
Deuteronomy 22:11
The Portions of the Poor
Mattenot Aniyim · 13 commandments
239. To leave the corner of the field for the poor. DO
When you reap the harvest of your land, do not completely reap your field’s harvest or gather what falls from your harvest,
Leviticus 19:9
240. Not to reap to the very corner of the field. DO NOT — the same verse, Leviticus 19:9
241. To leave the gleanings of the harvest. DO — the same verse, Leviticus 19:9
242. Not to gather the gleanings of the harvest. DO NOT — the same verse, Leviticus 19:9
243. To leave the gleanings of the vineyard. DO
Do not glean your vineyard again or gather its grapes; leave them for the poor and the newcomer. I am the Lord your God.
Leviticus 19:10
244. Not to strip the vineyard bare. DO NOT — the same verse, Leviticus 19:10
245. To leave the fallen grapes of the vineyard. DO — the same verse, Leviticus 19:10
246. Not to gather the fallen grapes of the vineyard. DO NOT — the same verse, Leviticus 19:10
247. To leave the forgotten sheaf. DO
When you reap your field and forget a sheaf there, do not return to take it. It shall be for the poor, the resident foreigner, the orphan, and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
Deuteronomy 24:19
248. Not to go back to fetch the forgotten sheaf. DO NOT — the same verse, Deuteronomy 24:19
249. To set aside the tithe of the third year for the poor. DO
After three years, bring out the whole tithe of your produce; in that year, store it in your cities.
Deuteronomy 14:28
250. To open your hand to the poor. DO — Christ’s teaching: 20, 28, 61, 62, 64
Open your hands freely to him and be sure to lend him whatever he needs, according to his lack.
Deuteronomy 15:8
251. Not to harden your heart or shut your hand against the poor. DO NOT
If one of your brothers is needy among you, in any of your cities in the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not withdraw your heart’s affection or close your hand against your needy brother.
Deuteronomy 15:7
The Priests’ Portion
Terumot · 8 commandments
252. To give the first of your grain, wine and oil to the priest. DO
Give him the firstfruits of your grain, wine, and oil, and the first of your sheep’s fleece.
Deuteronomy 18:4
253. The Levites are to give a tenth of the tithe. DO
You shall speak to the Levites and say to them: When you receive from the sons of Israel the tithe that I have given you from them as an allotment, you shall remove from it a portion for the Lord, a tithe of the tithe.
Numbers 18:26
254. Not to delay the offering from your fullness, understood as keeping the gifts in their order. DO NOT
You shall not delay the firstfruits of your threshing floor and winepress. You shall give Me the firstborn of your sons.
Exodus 22:28
255. No outsider may eat a holy thing. DO NOT
No outsider shall eat holy things. A priest’s lodger or hired worker shall not eat holy things.
Leviticus 22:10
256. A priest’s guest or hired worker may not eat a holy thing. DO NOT — the same verse, Leviticus 22:10
257. No uncircumcised person may eat of it, applied by the tradition to the holy portion also. DO NOT
“If a sojourner comes to you to observe the Passover to the Lord, you shall circumcise every male belonging to him. Then he may approach to observe it, and he shall be as a native of the land. No uncircumcised person shall eat of it.
Exodus 12:48
258. An unclean priest may not eat the holy things. DO NOT
Any man among the offspring of Aaron the priest who has leprosy or a seminal discharge shall not eat the holy things until he is cleansed. Nor shall one who touches any uncleanness of a person, or a man from whom an emission of semen goes out,
Leviticus 22:4
259. A priest’s daughter married to an outsider may not eat the holy contribution. DO NOT
If a priest’s daughter marries an outsider, she shall not eat the first portions of the holy things.
Leviticus 22:12
The Tithe
Ma’aser · 1 commandment
260. To give the tithe to the Levites. DO — Christ’s teaching: 25
For the tithes of the sons of Israel that they set apart for the Lord as a removed portion I have given to the Levites as an allotment. Therefore I have said to them: Among the sons of Israel they shall receive no allotment.
Numbers 18:24
The Second Tithe and the Fourth-Year Fruit
Ma’aser Sheni ve-Neta Reva’i · 9 commandments
261. To tithe all the yield of your seed year by year. DO — Christ’s teaching: 25
Set aside a tenth of all the produce of your seed, the yield of your field, year by year.
Deuteronomy 14:22
262. Not to spend any of it on the dead. DO NOT
I have not eaten any of them in my grief, offered any for an unclean use, or given any to the dead. I have obeyed the Lord my God and done as You commanded me.
Deuteronomy 26:14
263. Not to remove any of it while unclean. DO NOT — the same verse, Deuteronomy 26:14
264. Not to eat of it in mourning. DO NOT — the same verse, Deuteronomy 26:14
265. Not to eat the tithe of your grain within your gates. DO NOT
You may not eat in your cities the tithe of your grain, wine, or oil, the firstborn of your cattle or sheep, any vowed offerings you vow, your pledged offerings, or firstfruits from your hands.
Deuteronomy 12:17
266. Not to eat the tithe of your wine within your gates. DO NOT — the same verse, Deuteronomy 12:17
267. Not to eat the tithe of your oil within your gates. DO NOT — the same verse, Deuteronomy 12:17
268. The fruit of the fourth year is holy, an offering of praise to the Lord. DO
In the fourth year all its fruit shall be holy, praiseworthy to the Lord.
Leviticus 19:24
269. To make the declaration of the tithe. DO
Say before the Lord your God: I have cleared the sacred things from my house and given them to the Levite, the resident foreigner, the orphan, and the widow, according to all the commands You gave me. I have neither transgressed Your command nor forgotten it.
Deuteronomy 26:13
Firstfruits and the Priests’ Gifts
Bikkurim · 9 commandments
270. To bring the first of the firstfruits to the house of the Lord. DO
You shall bring the firstfruits of the first produce of your land into the house of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a lamb in its mother’s milk.
Exodus 23:19
271. Not to eat the contribution of your hand within your gates. DO NOT
You may not eat in your cities the tithe of your grain, wine, or oil, the firstborn of your cattle or sheep, any vowed offerings you vow, your pledged offerings, or firstfruits from your hands.
Deuteronomy 12:17
272. To make the declaration over the firstfruits. DO
Then declare before the Lord your God: My father abandoned Syria and went down to Egypt. He lived there as a foreigner, few in number; there he became a great nation and a numerous and great multitude.
Deuteronomy 26:5
273. To offer a cake from the first of your dough. DO
As the first portion of your dough, set apart a loaf as a contribution. As a contribution from the threshing floor, so you shall remove it,
Numbers 15:20
274. To give the priest the shoulder, the two cheeks and the stomach. DO
This is the priests’ entitlement from the people, from those slaughtering the sacrifices, whether a calf or a sheep: they shall give the priest the arm, the jawbones, and the stomach.
Deuteronomy 18:3
275. To give the priest the first of the fleece. DO
Give him the firstfruits of your grain, wine, and oil, and the first of your sheep’s fleece.
Deuteronomy 18:4
276. To redeem the firstborn of man. DO
Everything that opens the womb of all flesh that they present to the Lord, from human beings to livestock, shall be yours. Yet the human firstborn shall be redeemed by a ransom, and you shall redeem the firstborn of unclean livestock.
Numbers 18:15
277. To redeem the firstborn of a donkey with a lamb. DO
“Every donkey that opens the womb you shall exchange for a sheep. If you do not exchange it, you shall redeem it. Every human firstborn among your sons you shall redeem.
Exodus 13:13
278. To break its neck if it is not redeemed (so the Hebrew; the Saints text follows the Greek, “you shall redeem it”). DO — the same verse, Exodus 13:13
The Seventh Year and the Jubilee
Shemittah ve-Yovel · 22 commandments
279. To rest in plowing time and in harvest. DO
For six days you shall work, but on the seventh you shall rest; at sowing time and harvest you shall rest.
Exodus 34:21
280. Not to sow your field in the seventh year. DO NOT
But in the seventh year the land shall have a Sabbath, a rest, a Sabbath to the Lord. You shall not sow your field or prune your vine.
Leviticus 25:4
281. Not to prune your vineyard in the seventh year. DO NOT — the same verse, Leviticus 25:4
282. Not to reap what grows of itself in the seventh year. DO NOT
You shall not reap the things growing of themselves in your field or gather the grapes of your consecration. It shall be a year of rest for the land.
Leviticus 25:5
283. Not to gather the grapes of the untended vine in the seventh year. DO NOT — the same verse, Leviticus 25:5
284. To let the land rest and lie fallow so that the poor may eat. DO
but in the seventh you shall grant it release and leave it, and the poor of your nation shall eat; the wild animals shall eat what remains. You shall do the same with your vineyard and olive grove.
Exodus 23:11
285. To release every debt in the seventh year. DO
This is the ordinance of the remission: release every personal debt your neighbor owes you, and do not demand repayment from your brother, because a remission to the Lord your God has been proclaimed.
Deuteronomy 15:2
286. Not to exact the debt from your neighbor. DO NOT — the same verse, Deuteronomy 15:2
287. Not to refuse to lend because the year of release is near. DO NOT
Take care lest a hidden, lawless thought enter your heart: The seventh year, the year of remission, is near, and you look grudgingly at your needy brother and give him nothing. He will cry to the Lord against you, and you will incur a great sin.
Deuteronomy 15:9
288. To count seven sabbaths of years. DO
Count for yourself seven rests of years, seven years seven times. The seven weeks of years shall amount to forty-nine years for you.
Leviticus 25:8
289. To hallow the fiftieth year. DO
You shall consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim release throughout the land to all its inhabitants. This shall be a year of release, a signal for you. Each shall depart to his possession, and each of you shall depart to his ancestral homeland.
Leviticus 25:10
290. To sound the trumpet on the Day of Atonement and proclaim liberty. DO
You shall make proclamation with a trumpet sound throughout your land in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month. On the Day of Propitiation you shall make proclamation with a trumpet throughout your land.
Leviticus 25:9
291. Not to sow in the Jubilee year. DO NOT
This is a signal of release: the fiftieth year shall be a year for you. You shall not sow, reap what grows of itself, or gather its consecrated produce.
Leviticus 25:11
292. Not to reap what grows of itself in the Jubilee year. DO NOT — the same verse, Leviticus 25:11
293. Not to gather the grapes of the untended vine in the Jubilee year. DO NOT — the same verse, Leviticus 25:11
294. To grant redemption of the land. DO
Throughout all the land of your possession, you shall provide ransom for the land.
Leviticus 25:24
295. The land must not be sold permanently. DO NOT
The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is Mine; you are resident foreigners and lodgers before Me.
Leviticus 25:23
296. To carry out the law of houses in walled cities. DO
If someone sells a dwelling house in a walled city, its ransom shall remain possible until a year of days is complete; that shall be its ransom period.
Leviticus 25:29
297. The tribe of Levi is to have no inheritance in the land. DO NOT
The Levitical priests, the whole tribe of Levi, shall have no share or allotment with Israel. The Lord’s offerings are their allotment; they shall eat them.
Deuteronomy 18:1
298. The tribe of Levi is to have no portion with Israel. DO NOT — the same verse, Deuteronomy 18:1
299. To give the Levites cities to live in, with their pasturelands. DO
“Instruct the Israelites to give the Levites towns to live in from their allotted possessions. They shall also give the Levites the outlying lands around the towns.
Numbers 35:2
300. The pastureland of their cities must not be sold. DO NOT
The fields set apart for their cities shall not be sold, for this is their perpetual possession.
Leviticus 25:34
← Oaths, Vows and Dedications · The Commandments: all subjects · The Sanctuary and Its Service →
Saints Translation · The Commandments · the traditional count of 613 after Maimonides; statements in our own words; verses quoted from the Saints Translation · working draft awaiting specialist review.