And they shall not sell of it, neither exchange, nor alienate the firstfruits of the land: for it is holy unto the LORD.
| Word | Hebrew | Strong’s | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| sell | יִמְכְּר֣וּ yim.ke.Ru | H4376 | to sell · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural |
| exchange | יָמֵ֛ר ya.Mer | H4171 | to alter · verb, hiphil imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular |
| alienate | יַעֲבִ֖יר ya.'a.vur | H5674 | to cross over · verb, hiphil imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular |
| firstfruits | רֵאשִׁ֣ית re.Shit | H7225 | the first · noun, common feminine singular construct |
| land | הָאָ֑רֶץ ha.'A.retz | H776 | the earth (at large · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute |
| holy | קֹ֖דֶשׁ Ko.desh | H6944 | a sacred place or thing · noun, common masculine singular absolute |
| LORD | לַיהוָֽה la.Yah.weh | H3068 | Jehovah · preposition + proper noun, a title |
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Reuben--doomed formerly for incest and instability "not to excel" (Gen 49:4). So no distinguished prophet, priest, or king had come from it. Of it were the notorious Dathan and Abiram, the mutineers. A pastoral and Bedouin character marked it and Gad (Jdg 5:16).
The oblation - This was a portion of land twenty-five thousand cubits in length, by ten thousand broad; in the center of which was the temple, which must be destined for the use of the priests, the Levites, and the prince.
And they shall not sell of it,.... Any part of it that is allotted to them, neither the priests nor the Levites; simony is not to be practised: neither exchange; for any other land in lieu of it: nor alienate the first fruits of the land; or appropriate them to any other use than that of the priests and Levites: whatever is appointed for ecclesiastic uses ought not to be converted to any other; nor should church privileges be parted with on any account: ministers and other officers, nay, even private Christians, should not part with their Christian liberty, nor with any of the doctrines and ordinances of the Gospel: for it is holy unto the Lord; what is separated and devoted to religious…
Read the whole note in the consoleThe holy portion was not quite at the exact center of the land; there were seven tribal strips to the north and only five to the south of it. While it was still not exactly central geographically, the spiritual center had apparently moved a significant distance north from where it used to be in Jerusalem. • The importance of the holy portion set aside for the Lord’s Temple is underlined by the detailed description of its dimensions and makeup, in contrast with the brevity of the descriptions of the tribal allocations. This special portion was devoted to God and was never to be sold or traded or used by others. It was made up of strips that ran from east to west and were allocated to the Levi…
(Verse 14) They shall not sell any of it or exchange it, nor shall the firstfruits of the land be taken away from it, for they are holy to the Lord. However, what the LXX said: 'It will not be measured, nor will it be taken away,' is clear that it does not have the same meaning as what we said: 'It will not be changed, nor will it be transferred.' And they shall not sell, he says, nor exchange, so that the eternal possession of the Levitical distribution may remain, nor shall the worthiness of dignity be overcome by price, nor shall we transfer from one to another: for what has been sanctified to the Lord belongs not to those to whom it has been given, but to Him in whose name it is possessed.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
or exchange And he shall not exchange it for any other land.
Henry, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Clarke, Gill, Calvin and Keil & Delitzsch are in the public domain; Tyndale Open Study Notes © Tyndale House Publishers, CC BY-SA 4.0 — all from the Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org). Rashi: the Rosenbaum & Silbermann Pentateuch (public domain) and the Judaica Press and Metsudah Tanakh (CC BY), via Sefaria. Spurgeon's Treasury of David: public domain (lyteword's markdown edition, CC0).
