(14) And ye shall eat neither bread.--In acknowledgment of the bountiful Giver of the new harvest, it was ordained that the Israelites were not to taste any of it till they had dedicated the first- fruit to the Lord. By bread is meant the unleavened bread which they were now enjoined to eat. The unleavened bread for the first and the second days of Passover was prepared from the last year's harvest, but the bread for the following days could only be made from the new harvest after the normal dedication of it to the Lord.

Parched corn.--See Leviticus 2:14.

Green ears.--The expression carmel, which the Authorised version renders "full ears" in Lev. 214, the authorities during the second Temple took to denote the five kinds of the new grain, viz., wheat, rye, oats, and two kinds of barley, which were forbidden to be used in any form whatsoever prior to this public dedication of the harvest to the Lord. The same custom of dedicating the first-fruits of the harvest to the divine beings also obtained amongst the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and other nations of antiquity.

A statute for ever . . . --See Leviticus 3:17; Leviticus 7:23-25.

23:4-14 The feast of the Passover was to continue seven days; not idle days, spent in sport, as many that are called Christians spend their holy-days. Offerings were made to the Lord at his altar; and the people were taught to employ their time in prayer, and praise, and godly meditation. The sheaf of first-fruits was typical of the Lord Jesus, who is risen from the dead as the First-fruits of them that slept. Our Lord Jesus rose from the dead on the very day that the first-fruits were offered. We are taught by this law to honour the Lord with our substance, and with the first-fruits of all our increase, Pr 3:9. They were not to eat of their new corn, till God's part was offered to him out of it; and we must always begin with God: begin every day with him, begin every meal with him, begin every affair and business with him; seek first the kingdom of God.And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears,.... That is, they were not allowed to make bread of the new corn, as Aben Ezra and Gersom explain it; for they were obliged to eat unleavened bread at this time: but it might not be made of the new corn, until the above offering was made; nay, they were not allowed to parch any of the grains of corn, and eat them; yea, even they might not pluck and eat the green ears, though of ever so small a quantity. The Jews say (q), if it was the quantity of an olive of either of these, a man was to be beaten for it:

until the selfsame day that ye have brought an offering unto your God; which includes all the offerings on this account, the offering of the firstfruits, the offering of the he lamb, and the meat offering and the drink offering; until these were offered up, the new corn might not be eaten in any form:

it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations; until the Messiah came, who is the substance of these shadows:

in all your dwellings; not at Jerusalem only, but in the several parts of the land of Canaan; yea, as Ben Gersom says, whether in the land, or without the land; a later writer says, it is forbidden to eat of the new corn at this time, whether bread, parched corn, or green ears, until the beginning of the night of the eighteenth of Nisan, and in the land of Israel, until the beginning of the night of the seventeenth of Nisan (r).

(q) Maimon. Hilchot Maacolot Asurot, c. 10. sect. 2, 3.((r) Schulchan Aruch, par. 1. c. 489. sect. 10. so Lebush, c. 489. sect. 10.