Smith's Bible Dictionary. Nehemiah 10:37 And that we should bring the first fruits of our dough, and our offerings, and the fruit of all manner of trees, of wine and of oil… Without inquiring into the reason for which the number ten has been so frequently preferred as a number of selection in the ones of tribute offerings, both sacred and secular, voluntary and compulsory, we may remark that numerous instances of its use are found both in profane and also in Biblical history, prior to, or independently of, the appointment of the Levitical tithes under the law. In Biblical history the two prominent instances are — 1. Abram presenting the tenth of his property, according to the Syrian and Arabic versions of Hebrews 7., but as the passages themselves appear to show, of the spoils of his victory, to Melchisedek (Genesis 14:20; Hebrews 7:2-6). 2. Jacob, after his vision at Luz, devoting a tenth of all his property to God in case he should return home in safety (Genesis 28:22). These instances bear witness to the antiquity of tithes, in some shape or other, previous to the Mosaic tithe system. But numerous instances are to he found of the practice of heathen nations, Greeks, Ronians, Carthaginians, Arabians, of applying tenths derived from property in general, from spoil, from confiscated goods, or from commercial profits, to sacred, and quasi-sacred, and also to fiscal purposes, viz., as consecrated to a deity, presented as a reward to a successful general, set apart as a tribute to a sovereign, or as a permanent source of revenue. (Smith's Bible Dictionary. Smith's Bible Dictionary s.v.) Parallel Verses KJV: And that we should bring the firstfruits of our dough, and our offerings, and the fruit of all manner of trees, of wine and of oil, unto the priests, to the chambers of the house of our God; and the tithes of our ground unto the Levites, that the same Levites might have the tithes in all the cities of our tillage. |
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