Hebrew word · H4395

מְלֵאָה

hamle'ah

fruit

"Fullness," meaning the full produce of a harvest. In Exodus 22:29 [Hebrew 22:28] it refers to the produce God is owed from the threshing floor, probably grain, paired with the juice of the press.

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

fulness, full produce

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Deuteronomy 22:9

Range of meaning

"Fullness," meaning the full produce of a harvest. In Exodus 22:29 [Hebrew 22:28] it refers to the produce God is owed from the threshing floor, probably grain, paired with the juice of the press. In Numbers 18:27 it is "the fullness of the winepress." The word belongs to the vocabulary of harvest dues offered to God.

Against the English

BSB's "entire harvest" and WEB's "all the fruit" capture it. YLT's "fulness" is literal. KJV drops the word and uses "fruit" twice.

Used elsewhere in the period

Exodus 22:29; Numbers 18:27. The LXX renders it genēma, "produce."

From the study of Exodus 22:29

Range of meaning

From the root m-l-' 'to be full'. It means 'fullness': the full, mature yield of a crop, the harvest in its abundance. It is used for produce, not for fullness in the abstract.

Against the English

KJV 'the first of thy ripe fruits' points to orchard fruit and adds 'first'. BSB/NIV 'granaries' turns the produce into the place it is stored. ESV's 'fullness of your harvest' and YLT's 'fulness' are closest to the Hebrew.

How it drifted

Translators had to decide what the bare word 'fullness' refers to. Under the influence of the firstfruits laws, many added 'first', which the Hebrew implies but does not say.

Used elsewhere in the period

Num 18:27 pairs 'grain from the threshing floor' with 'the fullness (mĕlē'āh) from the wine press'. Deut 22:9 uses hammĕlē'āh for 'the whole yield' of a vineyard. The Greek Septuagint renders this verse 'firstfruits of your threshing floor and wine press', and the Latin Vulgate has 'tithes and firstfruits'. Rabbinic tradition (Mekhilta) read mĕlē'āh as the firstfruits (bikkurim).

Where it appears

Exodus · 1

  1. Exodus 22:29 מְלֵאָתְךָ֥ full produce your

    You must not hold back offerings from your granaries or vats. You are to give Me the firstborn of your sons.

    Here: 'Your fullness': the full, ripe yield of your harvest, most likely the grain off the threshing floor. The word puts the object first: what is at issue is the abundance of the harvest.

Numbers · 1

  1. Numbers 18:27 וְכַֽמְלֵאָ֖ה and like the full produce

    Your offering will be reckoned to you as grain from the threshing floor or juice from the winepress.

Deuteronomy · 1

  1. Deuteronomy 22:9 הַֽמְלֵאָ֤ה the full produce

    Do not plant your vineyard with two types of seed; if you do, the entire harvest will be defiled—both the crop you plant and the fruit of your vineyard.

    Here: "The fullness," meaning the full harvest. Elsewhere the same word is used for the grain and wine owed to God from the harvest (Exodus 22:29; Numbers 18:27). The whole crop is at stake, not part of it.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.