Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase:
Parallel translations
- WEB Honor Yahweh with your substance, with the first fruits of all your increase:
- BSB Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your harvest;
- NKJV Honor the Lord with your possessions, And with the firstfruits of all your increase;
- NASB Honor the Lord from your wealth, And from the first of all your produce;
- NLT Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the best part of everything you produce.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Honor Yahweh with your wealth and the firstfruits of all your increase. It matters because our possessions are to be devoted to God first.
Overview
Trust in God (v. 5) extends to our finances: we honor Him by giving the first and best of what we have. Firstfruits express that all we own comes from and belongs to God. This generous, God-first stewardship anticipates the cheerful giving commended in the gospel (2 Cor. 9:7).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 20
- Deut 26:2–15That thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the earth, which thou shalt bring of thy land that the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt put it in a basket, and shalt go unto the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to place his name there.
- 1 Cor 16:2Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.
- Exod 23:19The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk.
- Prov 14:31He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker: but he that honoureth him hath mercy on the poor.
- Phil 4:17–18Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account.
- Mal 3:8–10Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.
- Exod 22:29Thou shalt not delay to offer the first of thy ripe fruits, and of thy liquors: the firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give unto me.
- Hag 1:4–9Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?
- 2 Cor 8:2–3How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.
- Exod 35:20–29And all the congregation of the children of Israel departed from the presence of Moses.
- Exod 34:26The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk.
- 2 Cor 8:8–9I speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity of your love.
- 1 Jn 3:17–18But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
- Mark 14:7–8For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always.
- Luke 14:13–14But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind:
- Gen 14:18–21And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.
- Num 7:2–89That the princes of Israel, heads of the house of their fathers, who were the princes of the tribes, and were over them that were numbered, offered:
- Gen 28:22And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.
- Num 31:50–54We have therefore brought an oblation for the LORD, what every man hath gotten, of jewels of gold, chains, and bracelets, rings, earrings, and tablets, to make an atonement for our souls before the LORD.
- Mark 14:10–21And Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went unto the chief priests, to betray him unto them.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 3:9 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.