What Was a Wave Offering?

 Under the Old Covenant, God taught His people to offer Him the firstfruits of each harvest in the Promised Land.This included, as we saw previously, the two primary grain crops: barley and wheat. Because the Creator showered upon His people an abundance of all things, it was only fitting to offer an expression of gratitude to Him!

As we also saw previously, God’s people offered the firstfruits of barley as a wave sheaf when beginning the count to Pentecost. Fifty days later, on the Day of Pentecost itself, they offered the firstfruits of wheat as wave loaves. In that same post, we examined God’s ordained process of preparing the wave sheaf.

All this begs a follow-up question: What, exactly, was a wave offering? A wave offering both began and ended the count to Pentecost. The Bible mentions several other wave offerings, too. So what were these “wave offerings,” how were they offered, and what was their purpose?

Types of Wave Offerings

In Leviticus 23, where we discover the wave sheaf and wave loaves, “wave offering” is translated from the Hebrew word tenufah (Strong’s # H8573). It means swinging, waving, or shaking. Tenufah springs from the root word nuf (Strong’s # H5130), which Gesenius’s Hebrew Lexicon defines as “to wave up and down, to agitate,” and Brown-Driver-Briggs’ Hebrew Lexicon defines as “move to and fro, wave, besprinkle.”

We find both words in Lev. 23:20: “The priest shall wave [nuf; # H5130] them with the bread of the firstfruits as a wave offering [tenufah; # H8573] before the LORD, with the two lambs. They shall be holy to the LORD for the priest.”

If you’re trying to shake your pet’s hair off your favorite shirt, you’ll normally shake the shirt up and down violently. Or, if shaking the dirt off a throw rug, you likewise shake it up and down. So it seems reasonable to think that a wave offering would’ve been waved up and down rather than side to side or back and forth. In a moment, we’ll see that that was indeed the case.

So what about the other wave offerings? The Bible mentions six key wave offerings:

1. Grain offerings such as the wave sheaf and wave loaves

2. Waving animal parts during the consecration of priests

3. Waving a ram’s breast as a peace offering

4. Waving a trespass offering for cleansing from leprosy

5. “Waving” the Levites to dedicate them to God

6. Contributing items for constructing the tabernacle

To better understand the wave sheaf and wave loaves, let’s take a quick look at the other five.

The first time the Bible mentions a wave offering is in Ex. 29, where Aaron and his sons waved many items before God while being consecrated as priests. In Ex. 29:22-24, the Almighty said,

22 “Also you shall take the fat of the ram, the fat tail, the fat that covers the entrails, the fatty lobe attached to the liver, the two kidneys and the fat on them, the right thigh (for it is a ram of consecration),

23 “one loaf of bread, one cake made with oil, and one wafer from the basket of the unleavened bread that is before the LORD;

24 “and you shall put all these in the hands of Aaron and in the hands of his sons, and you shall wave them as a wave offering before the LORD.”

In this passage, we witness grain, unleavened bread, and various animal parts all waved as a wave offering before the Almighty.

Wave offerings formed an essential part of peace offerings, too. Peace offerings could be offered as thanks for a blessing, for completion of a vow, or simply as a freewill offering (Lev. 7:12, 16). For any peace offering, here were God’s instructions:

29 ‘He who offers the sacrifice of his peace offering to the LORD shall bring his offering to the LORD from the sacrifice of his peace offering.

30 ‘His own hands shall bring the offerings made by fire to the LORD. The fat with the breast he shall bring, that the breast may be waved as a wave offering before the LORD.

31 ‘And the priest shall burn the fat on the altar, but the breast shall be Aaron’s and his sons’. (Lev. 7:29-31.)

So the ram’s breast would be waved before God, and then given to the priests. In a moment, we’ll see the importance of this detail.

Lepers, upon being healed, were commanded to offer an offering to God. As Jesus Christ told a leper after healing him, “See that you tell no one; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them” (Mat. 8:4). Here was the offering:

10 “And on the eighth day he shall take two male lambs without blemish, one ewe lamb of the first year without blemish, three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil as a grain offering, and one log of oil.

11 “Then the priest who makes him clean shall present the man who is to be made clean, and those things, before the LORD, at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.

12 “And the priest shall take one male lamb and offer it as a trespass offering, and the log of oil, and wave them as a wave offering before the LORD.” (Lev. 14:10-12.)

The next wave offering consisted not of animals or grain, but of construction materials. When God told Moses to build the tabernacle, He also told him to ask the people for donations of gold, silver, bronze, cloth, and other necessary materials. And so we read in Ex. 35:22, “They came, both men and women, as many as had a willing heart, and brought earrings and nose rings, rings and necklaces, all jewelry of gold, that is, every man who made an offering of gold to the LORD.” The word “offering” is the Hebrew tenufah (Strong’s # H8573), or “wave offering.”

Again, in Ex. 38:24, we find, “All the gold that was used in all the work of the holy place, that is, the gold of the offering, was twenty-nine talents and seven hundred and thirty shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary.” And once again, “offering” is tenufah, or “wave offering.” Likewise, Ex. 38:29 adds, “The offering [tenufah; wave offering] of bronze was seventy talents and two thousand four hundred shekels.”

So these donations for the tabernacle were actually wave offerings! “As many as had a willing heart” donated them to Almighty God.

The final type of wave offering consisted of men. When the Most High set apart the Levites to serve in the tabernacle and help the priests, here’s what He told Moses to do:

9 “And you shall bring the Levites before the tabernacle of meeting, and you shall gather together the whole congregation of the children of Israel.

10 “So you shall bring the Levites before the LORD, and the children of Israel shall lay their hands on the Levites;

11 “and Aaron shall offer the Levites before the LORD, like a wave offering from the children of Israel, that they may perform the work of the LORD.

12 “Then the Levites shall lay their hands on the heads of the young bulls, and you shall offer one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering to the LORD, to make atonement for the Levites.

13 “And you shall stand the Levites before Aaron and his sons, and then offer them like a wave offering to the LORD.

14 “Thus you shall separate the Levites from among the children of Israel, and the Levites shall be Mine.

15 “After that the Levites shall go in to service the tabernacle of meeting. So you shall cleanse them and offer them, like a wave offering.

16 “For they are wholly given to Me from among the children of Israel; I have taken them for Myself instead of all who open the womb, the firstborn of all the children of Israel. (Num. 8:9-16.)

Three times in a span of eight verses, God instructed that the Levites be offered to Him as a wave offering. It seems improbable, of course, that these men were literally picked up and waved. They were simply presented to God as a gift from the rest of the Israelites.

Wave Offering or Heave Offering?

Now, in the Old Testament, you’ll read of both wave offerings and heave offerings. In a moment, we’ll find the difference between the two, but first, it’s noteworthy that some wave offerings are also called heave offerings.

For example, the firstfruits offerings of grain (that is, barley and wheat) are also called heave offerings. That means the wave sheaf and wave loaves! They were both wave offerings and heave offerings. Here’s Num. 15:17-21:

17 Again the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

18 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land to which I bring you,

19 ‘then it will be, when you eat of the bread of the land, that you shall offer up a heave offering to the LORD.

20 ‘You shall offer up a cake of the first of your ground meal as a heave offering; as a heave offering of the threshing floor, so shall you offer it up.

21 ‘Of the first of your ground meal you shall give to the LORD a heave offering throughout your generations.

The Hebrew word translated “heave offering” is terumah (Strong’s # H8641), which Brown-Driver-Briggs defines as “contribution, offering; properly something lifted off, separated.” The root word is rum (Strong’s # H7311), which means “be high, exalted, rise.”

God’s Word calls the donations for the tabernacle both heave offerings and wave offerings. Here’s Ex. 35:21-24:

21 Then everyone came whose heart was stirred, and everyone whose spirit was willing, and they brought the LORD’s offering [terumah; heave offering] for the work of the tabernacle of meeting, for all its service, and for the holy garments.

22 They came, both men and women, as many as had a willing heart, and brought earrings and nose rings, rings and necklaces, all jewelry of gold, that is, every man who made an offering [tenufah; wave offering] of gold to the LORD.

23 And every man, with whom was found blue, purple, and scarlet thread, fine linen, and goats’ hair, red skins of rams, and badger skins, brought them.

24 Everyone who offered [rum; lifted up] an offering [terumah; heave offering] of silver or bronze brought the LORD’s offering [terumah; heave offering]. And everyone with whom was found acacia wood for any work of the service, brought it.

When God first told Moses to ask for donations, He called them a heave offering: “Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring Me an offering [terumah; heave offering]. From everyone who gives it willingly with his heart you shall take My offering [terumah]. And this is the offering [terumah] which you shall take from them…” (Ex. 25:2-3). As we saw already, God’s Word also describes these very same contributions of gold and bronze as a wave offering (Ex. 38:24, 29).

So we find multiple examples of the same offering being called both a wave offering and a heave offering. Why are there two different terms, then? What’s the difference between the two?

Remember, a wave offering was waved up and down, or shaken. A heave offering was lifted up, but not necessarily waved. Here’s Ex. 29:27 to illustrate this point: “And from the ram of the consecration you shall consecrate the breast of the wave offering which is waved, and the thigh of the heave offering which is raised, of that which is for Aaron and of that which is for his sons.”

Both offerings were lifted up before the Most High. A wave offering was waved up and down, or raised and lowered. A heave offering was simply raised up. Thus a wave offering was also a heave offering, but a heave offering wasn’t necessarily a wave offering.

What was the meaning? Why were these offerings presented this way? Why were they raised up toward the heavens?

Giving a Gift

Both the wave offerings and the heave offerings simply functioned as gifts. By lifting the offering up high toward the heavens, one presented it to God. By waving it up and down, one offered it to Him for acceptance. We can see this through each example.

The wave offerings during the consecration of a new priest served as part of his dedication to God. He was not only giving an offering, he was giving the rest of his life to the service of his Creator.

The wave offerings for a peace offering represented either a token of thanksgiving, a voluntary gift, or a gift upon completion of a vow. Interestingly, if the peace offering was a thank offering, then the part to be waved before God included both unleavened bread and leavened bread (Lev. 7:13-14). Similarly, the wave sheaf at the start of the count to Pentecost was unleavened, and the wave loaves at the end were leavened. But more on this shortly.

Waving an offering before God upon being cleansed from leprosy served as a token of thanksgiving for His mercy and healing. Speaking to a leper He’d just healed, Jesus Christ plainly called this offering a “gift” (Mat. 8:4).

When the children of Israel presented the Levites to God for the service of His sanctuary, they “waved” them before Him. The Levites were a gift to God and to the priests: “For they are wholly given to Me from among the children of Israel… And I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and his sons from among the children of Israel, to do the work for the children of Israel in the tabernacle of meeting” (Num 8:16, 19).

All the donations for building the tabernacle are not only called wave offerings and heave offerings, but also freewill offerings. Why? Because they were given freely as a gift to God. “Then everyone came whose heart was stirred, and everyone whose spirit was willing, and they brought the LORD’s offering for the work of the tabernacle of meeting, for all its service, and for the holy garments” (Ex. 35:21).

Now what became of these gifts? What became of all the Israelites’ wave offerings and heave offerings that they gave to God? Portions were sometimes burned on the altar, but God gave the rest to the priests. Here’s Num. 18:11-12:

11 “This also is yours: the heave offering of their gift, with all the wave offerings of the children of Israel; I have given them to you, and your sons and daughters with you, as an ordinance forever. Everyone who is clean in your house may eat it.

12 “All the best of the oil, all the best of the new wine and the grain, their firstfruits which they offer to the LORD, I have given them to you.”

The wave sheaf (barley firstfruits) and wave loaves (wheat firstfruits) differed in no way from the rest of these wave offerings and heave offerings. They were gifts to God from the people. An expression of thanks for the bounty He bestowed upon His people. Here’s the description of a firstfruits offering in Deut. 26:1-11:

1 “And it shall be, when you come into the land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you possess it and dwell in it,

2 “that you shall take some of the first of all the produce of the ground, which you shall bring from your land that the LORD your God is giving you, and put it in a basket and go to the place where the LORD your God chooses to make His name abide.

3 “And you shall go to the one who is priest in those days, and say to him, ‘I declare today to the LORD your God that I have come to the country which the LORD swore to our fathers to give us.’

4 “Then the priest shall take the basket out of your hand and set it down before the altar of the LORD your God.

5 “And you shall answer and say before the LORD your God: ‘My father was a Syrian, about to perish, and he went down to Egypt and dwelt there, few in number; and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous.

6 ‘But the Egyptians mistreated us, afflicted us, and laid hard bondage on us.

7 ‘Then we cried out to the LORD God of our fathers, and the LORD heard our voice and looked on our affliction and our labor and our oppression.

8 ‘So the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders.

9 ‘He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, “a land flowing with milk and honey”;

10 ‘and now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land which you, O LORD, have given me.’ Then you shall set it before the LORD your God, and worship before the LORD your God.

11 “So you shall rejoice in every good thing which the LORD your God has given to you and your house, you and the Levite and the stranger who is among you.”

In addition, Deut. 16:9-10 explicitly calls the wave loaves a freewill offering given in gratitude for God’s blessing: “You shall count seven weeks for yourself; begin to count the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the grain. Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the LORD your God blesses you.”

Having heard the offerer’s expression of gratitude for the Eternal’s deliverance and blessings, the priest would then wave the offering before Him for acceptance. “He shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted on your behalf” (Lev. 23:11). “You shall bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of two-tenths of an ephah. The priest shall wave them… as a wave offering before the LORD” (Lev. 23:17, 20).

And, as with every other wave offering or heave offering, the portion that wasn’t burned would be given to the priest. “All the best of the new wine and the grain, their firstfruits which they offer to the LORD, I have given them to you” (Num. 18:12).

So all the wave offerings and heave offerings, including the wave sheaf and wave loaves, were simply gifts to God and, in turn, gifts from God to the priests. That’s why they were presented to Him by raising them up high or waving them up and down!

Now, in this post, we haven’t covered any New Testament symbolism or meaning of the wave sheaf or wave loaves. That’s beyond the scope of this study. However, I believe any attempt to understand their symbolic meaning should begin with the basics of understanding what they were, how they were offered, and why they were offered. That’s the purpose of this study and the previous one.

Any input? Questions? Disagreements? Anything that’s been overlooked? Please leave a comment below!