11 And this is yours: the lifted offering which they give and all the wave offerings of the children of Israel I have given to you and to your sons and to your daughters as your right for ever: everyone in your house who is clean may have them for food.
So you are to make holy the breast of the sheep which is waved and the leg which is lifted up on high, that is, of the sheep which is offered for Aaron and his sons; And it will be their part as a right for ever from the children of Israel, it is a special offering from the children of Israel, made from their peace-offerings, a special offering lifted up to the Lord.
He himself is to take to the Lord the offering made by fire, even the fat with the breast, so that the breast may be waved for a wave offering before the Lord. And the fat is to be burned by the priest on the altar, but the breast is for Aaron and his sons. And the right leg you are to give to the priest for an offering to be lifted up out of what is given for your peace-offerings. That man, among the sons of Aaron, by whom the blood of the peace-offering and the fat are offered, is to have the right leg for his part. For the breast which is waved and the right leg which is lifted up on high I have taken from the children of Israel, from their peace-offerings, and have given them to Aaron the priest and to his sons as their right for ever from the children of Israel.
And the Lord said to Moses, Give orders to Aaron and to his sons to keep themselves separate from the holy things of the children of Israel which they give to me, and not to make my holy name common: I am the Lord, Say to them, If any man of all your seed through all your generations, being unclean, comes near the holy things which the children of Israel make holy to the Lord, he will be cut off from before me: I am the Lord. No man of the seed of Aaron who is a leper, or who has a flow from his body, may take of the holy food till he is clean. And any man touching anything which is unclean because of the dead, or any man whose seed goes from him; Or anyone touching any unclean thing which goes flat on the earth, or someone by whom he may be made unclean in any way whatever; Any person touching any such unclean thing will be unclean till evening, and may not take of the holy food till his flesh has been bathed in water; And when the sun has gone down he will be clean; and after that he may take part in the holy food, because it is his bread. That which comes to a natural death, or is attacked by beasts, he may not take as food, for it will make him unclean: I am the Lord. So then, let them keep what I have put into their care, for fear that sin may come on them because of it, so causing their death because they have made it common: I am the Lord, who make them holy. No outside person may take of the holy food, or one living as a guest in the priest's house, or a servant working for payment. But any person for whom the priest has given money, to make him his, may take of it with him; and those who come to birth in his house may take of his bread. And if the daughter of a priest is married to an outside person she may not take of the holy things which are lifted up as offerings. But if a priest's daughter is a widow, or parted from her husband, and has no child, and has come back to her father's house as when she was a girl, she may take of her father's bread; but no outside person may do so. And if a man takes the holy food in error, he will have to give the holy thing back to the priest, with the addition of a fifth part. And they may not make common the holy things which the children of Israel give to the Lord, So causing sin to come on them when they take their holy things for food: I am the Lord who make them holy.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Numbers 18
Commentary on Numbers 18 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 18
Nu 18:1-7. The Charge of the Priests and Levites.
1. the Lord said unto Aaron, Thou and thy sons and thy father's house with thee shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary—Security is here given to the people from the fears expressed (Nu 17:12), by the responsibility of attending to all sacred things being devolved upon the priesthood, together with the penalties incurred through neglect; and thus the solemn responsibilities annexed to their high dignity, of having to answer not only for their own sins, but also for the sins of the people, were calculated in a great measure to remove all feeling of envy at the elevation of Aaron's family, when the honor was weighed in the balance with its burdens and dangers.
2-7. thy brethren also of the tribe of Levi—The departments of the sacred office, to be filled respectively by the priests and Levites, are here assigned to each. To the priests was committed the charge of the sanctuary and the altar, while the Levites were to take care of everything else about the tabernacle. The Levites were to attend the priests as servants—bestowed on them as "gifts" to aid in the service of the tabernacle—while the high and dignified office of the priesthood was a "service of gift." "A stranger," that is, one, neither a priest nor a Levite, who should intrude into any departments of the sacred office, should incur the penalty of death.
Nu 18:8-20. The Priests' Portion.
8-13. the Lord spake unto Aaron, Behold, I also have given thee the charge of my heave offerings—A recapitulation is made in this passage of certain perquisites specially appropriated to the maintenance of the priests. They were parts of the votive and freewill offerings, including both meat and bread, wine and oil, and the first-fruits, which formed a large and valuable item.
14. Every thing devoted in Israel shall be thine—provided it was adapted for food or consumable by use; for the gold and silver vessels that were dedicated as the spoils of victory were not given to the priests, but for the use and adornment of the sacred edifice.
19. it is a covenant of salt—that is, a perpetual ordinance. This figurative form of expression was evidently founded on the conservative property of salt, which keeps meat from corruption; and hence it became an emblem of inviolability and permanence. It is a common phrase among Oriental people, who consider the eating of salt a pledge of fidelity, binding them in a covenant of friendship. Hence the partaking of the altar meats, which were appropriated to the priests on condition of their services and of which salt formed a necessary accompaniment, was naturally called "a covenant of salt" (Le 2:13).
Nu 18:21-32. The Levites' Portion.
21, 22. I have given the children of Levi all the tenth in Israel for an inheritance, for their service which they serve—Neither the priests nor the Levites were to possess any allotments of land but to depend entirely upon Him who liberally provided for them out of His own portion; and this law was subservient to many important purposes—such as that, being exempted from the cares and labors of worldly business, they might be exclusively devoted to His service; that a bond of mutual love and attachment might be formed between the people and the Levites, who, as performing religious services for the people, derived their subsistence from them; and further, that being the more easily dispersed among the different tribes, they might be more useful in instructing and directing the people.
23. But the Levites shall do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation: they shall bear their iniquity—They were to be responsible for the right discharge of those duties that were assigned to them, and consequently to bear the penalty that was due to negligence or carelessness in the guardianship of the holy things.
26. the Levites … offer … a tenth of the tithe—Out of their own they were to pay tithes to the priests equally as the people gave to them. The best of their tithes was to be assigned to the priests, and afterwards they enjoyed the same liberty to make use of the remainder that other Israelites had of the produce of their threshing-floors and wine-presses.
32. ye shall bear no sin by reason of it, &c.—Neglect in having the best entailed sin in the use of such unhallowed food. And the holy things would be polluted by the reservation to themselves of what should be offered to God and the priests.