Numbers 18:23

23 The Levites will do the work of the tent of meeting, and they will bear the [consequences] of their sin. The Levites will not receive an inheritance among the Israelites;^[a] this is a perpetual statute throughout your generations.

Numbers 18:23 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 18:23

But the Levites shall do the service of the tabernacle of the
congregation
In guarding the tabernacle, that no unclean persons enter into it, or any others take anything out of it, and in assisting the priests in their service, and carrying the vessels of the sanctuary when required:

and they shall bear their iniquity:
that is, when they fail in the duty of their office, are not careful in their service and work, and business appointed them; if either they did not do their business themselves, or suffered others to do it, or such to come to the tabernacle who should not, they would be blameworthy and suffer for it:

[it shall be] a statute for ever throughout your generations, that the
children of Israel they have no inheritance;
having such a plentiful provision made for them, by a statute as durable as this.

Numbers 18:23 In-Context

21 "Look, I have given the Levites every tenth in Israel as an inheritance in return for the work they do, the work of the tent of meeting.

22 The Israelites must never again come near the tent of meeting, or they will incur guilt and die.

23 The Levites will do the work of the tent of meeting, and they will bear the [consequences] of their sin. The Levites will not receive an inheritance among the Israelites; this is a perpetual statute throughout your generations.

24 For I have given them the tenth that the Israelites present to the Lord as a contribution for [their] inheritance. That is why I told them that they would not receive an inheritance among the Israelites."

25 The Lord instructed Moses,

Footnotes

• [a]. Nm 18:20; Dt 10:8-9; 18:1-2