Numbers 18

Provision for the Priesthood

1 The Lord said to Aaron, "You, your sons, and your ancestral house^[a] will be responsible for sin against the sanctuary. You and your sons will be responsible for sin involving your priesthood.

2 But also bring your brothers with you from the tribe of Levi, your ancestral tribe, so they may join you and serve with you and your sons in front of the tent of the testimony.^[b]

3 They are to perform duties for you and for the whole tent. They must not come near the sanctuary equipment or the altar; otherwise, both they and you will die.

4 They are to join you and guard the tent of meeting, doing all the work at the tent, but no unauthorized person may come near you.

5 "You are to guard the sanctuary and the altar so that wrath may not fall on the Israelites again.^[c]

6 Look, I have selected your fellow Levites from the Israelites as a gift for you,^[d] assigned by the Lord to work at the tent of meeting.

7 But you and your sons will carry out your priestly responsibilities for everything concerning the altar and for what is inside the veil, and you will do that work. I am giving you the work of the priesthood as a gift,^[e] but an unauthorized person who comes near [the sanctuary] will be put to death."

Support for the Priests and Levites

8 Then the Lord spoke to Aaron, "Look, I have put you in charge of the contributions brought to Me. As for all the holy offerings of the Israelites, I have given them to you and your sons as a portion and a perpetual statute.^[f]

9 A portion of the holiest offerings [kept] from the fire will be yours; every one of their offerings that they give Me, whether the grain offering, sin offering, or restitution offering will be most holy for you and your sons.

10 You are to eat it as a most holy offering.^[g] Every male may eat it; it is to be holy to you.

11 "The contribution of their gifts also belongs to you. I have given all the Israelites' presentation offerings to you and to your sons and daughters as a perpetual statute.^[h] Every ceremonially clean person in your house may eat it.

12 I am giving you all the best of the fresh olive oil, new wine, and grain, which the Israelites give to the Lord as their firstfruits.

13 The firstfruits of all that is in their land, which they bring to the Lord, belong to you. Every clean person in your house may eat them.

14 "Everything in Israel that is permanently dedicated [to the Lord]^[i] belongs to you.

15 The firstborn of every living thing, man or animal, presented to the Lord belongs to you. But you must certainly redeem the firstborn of man,^[j] and redeem the firstborn of an unclean animal.

16 You will pay the redemption price for a month-old male according to your valuation: five shekels of silver by the standard sanctuary shekel, which is 20 gerahs.^[k]

17 "However, you must not redeem the firstborn of an ox, a sheep, or a goat; they are holy. You are to sprinkle their blood on the altar and burn their fat as a fire offering for a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

18 But their meat belongs to you. It belongs to you like the breast of the presentation offering and the right thigh.

19 "I give to you and to your sons and daughters all the holy contributions that the Israelites present to the Lord as a perpetual statute. It is a perpetual covenant of salt^[l] before the Lord for you as well as your offspring."

20 The Lord told Aaron, "You will not have an inheritance in their land; there will be no portion among them for you. I am your portion and your inheritance among the Israelites.^[m]

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;^[n] 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,

26 "Speak to the Levites and tell them: When you receive from the Israelites the tenth that I have given you as your inheritance, you must present part of it as an offering to the Lord-a tenth of the tenth.

27 Your offering will be credited to you as if [it were your] grain from the threshing floor or the full harvest from the winepress.

28 You are to present an offering to the Lord from every tenth you receive from the Israelites. Give some of it to Aaron the priest as an offering to the Lord.

29 You must present the entire offering due the Lord from all your gifts. The best part of the tenth ^[o] is to be consecrated.

30 "Tell them further: Once you have presented the best part of the tenth, and it is credited to you Levites as the produce of the threshing floor or the winepress,

31 then you and your household may eat it anywhere. It is your wage in return for your work at the tent of meeting.

32 You will not incur guilt because of it once you have presented the best part of it, but you must not defile the Israelites' holy offerings, so that you will not die."

Numbers 18 Commentary

Chapter 18

The charge of the priests and Levites. (1-7) The priests' portion. (8-19) The Levites' portion. (20-32)

Verses 1-7 The people complained of their difficulty and peril in drawing near to God. God here gives them to understand, that the priests should come near for them. Aaron would see reason not to be proud of his preferment, when he considered the great care and charge upon him. Be not high-minded, but fear. The greater the trust of work and power that is committed to us, the greater danger there is of betraying that trust. This is a good reason why we should neither envy others' honours, nor desire high places.

Verses 8-19 All believers are spiritual priests, and God has promised to take care of them. Godliness has the promise of the life that now is. And from the provision here made for the priests, the apostle shows that it is the duty of christian churches to maintain their ministers. Scandalous maintenance makes scandalous ministers. The priests were to be wholly devoted to their ministry, not diverted from it, or disturbed in it, by worldly care or business. Also, that they might be examples of living by faith, not only in God's providence, but in his ordinances. The best should be offered for the first-fruits unto the Lord. Those who think to save, by putting God off with the refuse, deceive themselves, for God is not mocked.

Verses 20-32 As Israel was a people not to be numbered among the nations, so Levi was a tribe to be distinguished from the rest. Those who have God for their Inheritance and their Portion for ever, ought to look with holy contempt and indifference upon the possessions of this world. The Levites were to give God his dues out of their tithes, as well as the Israelites out of their increase. See, in ver. ( 31 ) , the way to have comfort in all our worldly possessions, so as to bear no sin by reason of them. 1. We must be sure that what we have is got honestly and in the service of God. That meat is best eaten which is first earned; ( 2 Thessalonians. 3:10 ) We must be sure that God has his dues out of it. We have the comfort of our substance, when we have honoured the Lord with it. Ye shall bear no sin by reason of it, when ye have heaved the best from it. We should give alms of such things as we have, that all may be holy and comfortable to us.

Footnotes

• [a]. Nm 10:21
• [b]. Nm 8:5-26
• [c]. Nm 1:53; 16; 17:12-13
• [d]. LXX, Syr, Vg omit for you
• [e]. Or veil. So you are to perform the service; a gift of your priesthood I grant
• [f]. Nm 5:9; Lv 10:12-15
• [g]. Or it in a most holy place
• [h]. Lv 7:34-36
• [i]. Lv 27:28
• [j]. Ex 13:11-16
• [k]. Nm 3:46-47; Lv 27:6
• [l]. Lv 2:13; 2 Ch 13:5
• [m]. Dt 10:9; Jos 18:7; Ezk 44:28-30
• [n]. Nm 18:20; Dt 10:8-9; 18:1-2
• [o]. Nm 18:12

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO NUMBERS 18

This chapter gives an account of the distinct work and service of the priests and Levites, Nu 18:1-7; and of several things given to the priests for their maintenance, Nu 18:8-19; and of the tithes the Levites should have to live upon, since they were to have no inheritance in the land of Israel, Nu 18:20-24; and of the tenth out of those tithes they were to give to the high priest, Nu 18:25-32.