Numbers 18:31

31 You may eat it in any place, you and your households, for it is your reward for your work in the tabernacle of meeting.

Numbers 18:31 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 18:31

And ye shall eat it in every place
In any of their tents or dwelling houses, not being obliged to eat it in the tabernacle, where the priests, were obliged to eat many of their holy things, and second tithes were only to be eaten at Jerusalem, ( Deuteronomy 14:22 Deuteronomy 14:23 ) ; but the Levites might eat theirs any where, in any place, clean or unclean, according to Jarchi; for, he says, it might be eaten even in a graveyard; but Aben Ezra much better, in a clean place, be that where it would:

ye, and your households;
they and their wives, their sons and daughters, their servants, whether bought or hired; and they might sell it to strangers, to purchase other necessaries with. The Targum of Jonathan interprets this of the priests; but the Levites only are plainly spoken of:

for it [is] your reward for your service in the tabernacle of the
congregation;
which is said to encourage them in their work, and animate them to it, as well as to clear their right to such a maintenance against all objections; for the labourer is worthy of his reward, as those that labour in the word and doctrine are of theirs, ( 1 Timothy 5:17 1 Timothy 5:18 ) .

Numbers 18:31 In-Context

29 Of all your gifts you shall offer up every heave offering due to the Lord, from all the best of them, the consecrated part of them.'
30 Therefore you shall say to them: 'When you have lifted up the best of it, then the rest shall be accounted to the Levites as the produce of the threshing floor and as the produce of the winepress.
31 You may eat it in any place, you and your households, for it is your reward for your work in the tabernacle of meeting.
32 And you shall bear no sin because of it, when you have lifted up the best of it. But you shall not profane the holy gifts of the children of Israel, lest you die.' "
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.