Numbers 18:23

_BUT THE LEVITES SHALL DO THE SERVICE OF THE TABERNACLE OF THE CONGREGATION, AND THEY SHALL BEAR THEIR INIQUITY: IT SHALL BE A STATUTE FOR EVER THROUGHOUT YOUR GENERATIONS, THAT AMONG THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL THEY HAVE NO INHERITANCE._ 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....

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. Numbers 18:31, 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; but if any will not work, neither shall he eat, 2 Thessalonians 3:10. 2 Thessa...

BEAR THEIR INIQUITY - The words probably refer to the iniquity of the people; who would, had they approached the tabernacle have fallen, from their proneness to transgress, into overt acts of offence. Against such a result they were, through the ministrations of the Levites, mercifully protected. Compare Numbers 18:1....

EXPOSITION STATUS AND REVENUES OF PRIESTS AND LEVITES (Numbers 18:1). NUMBERS 18:1 THE LORD SPAKE UNTO AARON. This clear and comprehensive instruction as to the position and support of the sons of Aaron on the one hand, and of the Levites on the other, may very naturally have been given in connection with the events just narrated. There is, however, no direct reference to those events, and it is quite possible that the only connection was one of subject-matter in the mind of the writer. That the regulations which follow were addressed to Aaron directly is a thing unusual, and indeed unexampled. The ever-recurring statement elsewher

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....

8. PRIESTHOOD AND INIQUITY AND THE RECOMPENSE OF THE PRIESTHOOD CHAPTER 18 _ 1. The iniquity borne by the priesthood (Numbers 18:1)_ 2. The recompense of the priests (Numbers 18:8) 3. The inheritance of the priests (Numbers 18:20) “Aaron, thou and thy sons and thy father's house with thee shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary, and thou and thy sons with thee shall bear the iniquity of your priesthood.” This is evidently in answer to the question, “Shall we be consumed with dying?” (Numbers 17:13) The ministry of the priests and the Levites keeping the charge of the tabernacle and the charge of

THE DUES TO BE RECEIVED BY THE LEVITES FROM THE PEOPLE. These are here confined to the tithes (p. 99) of all vegetable produce: but in Leviticus 27:32 f. reference is also made to a tithe of cattle. The dedication of tithes (p. 99) to religious purposes was propably a more highly regulated form of the dedication on firstfruits, originating at a time when the organisation of religion became more costly. The principle of tithing was not confined to religious purposes, but was adopted in the contributions exacted from the people by their rulers (1 Samuel 8:15)....

_The Levites" dues_. These consisted in tithe levied on agricultural produce only (cf. Numbers 18:27_; Numbers 18:30_). This was similarly assigned to the Levitical priests in the earlier law contained in Deuteronomy 14:22-29; Deuteronomy 26:12-15. But the present regulation is in advance of that in Dt. in that it assigns the tithe to the Levites absolutely. According to Dt. the Levite shared it, in two years out of three, with the offerer and his household, and in the third year with the poor -sojourners, widows, and orphans." This variety led in post-Biblical times to the imposition of...

G. LEVITICAL DUTIES AND THEIR EMOLUMENTS (NUMBERS 18) TEXT Numbers 18:1. And the Lord said unto Aaron, Thou and thy sons and thy father's house with thee shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary: and thou and thy sons with thee shall bear the iniquity of your priesthood. 2. And thy brethren also of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of thy father, bring thou with thee, that they may be joined unto thee, and minister unto thee: but thou and thy sons with thee shall minister before the tabernacle of witness. 3. And they shall keep thy charge, and the charge of all the tabernacle: only they shall not come nigh the vessels of the sanctuary and the altar, that neither they, nor ye also, die. 4. And they shall be joined unto thee, and keep the charge of the tabernacle of the congregation, for all the service of the t

18:23 they (f-15) That is, the Levites....