Numbers 18:24

But the tithes of the children of Israel, which they offer as an heave offering unto the LORD, I have given to the Levites to inherit: therefore I have said unto them, Among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(24) But the tithes . . . —Better, for the tithes . . . This verse assigns the reason why the Levites were to have no inheritance among the children of Israel.

Benson Commentary

Numbers 18:24. A heave-offering — An acknowledgment that they have all their land and the fruits of it from God’s bounty. Note, the word heave-offering, which is for the most part understood of a particular kind of offerings heaved or lifted up to the Lord, is here used for any offering.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

18:20-32 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; but if any will not work, neither shall he eat, 2Th 3:10. 2. 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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Here the tithes (and in Numbers 18:26 the priestly tithes) are to be dedicated to their purpose by the ceremony of heaving them to the Lord. The tithes, being solemnly set apart for sacred purposes, became virtually a heave-offering, like the gifts for the tabernacle Exodus 25:2.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

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.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

As an heave-offering unto the Lord, i.e. as a rent charge or an acknowledgment that they have and hold all their lands, and the fruits of it, from God’s bounty. Note that the word

heave-offering, which is for the most part understood of a particular kind of offerings heaved or lifted up to the Lord, is here used for any offering in general, as before, Numbers 18:8.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

But the tithe of the children of Israel,.... The tenth of the produce of their land, as before:

which they offer as an heave offering unto the Lord: by way of gratitude to him for giving them the land, and for making it so fruitful to them, and as an acknowledgment of his being the sovereign Lord and proprietor of it:

I have given to the Levites to inherit; so that the Levites had the tithe not immediately from the Israelites, nor were they dependent on them for them; but they were first given to the Lord, and then by him to the Levites, who held them of him, and not of the Israelites; and were a portion and an inheritance, settled upon them by the Lord himself, which they had as good a right and title unto as the rest of the tribes had to their several inheritances:

therefore have I said unto them, among the children, of Israel they shall have no inheritance; as in Numbers 18:23.

Geneva Study Bible

But the tithes of the children of Israel, which they offer as an heave offering unto the LORD, I have given to the Levites to inherit: therefore I have said unto them, Among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 24. - As an heave offering. This means nothing more than an "offering" apparently. It is not to be supposed that any ritual was observed in the giving of tithes. Numbers 18:24

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Revenues of the Levites. - For (חלף, instead of, for) their service at the tabernacle God assigns them "every tenth in Israel as an inheritance." On the tenth, see at Leviticus 27:30-33. The institution and description of their service in Numbers 18:22 and Numbers 18:23 is the same as that in Numbers 1:53 and Numbers 8:19. "Lest they bear sin:" see at Leviticus 19:17.