Numbers 18:26

Thus speak unto the Levites, and say unto them, When ye take of the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then ye shall offer up an heave offering of it for the LORD, even a tenth part of the tithe.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(26) Even a tenth part of the tithe.—Better, a tithe of the tithe.

Benson Commentary

Numbers 18:26. Ye shall offer up a heave-offering — They who are employed in assisting the devotions of others, must be sure to pay their own as a heave- offering. Prayers and praises, or rather the heart lifted up in them, are now our heave-offerings.

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

26. the Levites … offer … a tenth of the tithe—Out of their own they were to pay tithes to the priests equally as the people gave to them. The best of their tithes was to be assigned to the priests, and afterwards they enjoyed the same liberty to make use of the remainder that other Israelites had of the produce of their threshing-floors and wine-presses.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Thus speak unto the Levites, and say unto them,.... Aaron was to tell them what a provision would be made for them on account of their service, but Moses was to inform them what part Aaron was to have out of it:

when ye take of the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them for your inheritance; which was done at the time of their harvest, and of the ingathering of the fruits of the earth:

then ye shall offer up an heave offering of it for the Lord; in token of gratitude for the liberal provision he had made for the maintenance of them:

even a tenth part of the tithe; a tenth part out of the tenth of the produce of the land of Israel.

Geneva Study Bible

Thus speak unto the Levites, and say unto them, When ye take of the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then ye shall offer up an heave offering of it for the LORD, even a tenth part of the tithe.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 26. - Ye shall offer up an heave offering of it for the Lord, even a tenth part of the tithe. Thus the principle of giving a tenth part of all to God was carried out consistently throughout the whole of his people. Numbers 18:26

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Appropriation of the Tithe. - Numbers 18:26. When the Levites took (received) from the people the tithe assigned them by Jehovah, they were to lift off from it a heave-offering for Jehovah, a tithe of the tithe for Aaron the priest (i.e., for the priesthood; see at Numbers 18:20). "Your heave-offering shall be reckoned to you as the corn of the threshing-floor, and the fulness (see Exodus 22:28) of the wine-press," i.e., according to Numbers 18:30, as the revenue of the threshing-floor and wine-press; that is to say, as corn and wine which they had reaped themselves.