Deuteronomy 12:17

Thou; either, 1. Thou, O Levite; or rather, 2. Thou, O Israelite, whom he distinguisheth from the Levite, Deuteronomy 12:18, accordingly as the following particulars agree to the one or to the other of you. Within thy gates, i.e. in your private habitations, here opposed to the place of God's worship, Deuteronomy 12:18. The tithe of thy corn, or of thy wine, or of thy oil. Here seems to be a great difficulty, not yet sufficiently observed nor cleared by interpreters. There were divers kinds of tithes:

1. The tithes given to the Levites out of all, of which Numbers 18:21,24 Deu 14:22 Nehemiah 10:31.

2. The tithe of those tithes, which were to be given by the Levites to the priests, of which Numbers 18:21,24 Deu 14:29 Nehemiah 10:37.

3. The third year's tithe, of which Deuteronomy 14:28. To which some add another tithe, which they call the second tithe, which they say was taken after the Levites tithe was laid by. Now each of these hath its difficulty. It seems this place cannot be understood,

1. Of the Levites tithe; partly, because it might seem a great and wholly superfluous trouble to carry all their tithes up to Jerusalem, and to carry them back to their several habitations for their use; partly, because those were holy to the Lord, Leviticus 27:30, and not to be eaten by the people, Leviticus 27:31; whereas these belonged principally to the people, the Levites being only taken in as accessories to eat with them, as it is here, Deuteronomy 12:18; and partly, because those might be eaten in every place, as it is expressly affirmed, Numbers 18:31 Nor,

2. Of the tithe of the tithe, which was the priest s; and neither Levites nor others might eat of it, except they were of or in the priest's household. Nor,

3. Of the third year's tithe, because that was to be eaten within their gates, Deuteronomy 14:28,29, as this was not. I do therefore humbly conceive that this is meant of the second tithe, spoken of Deuteronomy 14:22; and that this was the very same tithe with that third year's tithe, with this only difference, that in the third year they were to eat them together with the Levites within their gates, Deuteronomy 14:28,29, but in the two first years they were to eat them, together with the Levites also, in the place of God's worship, as it is prescribed here and Deuteronomy 14:23. And that it is one land the same tithe which is spoken of Deuteronomy 14:22, and Deuteronomy 12:28, seems more than probable, both because they are called by the same name, all the tithe of their increase, and because that Deuteronomy 12:28 manifestly looks back to that Deuteronomy 12:22, and because otherwise every third year the Israelites were to pay three several tithes one after another, which Scripture no where affirms, and it seems to make the people's burdens and the Levites provisions too great. For the objection taken from Deuteronomy 26:12,13, it shall be considered in its place. And the reason of that difference of place, and why the same tithes were eaten for two years together in Jerusalem, and the third in their own gates, seems to be this, that in the two first years there was a more special regard had to the Levites, who were very much conversant in Jerusalem, where those tithes were then eaten, and in the third year there is a respect had to the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, who are mentioned as joint sharers with the Levites in this third year's tithe, whose occasions and obligations of coming to Jerusalem were not so many nor strong as those of the Levites, and therefore they were to be found generally within their gates, where these were to be eaten. And whereas the objection made before against the chargeable and useless carrying of the first tithes to Jerusalem might be applied here, it is answered there, and it is provided, that when they lived at a great distance from Jerusalem they might turn it into money and bestow it there, Deu 14-26, which both confirms the objection as to the first tithe, for which no such provision was made, and answers it as to this, where such a remedy is expressed. And whereas it may be pleaded on the behalf of the first, or the Levitical tithe, that those tithes were brought to Jerusalem, and that there were store-houses or chambers in the temple appointed for the receiving of the tithes, 2 Chronicles 31:5,6,11,12 Ne 10:37,38 12:44, it may be answered, that those chambers, being only thirty-eight in number, and each of them, except two, but six cubits broad and twelve cubits long, were altogether incapable of all those tithes, and seem principally, if not solely, appointed for the priests tithes, and not for all them neither, but only for so much of them as would serve for the use and necessity of those priests and Levites too that were in the actual ministration. The firstlings of thy herds, or of thy flock. As the tithes now mentioned were not the Levitical, but second tithes, as hath been discoursed; so these firstlings do not seem to be the first firstlings, which being appropriated to the Levites were not to be eaten by any of the people, except those of or in the Levites families, but the second firstlings, which were the first which the owner could dispose of, and which, in conformity to the second tithes, he is required to set apart for this use.