Numbers 18 - Introduction
_THE CHARGE OF THE PRIESTS AND LEVITES: THEIR SEVERAL PORTIONS._ _Before Christ 1471._... [ Continue Reading ]
_THE CHARGE OF THE PRIESTS AND LEVITES: THEIR SEVERAL PORTIONS._ _Before Christ 1471._... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE LORD SAID UNTO AARON— God, having by the foregoing miracles vindicated the honour and authority of the priesthood, now lets Aaron know, probably by the hand of Moses, the importance of his office, wherein he was to behave with great care and circumspection; and withal he again declares the d... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY SHALL BE JOINED UNTO THEE— Alluding to Levi's name; see Genesis 29:34. _Stranger,_ in this verse, does not signify only those of other nations and relations, but all those who were not of the tribe of Levi.... [ Continue Reading ]
I HAVE GIVEN YOUR PRIEST'S OFFICE—AS A SERVICE OF GIFT— Houbigant renders this, _For I have given you the priesthood for a gift:_ I have absolutely appropriated unto you, and given to you and your posterity, a grant of the priest's office. The priest's office might well be called a gift, and was a g... [ Continue Reading ]
THOSE THAT ARE TO BE REDEEMED FROM A MONTH OLD, &C.— This law of redemption was a perpetual memorial to the Israelites of their deliverance from Egypt. The ceremony of redeeming the first-born subsists to this day among the Jews, in the following form: when the child is full thirty days old, the fat... [ Continue Reading ]
IT IS A COVENANT OF SALT— That is, a _perpetual covenant,_ or one which should last as long as that dispensation should last; see Leviticus 2:13. The reason of this mode of expression seems to arise from the preserving nature of salt; which, therefore, most probably, was held a symbol of friendship... [ Continue Reading ]
I AM THY PART AND THINE INHERITANCE— They lived by the altar, which was God's table, as it is explained, Joshua 13:14. This provision for the priest was so ample, that if any part of the land of Canaan had been given them together with it, there had been too great an inequality between them and the... [ Continue Reading ]
I HAVE GIVEN THE CHILDREN OF LEVI ALL THE TENTH, &C.— The enemies of religion, availing themselves of some minute descriptions given by commentators of the revenue assigned to the tribe of Levi, have been forward to remark, that this revenue was excessive, and that the Levites were blood-suckers to... [ Continue Reading ]