Deuteronomy 18:8

18:1-8 Care is taken that the priests entangle not themselves with the affairs of this life, nor enrich themselves with the wealth of this world; they have better things to mind. Care is likewise taken that they want not the comforts and conveniences of this life. The people must provide for them. He that has the benefit of solemn religious assemblies, ought to give help for the comfortable support of those that minister in such assemblies.

They shall have like portions to eat,.... Equal parts of the sacrifices with the priests that usually ministered there; hence we learn, says Jarchi, that they divided the skins and flesh of the sin offerings; perhaps even such as did not come by virtue of the feast, as the daily sacrifices, and the additions of the sabbath, and the vows, and the freewill offerings: beside that which cometh by the sale of his patrimony: for though the priests and Levites had no inheritance divided to them in the land, yet they might buy houses and fields, and leave them to their children, and this may be called their patrimony; now it was not reasonable that they should wholly live upon this, or spend what their fathers left them; but, besides the income of that, were to have their part and portion with their brethren in the sacrifices of the sanctuary. But some interpret these words in a different way, as if they had respect to the gifts and oblations in the several wards in which the priests ministered, as they were ordered by their fathers, Eleazar, Ithamar, Samuel, David, and Solomon; so the Targums of Onkelos, Jonathan, and Jarchi.

In the times of Eleazar and Ithamar, there were only eight wards or courses, which ministered in their turns, but in the days of David they were divided into twenty four; See Gill on Luke 1:8; now the ordering and fixing these in their turns is called a vendition or sale; and these country priests might partake of all sacrifices at the feast, excepting those which belonged to him whose course it was that week.

Deuteronomy 18:8 . Like portions — With their brethren, who were in actual ministration: as they share with them in the work, so shall they in the encouragements. Besides that which cometh — The reason of this law was, because he that waited on the altar, ought to live by the altar; and because it was fit he should keep his money, wherewith he might redeem what he sold, if afterward he saw occasion for it. Mr. Henry adds a remarkable note here, especially considering he wrote upward of fourscore years ago. “A hearty, pious zeal to serve God and his church, though it may a little encroach upon a settled order, and there may be somewhat in it that looks irregular, yet ought to be gratified, and not discouraged. He that loves dearly to be employed in the service of the sanctuary, in God’s name let him minister. He shall be as welcome to God as the Levites, whose course it is to minister, and should be so to them.”

Like portions, to wit, with their brethren who were in actual ministration; as they share with them in the work, so shall they also in the encouragements. Beside that which cometh of the sale of his patrimony; though he have an estate whereby he may subsist raised by the sale of his house in his city, and his cattle, and other movables, yet you shall not upon this ground either deny or diminish their part of your maintenance. The reason of this law was, partly because he that waited on the altar ought to live by the altar; and partly because it was fit he should keep his money, wherewith he might redeem what he sold, if afterwards he saw occasion for it. Heb. besides his sales by the fathers , i.e. of that which came to him by his fathers, or, according to his fathers , or, his father’s house; and these words may be joined not with the word immediately foregoing, but with the former part of the verse, the next word coming in by a kind of parenthesis, in this manner and order, Besides that which cometh by the sale of their goods, they shall have like portions to eat to what their brethren have, each of them eating according to his father’s house, i.e. a Gershonite shall eat with his brethren the Gershonites who are then ministering, and a Merarite with the Merarites, &c., and so there shall be no disturbance nor change in the appointed courses by their accession to the number.

Beside that which cometh of the sale of his patrimony - The Levites had indeed "no part nor inheritance with Israel," but they might individually possess property, and in fact often did so (compare 1 Kings 2:26 ; Jeremiah 32:7 ; Acts 4:36 ). The Levite who desired to settle at the place of the sanctuary would probably sell his patrimony when quitting his former home. The text directs that he should, notwithstanding any such private resources, duly enjoy his share of the perquisites provided for the ministers at the sanctuary, and as he was "waiting at the altar" should be "partaker with the altar" 1 Corinthians 9:13 .

6-8. if a Levite … come with all the desire of his mind—It appears that the Levites served in rotation from the earliest times; but, from their great numbers, it was only at infrequent intervals they could be called into actual service. Should any Levite, however, under the influence of eminent piety, resolve to devote himself wholly and continually to the sacred duties of the sanctuary, he was allowed to realize his ardent wishes; and as he was admitted to a share of the work, so also to a share of the remuneration. Though he might have private property, that was to form no ground for withholding or even diminishing his claim to maintenance like the other ministering priests. The reason or principle of the enactment is obvious (1Co 9:13). At the same time, while every facility was afforded for the admission of such a zealous and self-denying officer, this admission was to be in an orderly manner: he was to minister "as all his brethren"—that is, a Gershonite with Gershonites; a Merarite with Merarites; so that there might be no derangement of the established courses.

8 . They shall have ] Sam. LXX: he shall have . beside that which cometh of the sale of his patrimony ] a paraphrase of the difficult Heb.: beside his sales , or realised values , or prices, on the fathers (LXX, πλὴν τῆς πράσεως τῆς κατὰ πατριάν ). EVV.’s paraphrase is generally accepted; cp. Jeremiah 32:6-15 ; Jeremiah 37:12 (R.V.), which shows a priest from a rural sanctuary, who had removed to Jerusalem, possessing money of his own and by right of redemption able to buy land which a relative desired to sell. Dillm., rejecting the usual interpretation as too obvious, proposes ‘the money which he realised on such dues as had fallen to him from the families to whom he ministered at his home.’ A certain solution of the difficulty is hardly possible. Either we have an abbreviated legal formula the meaning of which is lost, or the text is corrupt. By small emendations, Steuern. ingeniously reads: ‘except those who are idolatrous priests and necromancers.’ This is agreeable to the spirit of D, guards against an easy abuse of the law and is in harmony with the next law; but it has to be forced out of even the emended syntax. This law of D, establishing the rural Levites, who come to Jerusalem, in equal rank and privilege with their fellow-tribesmen already ministering there, was not carried out. 2 Kings 23:9 states that the priests of the high places came not up to the altar of Jehovah at Jerusalem but they did eat unleavened bread among their brethren .

Apparently the Jerusalem priests succeeded from the first in keeping off the rural Levites from the priestly function of sacrifice on the ground that the cults which they had served were idolatrous ( high places ); and exclusion from the altar involved of course exclusion from the priest’s share of the offerings. That they ate unleavened bread (the attempts to emend this text are unsatisfactory) with their brethren may imply some peculiar privilege of the priests; yet unleavened bread was not their food alone, and so the phrase more probably means that though shut out from priestly functions the rural Levites were not excommunicated from eating at the Passover, with their brother Levites and other Israelites. Ezekiel ( Ezekiel 44:10-14 ) excludes ‘Levites’ from the priesthood (confined by him to the sons of Zadok) and degrades them to inferior services about the Temple. We have already seen (on Deuteronomy 10:8 f.) how this inferiority was confirmed by P. Deuteronomy 18:8

As the priests were to be remembered for their service on the part of the people ( Deuteronomy 18:3-5 ), so the Levite also, who came from one of the towns of the land with all the desire of his soul to the place of the sanctuary, to minister there in the name of the Lord, was to eat a similar portion to all his Levitical brethren who stood there in service before the Lord. The verb גּוּר (sojourned) does not presuppose that the Levites were houseless, but simply that they had no hereditary possession in the land as the other tribes had, and merely lived like sojourners among the Israelites in the towns which were given up to them by the other tribes (see at Deuteronomy 12:12 ). "All his brethren the Levites" are the priests and those Levites who officiated at the sanctuary as assistants to the priests. It is assumed, therefore, that only a part of the Levites were engaged at the sanctuary, and the others lived in their towns. The apodosis follows in Deuteronomy 18:8 , "part like part shall they eat," sc., the new-comer and those already there. The former was to have the same share to eat as the latter, and to be maintained from the revenues of the sanctuary. These revenues are supposed to be already apportioned by the previous laws, so that they by no means abolish the distinction between priests and Levites.