The Sanctuary’s Gifts Come with a Charge to Keep

The LORD speaks to Aaron directly, without Moses between, as he does again in verses 8 and 20 and in Leviticus 10:8. “Bear the iniquity” is nasa avon, to carry guilt, the phrase used of the goat that “shall bear upon him all their iniquities” in Leviticus 16:22.

“Joined unto thee” is yillavu, a play on the name Levi, from lavah, to join. Leah named Levi with the same verb in Genesis 29:34: “Now this time will my husband be joined unto me.”

“Keep thy charge” is shamar mishmeret, to guard a guard post: the Levites’ work is sentry duty as much as carrying. They could carry the holy vessels wrapped (4:15) but not handle them bare or serve at them.

Here the outsider is any Israelite who is not a Levite, and the Levites are posted to keep him back. “Joined” plays on Levi’s name for the second time in three verses.

“Wrath” is qetsef, the word of 16:46, “there is wrath gone out from the LORD”. “Any more” looks straight back at the plague that Aaron had just stopped with his censer.

“I, behold, I have taken” doubles the pronoun: the Levites are God’s choice, not Aaron’s. “Given as a gift” is netunim, “given ones”, the word of 3:9 and 8:16; later temple servants were called Nethinim from the same root (Ezra 2:43).

“Within the vail” is the inner sanctuary, entered by the high priest alone on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:2). “A service of gift” is avodat mattanah: the priesthood itself is described as a gift, using the same word as for gifts brought by the people.

“The charge of mine heave offerings” uses mishmeret, the guard word of verse 3: the priests stand watch over the gifts as well. “By reason of the anointing” is lemoshchah, which can also mean “as a portion”, as in Leviticus 7:35.

“Reserved from the fire” means the parts of the most holy offerings not burned on the altar. “Oblation” is qorban, the general word for anything brought near, from qarav. “Trespass offering” is asham, the guilt offering that came with restitution (Leviticus 5:14–16).

“Every male shall eat it” limits these portions to the priests themselves. Leviticus 6:18 had said the same of the grain offering: “All the males among the children of Aaron shall eat of it.”

“Wave offerings” are tenufah, portions moved toward the altar and back in a gesture of presentation. Daughters are included here, a wider circle than the males of verse 10; Leviticus 22:12–13 adds that a daughter married outside the priesthood loses the right and regains it if widowed or divorced and childless.

“The best” is literally “the fat”, chelev, the word used for the fat burned on the altar: the fat of the oil, the fat of the wine and grain, their richest part. “Firstfruits” is reshit, “beginning”, the word that opens Genesis 1:1.

“First ripe” is bikkurim, fruit picked as it ripens, distinct from the reshit of verse 12, which the Mishnah takes as processed produce. Deuteronomy 26:1–11 gives the words to be said when bringing them in a basket.

“Devoted” is cherem, anything given irrevocably to God, which could be neither sold nor redeemed (Leviticus 27:28). It is the root behind Hormah in 14:45; here a devoted field or object passes to the priests.

“Openeth the matrix” is petter rechem, the first to open the womb; “matrix” is the old English word for womb. The claim rests on the night of the Egyptian firstborn, as Exodus 13:2 and 13:15 explain it.

A gerah is a small weight, perhaps about half a gram, so five shekels comes to roughly two ounces of silver. “From a month old” is the age from which Levite boys were first counted in 3:15.

“They are holy” means these animals belong to the LORD from birth, so there is nothing to buy back. For the same reason Leviticus 27:26 forbids offering a firstling as a vow: it was never the owner’s to give.

The wave breast and right shoulder are the priest’s share of a peace offering (Leviticus 7:31–34). The firstling’s flesh goes wholly to the priest, as those portions do. “Shoulder” is shoq, which is more likely the thigh.

Salt preserves and does not decay. Leviticus 2:13 requires it on every grain offering as “the salt of the covenant of thy God”, and 2 Chronicles 13:5 calls David’s kingdom a gift “by a covenant of salt”.

“Part” is chelek, a share, the lot of land given at the division; “inheritance” is nachalah. Psalm 16:5 turns the sentence into a prayer: “The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup.”

Abram gave Melchizedek “tithes of all” in Genesis 14:20, and Jacob vowed a tenth at Bethel in Genesis 28:22. Here the tenth of Israel’s produce becomes a standing wage, given “for their service which they serve”.

“Henceforth” answers the cry of 17:13 directly: ordinary Israelites will no longer come near, and so will not die. “Bear sin” is the phrase of verse 1, now used of the people who would bear it if the Levites did not.

“They shall bear their iniquity” is ambiguous: the Levites carry the Israelites’ guilt for any approach, or their own for failing to guard. Either way they stand between. “A statute for ever” fixes their landless state as permanent.

The tithe is called their inheritance, nachalah, the word for the land they will not receive. Joshua 14:4 records that the Levites later received only towns with pasture land, as 35:1–8 will command.

The LORD now speaks to Moses rather than Aaron. The Levites’ own giving is laid down through Moses, perhaps so that Aaron is not made to demand his income from them himself.

“A tenth part of the tithe” is literally “a tithe from the tithe”, maaser min hamaaser, so one hundredth of Israel’s produce comes to the priests. Nehemiah 10:38 records the Levites bringing it “unto the house of our God”.

“Reckoned” is chashav, the verb of Genesis 15:6, where the LORD “counted it to him for righteousness”: the tithe is credited as though the Levites had grown it. “Fulness of the winepress” is melea, a word Exodus 22:29 also uses for the first of the vat.

“Thus ye also” is gam atem, “you too”: the Levites join the rest of Israel as givers. Jewish tradition calls this portion terumat maaser, the heave offering of the tithe, due to the priest.

“Out of all your gifts” includes everything the Levites receive, not grain and wine alone. The best tenth must be chosen before anything else is eaten: “the hallowed part thereof out of it”.

The comparison of verse 27 is repeated with a change: “the increase of the threshingfloor”, its yield, rather than its grain. What remains after the best is taken counts as the Levites’ own ordinary harvest.

Unlike the most holy portions of verse 10, eaten only by priests in a holy place, the Levites’ remainder is ordinary food for any household. “Reward” is sakhar, wages, the word Jacob used for his hire from Laban in Genesis 30:28.

“Pollute” is chillel, to profane, to make common. “Bear no sin” answers verse 22’s “lest they bear sin”, and “lest ye die” answers the fear of 17:13 for the last time in the chapter.