Numbers 18:20-24

Duties of the Levites

18:20 The Lord spoke to Aaron, “You will have no inheritance in their land, nor will you have any portion of property ¹  among them – I am your portion and your inheritance among the Israelites. 18:21 See, I have given the Levites all the tithes in Israel for an inheritance, for their service which they perform – the service of the tent of meeting. 18:22 No longer may the Israelites approach the tent of meeting, or else they will bear their sin ²  and die. 18:23 But the Levites must perform the service ³  of the tent of meeting, and they must bear their iniquity. ⁴  It will be a perpetual ordinance throughout your generations that among the Israelites the Levites ⁵  have no inheritance. ⁶  18:24 But I have given ⁷  to the Levites for an inheritance the tithes of the Israelites that are offered ⁸  to the Lord as a raised offering. That is why I said to them that among the Israelites they are to have no inheritance.”

Numbers 35:2-8

35:2 “Instruct the Israelites to give ⁹  the Levites towns to live in from the inheritance the Israelites ¹⁰  will possess. You must also give the Levites grazing land around the towns. 35:3 Thus they will have towns in which to live, and their grazing lands will be for their cattle, for their possessions, and for all their animals. 35:4 The grazing lands around the towns that you will give to the Levites must extend to a distance of 500 yards ¹¹  from the town wall.

35:5 “You must measure ¹²  from outside the wall of the town on the east 1,000 yards, ¹³  and on the south side 1,000 yards, and on the west side 1,000 yards, and on the north side 1,000 yards, with the town in the middle. ¹⁴  This territory must belong to them as grazing land for the towns. 35:6 Now from these towns that you will give to the Levites you must select six towns of refuge to which a person who has killed someone may flee. ¹⁵  And you must give them forty-two other towns.

35:7 “So the total of the towns you will give the Levites is forty-eight. You must give these together with their grazing lands. 35:8 The towns you will give must be from the possession of the Israelites. From the larger tribes you must give more; and from the smaller tribes fewer. Each must contribute some of its own towns to the Levites in proportion to the inheritance allocated to each.

Deuteronomy 10:9

10:9 Therefore Levi has no allotment or inheritance ¹⁶  among his brothers; ¹⁷  the Lord is his inheritance just as the Lord your God told him.

Deuteronomy 14:27-29

14:27 As for the Levites in your villages, you must not ignore them, for they have no allotment or inheritance along with you. 14:28 At the end of every three years you must bring all the tithe of your produce, in that very year, and you must store it up in your villages. 14:29 Then the Levites (because they have no allotment or inheritance with you), the resident foreigners, the orphans, and the widows of your villages may come and eat their fill so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work you do.

Deuteronomy 18:1-2

Provision for Priests and Levites

18:1 The Levitical priests ¹⁸  – indeed, the entire tribe of Levi – will have no allotment or inheritance with Israel; they may eat the burnt offerings of the Lord and of his inheritance. ¹⁹  18:2 They ²⁰  will have no inheritance in the midst of their fellow Israelites; ²¹  the Lord alone is their inheritance, just as he had told them.

Joshua 13:14

13:14 However, Moses ²²  did not assign land as an inheritance ²³  to the Levites; their inheritance ²⁴  is the sacrificial offerings ²⁵  made to the Lord God of Israel, as he instructed ²⁶  them.

Joshua 13:33

13:33 However, Moses did not assign land as an inheritance ²⁷  to the Levites; their inheritance ²⁸  is the Lord God of Israel, as he instructed ²⁹  them.

Joshua 14:3

14:3 Now Moses had assigned land ³⁰  to the two-and-a-half tribes east of the Jordan, but he assigned no land ³¹  to the Levites. ³² 

[18:20]  ¹ tn The phrase “of property” is supplied as a clarification.

[18:22]  ² tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive construct of the verb “to bear” with the lamed (ל) preposition to express the result of such an action. “To bear their sin” would mean that they would have to suffer the consequences of their sin.

[18:23]  ³ tn The verse begins with the perfect tense of עָבַד (’avad) with vav (ו) consecutive, making the form equal to the instructions preceding it. As its object the verb has the cognate accusative “service.”

[18:23]  ⁴ sn The Levites have the care of the tent of meeting, and so they are responsible for any transgressions against it.

[18:23]  ⁵ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Levites) has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[18:23]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew text uses both the verb and the object from the same root to stress the point: They will not inherit an inheritance. The inheritance refers to land.

[18:24]  ⁷ tn The classification of the perfect tense here too could be the perfect of resolve, since this law is declaring what will be their portion – “I have decided to give.”

[18:24]  ⁸ tn In the Hebrew text the verb has no expressed subject (although the “Israelites” is certainly intended), and so it can be rendered as a passive.

[35:2]  ⁹ tn The verb is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive: “command…and they will give,” or “that they give.”

[35:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Israelites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[35:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “one thousand cubits.” The standard cubit in the OT is assumed by most authorities to be about eighteen inches (45 cm) in length, so this would be a distance of 1,500 feet or 500 yards (675 meters).

[35:5]  ¹² tn The verb is the Qal perfect of מָדַד (madad, “to measure”). With its vav (ו) consecutive it carries the same instructional force as the imperfect.

[35:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “two thousand cubits” (also three more times in this verse). This would be a distance of 3,000 feet or 1,000 yards (1,350 meters).

[35:5]  ¹⁴ sn The precise nature of the layout described here is not altogether clear. V. 4 speaks of the distance from the wall as being 500 yards; v. 5, however, describes measurements of 1,000 yards. Various proposals have been made in order to harmonize vv. 4 and 5. P. J. Budd, Numbers (WBC), 376, makes the following suggestion: “It may be best to assume that the cubits of the Levitical pasture lands are cubit frontages of land – in other words on each side of the city there was a block of land with a frontage of two thousand cubits (v 5), and a depth of 1000 cubits (v 4).”

[35:6]  ¹⁵ tn The “manslayer” is the verb “to kill” in a participial form, providing the subject of the clause. The verb means “to kill”; it can mean accidental killing, premeditated killing, or capital punishment. The clause uses the infinitive to express purpose or result: “to flee there the manslayer,” means “so that the manslayer may flee there.”

[10:9]  ¹⁶ sn Levi has no allotment or inheritance. As the priestly tribe, Levi would have no land allotment except for forty-eight towns set apart for their use (Num 35:1-8; Josh 21:1-42). But theirs was a far greater inheritance, for the Lord himself was their apportionment, that is, service to him would be their full-time and lifelong privilege (Num 18:20-24; Deut 18:2; Josh 13:33).

[10:9]  ¹⁷ tn That is, among the other Israelite tribes.

[18:1]  ¹⁸ tn The MT places the terms “priests” and “Levites” in apposition, thus creating an epexegetical construction in which the second term qualifies the first, i.e., “Levitical priests.” This is a way of asserting their legitimacy as true priests. The Syriac renders “to the priest and to the Levite,” making a distinction between the two, but one that is out of place here.

[18:1]  ¹⁹ sn Of his inheritance. This is a figurative way of speaking of the produce of the land the Lord will give to his people. It is the Lord’s inheritance, but the Levites are allowed to eat it since they themselves have no inheritance among the other tribes of Israel.

[18:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “he” (and throughout the verse).

[18:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “brothers,” but not referring to actual siblings. Cf. NASB “their countrymen”; NRSV “the other members of the community.”

[13:14]  ²² tn Heb “he”; the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[13:14]  ²³ tn Heb “did not assign an inheritance.”

[13:14]  ²⁴ tn That is, “their source of food and life.”

[13:14]  ²⁵ tn Or “offerings made by fire.”

[13:14]  ²⁶ tn Or “promised” (Heb “spoke”).

[13:33]  ²⁷ tn Heb “Moses did not assign an inheritance.” The word “land” has been supplied in the translation to clarify what the inheritance consisted of.

[13:33]  ²⁸ tn That is, “their source of food and life.”

[13:33]  ²⁹ tn Or “as he promised”; Heb “as he spoke to.”

[14:3]  ³⁰ tn Or “assigned an inheritance.”

[14:3]  ³¹ tn Or “no inheritance.”

[14:3]  ³² tn The Hebrew text adds, “in their midst.”