Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Deuteronomy 18:8
They shall have like portions to eat, beside that which cometh of the sale of his patrimony.
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, ). EVV.’s paraphrase is generally accepted; cp. Jer 32:6-15; Jer 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. 2Ki 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 (Eze 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 Deu 10:8 f.) how this inferiority was confirmed by P.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 8. The sale of his patrimony.] So we find that, though the Levites might have no part of the land by lot, yet they were permitted to make purchases of houses, goods, and cattle, yea, of fields also. See the case of Abiathar, 1Kg 2:26, and of Jeremiah, Jer 32:7-8.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
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 fathers 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 fathers 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.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
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 comments on Lu 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.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(8) They shall have like portions to eat, beside that.The Levite thus dedicated was to have the same allowance from tithes as the rest who served at the tabernacle, beside the proceeds of the patrimony which he would have had in his own Levitical city.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
8. Besides that which cometh of the sale of his patrimony The passage is somewhat obscure, but it probably refers to the Levites who may have sold their houses in the Levitical cities and have gone to the central sanctuary to minister unto the Lord. Such were to be supported the same as the priests, reserving the money that came from the sale of their patrimony or house in case they wished to redeem it.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Deu 18:8 They shall have like portions to eat, beside that which cometh of the sale of his patrimony.
Ver. 8. Besides that. ] He shall not maintain himself of his own private stock, but live of the holy things of the temple.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
like portions: Lev 7:8, Lev 7:9, Lev 7:14, Neh 12:44, Neh 12:47, Luk 10:7, 1Co 9:7-14, 1Ti 5:17, 1Ti 5:18
that which cometh of the sale of his patrimony: Heb. his sales by the fathers
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Deu 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 Gods 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.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
18:8 They shall have like portions to eat, {d} beside that which cometh of the sale of his patrimony.
(d) Not forced to live from himself.