Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Numbers 31:30
And of the children of Israel’s half, thou shalt take one portion of fifty, of the persons, of the beefs, of the asses, and of the flocks, of all manner of beasts, and give them unto the Levites, which keep the charge of the tabernacle of the LORD.
One portion of fifty; whereas the former part was one of five hundred: the reason of the difference is, partly because this was taken out of the peoples portion, whose hazards being less than the others, their gains also in all reason were to be less; partly because this was to be distributed into more hands, the Levites being now numerous, when the priests were but few.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And of the children of Israel’s half, thou shall take one portion of fifty,…. Which was abundantly more than what was taken out of the part of the soldiers; and the reason of it is plain and easy to be discerned; the soldiers had taken much pains, and gone through much fatigue, as well as had hazarded their lives, and therefore less was to be taken from them; and besides the tribute levied out of their half was to be given to the priests, who were not so numerous as the Levites, among whom the part out of the half of the congregation was to be distributed:
of the persons; of the women, as the Targums of Jonathan, one of fifty out of them was to be given to the Levites to be their handmaids, or to be taken in marriage by them, or their sons, when fit for it:
of the beeves, of the asses, and of the sheep, of all manner of beasts; of oxen, asses, sheep, and goats, one out of fifty of each of these sorts were to be taken. Aben Ezra observes, no mention is made of camels, being but few, and no part taken:
and give them unto the Levites, which keep the charge of the tabernacle of the Lord; for these being employed in the service of the tabernacle, came in for their share of the tribute levied unto the Lord.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(30) One portion of fifty.The Levites were much more numerous than the priests, and consequently it was ordered that they should have two per cent. of the spoil which fell to the congregation, whereas the priests had only one-fifth percent, of a like amount. The portion of the Levites, therefore, was 320 maidens, 6,750 sheep and goats, 720 oxen, and 610 asses.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
30. One of fifty, unto the Levites Two per cent. of the spoils shall be given by the people to Levi, the priestly tribe. These in turn, according to law, (chap. Num 18:26-28,) would give a tenth of their receipts, or a five hundredth of the whole booty, to the priests, making their entire receipts two five hundredths of the whole. But in this case the law was not applied, as appears from the following allotment of the spoils:
Sheep. Beeves. Asses. Persons. Whole number 675,000 72,000 61,000 32,000 To the army 337,500 36,000 30,500 16,000 To the people 337,500 36,000 30,500 16,000 To the Levites 6,750 720 610 320 To Jehovah 675 72 61 32 If the Levites gave a tithe of their portion to Jehovah, of which we have no record in this case, his portion would have been double that which is shown in the account. The spoils, strictly so called, armour, household goods, clothing, and money were not divided in common, but belonged to the individual captors. We are not to suppose that the above scheme includes the sheep and beeves consumed by the army in the field, but only those brought to the camp on the plains of Moab. The enormous quantity of the booty indicates the strength of the foe and the magnitude of the victory.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Num 31:30. Of the children of Israel’s half, thou shall take one portion of fifty The congregation, not having hazarded their lives, are enjoined to part with ten times as much as those who went to battle, and in such a proportion as the number of them that went to battle held to the whole number of warriors, which was about the fiftieth part; for that is the proportion between the twelve thousand men of war, and the whole company of warriors, which make up the number of six hundred thousand and upwards, ch. 26: See Bishop Kidder.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
of the. Some codices, with Samaritan Pentateuch, The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate, read “and of the”.
tabernacle = habitation. Hebrew. mishkan. App-40.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
one portion: Num 31:42-47
flocks: or, goats
and give: Num 31:28, Num 18:24-28, 1Co 9:13, 1Co 9:14
keep the: Num 3:7, Num 3:8, Num 3:25, Num 3:31, Num 3:36-39, Num 18:1-5, Num 18:23, 1Ch 9:27-29, 1Ch 23:32, 1Ch 26:20-27, Act 20:28, 1Co 4:2, Col 4:17, Heb 13:17
Reciprocal: Num 1:53 – and the Num 8:26 – to keep Num 31:32 – the booty Num 31:47 – kept the charge 1Ch 26:26 – over all the treasures 2Ch 14:15 – carried away
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
31:30 And of the children of Israel’s half, thou shalt take {l} one portion of fifty, of the persons, of the beeves, of the asses, and of the flocks, of all manner of beasts, and give them unto the Levites, which keep the charge of the tabernacle of the LORD.
(l) The Israelites who had not been at war, of every fiftieth paid one to the Lord: and the soldiers one of every five hundred.