Numbers 18

All the sons of Aaron formed the order of the PRIESTS. They stood between the high priest on the one hand and the Levites on the other. The dress which they wore during their ministrations consisted of linen drawers, with a close-diting cassock, also of linen, white. This came nearly to the feet, and was to be worn in its garment shape. The white cassock was gathered round the body with a girdle of needle-work, into which, as in the more gorgeous belt of the high priest, blue, purple, and scarlet were intermingled with white, and worked in the form of flowers. Upon their heads they were to wear caps or bonnets in the form of a cup-shaped flower, also of fine linen. In all their acts of ministration they were to be bare-footed. P. S.—Their’s was the business of sacrificing, in all its rites, in all offerings upon the altar of burnt-offerings. The government and ordering of the sanctuary lay upon them. They kept the table of shew-bread properly supplied; they attended to the lamps of the golden candelabrum every morning; at the same time they burned the daily incense. It was their duty to keep up the fire upon the brazen altar, that the fire originally kindled from heaven might never be extinguished. It was their office to make the holy anointing oil; and theirs to blow the silver trumpets at the solemn feasts and before the ark at its removals. Bush.

The priests were middle-men; they had an exceptional privilege of Divine approach; they represented God to man, and man to God. Every sacrifice presented through the priest was presented to Jehovah by the appointed medium of legal access. Cave.—When the priest received the sacrifice for the altar at the hand of the worshipper in the court, he acted as the representative of God; but when he entered the holy place, it was as the representative of the people. Personally, the priests were in no better position in things pertaining to God than the rest of the people; only in their official capacity as representatives of the entire congregation they entered the tabernacle. And accordingly they dare not enter it except in certain vestments and after certain ceremonies, which were all intended to invest with a symbolic holiness those who should as representatives of Israel enter the holy place. So that, when the congregation of Israel saw a priest, clothed in white robes, after offering a sacrifice on the altar and washing hands and feet at the laver before the door, entering the holy place, where were the table and the candlestick and the golden altar, they were taught the precious truth that there was a way open for them, through sacrifice and by washing, of entering with the white robes of holiness into the presence of the Most High, there to sit at his table, rejoice in his light, and worship at his altar. J. M. G.

When, conscious of some trespass, a Hebrew took his offering to the altar, the priest could not refuse to present it. That priest was “ordained for men in things pertaining to God,” and on very purpose to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. Nor was it a reason for declining to interpose that the man was poor, or unacquainted with the ritual, or that he was a great transgressor. The worse he was and the more ignorant, the greater his need of the priest’s ministry. So our great High Priest knows not any kind of guilt for which an expiation was not rendered when once for all he offered up himself, and there is no sinner of Adam’s family whom he does not deem entitled to plead the power of that atonement, and whom he does not make welcome to all the services which his mediatorial enthronement can render and his irresistible intercession can procure. Hamilton.—He who is the Mediator is also the High Priest of his people; and while partaker of flesh and blood like the brethren, yet being the Holy One of God, He needed no offerings and ablutions to consecrate him to the office of priesthood. He had, in the constitution of his person, everything that could be desired to render him the proper Head and High Priest of his people. As the beloved Son of God, he has at all times free access to the presence of the Father, and in whatever he asks must also have power as a prince to prevail. As the representative of his people, and one in nature with themselves, they can at all times make known with confidence to him the sins and sorrows of their condition, and recognizing what is his as also theirs can rise with filial boldness to realize their near relationship to God, and their full participation in the favor and blessing of heaven.

The Priesthood the Appointed Teachers of the People (Lev. 10 : 11).

It was not the sole end of the appointment of the priesthood to represent the people in the sanctuary, and mediate between them and God in holy things. It belonged also to their office to secure the diffusion among the people of sound knowledge and instruction; so that there might be a right understanding among the people of the nature of God’s service, and a fitness for entering in spirit into its duties, while the priests were personally employed in discharging them. A certain amount of such knowledge was necessary, in order that the people might be disposed to bring their gifts and offerings at suitable times; and a still greater, that, in the presentation of these by the hand of the priests, they might be blessed as acceptable worshippers. With the oversight of this, therefore, so nearly connected with their sacred employments about the tabernacle, the priesthood were charged: “And that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord hath spoken unto them by the hand of Moses” (Lev. 10:11). So again in De. 33:10, “They shall teach Jacob thy judgments, and Israel thy Law.” The words of Malachi (2:7) also are express on this point: “For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the Law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts.” P. F.

Nu. 18:1. Thou and thy sons shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary. They must be answerable for its legal pollutions, and make the necessary atonements and expiations. Though they had a high office, yet it was a place of the highest responsibility; and they must not be high-minded, but fear. A. C.—God would have the sanctuary kept clear from every stain and defect. The priests were set over the holy things as guardians. If anything were done amiss they were to be exposed to punishment, because the blame rested on them. This may be properly applied to all pastors, to whom blame is justly imputed if religion and the holiness of God’s worship be corrupted, if purity of doctrine impaired, if the welfare of the people endangered, since the care of all these things is intrusted to them. Calv.

Charges Respecting Ceremonial Defilement, Bodily Unfitness, and Cleansing (Lev. 21: 1-24; 22: 1-9).

Chapter twenty-one contains two brief communications addressed to Moses for Aaron and his sons. The first refers to the sanctity to be maintained by the priests in their personal relations to others, and consists of two parts; the first applying to the priests in general (1-9); the second to the high-priest in particular (10-15). The second communication refers to the personal qualities of the priests (16-24). M.

1-15. Certain restrictions of an external kind were laid upon the priests, as to avoiding occasions of bodily defilement; such as contact with the dead, excepting in cases of nearest relationship; cutting and disfiguring the hair of the beard, as in times of mourning; marrying a person of bad fame, or one that had been divorced. And the high-priest, as being in his own person the most sacred, was still further restricted, so that he was not to defile himself even for his father or mother, and should marry only a virgin. These observances were enjoined as palpable symbols of the holiness in social life, which became those who stood so near to the Holy One of Israel. P. F.—Special purity became those who represented the person of Christ. It seems as if God here gave precepts respecting small and unimportant things; but the legal rites were steps by which the Israelites might ascend to the study of true holiness. The use of the ancient shadows under the Law must be estimated by their end. Calv.—These regulations have for their object to keep inviolate the sacredness and respectability of the priesthood. And their obvious moral is that still the ministers of religion should study to signalize themselves by the superior virtue and holiness of their lives. T. C.

As the whole people—in bodily purity, in the avoiding of all pollution, in the sexual relations, or through touching the dead—were continually reminded of sin and exhorted to inward holiness; so was the priestly order, and among them the high-priest, to be distinguished from all the people by higher requirements, to a more perfect separation from all that was defiling, either actually or figuratively, and also by outward faultlessness. The requirement of bodily cleanliness from the priest was not simply out of a sense of propriety, but contained likewise, as in the case of the sacrifices, a deeper symbolical meaning. There was to be nothing of a bodily kind in the servants of the Lord, which by its unseemliness could remind them of the kingdom of sin, from which all evil, as well as death, had its origin. Gerl.—The special ministers of the Most High were to keep themselves at a distance from everything that savored in the least of uncleanness in the estimation of the people, lest they should countenance that which they were set apart to prevent. Bush.

God requires cheerfulness in his service, especially under the Gospel, where he sits upon a throne of grace, and acts the covenant of grace and the sweet relation of a Father. The priests of old were not to sully themselves with any sorrow when they were in the exercise of their functions. Indeed, there is no Christian duty but is to be set off and seasoned with cheerfulness. Charnock.

2. But for his kin that is near unto him. Defilement was contracted by coming into a tent or house where a dead body lay, or by touching or bearing the dead. The rule here laid down constitutes an exception to the general statute. It would have been an extreme privation for one of the priestly order to have been prohibited from paying the last offices of affection to a parent, a child, a brother, or sister. It is a beautiful exemplification of the great principle that God would “have mercy and not sacrifice,” where the claims of both came in competition.

6. They shall not make baldness. This was enacted that they might not adopt the customs of the heathen. In Lev. 19:28 this is made a general law, not peculiar to the priests. 6. Heb. The fire (offerings) of Jehovah, (even) the food of their God. Thus by a bold figure are the sacrificial offerings denominated which were devoured by fire to the honor of God; and nothing could be said tending to give a higher idea of their office, or consequently to impose upon them more solemnly the duty of an exemplary sanctity in all their deportment.

8. Thou shalt sanctify him therefore. That is, thou, Israel, shalt hold and repute him as holy, and shalt do all in thy power to keep up the sacred estimation in which for his office s sake he is held. Bush.

9. She shall be burned with fire. It seems very doubtful whether this and other texts of the same import in the early books of the Old Testament express the punishment of burning alive, or of the ignominious burning of the body after execution. In Josh. 7:15 it is declared that the unknown person who had taken of the accursed thing should be “burned with fire;” and when the man was discovered, we find this intention executed not by burning him alive, but by stoning him first and then burning his remains. Kit.

13. As the high-priest was a type of Christ, his wife, who was to be a virgin, was a type of the Church; wherefore the apostle says (2 Cor 11:2), “I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you a chaste virgin to Christ.” 15. He shall not render his sons unfit for the priesthood by marrying contrary to the rules above laid down. For I the Lord do sanctify him—that is, have separated him to my service. Bush.

Bodily Defects Disqualifying for the Priesthood.

Verses 16-24.

There were personal marks and distinctions of a bodily kind, the possession of which was necessary to qualify any one for the priesthood, and the absence of which was to prove an utter disqualification. These, when not possessed, bespoke his rejection of God in the peculiar sense required for the priestly office. Such were all kinds of bodily defects; it was declared a profanation of the altar or the sanctuary for any one to draw near in whom they appeared. For completeness of bodily parts is to the body what holiness is to the soul. To the acquirement or the promotion of this holiness as the perfection of man’s spiritual nature, the whole of the Mosaic institutions were bent. And as signs and witnesses to Israel concerning it, those who occupied the high position of being at once God’s and the people’s representatives must bear upon their persons that external symbol of the spiritual perfection required of them. P. F.—A further reason is to be found in the fact, that the priests, both in their persons and their work, were types of him who was the “Lamb without blemish and without spot,” holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. Bush.

Further Directions Respecting the Ministrations of the Priests (Lev. 22:1-9).

2. The precept has respect to such of the priests as were ceremonially unclean. During the time that this uncleanness was upon them they were to abstain from eating the holy things which ordinarily belonged to the priests.

3-9. The priest thus rendered unclean was to remain like other Israelites in a state of separation for a day—i.e., till sunset, and be incapable of all priestly offices and privileges till he had washed his clothes and his body, and this under the penalty of “bearing sin,” or suffering condign punishment by being cut off by the immediate hand of God, as a bold profaner of his service. Bush.

Strangers, Sojourners, and Hired Servants Interdicted from Eating the Holy Things (Lev. 22:10-16).

Nu. 18 : 21. All the tenth in Israel. The dedication of the tithe had been handed down from patriarchal times. Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek : Jacob had promised the tithe of all wherewith God blessed him if he should return in peace to his father’s house. But now first the Lord’s tithes are assigned to the Levites for their support. Espin.—God would have them receive tithes from the rest of the people, because they had no part in Israel, and because they were engaged in the service of the tabernacle. God, who as their King laid claim to the tithes as his own right, resigns them to the Levites and appoints them to be his representatives. To this the words, “I am thine inheritance,” refer. Calv.

Their maintenance was such as left them altogether d sentangled from the affairs of this life; they had no grounds to occupy, no land to till, no vineyards to dress, no cattle to tend, no visible estate to take care of, and yet had a plentiful income. Thus God ordered it. That they might be the more entirely addicted to their ministry, and not diverted from it by any worldly care or business: the ministry requires a whole man. That they might be examples of living by faith, not only in God’s Providence but in his ordinance. They lived from hand to mouth that they might learn to take no thought for the morrow; and they had no estates to leave their children that they might by faith leave them to the care of that God who had fed them all their lives long. H.

De. 18:1, 2. The priests the Levites, and all the tribe of Levi. It is here made apparent that the difference between the priests and Levites was quite understood by the writer of Deuteronomy. Espin.—That, moreover, such distinction was actually designed here is proven by the context. In verses 3-5, where the maintenance of the priests is under consideration, they are spoken of apart from their tribal brethren, the Levites. Subsequently (verses 6-8) the case is exactly reversed, the Levites being spoken of to the exclusion of the priests. The passage, so far from helping the hypothesis of Kuenen, when correctly quoted offers a fatal objection to it. E. C. B.

No portion nor inheritance with Israel. God shows that there was no reason why the Israelites should be aggrieved at paying tithes to the Levites, and at remitting the first-fruits and other oblations to the priests, since this tribe was deprived of their inheritance. Calv.—Three considerations the Levites rendered to the rest of the Israelites for whatever they received from them. (1) The tribe of Levi gave up to the other tribes their whole share of the promised land, except so much as was sufficient to afford them a place of habitation. (2) They parted with the right of an independent government such as the other tribes enjoyed, and completely sunk their political existence. (3) They gave up themselves to the national service, as ministers of religion, ministers of State, magistrates, teachers of the people, and literati of all the faculties; services the most laborious, responsible, and useful to the commonwealth.

For all this they received a simple annuity, liberal it may be but depending solely upon the national faith for its payment, while they divested themselves of all power of re-entry in case of non-payment. Let the benefits surrendered and the services performed be weighed in just balances, and the rent-roll of the tribe of Levi will appear rather below than above the demands of reason and justice. E. C. W.

Nu. 18:21. This law, it is alleged, differs so both in content and character from De. 14:22-29 that it cannot be supposed that Moses could have enacted both; and as the enactment in Numbers is undoubtedly the original, that in Deuteronomy must belong to a later age (Bleek). That these two laws differ from each other is indisputable, and the difference is such that, supposing them to relate to the same object, there is no possibility of harmonizing them; the one must exclude the other. But it is conceivable that Moses, after enacting the general law of tithes as a provision for the Levites, should, in the prospect of the people settling in a rich and fertile land where the produce of their possessions would be great, prescribe the giving of an additional tithe, to be devoted to sacred festivity and for the benefit of the poor and needy, in which benefit the Levite was to share. That such an additional tithe was actually made and rendered by the Israelites in Palestine, appears certain from the testimony of the Talmudists and Josephus. There seems no doubt as to the existence of a second tithe among the Jews. What is called the “third tithe” (Josephus) was only “this second tithe converted into the poor tithe, to be given to and consumed by the poor at home” (Ginsburg). This being the case, we are justified in regarding the Law in Deuteronomy as an additional prescription for the benefit of the Levites, who as a tribe were without possessions in the land, as well as for the poor and destitute. As both laws were apparently in operation at a late period, the one obviously does not abrogate or exclude the other, and therefore there is no reason why both should not have been appointed by Moses. W. L. A.

Position, Office, and Work of the Levites.