Numbers 18:23

But the Levites shall do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they shall bear their iniquity: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations, that among the children of Israel they have no inheritance.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Numbers 18:23. Their iniquity — The punishment due not only for their own, but also for the people’s miscarriage, if it be committed through their connivance or negligence. And this was the reason why the priests withstood King Uzziah, when he would have burnt incense to the Lord.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

18:20-32 As Israel was a people not to be numbered among the nations, so Levi was a tribe to be distinguished from the rest. Those who have God for their Inheritance and their Portion for ever, ought to look with holy contempt and indifference upon the possessions of this world. The Levites were to give God his dues out of their tithes, as well as the Israelites out of their increase. See, in ver. 31, the way to have comfort in all our worldly possessions, so as to bear no sin by reason of them. 1. We must be sure that what we have is got honestly and in the service of God. That meat is best eaten which is first earned; but if any will not work, neither shall he eat, 2Th 3:10. 2. We must be sure that God has his dues out of it. We have the comfort of our substance, when we have honoured the Lord with it. Ye shall bear no sin by reason of it, when ye have heaved the best from it. We should give alms of such things as we have, that all may be holy and comfortable to us.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Bear their iniquity - The words probably refer to the iniquity of the people; who would, had they approached the tabernacle have fallen, from their proneness to transgress, into overt acts of offence. Against such a result they were, through the ministrations of the Levites, mercifully protected. Compare Numbers 18:1.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

23. But the Levites shall do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation: they shall bear their iniquity—They were to be responsible for the right discharge of those duties that were assigned to them, and consequently to bear the penalty that was due to negligence or carelessness in the guardianship of the holy things.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Their iniquity, i.e. the punishment due not only for their own, but also for the people’s miscarriage, if it be committed through their connivance or negligence. And this was the reason why the priests withstood king Uzziah, when he would have burnt incense to the Lord, 2 Chronicles 26:17,18.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

But the Levites shall do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation,.... In guarding the tabernacle, that no unclean persons enter into it, or any others take anything out of it, and in assisting the priests in their service, and carrying the vessels of the sanctuary when required:

and they shall bear their iniquity: that is, when they fail in the duty of their office, are not careful in their service and work, and business appointed them; if either they did not do their business themselves, or suffered others to do it, or such to come to the tabernacle who should not, they would be blameworthy and suffer for it:

it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations, that the children of Israel they have no inheritance; having such a plentiful provision made for them, by a statute as durable as this.

Geneva Study Bible

But the Levites shall do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they shall bear {n} their iniquity: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations, that among the children of Israel they have no inheritance.

(n) If they fail in their office, they will be punished.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 23. - And they shall bear (יִשְׂאוּ) their iniquity. The Levites were to take the responsibility of the general iniquity so far as approach to the tabernacle was concerned. They have no inheritance. Like the priests, they had homes and cities, and they had pasturages attached to these cities, but no separate territory. Numbers 18:23

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Revenues of the Levites. - For (חלף, instead of, for) their service at the tabernacle God assigns them "every tenth in Israel as an inheritance." On the tenth, see at Leviticus 27:30-33. The institution and description of their service in Numbers 18:22 and Numbers 18:23 is the same as that in Numbers 1:53 and Numbers 8:19. "Lest they bear sin:" see at Leviticus 19:17.