Numbers 18:20

And the LORD spake unto Aaron, Thou shalt have no inheritance in their land, neither shalt thou have any part among them: I am thy part and thine inheritance among the children of Israel.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(20) Thou shalt have no inheritance . . . —Aaron is addressed in this verse as the representative of the priesthood. He himself did not enter into the land of Canaan.

I am thy part and thine inheritance . . . —All that are admitted into the number of Christ’s royal priesthood have God for their portion and inheritance—in life, in death, and throughout eternity. (Comp. Psalm 73:26; Psalm 142:5.)

Benson Commentary

Numbers 18:20. Thou shalt have no inheritance in their land — In the land of the children of Israel. You shall not have a distinct portion of land, as the other tribes shall. The reason of this law was partly because God would have them wholly devoted to his service, and therefore free from worldly encumbrances, partly because God had abundantly provided for them otherwise, by tithes, and first-fruits, and oblations, and partly that, by this means, being dispersed among the several tribes, they might have the better opportunity for teaching and watching over the people. I am thy part — I have appointed thee a liberal maintenance out of my oblations.

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

I am thy part and thine inheritance - Compare the marginal references.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

19. it is a covenant of salt—that is, a perpetual ordinance. This figurative form of expression was evidently founded on the conservative property of salt, which keeps meat from corruption; and hence it became an emblem of inviolability and permanence. It is a common phrase among Oriental people, who consider the eating of salt a pledge of fidelity, binding them in a covenant of friendship. Hence the partaking of the altar meats, which were appropriated to the priests on condition of their services and of which salt formed a necessary accompaniment, was naturally called "a covenant of salt" (Le 2:13).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

In their land, i.e. in the land of the children of Israel, mentioned Numbers 18:13. You shall not have a distinct and separate portion of land, as the other tribes shall. The reason of this law was, partly, because God would have them wholly devoted to and employed in his service, and therefore; free from worldly encumbrances and businesses; partly, because God had abundantly provided for them otherwise by tithes and first-fruits and oblations of all sorts; partly, because God would have their worldly comfort and happiness depend singly upon him and his service, and so would; oblige them to use more zeal and diligence in the advancement of piety, even for their own interest, which was either better or worse as true religion flourished or decayed; see Judges 17:9,10 19:18 2 Chronicles 13:9 30:22 31:4; partly, that this might be a firm bond of hearty love and affection between the people and their teachers, the Levites, who, as they performed religious services for the people, so they received their subsistence from them; and partly, that by this means being dispersed among the several tribes, they might have the better opportunity for teaching and watching over the people, which was their duty, Deu 33:10 2 Chronicles 30:22 Malachi 2:4-7.

I am thy part, i.e. I have appointed thee a liberal maintenance out of my oblations.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the Lord spake unto Aaron,.... What is said, being what concerned the tribe of Levi, at the head of which Aaron was, even concerning the maintenance of the Levites:

thou shalt have no inheritance in their land; in the land of Israel when they come to possess it, as the rest of the tribes had:

neither shalt thou have any part among them; any part of the land when it is divided by lot, as it was in the times of Joshua, when taken from the Canaanites; no tract of land was peculiarly assigned to them as were to the other tribes, as fields, nor vineyards; they had cities appointed them, and they had houses and fields devoted to the Lord which fell to them, and others they had by gift or legacy, or by purchase, as had Jeremiah the priest and Barnabas the Levite, Jeremiah 32:9 Acts 4:36; but they had no share in the distribution of the land of Canaan at the time of the division of it among the tribes; no, not even in the spoil of the cities of the land of Canaan, when they were conquered; this Maimonides (n) says they were warned not to take; and a son of Levi that took any part of the spoil was to be beaten; but the spoil of other lands, subdued by the kings of Israel, they might take, as other Israelites did: the reason of all this was, because they had a sufficient provision made for them in another way, and that they might not be entangled in worldly affairs, or spend their time in the culture of fields and vineyards, but wholly give themselves to the service of God in his house:

I am thy part and thine inheritance among the children of Israel; in things temporal, the offerings, tithes, firstfruits, &c. which were given to the Lord, being bestowed upon them; and in things spiritual, they being employed in the work and service of God, and having a peculiar nearness to him, and communion with him: so all that are made priests unto God, as all believers in Christ are, 1 Peter 2:5, have God for their portion and inheritance; God, in his persons and in all his perfections, and under every character, as the God of nature, providence, and grace, is the portion of his people; and a rich, large, and satisfying portion he is, and which is inexhaustible, and will endure for ever; he is their portion in life and at death, in time and to all eternity; see Psalm 73:26.

(n) Hilchot Shemittah Veyobel, c. 13. sect. 10, 11.

Geneva Study Bible

And the LORD spake unto Aaron, Thou shalt have no inheritance in their {l} land, neither shalt thou have any part among them: I am thy part and thine inheritance among the children of Israel.

(l) Of Canaan.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

20. The reason why the priests are to receive all these dues is that they are to possess no landed property in Canaan. Cf. Numbers 26:62, Joshua 14:3. This ordinance, however, did not exclude the assignment of certain cities, with their surrounding land, to the priests and Levites (Numbers 35:1-8, Joshua 21:1-42).

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 20. - Thou shalt have no inheritance in their land. The priests had of necessity homes wherein to live when not on duty, but they had no territory of their own in the same sense as Jews of other tribes. I am thy part and thine inheritance. Septuagint, ἐγὼ μερίς σου καὶ κληρονομία σου. This is not to be explained away, as if it meant only that they were to live "of the altar." Just as the priests (and in a lesser sense all the Levites) were the special possession of the Lord, so the Lord was the special possession of the priests; and inasmuch as all the whole earth belonged to him, the portion of the priests was, potentially in all cases, actually for those who were capable of realizing it, infinitely more desirable than any other portion. The spiritual meaning of the promise was so clearly felt that it was constantly claimed by the devout in Israel, irrespective of their ecclesiastical status (cf. Psalm 16:5; Lamentations 3:24, &c.). Numbers 18:20

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

For this reason, Aaron was to received no inheritance in the land among the children of Israel. Aaron, as the head of the priests, represents the whole priesthood; and with regard to the possession, the whole tribe of Levi is placed, in Numbers 18:23, on an equality with the priests. The Levites were to receive no portion of the land as an inheritance in Canaan (cf. Numbers 26:62; Deuteronomy 12:12; Deuteronomy 14:27; Joshua 14:3). Jehovah was the portion and inheritance, not only of Aaron and his sons, but of the whole tribe of Levi (cf. Deuteronomy 10:9; Deuteronomy 18:2; Joshua 13:33); or, as it is expressed in Joshua 18:7, "the priesthood of Jehovah was their inheritance," though not in the sense that Knobel supposes viz., "the priesthood with its revenues," which would make the expression "Jehovah, the God of Israel" (Joshua 13:33), to be metonymical for "sacrificial gifts, first-fruits, and tenths." The possession of the priests and Levites did not consist in the revenues assigned to them by God, but in the possession of Jehovah, the God of Israel. In the same sense in which the tribe of Levi was the peculiar possession of Jehovah out of the whole of the people of possession, was Jehovah also the peculiar possession of Levi; and just as the other tribes were to live upon what was afforded by the land assigned them as a possession, Levi was to live upon what Jehovah bestowed upon it. And inasmuch as not only the whole land of the twelve tribes, with which Jehovah had enfeoffed them, but the whole earth, belonged to Jehovah (Exodus 19:5), He was necessarily to be regarded as the greatest possession of all, beyond which nothing greater is conceivable, and in comparison with which every other possession is to be regarded as nothing. Hence it was evidently the greatest privilege and highest honour to have Him for a portion and possession (Bhr, Symbolik, ii. p. 44). "For truly," as Masius writes (Com. on Josh.), "he who possesses God possesses all things; and the worship (cultus) of Him is infinitely fuller of delight, and far more productive, than the cultivation (cultus) of any soil."