🔢WEB · Numbers 18:31
What does Numbers 18:31 mean?
"You may eat it anywhere, you and your households, for it is your reward in return for your service in the Tent of Meeting."
— Numbers 18:31 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
Thus you also shall offer a wave offering to Yahweh of all your tithes, which you receive of the children of Israel; and of it you shall give Yahweh’s wave offering to Aaron the priest.
Out of all your gifts, you shall offer every wave offering of Yahweh, of all its best parts, even the holy part of it.’
“Therefore you shall tell them, ‘When you heave its best from it, then it shall be credited to the Levites as the increase of the threshing floor, and as the increase of the wine press.
You may eat it anywhere, you and your households, for it is your reward in return for your service in the Tent of Meeting.
You shall bear no sin by reason of it, when you have heaved from it its best. You shall not profane the holy things of the children of Israel, that you not die.’”
Explanation
Numbers 18:31 states that the Levites and their families are permitted to eat the portion of the tithe given to them in any location—not restricted to the tabernacle grounds—because this provision serves as their wages for the work they perform in the Tent of Meeting. In plain terms, God is telling the Levites that the food they receive from the people's offerings is legitimately theirs to consume as a household, wherever they happen to live, since they have earned it through their labor in the sanctuary.
This verse comes from a larger passage in Numbers 18 where Moses receives instructions from God concerning the priests and Levites. The book of Numbers was written to guide Israel during their wilderness journey, and chapter 18 specifically addresses how the priestly tribe of Levi would be supported financially, since they had no tribal land allotment like the other eleven tribes. Instead of farming or herding for income, the Levites were assigned to care for the tabernacle, assist the priests, and manage various sacred duties. To provide for them, God commanded the other tribes to give a tithe (a tenth) of their produce and livestock to the Levites, and the Levites in turn gave a tenth of that tithe to the priests (the descendants of Aaron). Verse 31 clarifies that
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