(30) As the increase of the threshing-floor.--As the tithe rendered to the priests was to be regarded in the same light as if it had been the produce of their own labour (Numbers 18:27), so what remained after the heave-offerings had been duly set apart was to be reckoned as much the property of the Levites, and to be treated in the same manner, as the corn of the threshing-floor and the wine of the wine-press of the rest of the Israelites.
Verse 30. - Thoushalt say unto them,i.e., to the Levites. When they had dedicated their tithe of the best part, the rest was theirs exactly as if they had grown it and gathered it themselves.
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.
Therefore thou shalt say unto them,.... The Targum of Jonathan is,"thou shalt say to them the priests;''but the words seem manifestly spoken to the Levites:
when ye have heaved the best thereof from it; taken out the tenth part of it, and that the best:
then it shall be counted unto the Levites as the increase of the threshing floor, and as the increase of the wine press; then what remains shall be reckoned as much their own, and may be as lawfully enjoyed, as the corn of the threshing floor, and the wine of the wine fat, of any Israelite whatever.
when ye have heaved the best thereof from it; taken out the tenth part of it, and that the best:
then it shall be counted unto the Levites as the increase of the threshing floor, and as the increase of the wine press; then what remains shall be reckoned as much their own, and may be as lawfully enjoyed, as the corn of the threshing floor, and the wine of the wine fat, of any Israelite whatever.