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Numbers 18 · a question people ask

With no land, how did the priests and Levites live?

In the text

The chapter gives the priests the holy things: the most holy offerings to eat (18:9-10), the wave offerings for their sons and daughters (18:11), "all the best of the oil, all the best of the vintage, and of the grain" (18:12), the first-ripe fruits (18:13), everything devoted (18:14), and the firstborn (18:15-18). The Levites receive the tithe "in return for their service" (18:21). Later in Numbers the LORD also commands Israel "to give to the Levites cities to dwell in out of their inheritance" (35:2), "forty-eight cities together with their pasture lands" (35:7). And Moses tells Israel, "You shall not forsake the Levite who is within your gates, for he has no portion nor inheritance with you" (Deuteronomy 14:27).

The verses

““Command the children of Israel to give to the Levites cities to dwell in out of their inheritance. You shall give pasture lands for the cities around them to the Levites.”
Numbers 35:2 · World English Bible
“All the cities which you shall give to the Levites shall be forty-eight cities together with their pasture lands.”
Numbers 35:7 · World English Bible
“You shall not forsake the Levite who is within your gates, for he has no portion nor inheritance with you.”
Deuteronomy 14:27 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Numbers 18

Numbers 18: I am your portion

The priests and Levites got no land: the LORD told Aaron, "I am your portion and your inheritance" (18:20), and gave the Levites the tithe instead (18:21). Even they gave "a tithe of the tithe" (18:26), and Hebrews says Levi, "who receives tithes, has paid tithes" through Abraham (Hebrews 7:9).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions