Ezekiel 44:28-30 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

It shall be unto them for an inheritance, &c. Their ministry in my sanctuary, and the perquisites thereto belonging, shall be to them instead of lands and inheritances, of which they shall not have any share, as the other tribes have, (see the margins) excepting the portion allotted to them in the beginning of the following chapter. They shall eat the meat-offering, &c. They shall have their share of them, after the part dedicated to God has been consumed upon the altar. And every dedicated thing shall be theirs Whatsoever men dedicate to God, the use of it shall accrue to the priests; if it be a living creature, it shall be killed, and the priests shall have the benefit of it; if a piece of land, it shall belong to the priests: see the margin. And the first of all the first-fruits, &c. The word בכורים, translated first-fruits, signifies the first ripe, or best of the fruits, while they were growing in the field: see the margin. The latter word, תרומה, rendered oblation, denotes an offering out of the product of the ground after it was made fit for use; as out of the corn, after it was threshed and laid in heaps in the floor or granary; and so of oil and wine, after they were pressed and fitted to be used. Ye shall also give unto the priests the first of your dough The first dough that you bake of the new corn every year, in the same proportion as in other first-fruits. That he may cause a blessing to rest on thy house That the priest, whose office it is to bless the people in God's name, may pray for and bless thee and thy family. Observe, reader, it is all in all to the comfort of any house to have the blessing of God upon it, and that blessing to rest in it; to dwell where we dwell, and to extend to those that shall come after us. And the way to have the blessing of God upon our estates is, to honour God with them, and to give him and his ministers, him and his poor, their share out of them. God blesses, he surely blesses, the habitation of those who are thus just, or righteous, Proverbs 3:33; and ministers, by instructing and praying for the families that are kind to them, should do their part toward causing God's blessing to rest there.