I have given the children of Levi all the tenth, &c.— The enemies of religion, availing themselves of some minute descriptions given by commentators of the revenue assigned to the tribe of Levi, have been forward to remark, that this revenue was excessive, and that the Levites were blood-suckers to their brethren; but a little attention will serve to convince us, that the constitutions of the law of Moses, upon this subject, were wise and just.
I. God, willing to be served suitable to his majesty, and having made choice of the tribe of Levi, and consecrated it to this service, thought it proper, on the one hand, that it should possess nothing as its own, in order that it might be solely occupied in the care of his worship; and on the other, that the members of that tribe might be dispersed over the country, in order to their being thereby better enabled to teach his law to his whole people. Nothing, therefore, was more just, than to furnish elsewhere the subsistence of the Levites; nothing more so, than to oblige the Israelites to provide it. This was an amends due to the Levites in return for their relinquishing a thirteenth part of the country which fell to them; a salary for their instructions; a recompense of their cares, in the daily service of the tabernacle. The whole question is, whether that which Moses assigned with these several views, was excessive? And we insist that it was not so.
II. What extremely enlarges the object in the eye of persons who stop at the surface of things, is, that some imagine, that all that the Levites received from the people was for themselves, and that they made a purse of it; not considering, that one part of the sacred revenues was employed for their frugal entertainment in the house of God, when they came, in their turns, to perform their regular service; that another part was appropriated to the use of the tabernacle, in keeping up its utensils and vessels; and that what remained served only to subsist the Levites in their families; 1. The first-fruits were an inconsiderable duty, being brought in a basket, Deuteronomy 26:2; Deuteronomy 26:19. These fruits were designed for feeding the Levites in waiting. They ate them in a holy place, in the presence of God, as was the designation of several other offerings. 2. The first-born, both of men and beasts, were another considerable revenue of the tabernacle. The first-born of clean beasts were sacrificed, and their flesh, with the first-fruits, served as the food of the priests in waiting, in the same manner as the lamb for the redemption of unclean beasts. As to the first-born of men, they were redeemed at five shekels a head; and these five shekels no way belonged to the Levites, but were put into the treasury, and employed to defray the expences of the tabernacle. The half shekel which the Israelites paid at the time of their numbering, had the like designation. Besides, the Levites paid it, as well as the rest; and those who think it was continued to be paid annually, are agreed, that it was always put to public use. We see then, 3. What were the means of subsistence for the priests and Levites when they were out of waiting. First, they had forty-eight cities, each of them forming a square of 4000 cubits, with 2000 cubits of ground round each: this was in all about 53,000 acres of ground. Now, upon the lowest calculation of the extent of the land of Canaan, it contained 11,264,000 acres of ground; so that the portion of the Levites was not as one to two hundred. Secondly, besides the cities and circumjacent grounds abovementioned, the Levites had the tenth of all the fruits; but there was hardly more than a thirtieth part of the country which produced things subject to the tenth; the rest consisted of pastures, woods, &c. So that the Levites did not gather the tenth for more than a third of the country. As to the beasts, of which they had also the tenth, those which had been once tithed, were never tithed again; so that this tenth, respecting only the cattle brought forth in the year, was not very considerable. Lastly, the two other sorts of tenths, employed at some sacred meals, did not enrich the Levites; they profited by them only as the friends of their inviters. Let us now see, therefore, whether the tribe of Levi had too great advantages. It was naturally to have the thirteenth part of the country, and from every 100£. to receive 6£. 10s. Instead of this, it received 10£. by levying the tythe; i.e. a little less than three and a half per cent. more than would otherwise have belonged to them. Was this too much for what they otherwise lost? The Levites had given up the advantage of independent government, which each of the other tribes enjoyed. They had nearly renounced all personal property; they had likewise renounced the profit they might have made by the cultivating of their own lands; they had trusted solely to the national faith, and the hazard of being ill paid; because, whatever misfortune befel their country, and in whatsoever quarter it happened, they must always feel it. Let any one estimate all this, and then judge whether the trifling advantage of three and a half per cent. could indemnify them for the losses we have been just hinting. It will be objected, perhaps, that they gathered the tenth without any trouble: but this advantage was fully counterbalanced, in other respects, by the charge of the tabernacle, and the care they bestowed to make themselves capable of instructing their brethren, as well as in giving them that instruction.
III. All that was really to be feared from this disposition, was, that the tribe of Levi, composed of persons who instructed others and were better versed than they in the study of the law, should gain too great an ascendancy over the rest of the tribes, and exercise an authority among them fatal to the nation. But God prevented this inconveniency: by dispersing the Levites, he made them dependant upon the tribe amidst whom they lived: by giving them no district of their own, and obliging them to receive their substance from all the other tribes, he caused them to preserve a proper respect: by this means, if they became refractory, they were constantly to be punished, either by withholding their tenths, or by seizing upon their persons. We are indebted for these reflections to Mr. Chais, who has abridged them from Mr. Lowman's excellent Dissertation on the Civil Government of the Hebrews, chap. 6:
REFLECTIONS.—The priests and Levites are forbidden all secular concerns, and can hold no inheritance, only the houses of the cities appointed them for a habitation. God was their portion; and he who has him for a portion, need not wish a better, and may well account all besides to be dung and loss. As the Levites' business is to keep charge of the tabernacle, and to prevent all profane intruders, they have their wages in the tenths of the produce of every kind; and out of these, a tenth of the best was offered for the priest's maintenance and accepted of God, as if the produce of their own lands; after which, the remainder was free for the use of the Levites and their families. Note; (1.) Out of the portion the Lord allots his ministers, they must be careful to honour him with a part. (2.) When we have dedicated to God a part of our substance, we may hope for his blessing and comfort in the use of the remainder.