Only unto the tribe of Levi he gave none inheritance; the sacrifices of the LORD God of Israel made by fire are their inheritance, as he said unto them.
Only unto the tribe of Levi he gave none inheritance. This interjectional remark was probably occasioned by the circumstance of nine and one-half tribes being mentioned in Joshua 13:7, and then two and a-half tribes in Joshua 13:15-31 of this chapter, among whom the land was to be divided; and as there was now a 13th tribe, in consequence of Joseph's posterity forming two tribes, there was a necessity for a statement of the sources whence a provision for this special tribe was to be derived (see the notes at Leviticus 18:30,33; Numbers 18:21-32: cf. Leviticus 27:30; see also the note at Joshua 13:33).