There shall no stranger eat of the holy thing: a sojourner of the priest, or an hired servant, shall not eat of the holy thing.
There shall no stranger eat of the holy thing. The portion of the sacrifices assigned for the support of the officiating priest was restricted to the exclusive use of his own family. They were a provision for the ministers and servants of the king, whom he maintained in and about his palace. A temporary guest or a hired servant was not at liberty to eat of them; but an exception was made in favour of a bought or home-born slave, because such was a stated member of his household. On the same principle, his own daughter, who married a husband not a priest, could not eat of them, though, if a widow and childless, she was reinstated in the privileges of her father's house, as before her marriage. But if she had become a mother, as her children had no right to the privileges of the priesthood, she was under a necessity of finding support for them elsewhere than under her father's roof.