Numbers 18:26

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Moreover you shall speak to the Levites, and tell them, When you take of the children of Israel the tithe which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then you shall offer up a heave-offering of it for Yahweh, a tithe of the tithe.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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הַֽמַּעֲשֵׂ֗ר

maʻăsêr

H4643

“the · tithe”

Particle, Definite Article + Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute

Appears 32× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 14:20

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H6240

TWOT: 1711h

tithe, tenth part - tenth part - tithe, payment of a tenth part

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

24: words
18: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Shared distinctive vocabulary

הַֽמַּעֲשֵׂ֗ר tithe H4643 occurs in 27 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

5 verbs
9 nouns
7 prepositions
1 conjunction
2 particles

Verb forms

תְּדַבֵּר֮ Piel · Imperfect
וְאָמַרְתָּ֣ Qal · Sequential Perfect
תִ֠קְחוּ Qal · Imperfect
נָתַ֧תִּי Qal · Perfect
וַהֲרֵמֹתֶ֤ם Hiphil · Sequential Perfect

Repetition

Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

הַֽמַּעֲשֵׂ֗ר tithe H4643 ×3
וְאֶל to H413 ×2
מֵאֵ֨ת with H854 ×2
מִמֶּ֨נּוּ֙ from H4480 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 46 words from the Hebrew and 48 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 24 Hebrew tokens and 34 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Numbers 18:26 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Nehemiah 10:38 The priest the son of Aaron shall be with the Levites, when the Levites take tithes: and the Levites shall bring up the tithe of the tithes to the house of our God, to the chambers, into the treasure-house.
Numbers 18:21 To the children of Levi, behold, I have given all the tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service which they serve, even the service of the tent of meeting.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Numbers 18:26 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וְאֶל הַלְוִיִּ֣ם תְּדַבֵּר֮ וְאָמַרְתָּ֣ אֲלֵהֶם֒ כִּֽי תִ֠קְחוּ מֵאֵ֨ת בְּנֵֽי יִשְׂרָאֵ֜ל אֶת הַֽמַּעֲשֵׂ֗ר אֲשֶׁ֨ר נָתַ֧תִּי לָכֶ֛ם מֵאִתָּ֖ם בְּנַחֲלַתְכֶ֑ם וַהֲרֵמֹתֶ֤ם מִמֶּ֨נּוּ֙ תְּרוּמַ֣ת יְהוָ֔ה מַעֲשֵׂ֖ר מִן הַֽמַּעֲשֵֽׂר

Moreover you shall speak to the Levites, and tell them, When you take of the children of Israel the tithe which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then you shall offer up a heave-offering of it for Yahweh, a tithe of the tithe.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Numbers 18:26 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ὁ λευίτης λαλέω καί εἶπον πρός αὐτός ἐάν λαμβάνω παρά ὁ υἱός ἰσραήλ ὁ ἐπιδέκατος ὅς δίδωμι σύ παρά αὐτός ἐν κλῆρος καί ἀποαἱρέω σύ ἀπό αὐτός ἀφαίρεμα κύριος ἐπιδέκατος ἀπό ὁ ἐπιδέκατος

You shall also speak to the Levites, and shall say to them, If you⌃ take the tithe from the children of Israel, which I have given you from them for an inheritance, then shall you⌃ separate from it a heave-offering to the Lord, a tenth of the tenth.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וּלְלֵוָאֵי תְּמַלֵיל וְתֵימַר לְהוֹן אֲרֵי תִסְבוּן מִן בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל יָת מַעַשְׂרָא דִי יְהָבִית לְכוֹן מִנְהוֹן בְּאַחֲסַנְתְּכוֹן וְתַפְרְשׁוּן מִנֵיהּ אַפְרָשׁוּתָא קֳדָם יְיָ מַעַשְׂרָא מִן מַעַשְׂרָא

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וּלְלֵיוָאֵי תְמַלֵיל וְתֵימַר לְהוֹן אֲרוּם תִּסְבוּן מִן בְּנֵי יִשְרָאֵל יַת מַעַשְרָא דִיהָבִית לְהוֹן בְּאַחְסַנְתְּהוֹן וְתִפְרְשׁוּן מִינֵיהּ אַפְרָשׁוּתָא קֳדָם יְיָ מַעַשְרָא מִגוֹ מַעַשְרָא

Speak to the Levites, and bid them take from the sons of Israel the tenth which I have given them for their possession; and (then) shall you separate from it a separation before the Lord, a tenth from the tenth;

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Numbers 18:26 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Joseph Benson's Commentary

Num 18:26. Ye shall offer up a heave-offering — They who are employed in assisting the devotions of others, must be sure to pay their own as a heave- offering. Prayers and praises, or rather the heart lifted up in them, are now our heave-offerings.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown

the Levites . . . offer . . . a tenth of the tithe--Out of their own they were to pay tithes to the priests equally as the people gave to them. The best of their tithes was to be assigned to the priests, and afterwards they enjoyed the same liberty to make use of the remainder that other Israelites had of the produce of their threshing-floors and wine-presses.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(26) Even a tenth part of the tithe.—Better, a tithe of the tithe.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And this your heave offering,.... The tithe of the tithe, which though not properly heaved or lifted up, as the heave offerings, strictly so called, were, any more than the tithe itself, Num 18:24; yet is so called, because separated to the use and service of the Lord, as they were:

shall be reckoned unto you, as though it were the corn of the threshingfloor, and as the fulness of the winepress; that is, it should be as acceptable to God as if they had fields and vineyards, threshing floors, and wine presses of their own, from whence corn and wine were taken, as the Israelites when they received their tithes from them; and what remained they had as good a right unto, and might make use of as their own, as well as they; see Num 18:30.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

26. A tenth part of the tithe — Ten per cent. of their income from the tithe and from all other sources was to be immediately paid over to the priests before the conscientious Levite could enjoy the remainder. Thus, though the position of the priests is higher, an essential portion of their sustenance was dependent on the honesty of the Levites. The priests were cared for sufficiently, but by no means abundantly. Compared with the endowments of the priestly caste in many other ancient nations, the provision for the Levitical priesthood is very moderate.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Pulpit Commentary

Ye shall offer up a heave offering of it for the Lord, even a tenth part of the tithe. Thus the principle of giving a tenth part of all to God was carried out consistently throughout the whole of his people.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Wesley's Explanatory Notes

Ye shall offer up an heave-offering - They who are employed in assisting the devotions of others, must be sure to pay their own as an heave-offering. Prayers and praises, or rather the heart lifted up in them, are now our heave-offerings.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Numbers, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 24 words (18 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is maʻăsêr (“tithe”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “tithe” (maʻăsêr) shape what this verse is saying?
How does Genesis 14:20, which shares the word «tithe», read alongside this verse?
What does the repetition of “tithe” (3× in this one verse) do in this verse?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
«תְּדַבֵּר֮» is a Piel Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Joseph Benson's Commentary and Jamieson, Fausset & Brown read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 24 Hebrew ↔ 34 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 19 words in this verse.
“tithe” occurs 3× in this single verse.
18 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 24 words in this verse.