Numbers 18:7

Num 18:7 Therefore thou and thy sons with thee shall keep your priest’s office for every thing of the altar, and within the vail; and ye shall serve: I have given your priest’s office [unto you] as a service of gift: and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death.

Ver. 7. As a service of gift.] So our Saviour counts and calls his work a gift; "I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." {Joh 17:4} Any employment for, and about God, is a special favour, a high honour.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Numbers

SERVICE A GIFT

Num 18:7.

All Christians are priests-to offer sacrifices, alms, especially prayers; to make God known to men.

I. Our priesthood is a gift of God’s love.

We are apt to think of our duties as burdensome. They are an honour and a mark of God’s grace.

1. They are His gift-

{a} The power to do. All capacities and possessions from Him.

{b} The wish to do. ‘Worketh in you to will.’

{c} The right to do, through Christ.

2. They are a blessing.

{a} Note the good effects on ourselves-the increase of fellowship with Him, the strengthening of all holy desires.

{b} The future benefits. Apply this to prayer and to effort on behalf of our fellow-men.

II. Our priesthood is to be done as a service-under a sense of obligation to a master, with diligence {an [Greek: ergon], not a [Greek: parergon]}.

III. Our priesthood is to be done as a gift to God-to be done joyfully, giving ourselves back to Him: ‘Yield yourselves unto God’-’your reasonable service.’

Then only do we really possess ourselves, and ‘all things are ours, for we are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.’

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18:7 Any unauthorized person . . . will be put to death: This verse warned Israelites at all levels in the sacred hierarchy to avoid areas where they were not allowed. Certain sacred places were off limits to those not qualified in a technical religious sense. Access to the most sacred areas was restricted, set apart for the holiest members of the religious community. Those who broke that taboo violated God’s holiness at the cost of their lives (see also 1:51, 53; 3:10, 29-38; 4:1-20).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Or, gift.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

(7) And within the vail.—i.e., the vail which separated the holy place from the most holy. The word which is employed in this place (parocheth) is used only of the second vail. (See Lev_16:12.) When the outer vail or hanging is designed to be understood, the word used is masak. The reference appears to be to the whole of the priestly duties which were discharged by Aaron and his sons, from those connected with the altar of burnt offering to those which were performed in the most holy place.

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

7. shall keep your priesthood] i.e. perform its distinctive duties.

within the veil] viz. the first hanging, at the entrance to the Holy Place. The Levites were debarred from entering any part of the tent, and from contact with the altar of burnt-offering in the court.

as a service of gift] The expression (if the text be correct) emphasizes the fact that the priests had done nothing to deserve these privileges; they were a free gift. The LXX. suggest a different reading—‘Ye shall perform the acts of service (as a) gift of your priesthood’; but the meaning is substantially the same. S. Paul gives similar teaching with regard to Christian privileges, 1Co_4:7.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Therefore thou and thy sons with thee shall keep your priest's office,.... Observe all the duties of it, and keep out others from intruding into it:

for everything of the altar: both of incense and of burnt offering with respect to burning incense on the one, and offering sacrifices on the other; both were to be done by priests, and by no other:

and within the vail; in the most holy place, where the high priest entered but once a year, and he only with incense, and the blood of sacrifices, see Heb 9:7,

and ye shall serve; do all the business that is to be done at either altar, whether in the court, or in the holy place, and whatsoever is to be done in the most holy place within the vail:

I have given your priest's office unto you as a service of gift; it was not what they had taken to themselves of their own will, or had thrust themselves into, but what the Lord had called them to, and had freely invested them with, see Heb 5:4,

and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death; any common person, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan; any Israelite, one that is a stranger from the priests, though a Levite, as Aben Ezra; such an one might not come either to the altar of burnt offering to offer any sacrifice upon it, or the altar of incense, to burn incense on that, or trim the lamps, or put the shewbread in order, or to do anything peculiar to the priest's office.

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

Priests. Hebrew, "you shall serve in the ministry of priests which I have given you." The office was not due to them on account of any superior merit. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

The altar, to wit, of burnt-offering, as appears from the following words.

Within the veil. This phrase elsewhere signifies the inward or second veil, but here it signifies either the outward veil only, or rather both the veils, the singular number being put for the plural, as when the altar is put for both the altars, as hath been noted; and so this phrase comprehends both the holy and the most holy place.

As a service of gift; as a gift which I have freely conferred upon you, and upon you alone; and therefore let no man henceforth dare either to charge you with arrogance and usurpation in appropriating this to yourselves, or to invade your office.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

7. Every thing of the altar — That is, in the first or priests’ court.

Within the vail — The holy of holies, accessible only to the high priest on the day of atonement. Lev_16:12, note.

As a service of gift — The office of the priest was not to be discharged from constraint as a duty, but freely and gladly as an avenue through which the loving soul might pour its gratitude to the Giver. Thus Paul deemed himself the recipient of undeserved “grace,” that he might preach, not among his kinsmen, whom he loved better than his own life, but among the despised Gentiles, “the unsearchable riches of Christ.” The highest Christian experience has not been reached when the opportunity of the humblest service to Christ is not joyfully received as a gracious privilege. When the wife begins to care for the household from mere duty, and not from love to her husband, her home becomes a prison.

The stranger — All persons except the sons of Aaron. See Num_1:51, note.

Shall be put to death — Not by the verdict of a human tribunal, but by the judgment of God. See Num_4:18, note. In the days of Ezekiel God complains of the flagrant violation of this law, when strangers and people uncircumcised in heart and in flesh polluted the sanctuary. Eze_44:7.

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

Shall keep your priests" office for everything of the altar, and within the vail. That the Levites were made over to Aaron and his sons to relieve them of a great part of the mere routine and drudgery of their service was to be with them an additional and powerful motive for doing their priestly work so reverently and watchfully as to leave no excuse for sacrilegious intrusion. The altar (of burnt offering) and "that within the vail (of. Heb_6:19) were the two points between which the exclusive duties of the priesthood lay, including the service of the holy place. A service of gift. A service which was not to be regarded as a burden, or a misfortune, or as a natural heritage and accident of birth, but to be received and cherished as a favour accorded to them by the goodness of God.

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

The altar - Of burnt-offering. Within the veil - This phrase here comprehends both the holy and the most holy place. As a gift which I have freely conferred upon you, and upon you alone; and therefore let no man henceforth dare either to charge you with arrogance in appropriating this to yourselves, or to invade your office.

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

עבדת מתנה [I HAVE GIVEN YOUR PRIESTHOOD UNTO YOU] AS A SERVICE OF GIFT — This means as a gift have I given it to you, [and the stranger that comes near shall die].

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

I GIVE YOU THE PRIESTHOOD AS A SERVICE OF GIFT. “[This means that] it shall be to you as a gift.” This is Rashi’s language, and his intention thereby is to state that it is given to you as a complete gift, [to such an extent] that [as the verse continues], a non-priest who draws near [to do the service] will be liable to be put to death [by the hand of Heaven]. The correct interpretation appears to me to be that He is saying: “and you shall perform the service of the priesthood, but it is not to be regarded by you as a burdensome task, like that imposed upon the servants of kings, but I have given you the service of a great gift through it, for glory and for splendor, 28:2. from Me.” This is similar to the interpretation of the Rabbis: “L’moshchah — as a distinction, [so that gifts given to the priests from the offerings are to be eaten by them] in the way that kings eat.”

Ramban (Nachmanides) on the Tanakh — English translation: “Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.