Numbers 35:8

Num 35:8 And the cities which ye shall give [shall be] of the possession of the children of Israel: from [them that have] many ye shall give many; but from [them that have] few ye shall give few: every one shall give of his cities unto the Levites according to his inheritance which he inheriteth.

Ver. 8. From them that have many ye shall give.] By the equity of this proportion, the richer are bound to give more to the minister’s maintenance than the poorer. Let this be noted by those that refuse to give anything to their ministers, because they have not those things, the tithes whereof the law requires for this purpose. See Gal 6:6, {See Trapp on "Gal 6:6"}

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.

the cities which ye shall give shall be of the possession of the children of Israel--The burden of furnishing those places for the residence and support of the Levitical order was to fall in equitable proportions upon the different tribes (see Num 33:54; Jos 20:7).

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

And the cities which ye shall give shall be of the possession of the children of Israel,.... What shall fall by lot for their inheritance, and they shall be possessed of; and though they are, shall not refuse, nor grudge to give them, according to the direction of God, whose the land is, they holding it under him:

from them that have many ye shall give many, but from them that have few ye shall give few; which rule was observed; for out of Judah, whose lot was large, and out of Simeon, whose inheritance was within that of Judah, because it was so large, nine cities were given, whereas out of the other tribes only four cities out of each were given, and out of one of them but three, see Jos 21:1,

everyone shall give of his cities unto the Levites, according to his inheritance which he inheriteth; and the Levites, being thus dispersed among the several tribes, were of great advantage to them, to instruct them in the knowledge of divine things; so that though hereby Jacob's curse on this tribe had its fulfilment, that it should be divided in Jacob, and scattered in Israel, yet that became a blessing to the rest of the tribes; see Gen 49:7.

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

Nine cities were eventually given to the Levites from the large joint inheritance of Judah and Simeon; three were taken from the territory of Naphtali, and the other tribes gave each four apiece.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ye shall give many: compare Num 33:54; Jos 20:2.

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

8. Many… many… few… few — According to Joshua xxi, Judah and Simeon, whose territorial allotments seem to have been blended very early, as predicted by Jacob, (Gen_49:5; Gen_49:7,) gave to the Levites nine of their cities, the other tribes gave four each, except Naphtali, who gave only three, making thirty-eight cities west of the Jordan. The eastern tribes gave ten. The thirteen given by Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin were assigned to the priests, being near the tabernacle and temple, and thirty-five to the three Levitical families. “Called out of the whole nation to be the peculiar possession of Jehovah, to watch over his covenant, and teach Israel his rights and his law, (Deu_31:9-13; Deu_33:8-10; Lev_10:11,) the Levites were to form and set forth among all the tribes the εκλογη (election) of the nation of Jehovah’s possession, and, by their walk as well as by their calling, to remind the Israelites continually of their own divine calling, to foster and preserve the law and testimony of the Lord in Israel, and to awaken and spread the fear of God and piety among all the tribes.” — Keil and Delitzsch. If the Levitical families had been completely isolated, they would have been in danger of spiritual declension. Their association was a safeguard against this evil.

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

And the cities which ye shall give shall be, &c. Rather, "And as to the cities which ye shall give from the possession of the children of Israel, from the many ye shall multiply, and from the few ye shall decrease." What seems to be a general rule of proportionate giving is laid down here, but it was not carried out, and it is not easy to see how it could have been. From the large combined territory of Judah and Simeon nine cities were indeed surrendered, ; (Jos 21) but all the rest, great and small, gave up four apiece, except Naphtali, which gave up three only. As the territory of Naphtali was apparently large in proportion to its numbers, this was probably for no other reason than that the tribe stood last on the list. Every one. Hebrew, vyai. It was in fact each tribe that surrendered so many cities, but since the tribal inheritance was the joint property of all the tribesmen, every man felt that he was a party to the gift. No doubt it was the Divine intention to foster in the tribes as far as possible this local feeling of interest and property in the Levites who dwelt among them. (compare the expression "their scribes and Pharisees" in Luk_5:30) The dispersion of the Levites (however mysteriously connected with the prophecy of Gen_49:5-7) was obviously designed to form a bond of unity for all Israel by diffusing the knowledge and love of the national religion, and by keeping up a constant communication between the future capital and all the provinces. According to the Divine ideal Israel as a whole was "the election" (h eklogh ) from all the earth, the Levites were the eklogh of Israel, and the priests the eklogh of Levi. The priestly family was at present too small to be influential, but the Levites were numerous enough to have leavened the whole nation if they had walked worthy of their calling. They were gathered together in towns of their own, partly no doubt in order to avoid disputes, but partly that they might have a better opportunity of setting forth the true ideal of what Jewish life should be.

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

General Information:

Yahweh continues telling Moses what the people must do.

translationWords

tribe

Israel

Levi

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

FROM THE MANY YE SHALL TAKE MANY, AND FROM THE FEW YE SHALL TAKE FEW. Here too, in the opinion of our Rabbis [the meaning is that] from the paternal families which received a large amount as their inheritance, they should take many [cities], as He mentioned according to your families, while each tribe received exactly the same amount of land [and therefore had to provide an equal number of cities for the Levites]. And although you will find in the Book of Joshua that the number of cities which they gave to the Levites was not equal, equal” is thus clear, as is proven in the cases of Judah, Shimon, and Naphtali. according to the number of tribes, that was because of the [different] value of the particular cities, since some were more important than the others, for the Land was divided according to its value. ). A proof to this is the fact that from [the tribes of] Judah, Shimon and Benjamin they gave thirteen cities [to the Levites], and from the tribes of Issachar, Asher, Naphtali, and the half-tribe of Menasheh, [also] thirteen [cities were given], and yet these [latter tribes] were larger than the former ones in their population. ), Shimon (Verse 14), and Benjamin (Verse 41) totalled 144,300. Issachar (Verse 25), Asher (Verse 47), and Naphtali (Verse 50) totalled 163,100. The complete tribe of Menasheh (Verse 34) totalled 52,700. Assuming that the half-tribe of Menasheh mentioned in Joshua was exact half [i.e., 26,350] we have a total for the latter group mentioned of 189,450, which is far more than the 144,300 of the first group. And from the tribe of Ephraim they gave four cities [to the Levites], and from the tribe of Dan four cities, Verses 23-24. and yet the children of Dan were double [the population] of the children of Ephraim., Verse 43)! Thus we must say that the cities were not given in proportion to the population of the tribes, but according to the appraised value of the city.

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.

Take more from a larger [holding]. They valued the portions monetarily, and the small amount of that tribe that had a small portion was equal in value to the larger portion, given to the Levites, of the tribe that had a larger inheritance.

Sforno on the Tanakh — English translation: “Yalkut, Sifsei Chachomim Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.