John Gill Commentary Deuteronomy 18

The priests, the Levites, and all the tribe of Levi, shall have
no part nor inheritance with Israel
That is, in the land of Canaan, in the division of it among the tribes:

they shall eat the offerings of the Lord made by fire, and his
inheritance ;
the meat offerings, see (Leviticus 2:2Leviticus 2:3) (Leviticus 6:17Leviticus 6:18) , and whatsoever of the sin offerings and peace offerings which were the Lord's; so Ben Melech says, the flesh of the offerings which belonged to the priests was called fire offerings, after part of it was consumed by fire. All these, with other things, (Numbers 18:8Numbers 18:9) , were given, as the Targum of Jonathan expresses it, for their inheritance, in lieu of their having none in the land of Canaan.

Therefore shall they have none inheritance among their
brethren
Neither of the field, nor of the vineyard, as the above Targum, because provision was made for them otherwise, and especially because

the Lord is their inheritance, as he has said unto them ,
(See Gill on Numbers 18:20), which as it may be understood in a spiritual sense of their interest in God, as their covenant God, and of their enjoyment of him, and communion with him; so chiefly in a temporal sense of all those things in the sacrifices which the Lord claimed to himself, and these he gave unto them; so the same Targum interprets this of the twenty four gifts of the priesthood, enumerated (Numbers 18:1–32) .

And this shall be the priest's due from the people, from them
that offer sacrifice ;
Not from the priests, as Jarchi observes, but from those that bring the sacrifices to the priests,particularly the peace offerings:

whether it be ox or sheep ;
the one of the herd, the other of the flock, creatures used in sacrifice, and takes in goats and the kids ofthem, rams and lambs:

and they shall give unto the priest the shoulder, and the two cheeks,
and the maw ;
the first of these designs the upper part of the arm that joins to the neck and back, and the next the twocheeks with the tongue, as both Jarchi and Aben Ezra observe, and indeed the whole head is meant; the maw.

which the Septuagint interpreters call (enustron) , and other writers (hnustron) , is, according to the philosopher ^F16 , the fourth and lastventricle or stomach, and which he thus describes;``after the echinus or rough tripe is that which iscalled (hnustron) , the maw, which is in size larger than the echinus, and inform longer, and has many large and smooth folds;'' and (hnustron boov) , themaw of an ox, and the belly of a swine, are reckoned by the poet ^F17 as delicious food.

FOOTNOTES:

• F16: Aristot. Hist. Animal. l. 2. c. 17.
• F17: Aristophan. Equites, Act. 1. Sc. 3. p. 307. & Act. 4. Sc. 1. p. 355.

The firstfruit also of your corn, and of your wine, and of your
oil
This is the "terumah", or heave offering, the offering of the firstfruits; what the measure or quantity was is not declared, but is fixed by the Jews; (See Gill on Exodus 22:29),

and the first of the fleece of your sheep you shall give him:
concerning which in the Misnah ^F18 it is said, the first of the fleece is used in the land and without the land, of which they give the weight of five shekels in Judea, which are ten shekels in Galilee; and they give white wool, and not defiled, enough to make of it a little garment.

He that buys a fleece of the sheep of a Gentile, he is free from the first of the fleece; but if he buys it of his neighbour, if he leaves any of it, the seller is bound, if none the buyer is bound; if there are two sorts, russet and white, and he sells the russet but not the white, the males but not the females, everyone gives for himself. It may be observed in this account, that as much wool was to be given as would make a small garment; enough, says one of the commentators {s}, to make a little garment to minister in; and the least garment fit for a priest to minister in is a girdle.

Jarchi's paraphrase of it is, ``when you shear your flock every year, give the first of it to the priest; it does not determine the quantity, but our Rabbins fix it to the sixtieth part;'' with which agrees the observation of another writer ^F20 , that there is no quantity fixed for the first of the fleece from the law, but from the words of the Scribes it must not be less than the sixtieth part. There is no obligation to the first of the fleece until five sheep are shorn, and the fleece of everyone of the five must not be less than twelve shekels' weight; but if there is one fleece of them less than twelve shekels, though the five fleeces are more than sixty shekels, lo, this is free; so that, as Maimonides ^F21 says, the first of the fleece is not less than the weight of a shekel.

FOOTNOTES:

• F18: Cholin, c. 11. sect. 1, 2.
• F20: Ibid.
• F21: In Misn. ib.

For the Lord your God has chosen him out of all your tribes ,
&c.] That is, has chosen the tribe of Levi out of all the other tribes of Israel:

to stand to minister in the name of the Lord ;
the priests to minister to the Lord by offering sacrifices, and the Levites to minister to the priests in assisting them in their service; and both their ministry were in the name of the Lord, and for his glory, and done standing; for there was no sitting in the sanctuary ^F23 ; the priestly ministry was only performed standing ^F24 , whatever was done sitting was rejected {y}; see (Hebrews 10:11) ,

him and his sons for ever ;
Levi and his posterity, or the posterity of the tribe of Levi, were chosen by the Lord to this service, to be employed in it as long as the ceremonial law continued, on which stood the Levitical priesthood; but both are now abolished by Christ, having their accomplishment in him, (Hebrews 7:11) (12:18) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F23: Maimon. in Misn. Zebachim, c. 2. sect. 1.
• F24: Bartenora in ib.