Numbers 5:9

And every offering of all the holy things of the children of Israel, which they bring unto the priest, shall be his.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

5:1-10 The camp was to be cleansed. The purity of the church must be kept as carefully as the peace and order of it. Every polluted Israelite must be separated. The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable. The greater profession of religion any house or family makes, the more they are obliged to put away iniquity far from them. If a man overreach or defraud his brother in any matter, it is a trespass against the Lord, who strictly charges and commands us to do justly. What is to be done when a man's awakened conscience charges him with guilt of this kind, though done long ago? He must confess his sin, confess it to God, confess it to his neighbour, and take shame to himself; though it go against him to own himself in a lie, yet he must do it. Satisfaction must be made for the offence done to God, as well as for the loss sustained by the neighbour; restitution in that case is not enough without faith and repentance. While that which is wrongly gotten is knowingly kept, the guilt remains on the conscience, and is not done away by sacrifice or offering, prayers or tears; for it is the same act of sin persisted in. This is the doctrine of right reason, and of the word of God. It detects hypocrites, and directs the tender conscience to proper conduct, which, springing from faith in Christ, will make way for inward peace.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Whereby an atonement shall be made for him - literally, "which shall clear him of guilt as to it," i. e. as to the trespass.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

9, 10. every offering … shall be his—Whatever was given in this way, or otherwise, as by freewill offerings, irrevocably belonged to the priest.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Heb. every heave offering, the heave-offering being here taken largely, so as to comprehend also the wave-offering for both of these were Aaron’s portion. See Exodus 29:26-28.

Unto the priest to wit, to offer unto the Lord by his hands.

Shall be his, i.e. the priest’s. See Leviticus 6:16.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And every offering of all the holy things of the children of Israel,.... Of the holy sacrifices brought by them to be offered up; that part of them which is elevated, heaved, or waved, as the heave shoulder and wave breast:

which they bring unto the priest, shall be his; what they bring to him to offer for them shall be his who performs the service, even that part of them which is his due.

Geneva Study Bible

And every offering of all the {d} holy things of the children of Israel, which they bring unto the priest, shall be his.

(d) Or, things offered to the Lord, as first fruits, etc.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

9. every heave-offering] every contribution. The Heb. terûmâh is derived from a root signifying ‘to lift up, or off,’ and denotes that which is lifted off from a larger mass, and separated or contributed for sacred purposes. LXX. in the Pentateuch renders it by ἀφαιρεμα. It is used of gifts taken from the produce of the earth (Numbers 15:19-21 (P ), Deuteronomy 12:6; Deuteronomy 12:11), of money, spoils, &c. dedicated to Jehovah (Numbers 31:19; Numbers 31:41; Numbers 31:52), of the Levites’ tithe (Numbers 18:24), of the priests’ share of the tithe (Numbers 18:26-29), of materials for the Tabernacle (Exodus 25:2 f., Numbers 35:5; Numbers 35:21; Numbers 35:24) and for the second temple (Ezra 8:25), of the half shekel for defraying the expenses of the Tabernacle services (Exodus 30:13 ff.), and even of land reserved for the priests and Levites (Ezekiel 45:1; Ezekiel 45:6, &c.). As applied to animal sacrifices, the term is employed only of the shoulder of the peace-offering (Numbers 6:20, Exodus 29:27, Leviticus 7:34; Leviticus 10:14 f.). See Driver’s article ‘Offer’ in Hastings’ DB. iii. 588.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 9. - Every offering. Hebrew, terumah, heave offering (Exodus 29:28). Septuagint, ἀπαρχὴ. Those offerings, or portions of offerings, which were not consumed on the altar, but "presented" at the altar. Having been offered, they were the property of the Lord, and were given by him to the priests. Numbers 5:9

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Restitution in Case of a Trespass. - No crime against the property of a neighbour was to remain without expiation in the congregation of Israel, which was encamped or dwelt around the sanctuary of Jehovah; and the wrong committed was not to remain without restitution, because such crimes involved unfaithfulness (מעל, see Leviticus 5:15) towards Jehovah. "If a man or a woman do one of the sins of men, to commit unfaithfulness against Jehovah, and the same soul has incurred guilt, they shall confess their sin which they have done, and (the doer) shall recompense his debt according to its sum" (בּראשׁו, as in Leviticus 6:5), etc. האדם מכּל־חטּאת, one of the sins occurring among men, not "a sin against a man" (Luther, Ros., etc.). The meaning is a sin, with which a מעל was committed against Jehovah, i.e., one of the acts described in Leviticus 6:3-4, by which injury was done to the property of a neighbour, whereby a man brought a debt upon himself, for the wiping out of which a material restitution of the other's property was prescribed, together with the addition of a fifth of its value, and also the presentation of a sin-offering (Leviticus 6:4-7). To guard against that disturbance of fellowship and peace in the congregation, which would arise from such trespasses as these, the law already given in Leviticus 6:1 is here renewed and supplemented by the additional stipulation, that if the man who had been unjustly deprived of some of his property had no Gol, to whom restitution could be made for the debt, the compensation should be paid to Jehovah for the priests. The Gol was the nearest relative, upon whom the obligation rested to redeem a person who had fallen into slavery through poverty (Leviticus 25:25). The allusion to the Gol in this connection presupposes that the injured person was no longer alive. To this there are appended, in Numbers 5:9 and Numbers 5:10, the directions which are substantially connected with this, viz., that every heave-offering (Terumah, see at Leviticus 2:9) in the holy gifts of the children of Israel, which they presented to the priest, was to belong to him (the priest), and also all the holy gifts which were brought by different individuals. The reference is not to literal sacrifices, i.e., gifts intended for the altar, but to dedicatory offerings, first-fruits, and such like. את־קדשׁיו אישׁ, "with regard to every man's, his holy gifts...to him (the priest) shall they be; what any man gives to the priest shall belong to him." The second clause serves to explain and confirm the first. את: as far, with regard to, quoad (see Ewald, 277, d; Ges. 117, 2, note).