24 For the tithe of the children of Israel, which they offer as a wave offering to Yahweh, I have given to the Levites for an inheritance: therefore I have said to them, 'Among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.'"
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Here the tithes (and in Numbers 18:26 the priestly tithes) are to be dedicated to their purpose by the ceremony of heaving them to the Lord. The tithes, being solemnly set apart for sacred purposes, became virtually a heave-offering, like the gifts for the tabernacle Exodus 25:2.
But the tithe of the children of Israel,.... The tenth of the produce of their land, as before:
which they offer as an heave offering unto the Lord: by way of gratitude to him for giving them the land, and for making it so fruitful to them, and as an acknowledgment of his being the sovereign Lord and proprietor of it:
I have given to the Levites to inherit; so that the Levites had the tithe not immediately from the Israelites, nor were they dependent on them for them; but they were first given to the Lord, and then by him to the Levites, who held them of him, and not of the Israelites; and were a portion and an inheritance, settled upon them by the Lord himself, which they had as good a right and title unto as the rest of the tribes had to their several inheritances:
therefore have I said unto them, among the children, of Israel they shall have no inheritance; as in Numbers 18:23.
An heave - offering - An acknowledgment that they have all their land and the fruits of it from God's bounty. Note the word heave - offering, which is for the most part understood of a particular kind of offerings heaved or lifted up to the Lord, is here used for any offering.
*More commentary available at chapter level.