And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left in your house shall come and bow down to him for a piece of silver and a morsel of bread, and shall say, Put me, I pray you, into one of the priests' offices, that I may eat a piece of bread.
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George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Bread; like the poorest sort of people. (Menochius)
Being degraded, they shall ask the other priests to offer sacrifice for them. Hebrew, "shall bend before him for a piece of silver, and for a morsel of bread. "He shall humbly intreat to be employed as a priest, in order to get a livelihood.
The piece of silver. Hebrew agorath, probably denotes the gerah, the smallest coin, or what was given for a day's wages. Agor means to hire, in Chaldean, Syriac Hence the Greek, agorazo, "I purchase. "
Office. The priests served in their turns; (1 Paralipomenon xxiv.) so that the descendants of Heli must have been entitled to a subsistence. But whether God punished them, by requiring that they should ask the high priest for this, as for a favour, or this was required of all the inferior priests before they could be employed, or whether, in fine, the descendants of Abiathar were reduced to the condition of Levites, or wholly degraded, we know not. See 4 Kings xxiii. 9., and Ezechiel xliv. 10. (Calmet)
They may petition for a part of the victims which fell to the share of the priests, (Menochius) and might be eaten by any that was not defiled. (Haydock)
