And the LORD spoke unto Aaron,
You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any part among them: I am your part and your inheritance among the children of Israel.
Read Chapter 18
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
For all this people had twelve tribes after the number of the twelve sons of Jacob. What we call tribes are as it were distinct houses and congregations of people. This people, I say, had twelve tribes, out of which twelve tribes one tribe was Judah, out of which came the kings. There was another tribe, Levi, out of which came the priests. To the priests serving the temple no land was allotted. So it was necessary that among twelve tribes all the land of promise should be shared. Having separated one tribe of higher dignity, the tribe of Levi, which was of the priests, there would have remained eleven, unless by the adoption of the two sons of Joseph the number twelve were completed.
Nothing. No portion of land, like the other tribes; but only some towns and suburbs, allotted to thy children in the midst of the Israelites. They might purchase land as well as others, and might obtain a property by the vows of their brethren, Leviticus xxvii. 14. Jeremias (xxxii. 7,) and St. Barnabas had land, Acts iv. 37. God had provided for his ministers abundantly, without exposing them to much trouble. The Levites enjoyed the tithes of all the produce of the country, besides the first-fruits of corn, dough, and some parts of each beast that was killed in the town, Deuteronomy xviii. 3. The priests, who were still fewer in number, enjoyed the 100th part of the revenue of all Israel, receiving tithes from the Levites, and innumerable accidental offerings of wine, which made Philo say (de præm. Sacerd.) that "the law of Moses gave the priests all the splendour of kings. "They might, therefore, be zealous to preserve religion for their own temporal advantages.
I am God promises to ...
