This concluding verse for verses 8-20 seems to give another reason why the priests are to receive the offerings specified in the preceding verses. The first reason was given in verses 1-7, namely, that the priests had special responsibilities in connection with keeping the Tent of Meeting holy and unpolluted. If any violation should occur, even on the part of the Levites, the priests would be held responsible and would have to die along with the offenders. Here in verse 20 the second reason is that the descendants of Aaron will have no inheritance of land in Israel; they are to depend on the LORD alone for their livelihood. This principle is applied also to the Levites in the next subsection (verses 21-24).

And the LORD said to Aaron: See verse 1.

You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any portion among them …: The Hebrew pronouns for You and your are singular again, referring to Aaron as the representative of his whole extended family. The Hebrew terms for inheritance (nachalah) and portion (cheleq) are often used together to refer to a “permanent estate.” Both terms refer to a distinct section of land and thus are used together to emphasize that the priests will not receive any ancestral land. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh renders inheritance as “territorial share.”

I am your portion and your inheritance among the people of Israel: Here God emphasizes that he will be the priests’ inheritance instead of land. God promises to give them whatever they need as they serve him as priests. Contemporary English Version makes this clear by saying “I will give you whatever you need.” The words portion and inheritance have a chiastic arrangement in this verse to highlight what God is saying.

Quoted with permission from de Regt, Lénart J. and Wendland, Ernst R. A Handbook on Numbers. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .