P. Pravda.

K. And that the people of Judah are small in number, while the innumerable crowd of pagans far surpasses them, this is clear.

P. How could it be otherwise?

K. Therefore God says to the priest Moses: "Leave Me therefore, that My wrath may be kindled against them, I will smite him with a plague, and I will destroy him, and I will make of you a people more numerous and stronger than he" (Exodus 32:10, and Num. 14:12). And to think of that which is higher than this, and to seek more than that which is ordained and ordained for him by God, causes punishment and destruction; and this is shown by experience itself; for in the same book of Numbers it is written: "Korah the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and Abnan the son of Thaleth, the sons of Reuben, rose up against Moses, and [with them] of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty men, the leaders of the congregation, called to the assemblies, men of renown. And they gathered themselves together against Moses and Aaron, and said to them, It is enough for you; the whole society, all are holy, and the Lord is in their midst! Why then do you set yourselves above the people of the Lord? When Moses heard this, he fell on his face, and said to Korah and to all his companions, saying, "Tomorrow the Lord will show who is His and who is holy, that He may draw him near to Himself. and whomsoever He chooses, He will also draw near to Himself; This is what you shall do: Korah and all his accomplices, take for yourselves censers, and tomorrow put fire in them, and pour incense into them before the Lord; and whomsoever the Lord chooses, the same will be holy. Enough of you, sons of Levi! And Moses said to Korah, Hearken, O sons of Levi. Is it not enough for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel, and has brought you near to himself, that you may perform the services at the tabernacle of the Lord, and stand before the congregation, ministering for them? He hath brought thee near, and with thee all thy brethren, the sons of Levi, and ye also seek the priesthood" (16:1-10). The sons of Kohath, having the service of carrying the Holy of Holies on their shoulders, foolishly rushed to the highest rank and disputed the dignity of the priests, admiring their own honor, according to what is written (Heb. 5:4), neglecting the commandment of God, impiously transgressing the laws of the sacrament, imputing the honor of the primates to absolutely nothing. For they said to Moses and Aaron, "It weighs upon you as the whole assembly, all are holy, and the Lord is in them." You hear how they look low at the degree granted to them, and almost say that the honor of a bishop is a common property, and that not only their family, but all others as well, and that in general in them (Moses and Aaron) there is nothing special or more glorious, even though they are considered superior to others, having received their privilege by definition from God: and this obviously means to condemn the highest definitions and to impute the will of the Lawgiver to nothing. But the divine Moses, acting with his usual meekness, exhorted them as if they were sick, and not yet thinking about how great wrath would befall them, he rebuked them, saying: "May it prevail over you, sons of Levi." For "food is little for you," he says, "that God of all things has made you chosen out of all for a service so honorable and wonderful? But they were still hard-hearted, indestructible, and unbridled in their arrogance, until their madness brought them to such a calamity that "the earth shall open its mouth," seize them with their descendants and tents, and plunge them into extraordinary destruction, for "they have descended... alive into hell," as it is written (Num. 16:30 and 33; cf. Psalm 54:16). Therefore, it is impious and guilty of death by the judgment of God to rebel against the head and not to submit to those who have been appointed to rule and who have received preferential honor from God. The fruit of higher intelligence is to treasure what one has, and to be grateful for it, and not to rush rashly at that which is above the measure determined for us, and not to strive for that which has not yet been granted to us, considering common and accessible to many that which is governed only by a wave from above.

P. You said it well.

K. Thus, the order of the priesthood should not be disturbed by the merging of offices: it is proper to be so, and it should not be otherwise.

P. You speak well.

K. But as if in the common inheritance of both, he appoints gifts to people subject to him, and whatever someone offers as a gift and sacrifice to God, this, he says, must belong to the priests and the Levites together. For thus said the God of all to Aaron: "In their land you shall have no inheritance, and you shall have no part among them; I am thy portion, and thy inheritance among the children of Israel; And to the children of Levi, behold, I have given for an inheritance a tithe of all that is in Israel, for their service, because they hold services in the tent of meeting. and the children of Israel shall not come to the Tent of Meeting any more, lest they suffer sin and die: let the Levites correct the services in the Tent of Meeting, and bear their sin. This is an everlasting statute throughout your generations; but among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance; For the tithes of the children of Israel, which they offer as an offering to the Lord, I give to the Levites as an inheritance, therefore I said to them, They shall not receive an inheritance among the children of Israel" (Num. 18:20-24). In Deuteronomy, as if returning to the same speech, he says: "The Levitical priests, all the tribe of Levi, shall have no part or inheritance with Israel: they shall be fed by the sacrifices of the Lord and His portion; but he shall have no inheritance among his brethren: the Lord himself is his inheritance, as he said to him. This is what is to be given to the priests from the people, from those who sacrifice oxen or sheep: they are to give to the priest the shoulder, the jaws, and the stomach; And the firstfruits of thy bread, and of thy wine, and of thy oil, and of the wool of thy sheep, thou shalt give unto him: for the Lord thy God hath chosen him out of all thy tribes, that he should stand before the Lord, and serve in the name of the Lord, and that he and his sons should serve always" (18:1-5). See how the holy generation does not join the people and separates itself from the rest, moreover, not only by the occupation of service, but also by the difference of hope. For to those who lead a low life, who are attached to earthly things, and who thirst for the temporal and, like a shadow, the transitory, it might justly be said: this is thy part; "This is thy lot, the portion that is measured out to thee from me, saith the Lord" (Jeremiah 13:25). To those who prefer a holy and blameless life, and to those who have already been chosen for the sake of virtue, it is very proper to say: "In their land you will have no inheritance, and you will have no part among them; I am thy portion and thy inheritance" says the Lord (Num. 18:20; Deut. 10:9; 18:1). In the same way, the Saviour said to a certain person who once came and asked how he could receive "eternal life": "Ye know the commandments: Thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal," and the like; And when he clearly said that he was the guardian of all this, he added more, asking: "What else do I lack? Jesus said to him, "If you want to be perfect, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor; and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come and follow me" (Mark 10:17-21; Matt. 19:16-21). Thus, those who wish to serve God without distraction, who consider it their duty to follow Him, must distance themselves from earthly things, only recognize Him as their inheritance, and be strengthened by hope in Him, according to what is sung in the Psalms: "Delight in the Lord, commit to the Lord... and He will fulfill" (Psalm 36:4-5). In this way he sets aside tithes for the Levites as a reward for the labor of their service, because their labor is not without recompense for the saints, but honors and glorious rewards are chosen. For "be not anxious," says the Saviour, "for your soul what you shall eat or drink, nor for your body what you shall put on. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matt. 6:25 and 33). And by sins (Num. 18:23) he calls that which is slaughtered as a sacrifice for sins. And this is also the image of Christ, who was sacrificed for us and suffered the slaughter in order to abolish the sin of the world. Further, only the priests were allowed to eat of the sin offering; for it is not fitting for defiled souls to partake of the holy Body of Christ, but for the elect and pure, to whom it might be proclaimed: "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation" (1 Pet. 2:9). Then, for those appointed to the ministry, the shoulder, jaws, and stomach are removed; for there must be inherent in the chosen race an active and perfect power: and this is meant by the shoulder; also, of course, is the word, obviously instructive, the image of which is the jaws; And in addition, the stomach, which very well indicates fertility. Should not he be active, most capable, who truly acts in the priesthood and is close to God?

P. Exactly.

K. Thus God made the Levitical race without an inheritance, and the elect gave it an inheritance, Himself. However, he wisely did not allow him to appear to be placed completely outside the others, without receiving anything at all; but he established in this matter, as it were, a certain proportionality, giving a little for the necessary use. For it is written thus: "And the Lord spake unto Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan against Jericho, saying, Command the children of Israel to give to the Levites of their inheritance cities to live in, and the fields of the cities on all sides to give to the Levites: the cities shall be for them to live in, and the fields shall be for their cattle, and for their possessions, and for all their necessities of life; The fields of the cities which you shall give to the Levites shall extend from the wall of the city to [two] thousand cubits, in all directions; And measure out of the city two thousand cubits to the east side, and two thousand cubits to the south side, and two thousand cubits to the west, and two thousand cubits to the north side, and a city in the middle: such shall be their fields by the cities. Of the cities that you will give to the Levites, [there will be] six cities for refuge, to which you will allow the murderer to flee" (Num. 35:1-6). For it is permitted for the saints in this world to possess that which would be sufficient to sustain life and be able to satisfy them in the necessary needs of the body, because "having food," it is said, "and clothing, we shall be content with this" (1 Tim. 6:8). And the excess is not harmless. In this way the dwellings and the surrounding fields were set apart for the holy servants of the city, and the surrounding fields, which were measured: so that on the one hand God might not weaken them to the point of effeminacy, giving them more than was necessary, and on the other hand, not to cause immeasurable oppression by excessive restraint, but in order to profitably remove a very great scarcity and destroy burdens; for he measured contentment with need. He also commands that cities of refuge be handed over to the Levites, entrusting to the care of the priests the most unfortunate and the most needy. Here, I think, the church is given an image to take care of the prisoners, for "Remember," it is said, "the prisoners, as if you were with them in bonds, and those who suffered, as you yourselves were in the body" (Heb. 13:3).

P. Pravda.

K. And that the object of hope of the holy priests is firm, and that their destiny is permanent, He mysteriously showed in this way. At the end of the book of Leviticus it is written: "And the Lord said to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When you come to the land which I am giving you, then the land shall rest on the Sabbath day of the Lord; Six years shalt thou sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in their produce, and in the seventh year shall be the Sabbath of rest of the land, the Sabbath of the Lord" (25:1-4). And having determined the Sabbath and commanded that the land in the seventh year should be left unsown and unploughed, he added: "And count for yourself seven Sabbath years, seven times seven years, so that in the seven Sabbath years you may have forty-nine years; And you shall sound the trumpet in the seventh month, on the tenth [day] of the month, in the day of atonement you shall blow the trumpet throughout all your land; And you shall sanctify the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty in the land to all the inhabitants thereof: let it be a jubilee for you; And ye shall return every man to his own possession, and every man shall return to his own tribe. In the year of jubilee ye shall return every man to his possession" (25:8-11 and 13). What is the basis for the deliverance of the land itself, and what the year of atonement means, we will examine in due course. And that the Levites were given a chosen inheritance, this will now be said; meanwhile, it is also written as follows: "If anyone sells a house in a city [fenced] with a wall, then it can be redeemed before the end of the year from the sale of it: during the year it can be redeemed; but if it is not redeemed before the end of the whole year, the house that is in the city that has the wall shall remain forever with him who bought it throughout his generations, and shall not depart from him on the jubilee. And the houses in the villages, around which there is no wall, should be counted on a par with the field of land: they can be redeemed, and on the jubilee they depart. And the cities of the Levites, the houses in the cities of their possessions, can always be redeemed to the Levites; And whoever does not redeem the Levites, the house sold in the city of their possession shall go away on the jubilee, because the houses in the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel. and the fields round about the cities are not to be sold, because it is their eternal possession" (vv. 29-34).

P. But what does the law say here? I don't quite understand.

K: Listen, then. If anyone in the city has bought a building from the owners, let it be allowed, it is said, for those who sold it, to redeem what was sold, and this before the end of one year; and if this is not done, then after a year the purchaser shall be, it is said, the owner, and will no longer be subject to obligation. And if it be a field and an estate, then let it be allowed, it is said, always to be returned, as soon as the seller pays back to the purchaser the money given; and if he could not pay and receive his possession back, he commanded that it should be restored in the fiftieth year without any payment from the old owner; for to the purchaser of the possession the law enrolled the benefits of long-term use in payment of what was due to him. But this was legitimized by God for the common people. And the Levitical possession was again set apart and in special honor, saying that it could always be redeemed, and preventing it from being sold: for "the son," he says, "is a part and a lot for them."