(9) From the fire.--i.e., from the fire which was kindled upon the altar of burnt offering.

Every oblation of their's, every meat offering of their's . . . --Or, every oblation of their's for all their meat offerings, and for all their sin offerings, and for all their trespass offerings (or, guilt offerings).

Verse 9. - Reserved from fire, i.e., from the sacrificial altar. Every oblation of theirs. As specified in the following clauses. The burnt offering is not mentioned because it was wholly consumed, and only the skin fell to the priest. The sin offerings for the priest or for the congregation were also wholly consumed (Leviticus 4:12, 21), but the sin offerings of private individuals, although in no case partaken of by the offerers, were available for the priests (Leviticus 6:26), and this was the ordinary case.

18:8-19 All believers are spiritual priests, and God has promised to take care of them. Godliness has the promise of the life that now is. And from the provision here made for the priests, the apostle shows that it is the duty of christian churches to maintain their ministers. Scandalous maintenance makes scandalous ministers. The priests were to be wholly devoted to their ministry, not diverted from it, or disturbed in it, by worldly care or business. Also, that they might be examples of living by faith, not only in God's providence, but in his ordinances. The best should be offered for the first-fruits unto the Lord. Those who think to save, by putting God off with the refuse, deceive themselves, for God is not mocked.This shall be thine of the most holy things,.... For, as observed, there were some lighter and lesser holy things or sacrifices, and others superlatively so: and those are begun with, such as were

reserved from the fire; those parts of sacrifices which were not burnt with fire on the altar of burnt offerings:

every oblation of theirs; which is a general word, including various offerings, the particulars follow:

every meat offering of theirs: or bread offering, for they were made of fine flour and oil, and burnt on the altar, the remainder of which was eaten by Aaron and his sons, Leviticus 6:14,

every sin offering of theirs; which was offered to make atonement for sin, which also belonged to the priests and their sons, excepting such whose blood was carried into the most holy place, Leviticus 6:25,

and every trespass offering of theirs, which they shall render unto me; which was offered for a trespass committed; what remained of this also, when burnt on the altar, was eaten by the priest and his sons, Leviticus 7:5; and this sacrifice was a ram, when a trespass was committed, either in the holy things of the Lord, or in wrongs done to men, Leviticus 5:15; Jarchi interprets it of an offering for a trespass committed by rapine or violence to a stranger: these, all of them, it is added:

shall be most holy for thee and for thy sons; for their use, and for theirs only.