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YEHOVAH’s Tithe in Scripture 75

drink offerings, and sacrifices for all Israel, who ate and drank before the Lord with great gladness, I
Chronicles 29:21-22.

Moreover, David appointed the services for the priests and Levites, the number of Levites
above thirty years of age alone being thirty-eight thousand (which, with their families, would prob-
ably mean nearly two hundred thousand persons), I Chronicles 23:3-5, in addition to whom there
were appointed several courses of priests, I Chronicles 24.

We now come to the days of Solomon, who, at the beginning of his reign, offered one thou-
sand burnt offerings at Gibeon, I Kings 3:4; II Chronicles 1:6, and after his dream, offered before
the Ark at Jerusalem burnt and peace offerings, and made a feast to all his servants.

When the time came for the dedication of the temple, the Ark was brought to its place, with
sacrifices innumerable of sheep and oxen, I Kings 8:5, after which Solomon and the people offered
to the Lord twenty-two thousand oxen and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep, holding a feast
for all Israel during fourteen days, I Kings 8:63, 65; II Chronicles 5:6, 7:3-10.

After this we find Solomon, “after a certain rate every day offering, according to the com-
mandment of Moses, on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the solemn feasts, three times
in the year" (II Chronicles 8:12-16; I Kings 9:25).

We may now, therefore, consider the worship of YEHOVAH fully established and carried
out according to the law of the Pentateuch. But from the entrance of the people into Canaan to the
reign of Solomon — a space of nearly five hundred years — we have found nothing specifically
mentioned about tithes. Samuel came very near to the word when, the Israelites having asked for a
king, the prophet warned them “he will take the tenth of your seed, . . . he will take the tenth of your
sheep, and ye shall be his servants" (I Samuel 8:15-17).

Hence, certain writers have imagined that some of the kings took for themselves the Le-
vites’ tithes. But the scripture does not say so. Solomon indeed raised a levy out of all Israel of two
hundred and sixteen thousand men who were foreigners and not of the children of Israel, I Kings
5:13-18; II Chronicles 2:2, 17, 8:9, and if for the support of these two hundred and sixteen thousand
workmen an extra tenth were imposed, in addition to the Mosaic tenths that would undoubtedly be
claimed by the two hundred thousand Levitical persons, we can understand the people coming to
Solomon’s son and saying, “Thy father made our yoke grievous" (I Kings 12:4).

But we never read that the payment of Mosaic tithes and offerings was an undue burden. On
the contrary, and speaking generally, we may say that the more closely YEHOVAH God’s law was
kept the more prosperous were the people.

Before and After the Captivity

We have now reached the high-water mark of religious giving in the Old Testament; and our
next period, under the rival kings of Judah and Israel, is a period of declension, though retarded
from time to time by temporary endeavors at reformation.

The Berean Voice July-August 2002