Deuteronomy 12:12 - Announcement Of Particular Laws.

Of their offerings they should make a festive meal for themselves and their household; and of this the Levite who might happen at the time to be resident among them was to partake. Rejoice before the Lord. This phrase occurs frequently in this book ( Deuteronomy 14:26 ; Deuteronomy 16:11 , Deuteronomy 16:14 ; Deuteronomy 26:11 ; Deuteronomy 27:7 ); elsewhere it appears only once— Leviticus 23:40 , where it is used with reference to the Feast of Tabernacles, Moses now enjoins this festivity to be observed in connection with all the sacrificial meals. The Levite that is within your gates. The Levites had no share in the land as the property of their tribe; but they had towns allotted to them among the different tribes ( Numbers 35:1-34 .), so that in this way they were dispersed through the nation. Hence, perhaps, they are described as "within the gates" of the rest of the people. Or, as the Levites seem to have itinerated in the discharge of various offices among the people, the phrase may designate them as on this account occasionally resident among others in their community; just as "the stranger that is within thy gates" means the person of some other nation who for the time being was resident in any of the towns of Israel.