Thus you also shall offer an heave offering unto the Lord,.... As the Israelites did when they paid tithes to them, Nu 18:24;of all your tithes which ye receive of the children of Israel; which heave offering was a tenth part of them:and ye shall give thereof the Lord's heave offering to Aaron the priest; that is, the said tenth part of the tithe was to be given not to Aaron only, as the high priest, as some have thought, and so to his successors in the high priesthood; but to him and his sons, even to all the priests in common, the high priest having his share of it; and Josephus is clear for it, that the tithe of the annual fruits was paid to the Levites, and to the priests.
Hecataeus, an Heathen writer, who lived in the times of Alexander the great, says , that all the priests of the Jews received the tenth of whatsoever was produced, and ministered things in common, and were 1500 in number.
Antiqu. l. 4. c. 4. sect. 3. Apud Joseph. contr. Apion. l. 1. sect.