Numbers 18–20

Chapter 18

Duties of Levites

¹So the Lord said to Aaron, “You and your sons and your father’s household with you shall ^abear the guilt ¹in connection with the sanctuary, and you and your sons with you shall bear the guilt ²in connection with your priesthood.

²“But bring with you also your brothers, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, that they may be ^ajoined with you and serve you, while you and your sons with you are before the tent of the testimony.

³“And they shall thus attend to your obligation and the obligation of all the tent, but ^athey shall not come near to the furnishings of the sanctuary and ^bthe altar, or both they and you will die.

⁴“They shall be joined with you and attend to the obligations of the tent of meeting, for all the service of the tent; but an ¹outsider may not come near you.

⁵“So you shall attend to the ^aobligations of the sanctuary and the obligations of the altar, ^bso that there will no longer be wrath on the sons of Israel.

⁶“Behold, I Myself ^ahave taken your ¹fellow Levites from among the sons of Israel; they are ^ba gift to you, ²dedicated to the Lord, to perform the service for the tent of meeting.

⁷“But you and your sons with you shall ^aattend to your priesthood for everything concerning the altar and inside the veil, and you are to perform service. I am giving you the priesthood as ^ba ¹bestowed service, but ^cthe ²outsider who comes near shall be put to death.”

The Priests’ Portion

⁸Then the Lord spoke to Aaron, “Now behold, I Myself have given you charge of My ^1aofferings, even all the holy gifts of the sons of Israel I have given them to you as a portion and to your sons as a perpetual allotment.

⁹“This shall be yours from the most holy gifts reserved from the fire; every offering of theirs, even ^aevery grain offering and every ^bsin offering and every guilt offering, which they shall render to Me, shall be most holy for you and for your sons.

¹⁰“As the most holy gifts you shall eat it; every male shall eat it. It shall be holy to you.

¹¹“This also is yours, ^athe offering of their gift, even all the wave offerings of the sons of Israel; I have ^bgiven them to you and to your sons and daughters with you as a perpetual allotment. Everyone of your household who is clean may eat it.

¹²“^aAll the ¹best of the fresh oil and all the best of the fresh wine and of the grain, the first fruits of those which they give to the Lord, I give them to you.

¹³“^aThe first ripe fruits of all that is in their land, which they bring to the Lord, shall be yours; everyone of your household who is clean may eat it.

¹⁴“^aEvery devoted thing in Israel shall be yours.

¹⁵“^1aEvery first issue of the womb of all flesh, whether man or animal, which they offer to the Lord, shall be yours; nevertheless the firstborn of man you shall surely redeem, and the firstborn of unclean animals you shall redeem.

¹⁶“As to their redemption price, from a month old you shall redeem them, by your valuation, five ¹shekels in silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs.

¹⁷“But ^athe firstborn of an ox or the firstborn of a sheep or the firstborn of a goat, you shall not redeem; they are holy. ^bYou shall sprinkle their blood on the altar and shall offer up their fat in smoke as an offering by fire, for a soothing aroma to the Lord.

¹⁸“Their ¹meat shall be yours; it shall be yours like the ^abreast of a wave offering and like the right thigh.

¹⁹“^aAll the offerings of the holy gifts, which the sons of Israel offer to the Lord, I have given to you and your sons and your daughters with you, as a perpetual allotment. It is ^ban everlasting covenant of salt before the Lord to you and your ¹descendants with you.”

²⁰Then the Lord said to Aaron, “^aYou shall have no inheritance in their land nor own any portion among them; ^bI am your portion and your inheritance among the sons of Israel.

²¹“To the sons of Levi, behold, I have given all the ^atithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service which they perform, the service of the tent of meeting.

²²“^aThe sons of Israel shall not come near the tent of meeting again, or they will bear sin and die.

²³“Only the Levites shall perform the service of the tent of meeting, and they shall ^abear their iniquity; it shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations, and among the sons of Israel ^bthey shall have no inheritance.

²⁴“For the tithe of the sons of Israel, which they offer as an offering to the Lord, I have given to the Levites for an inheritance; therefore I have said concerning them, ‘^aThey shall have no inheritance among the sons of Israel.’ ”

²⁵Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

²⁶“Moreover, you shall speak to the Levites and say to them, ‘When you take from the sons of Israel ^athe tithe which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then you shall present an offering from it to the Lord, a ^btithe of the tithe.

²⁷‘Your offering shall be reckoned to you as the grain from the threshing floor or the full produce from the wine vat.

²⁸‘So you shall also present an offering to the Lord from your tithes, which you receive from the sons of Israel; and from it you shall give the Lord’s offering to Aaron the priest.

²⁹‘Out of all your gifts you shall present every offering due to the Lord, from all the ¹best of them, ²the sacred part from them.’

³⁰“You shall say to them, ‘When you have ¹offered from it the best of it, then the rest shall be reckoned to the Levites as the product of the threshing floor, and as the product of the wine vat.

³¹‘You may eat it anywhere, you and your households, for it is your compensation in return for your service in the tent of meeting.

³²‘You will bear no sin by reason of it when you have ¹offered the ²best of it. But you shall not ^aprofane the sacred gifts of the sons of Israel, or you will die.’ ”

Chapter 19

Ordinance of the Red Heifer

¹Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying,

²“This is the statute of the law which the Lord has commanded, saying, ‘Speak to the sons of Israel that they bring you an ^aunblemished red heifer in which is no defect and ^bon which a yoke has never ¹been placed.

³‘You shall give it to ^aEleazar the priest, and it shall ^bbe brought outside the camp and be slaughtered in his presence.

⁴‘Next Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and ^asprinkle some of its blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times.

⁵‘Then the heifer shall be burned in his sight; ^aits hide and its flesh and its blood, with its refuse, shall be burned.

⁶‘The priest shall take ^acedar wood and hyssop and scarlet material and cast it into the midst of the ¹burning heifer.

⁷‘The priest ^ashall then wash his clothes and bathe his ¹body in water, and afterward come into the camp, but the priest shall be unclean until evening.

⁸‘The one who burns it shall also wash his clothes in water and bathe his ¹body in water, and shall be unclean until evening.

⁹‘Now a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place, and ¹the congregation of the sons of Israel shall keep it as ^awater to remove impurity; it is ²purification from sin.

¹⁰‘The one who gathers the ashes of the heifer ^ashall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening; and it shall be a perpetual statute to the sons of Israel and to the alien who sojourns among them.

¹¹‘^aThe one who touches the corpse of any ¹person shall be unclean for seven days.

¹²‘That one shall ^apurify himself from uncleanness with ¹the water on the third day and on the seventh day, and then he will be clean; but if he does not purify himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not be clean.

¹³‘^aAnyone who touches a corpse, the ¹body of a man who has died, and does not purify himself, ^bdefiles the ²tabernacle of the Lord; and that person shall be cut off from Israel. Because the water for impurity was not ^3csprinkled on him, he shall be unclean; his uncleanness is still on him.

¹⁴‘This is the law when a man dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent shall be unclean for seven days.

¹⁵‘Every open vessel, which has no covering ¹tied down on it, shall be unclean.

¹⁶‘^aAlso, anyone who in the open field touches one who has been slain with a sword or who has died naturally, or a human bone or a grave, shall be unclean for seven days.

¹⁷‘Then for the unclean person they shall take some of the ¹ashes of the ²burnt ^3apurification from sin and ⁴flowing water shall be ⁵added to them in a vessel.

¹⁸‘A clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent and on all the furnishings and on the persons who were there, and on the one who touched the bone or the one slain or the one dying naturally or the grave.

¹⁹‘Then the clean person ^ashall sprinkle on the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day; and on the seventh day he shall purify him from uncleanness, and he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and shall be clean by evening.

²⁰‘But the man who is unclean and does not purify himself from uncleanness, that person shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly, because he has ^adefiled the sanctuary of the Lord; the water for impurity has not been sprinkled on him, he is unclean.

²¹‘So it shall be a perpetual statute for them. And he ^awho sprinkles the water for impurity shall wash his clothes, and he who touches the water for impurity shall be unclean until evening.

²²‘^aFurthermore, anything that the unclean person touches shall be unclean; and the person who touches it shall be unclean until evening.’ ”

Chapter 20

Death of Miriam

¹Then the sons of Israel, the whole congregation, came to the ^awilderness of Zin in the first month; and the people stayed at Kadesh. Now Miriam died there and was buried there.

^2aThere was no water for the congregation, ^band they assembled themselves against Moses and Aaron.

^3aThe people thus contended with Moses and spoke, saying, “^bIf only we had perished ^cwhen our brothers perished…