Numbers 18:1–7

Duties of Priests and Levites

18The Lord said to Aaron, “You, your sons and your family are to bear the responsibility for offenses connected with the sanctuary,^d and you and your sons alone are to bear the responsibility for offenses connected with the priesthood. ²Bring your fellow Levites from your ancestral tribe to join you and assist you when you and your sons minister^e before the tent of the covenant law. ³They are to be responsible to you^f and are to perform all the duties of the tent,^g but they must not go near the furnishings of the sanctuary or the altar. Otherwise both they and you will die.^{h 4}They are to join you and be responsible for the care of the tent of meeting—all the work at the tent—and no one else may come near where you are.ⁱ

⁵“You are to be responsible for the care of the sanctuary and the altar,^j so that my wrath will not fall on the Israelites again. ⁶I myself have selected your fellow Levites from among the Israelites as a gift to you,^k dedicated to the Lord to do the work at the tent of meeting.^{l 7}But only you and your sons may serve as priests in connection with everything at the altar and inside the curtain.^m I am giving you the service of the priesthood as a gift.ⁿ Anyone else who comes near the sanctuary is to be put to death.^o”