Numbers 18

Duties of Priests and Levites

18Then the Lord said to Aaron: ^a“You and your sons and your father’s house with you shall ^bbear the ¹iniquity related to the sanctuary, and you and your sons with you shall bear the iniquity associated with your priesthood. ²Also bring with you your brethren of the ^ctribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, that they may be ^djoined with you and serve you while you and your sons are with you before the tabernacle of ²witness. ³They shall attend to your ³needs and ^eall the needs of the tabernacle; ^fbut they shall not come near the articles of the sanctuary and the altar, ^glest they die—they and you also. ⁴They shall be joined with you and attend to the needs of the tabernacle of meeting, for all the work of the tabernacle; ^hbut an outsider shall not come near you. ⁵And you shall attend to ⁱthe duties of the sanctuary and the duties of the altar, ^jthat there may be no more wrath on the children of Israel. ⁶Behold, I Myself have ^ktaken your brethren the Levites from among the children of Israel; ^lthey are a gift to you, given by the Lord, to do the work of the tabernacle of meeting. ⁷Therefore ^myou and your sons with you shall attend to your priesthood for everything at the altar and ⁿbehind the veil; and you shall serve. I give your priesthood to you as a ^ogift for service, but the outsider who comes near shall be put to death.”

Offerings for Support of the Priests

⁸And the Lord spoke to Aaron: “Here, ^pI Myself have also given you ⁴charge of My heave offerings, all the holy gifts of the children of Israel; I have given them ^qas a portion to you and your sons, as an ordinance forever. ⁹This shall be yours of the most holy things reserved from the fire: every offering of theirs, every ^rgrain offering and every ^ssin offering and every ^ttrespass offering which they render to Me, shall be most holy for you and your sons. ^10uIn a most holy place you shall eat it; every male shall eat it. It shall be holy to you.

¹¹“This also is yours: ^vthe heave offering of their gift, with all the wave offerings of the children of Israel; I have given them to you, and your sons and daughters with you, as an ordinance forever. ^wEveryone who is ⁵clean in your house may eat it.

^12x“All the ⁶best of the oil, all the best of the new wine and the grain, ^ytheir firstfruits which they offer to the Lord, I have given them to you. ¹³Whatever first ripe fruit is in their land, ^zwhich they bring to the Lord, shall be yours. Everyone who is clean in your house may eat it.

^14a“Every ⁷devoted thing in Israel shall be yours.

¹⁵“Everything that first opens ^bthe womb of all flesh, which they bring to the Lord, whether man or beast, shall be yours; nevertheless ^cthe firstborn of man you shall surely redeem, and the firstborn of unclean animals you shall redeem. ¹⁶And those redeemed of the devoted things you shall redeem when one month old, ^daccording to your valuation, for five shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, which is ^etwenty gerahs. ^17fBut the firstborn of a cow, the firstborn of a sheep, or the firstborn of a goat you shall not redeem; they are holy. ^gYou shall sprinkle their blood on the altar, and burn their fat as an offering made by fire for a sweet aroma to the Lord. ¹⁸And their flesh shall be yours, just as the ^hwave ⁸breast and the right thigh are yours.

¹⁹“All the heave offerings of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer to the Lord, I have given to you and your sons and daughters with you as an ordinance forever; ⁱit is a covenant of salt forever before the Lord with you and your descendants with you.”

²⁰Then the Lord said to Aaron: “You shall have ^jno inheritance in their land, nor shall you have any portion among them; ^kI am your portion and your inheritance among the children of Israel.

Tithes for Support of the Levites

²¹“Behold, ^lI have given the children of Levi all the tithes in Israel as ⁹an inheritance in return for the work which they perform, ^mthe work of the tabernacle of meeting. ²²ⁿHereafter the children of Israel shall not come near the tabernacle of meeting, ^olest they bear sin and die. ²³But the Levites shall perform the work of the tabernacle of meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity; it shall be a statute forever, throughout your generations, that among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance. ²⁴For the tithes of the children of Israel, which they offer up as a heave offering to the Lord, I have given to the Levites ¹as an inheritance; therefore I have said to them, ‘Among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.’ ”

The Tithe of the Levites

²⁵Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²⁶“Speak thus to the Levites, and say to them: ‘When you take from the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them as your inheritance, then you shall offer up a heave offering of it to the Lord, ^pa tenth of the tithe. ²⁷And your heave offering shall be reckoned to you as though it were the grain of the ^qthreshing floor and as the fullness of the winepress. ²⁸Thus you shall also offer a heave offering to the Lord from all your tithes which you receive from the children of Israel, and you shall give the Lord’s heave offering from it to Aaron the priest. ²⁹Of all your gifts you shall offer up every heave offering due to the Lord, from all the ²best of them, the consecrated part of them.’ ³⁰Therefore you shall say to them: ‘When you have lifted up the best of it, then the rest shall be accounted to the Levites as the produce of the threshing floor and as the produce of the winepress. ³¹You may eat it in any place, you and your households, for it is ^ryour ³reward for your work in the tabernacle of meeting. ³²And you shall ^sbear no sin because of it, when you have lifted up the best of it. But you shall not ^tprofane the holy gifts of the children of Israel, lest you die.’ ”