Numbers 18:8–24

The Priests’ Portion

⁸The Lord spoke to Aaron, “I have given you charge of the offerings made to me, all the holy gifts of the Israelites; I have given them to you and your sons as a priestly portion due you in perpetuity.^{* 9}This shall be yours from the most holy things, reserved from the fire: every offering of theirs that they render to me as a most holy thing, whether grain offering, purification offering, or guilt offering, shall belong to you and your sons.^{* 10}As a most holy thing you shall eat it; every male may eat it; it shall be holy to you.^{* 11}This also is yours: I have given to you, together with your sons and daughters, as a perpetual due, whatever is set aside from the gifts of all the elevation offerings of the Israelites; everyone who is clean in your house may eat them.^{* 12}All the best of the oil and all the best of the wine and of the grain, the choice produce that they give to the Lord, I have given to you.^{* 13}The first fruits of all that is in their land that they bring to the Lord shall be yours; everyone who is clean in your house may eat of it.^{* 14}Every devoted thing in Israel shall be yours.^{* 15}The first issue of the womb of all creatures, human and animal, that is offered to the Lord shall be yours, but the firstborn of human beings you shall redeem, and the firstborn of unclean animals you shall redeem.^{* 16}Their redemption price, reckoned from one month of age, you shall fix at five shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary (that is, twenty gerahs).^{* 17}But the firstborn of a cow or the firstborn of a sheep or the firstborn of a goat you shall not redeem; they are holy. You shall dash their blood on the altar and turn their fat into smoke as an offering by fire^l for a pleasing odor to the Lord,^{* 18}but their flesh shall be yours, just as the breast that is elevated and as the right thigh are yours. ¹⁹All the holy offerings that the Israelites present to the Lord I have given to you, together with your sons and daughters, as a perpetual due; it is a covenant of salt forever before the Lord for you and your descendants as well.”^{* 20}Then the Lord said to Aaron, “You shall have no allotment in their land, nor shall you have any share among them; I am your share and your possession among the Israelites.^*

²¹“To the Levites I have given every tithe in Israel for a possession in return for the service that they perform, the service in the tent of meeting.^{* 22}From now on the Israelites shall no longer approach the tent of meeting, or else they will incur guilt and die.^{* 23}But the Levites shall perform the service of the tent of meeting, and they shall bear responsibility for their own offenses; it shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations. But among the Israelites they shall have no allotment,^{* 24}because I have given to the Levites as their portion the tithe of the Israelites, which they set apart as an offering to the Lord. Therefore I have said of them that they shall have no allotment among the Israelites.”