Numbers 18

Priests and Levites Bear the Sanctuary Responsibility

1The LORD said to Aaron, “You and your sons and your ancestral house with you shall bear the iniquity connected with the sanctuary, and you and your sons with you shall bear the iniquity connected with your priesthood. 2Bring near also your brothers of the tribe of Levi, your ancestral tribe, so that they may join you and serve you while you and your sons with you are before the Tent of the Testimony. 3They shall keep your charge and the charge of the whole tent, but they shall not come near the furnishings of the sanctuary or the altar, so that neither they nor you die. 4They shall join you and keep charge of the Tent of Meeting for all the service of the tent, and no outsider shall come near you.

5You shall keep charge of the sanctuary and charge of the altar, so that wrath may no longer come upon the Israelites. 6Look, I myself have taken your brothers the Levites from among the Israelites. They are a gift to you, given to the LORD, to perform the service of the Tent of Meeting. 7But you and your sons with you shall keep your priesthood for everything concerning the altar and what is inside the curtain. You shall serve. I give your priesthood as a service of gift. Any outsider who approaches shall be put to death.”

The Priests’ Portions

8Then the LORD spoke to Aaron: “Look, I have given you charge of my contributions, all the holy gifts of the Israelites. I have given them to you and your sons as a portion by reason of the anointing, a perpetual due. 9This shall be yours from the most holy things not burned by fire: every offering of theirs, every grain offering, every sin offering, and every guilt offering that they render to me shall be most holy for you and your sons. 10You shall eat it as most holy; every male may eat it. It shall be holy to you.

11This also is yours: the contribution of their gifts, together with all the elevation offerings of the Israelites. I have given them to you and to your sons and daughters with you as a perpetual due. Everyone clean in your household may eat it. 12All the best of the oil, all the best of the new wine and grain, the first of what they give to the LORD, I have given to you. 13The first ripe fruit of everything in their land that they bring to the LORD shall be yours. Everyone clean in your household may eat it. 14Everything devoted in Israel shall be yours.

The Firstborn

15Every first issue of the womb from all flesh that they present to the LORD, whether human or animal, shall be yours. Nevertheless, you shall surely redeem the firstborn human, and you shall redeem the firstborn of unclean animals. 16Their redemption price, from one month old, you shall redeem according to your valuation, five shekels of silver according to the sanctuary shekel, which is twenty gerahs. 17But the firstborn of an ox, the firstborn of a sheep, or the firstborn of a goat you shall not redeem; they are holy. You shall splash their blood against the altar and burn their fat as an offering by fire, a pleasing aroma to the LORD. 18Their flesh shall be yours, like the breast of the elevation offering and the right thigh; it shall be yours.

A Covenant of Salt

19All the contributions of the holy things that the Israelites contribute to the LORD I have given to you and to your sons and daughters with you as a perpetual due. It is a covenant of salt forever before the LORD for you and your offspring with you.” 20The LORD said to Aaron, “You shall have no inheritance in their land, nor shall you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the Israelites.

The Levites Receive the Tithe

21“To the Levites, look, I have given every tithe in Israel as an inheritance in return for the service they perform, the service of the Tent of Meeting. 22The Israelites shall no longer approach the Tent of Meeting, bearing sin and dying. 23The Levites shall perform the service of the Tent of Meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations, and among the Israelites they shall have no inheritance. 24For the tithe of the Israelites, which they contribute to the LORD as a contribution, I have given to the Levites as an inheritance. Therefore I have said concerning them, ‘Among the Israelites they shall have no inheritance.’”

The Levites’ Contribution from the Tithe

25The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 26“Speak to the Levites and say to them: When you receive from the Israelites the tithe that I have given you from them as your inheritance, you shall contribute from it a contribution to the LORD, a tithe of the tithe. 27Your contribution shall be counted to you as though it were grain from the threshing floor and fullness from the winepress. 28Thus you also shall contribute a contribution to the LORD from all your tithes that you receive from the Israelites, and from it you shall give the LORD’s contribution to Aaron the priest.

29From all your gifts you shall contribute every contribution due to the LORD, from all the best of them, the holy part from them. 30Therefore say to them: ‘When you have contributed the best of it, then the rest shall be counted to the Levites as produce of the threshing floor and produce of the winepress. 31You may eat it in any place, you and your households, for it is your wages in return for your service at the Tent of Meeting. 32You shall bear no sin because of it when you contribute the best of it. You shall not profane the holy gifts of the Israelites, so that you do not die.’”