1The Lord said to Aaron, ‘You, your sons and your family are to bear the responsibility for offences connected with the sanctuary, and you and your sons alone are to bear the responsibility for offences connected with the priesthood.2Bring your fellow Levites from your ancestral tribe to join you and assist you when you and your sons minister before the tent of the covenant law.3They are to be responsible to you and are to perform all the duties of the tent, but they must not go near the furnishings of the sanctuary or the altar. Otherwise both they and you will die.4They 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.5‘You are to be responsible for the care of the sanctuary and the altar, 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, dedicated to the Lord to do the work at the tent of meeting.7But only you and your sons may serve as priests in connection with everything at the altar and inside the curtain. I am giving you the service of the priesthood as a gift. Anyone else who comes near the sanctuary is to be put to death.’
Offerings for priests and Levites
8Then the Lord said to Aaron, ‘I myself have put you in charge of the offerings presented to me; all the holy offerings the Israelites give me I give to you and your sons as your portion, your perpetual share.9You are to have the part of the most holy offerings that is kept from the fire. From all the gifts they bring me as most holy offerings, whether grain or sin[1] or guilt offerings, that part belongs to you and your sons.10Eat it as something most holy; every male shall eat it. You must regard it as holy.11‘This also is yours: whatever is set aside from the gifts of all the wave offerings of the Israelites. I give this to you and your sons and daughters as your perpetual share. Everyone in your household who is ceremonially clean may eat it.12‘I give you all the finest olive oil and all the finest new wine and grain they give to the Lord as the firstfruits of their harvest.13All the land’s firstfruits that they bring to the Lord will be yours. Everyone in your household who is ceremonially clean may eat it.14‘Everything in Israel that is devoted[2] to the Lord is yours.15The first offspring of every womb, both human and animal, that is offered to the Lord is yours. But you must redeem every firstborn son and every firstborn male of unclean animals.16When they are a month old, you must redeem them at the redemption price set at five shekels[3] of silver, according to the sanctuary shekel, which weighs twenty gerahs.17‘But you must not redeem the firstborn of an ox, a sheep or a goat; they are holy. Splash their blood against the altar and burn their fat as a food offering, an aroma pleasing to the Lord.18Their meat is to be yours, just as the breast of the wave offering and the right thigh are yours.19Whatever is set aside from the holy offerings the Israelites present to the Lord I give to you and your sons and daughters as your perpetual share. It is an everlasting covenant of salt before the Lord for both you and your offspring.’20The Lord said to Aaron, ‘You will have no inheritance in their land, nor will you have any share among them; I am your share and your inheritance among the Israelites.21‘I give to the Levites all the tithes in Israel as their inheritance in return for the work they do while serving at the tent of meeting.22From now on the Israelites must not go near the tent of meeting, or they will bear the consequences of their sin and will die.23It is the Levites who are to do the work at the tent of meeting and bear the responsibility for any offences they commit against it. This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. They will receive no inheritance among the Israelites.24Instead, I give to the Levites as their inheritance the tithes that the Israelites present as an offering to the Lord. That is why I said concerning them: “They will have no inheritance among the Israelites.” ’25The Lord said to Moses,26‘Speak to the Levites and say to them: “When you receive from the Israelites the tithe I give you as your inheritance, you must present a tenth of that tithe as the Lord’s offering.27Your offering will be reckoned to you as grain from the threshing-floor or juice from the winepress.28In this way you also will present an offering to the Lord from all the tithes you receive from the Israelites. From these tithes you must give the Lord’s portion to Aaron the priest.29You must present as the Lord’s portion the best and holiest part of everything given to you.”30‘Say to the Levites: “When you present the best part, it will be reckoned to you as the product of the threshing-floor or the winepress.31You and your households may eat the rest of it anywhere, for it is your wages for your work at the tent of meeting.32By presenting the best part of it you will not be guilty in this matter; then you will not defile the holy offerings of the Israelites, and you will not die.” ’
Numbers 18
English Standard Version
Duties of Priests and Levites
1So the Lord said to Aaron, “You and your sons and your father’s house with you shall bear iniquity connected with the sanctuary, and you and your sons with you shall bear iniquity connected with your priesthood. (Ex 28:38; Nu 18:23)2And with you bring your brothers also, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, that they may join you and minister to you while you and your sons with you are before the tent of the testimony. (Ge 29:34; Nu 3:6)3They shall keep guard over you and over the whole tent, but shall not come near to the vessels of the sanctuary or to the altar lest they, and you, die. (Nu 3:25; Nu 3:31; Nu 3:36; Nu 4:15; Nu 16:40)4They shall join you and keep guard over the tent of meeting for all the service of the tent, and no outsider shall come near you. (Nu 17:13)5And you shall keep guard over the sanctuary and over the altar, that there may never again be wrath on the people of Israel. (Ex 27:21; Ex 30:7; Le 10:6; Le 24:3; Nu 3:38)6And behold, I have taken your brothers the Levites from among the people of Israel. They are a gift to you, given to the Lord, to do the service of the tent of meeting. (Nu 3:9; Nu 3:12; Nu 3:45; Nu 8:19)7And you and your sons with you shall guard your priesthood for all that concerns the altar and that is within the veil; and you shall serve. I give your priesthood as a gift,[1] and any outsider who comes near shall be put to death.” (Nu 1:51; Nu 3:10; Heb 9:3; Heb 9:6)8Then the Lord spoke to Aaron, “Behold, I have given you charge of the contributions made to me, all the consecrated things of the people of Israel. I have given them to you as a portion and to your sons as a perpetual due. (Ex 29:29; Ex 40:13; Ex 40:15; Le 7:32; Nu 5:9)9This shall be yours of the most holy things, reserved from the fire: every offering of theirs, every grain offering of theirs and every sin offering of theirs and every guilt offering of theirs, which they render to me, shall be most holy to you and to your sons. (Le 4:22; Le 4:27; Le 6:25; Le 7:7; Le 14:13)10In a most holy place shall you eat it. Every male may eat it; it is holy to you.11This also is yours: the contribution of their gift, all the wave offerings of the people of Israel. I have given them to you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a perpetual due. Everyone who is clean in your house may eat it. (Ex 29:27; Le 7:30; Le 7:34; Le 10:14; Le 22:2; Le 22:11; De 18:3)12All the best of the oil and all the best of the wine and of the grain, the firstfruits of what they give to the Lord, I give to you. (Ex 23:19; Ex 34:26; De 18:4; Ne 10:35)13The first ripe fruits of all that is in their land, which they bring to the Lord, shall be yours. Everyone who is clean in your house may eat it. (Ex 22:29; Le 2:14; Nu 18:11; De 26:2)14Every devoted thing in Israel shall be yours. (Le 27:28)15Everything that opens the womb of all flesh, whether man or beast, which they offer to the Lord, shall be yours. Nevertheless, the firstborn of man you shall redeem, and the firstborn of unclean animals you shall redeem. (Ex 13:2; Ex 13:13; Ex 34:20)16And their redemption price (at a month old you shall redeem them) you shall fix at five shekels[2] in silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs. (Ex 30:13; Le 27:2; Le 27:6; Nu 3:47)17But 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 sprinkle their blood on the altar and shall burn their fat as a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. (De 15:19)18But their flesh shall be yours, as the breast that is waved and as the right thigh are yours. (Ex 29:26; Ex 29:28; Le 7:31; Le 7:34)19All the holy contributions that the people of Israel present to the Lord I give 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 for your offspring with you.” (Le 2:13; Nu 18:11; 2Ch 13:5)20And the Lord said to Aaron, “You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the people of Israel. (Nu 18:23; De 10:9; De 12:12; De 14:27; De 18:1; Jos 13:33; Jos 14:3; Jos 18:7; Eze 44:28)21“To the Levites I have given every tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service that they do, their service in the tent of meeting, (Ge 14:20; Ge 28:22; Le 27:30; Le 27:32; Nu 18:24; Nu 18:26; De 14:22; Ne 10:37; Ne 12:44; Heb 7:5; Heb 7:8)22so that the people of Israel do not come near the tent of meeting, lest they bear sin and die. (Le 22:9; Nu 1:51)23But the Levites shall do 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 people of Israel they shall have no inheritance. (Nu 3:7; Nu 18:1)24For the tithe of the people of Israel, which they present as a contribution to the Lord, I have given to the Levites for an inheritance. Therefore I have said of them that they shall have no inheritance among the people of Israel.” (Nu 18:19; Nu 18:20; Nu 18:26; Nu 18:29)25And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,26“Moreover, you shall speak and say to the Levites, ‘When you take from the people of Israel the tithe that I have given you from them for your inheritance, then you shall present a contribution from it to the Lord, a tithe of the tithe. (Ne 10:38)27And your contribution shall be counted to you as though it were the grain of the threshing floor, and as the fullness of the winepress. (Nu 18:30)28So you shall also present a contribution to the Lord from all your tithes, which you receive from the people of Israel. And from it you shall give the Lord’s contribution to Aaron the priest.29Out of all the gifts to you, you shall present every contribution due to the Lord; from each its best part is to be dedicated.’30Therefore you shall say to them, ‘When you have offered from it the best of it, then the rest shall be counted to the Levites as produce of the threshing floor, and as produce of the winepress. (Nu 18:27)31And you may eat it in any place, you and your households, for it is your reward in return for your service in the tent of meeting. (Mt 10:10; Lu 10:7; 1Co 9:4; 1Ti 5:17)32And you shall bear no sin by reason of it, when you have contributed the best of it. But you shall not profane the holy things of the people of Israel, lest you die.’” (Le 19:8; Le 22:2; Le 22:15; Le 22:16)