Numbers 18

1 So the LORD said to Aaron, “You and your sons and your father’s house must bear the iniquity involving the sanctuary. And you and your sons alone must bear the iniquity involving your priesthood.

2 But bring with you also your brothers from the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, that they may join you and assist you and your sons before the Tent of the Testimony.

3 And they shall attend to your duties and to all the duties of the Tent; but they must not come near to the furnishings of the sanctuary or the altar, or both they and you will die.

4 They are to join you and attend to the duties of the Tent of Meeting, doing all the work at the Tent; but no outsider may come near you.

5 And you shall attend to the duties of the sanctuary and of the altar, so that wrath may not fall on the Israelites again.

6 Behold, I Myself have selected your fellow Levites from the Israelites as a gift to you, dedicated to the LORD to perform the service for the Tent of Meeting.

7 But only you and your sons shall attend to your priesthood for everything concerning the altar and what is inside the veil, and you are to perform that service. I am giving you the work of the priesthood as a gift, but any outsider who comes near the sanctuary must be put to death.”

8 Then the LORD said to Aaron, “Behold, I have put you in charge of My offerings. As for all the sacred offerings of the Israelites, I have given them to you and your sons as a portion and a permanent statute.

9 A portion of the most holy offerings reserved from the fire will be yours. From all the offerings they render to Me as most holy offerings, whether grain offerings or sin offerings or guilt offerings, that part belongs to you and your sons.

10 You are to eat it as a most holy offering, and every male may eat it. You shall regard it as holy.

11 And this is yours as well: the offering of their gifts, along with all the wave offerings of the Israelites. I have given this to you and your sons and daughters as a permanent statute. Every ceremonially clean person in your household may eat it.

12 I give you all the freshest olive oil and all the finest new wine and grain that the Israelites give to the LORD as their firstfruits.

13 The firstfruits of everything in their land that they bring to the LORD will belong to you. Every ceremonially clean person in your household may eat them.

14 Every devoted thing in Israel belongs to you.

15 The firstborn of every womb, whether man or beast, that is offered to the LORD belongs to you. But you must surely redeem every firstborn son and every firstborn male of unclean animals.

16 You are to pay the redemption price for a month-old male according to your valuation: five shekels of silver, according to the sanctuary shekel, which is twenty gerahs.

17 But you must not redeem the firstborn of an ox, a sheep, or a goat; they are holy. You are to splatter their blood on the altar and burn their fat as a food offering, a pleasing aroma to the LORD.

18 And their meat belongs to you, just as the breast and right thigh of the wave offering belong to you.

19 All the holy offerings that the Israelites present to the LORD I give to you and to your sons and daughters as a permanent statute. It is a permanent covenant of salt before the LORD for you and your offspring.”

20 Then the LORD said to Aaron, “You will have no inheritance in their land, nor will you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the Israelites.

21 Behold, I have given to the Levites all the tithes in Israel as an inheritance in return for the work they do, the service of the Tent of Meeting.

22 No longer may the Israelites come near to the Tent of Meeting, or they will incur guilt and die.

23 The Levites are to perform the work of the Tent of Meeting, and they must bear their iniquity. This is a permanent statute for the generations to come. The Levites will not receive an inheritance among the Israelites.

24 For I have given to the Levites as their inheritance the tithe that the Israelites present to the LORD as a contribution. That is why I told them that they would not receive an inheritance among the Israelites.”

25 And the LORD instructed Moses,

26 “Speak to the Levites and tell them: ‘When you receive from the Israelites the tithe that I have given you as your inheritance, you must present part of it as an offering to the LORD—a tithe of the tithe.

27 Your offering will be reckoned to you as grain from the threshing floor or juice from the winepress.

28 So you are to present an offering to the LORD from all the tithes you receive from the Israelites, and from these you are to give the LORD’s offering to Aaron the priest.

29 You must present the offering due the LORD from all the best of every gift, the holiest part of it.’

30 Therefore say to the Levites, ‘When you have presented the best part, it will be reckoned to you as the produce of the threshing floor or winepress.

31 And you and your households may eat the rest of it anywhere; it is the compensation for your work at the Tent of Meeting.

32 Once you have presented the best part of it, you will not incur guilt because of it. But you must not defile the sacred offerings of the Israelites, or else you will die.’”

1 ¶ And the LORD said unto Aaron, Thou and thy sons and thy father's house with thee shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary: and thou and thy sons with thee shall bear the iniquity of your priesthood.

2 And thy brethren also of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of thy father, bring thou with thee, that they may be joined unto thee, and minister unto thee: but thou and thy sons with thee [shall minister] before the tabernacle of witness.

3 And they shall keep thy charge, and the charge of all the tabernacle: only they shall not come nigh the vessels of the sanctuary and the altar, that neither they, nor ye also, die.

4 And they shall be joined unto thee, and keep the charge of the tabernacle of the congregation, for all the service of the tabernacle: and a stranger shall not come nigh unto you.

5 And ye shall keep the charge of the sanctuary, and the charge of the altar: that there be no wrath any more upon the children of Israel.

6 And I, behold, I have taken your brethren the Levites from among the children of Israel: to you [they are] given [as] a gift for the LORD, to do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation.

7 Therefore thou and thy sons with thee shall keep your priest's office for every thing of the altar, and within the vail; and ye shall serve: I have given your priest's office [unto you] as a service of gift: and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death.

8 ¶ And the LORD spake unto Aaron, Behold, I also have given thee the charge of mine heave offerings of all the hallowed things of the children of Israel; unto thee have I given them by reason of the anointing, and to thy sons, by an ordinance for ever.

9 This shall be thine of the most holy things, [reserved] from the fire: every oblation of theirs, every meat offering of theirs, and every sin offering of theirs, and every trespass offering of theirs, which they shall render unto me, [shall be] most holy for thee and for thy sons.

10 In the most holy [place] shalt thou eat it; every male shall eat it: it shall be holy unto thee.

11 And this [is] thine; the heave offering of their gift, with all the wave offerings of the children of Israel: I have given them unto thee, and to thy sons and to thy daughters with thee, by a statute for ever: every one that is clean in thy house shall eat of it.

12 All the best of the oil, and all the best of the wine, and of the wheat, the firstfruits of them which they shall offer unto the LORD, them have I given thee.

13 [And] whatsoever is first ripe in the land, which they shall bring unto the LORD, shall be thine; every one that is clean in thine house shall eat [of] it.

14 Every thing devoted in Israel shall be thine.

15 Every thing that openeth the matrix in all flesh, which they bring unto the LORD, [whether it be] of men or beasts, shall be thine: nevertheless the firstborn of man shalt thou surely redeem, and the firstling of unclean beasts shalt thou redeem.

16 And those that are to be redeemed from a month old shalt thou redeem, according to thine estimation, for the money of five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary, which [is] twenty gerahs.

17 But the firstling of a cow, or the firstling of a sheep, or the firstling of a goat, thou shalt not redeem; they [are] holy: thou shalt sprinkle their blood upon the altar, and shalt burn their fat [for] an offering made by fire, for a sweet savour unto the LORD.

18 And the flesh of them shall be thine, as the wave breast and as the right shoulder are thine.

19 All the heave offerings of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer unto the LORD, have I given thee, and thy sons and thy daughters with thee, by a statute for ever: it [is] a covenant of salt for ever before the LORD unto thee and to thy seed with thee.

20 ¶ And the LORD spake unto Aaron, Thou shalt have no inheritance in their land, neither shalt thou have any part among them: I [am] thy part and thine inheritance among the children of Israel.

21 And, behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tenth in Israel for an inheritance, for their service which they serve, [even] the service of the tabernacle of the congregation.

22 Neither must the children of Israel henceforth come nigh the tabernacle of the congregation, lest they bear sin, and die.

23 But the Levites shall do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they shall bear their iniquity: [it shall be] a statute for ever throughout your generations, that among the children of Israel they have no inheritance.

24 But the tithes of the children of Israel, which they offer [as] an heave offering unto the LORD, I have given to the Levites to inherit: therefore I have said unto them, Among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.

25 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

26 Thus speak unto the Levites, and say unto them, When ye take of the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then ye shall offer up an heave offering of it for the LORD, [even] a tenth [part] of the tithe.

27 And [this] your heave offering shall be reckoned unto you, as though [it were] the corn of the threshingfloor, and as the fulness of the winepress.

28 Thus ye also shall offer an heave offering unto the LORD of all your tithes, which ye receive of the children of Israel; and ye shall give thereof the LORD'S heave offering to Aaron the priest.

29 Out of all your gifts ye shall offer every heave offering of the LORD, of all the best thereof, [even] the hallowed part thereof out of it.

30 Therefore thou shalt say unto them, When ye have heaved the best thereof from it, then it shall be counted unto the Levites as the increase of the threshingfloor, and as the increase of the winepress.

31 And ye shall eat it in every place, ye and your households: for it [is] your reward for your service in the tabernacle of the congregation.

32 And ye shall bear no sin by reason of it, when ye have heaved from it the best of it: neither shall ye pollute the holy things of the children of Israel, lest ye die.

1 And the LORD said unto Aaron, Thou and thy sons, and thy father's house with thee, shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary: and thou and thy sons with thee shall bear the iniquity of your priesthood.

2 But thy brethren of the tribe of Levi thy father shalt thou take unto thee, to be with thee, and to minister unto thee: and thou and thy sons with thee before the tabernacle of the testimony.

3 And they shall wait upon thy service, and upon the service of all the tabernacle. But they shall not come near unto the vessels of the sanctuary, nor near unto the altar, lest both they and ye die,

4 But they shall be with thee, to minister in the tabernacle of the congregation in all the service of the tabernacle. And no stranger shall join himself unto you.

5 Now therefore wait for the service of the sanctuary, and for the service of the altar, that there be no more fierceness upon the children of Israel.

6 For, behold, I have taken your brethren the Levites from among the children of Israel, and have given them unto you for a present unto the LORD, to minister in the tabernacle of the congregation.

7 But thou, and thy sons with thee, shall keep your priesthood, to minister in all the business of the altar, and within the vail: for your priesthood I give you for a ministry, a gift. If a stranger comes here, he shall die.

8 And the LORD said unto Aaron, Behold, I have given thee my heave offerings of all that the children of Israel sanctify, for thy priestly office, and unto thy sons for a perpetual statute.

9 This shalt thou have of the most holy things, which they offer: All their offerings, with all their meat offering, and with all their sin offering, and with all their trespass offering, which they give unto me, the -shall be the most holy unto thee, and to thy sons.

10 In the most holy place shalt thou eat it. That which is male shall eat thereof: for it shall be holy unto thee.

11 I have also given the heave offering of their offering of all the wave offerings of the children of Israel unto thee, and to thy sons, and to thy daughters, with thee for a perpetual statute: he that is clean in thine house shall eat thereof.

12 All the best oil, and all the best wine, and the best corn of their firstfruits, which they give unto the LORD, have I given thee.

13 The first fruit of all that is in their land, which they bring unto the LORD, shall be thine: he that is clean in thine house shall eat thereof.

14 All that is bound in Israel shall be thine.

15 All that his mother breaketh of all flesh, which they bring unto the LORD, whether it be man or beast, shall be thine: but let the first fruit of man be loosed, and let the first fruit of unclean beast also be loosed.

16 And they shall redeem it when it is a month old: and thou shalt redeem it for money, for five shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs.

17 But the firstfruits of an ox, or of a lamb, or of a goat, shalt thou not redeem: for they are holy: their blood shalt thou sprinkle upon the altar, and their fat shalt thou burn for an offering of a sweet savour unto the LORD.

18 Their flesh shall be thine, even as the wave breast and the right shoulder are thine.

19 All the heave offerings, which the children of Israel sanctify unto the LORD, have I given thee, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and thee, for a perpetual statute. This shall be an everlasting covenant before the LORD, to thee, and to thy seed with thee.

20 And the LORD said unto Aaron, Thou shalt have no possession in their land, neither shalt thou have any part among them: for I am thy part, and thine inheritance among the children of Israel.

21 And unto the children of Levi have I given all the tithes of Israel for an inheritance, for their service which they do unto me in the tabernacle of the congregation,

22 That the children of Israel come not near unto the tabernacle of the congregation, to bring sin upon themselves, and to die;

23 But the Levites shall keep the charge of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they shall bear the iniquity thereof for a perpetual statute among your seed. And they shall have no inheritance among the children of Israel.

24 For the tithes of the children of Israel, which they give unto the LORD, have I given unto the Levites for an inheritance: therefore have I said unto them, that they should have no inheritance among the children of Israel.

25 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying:

26 Speak unto the Levites, and say unto them: When ye take the tenth of the children of Israel, which I have given you of them for your inheritance, then ye shall offer of it a heave offering unto the LORD, a tenth of the tenth.

27 And ye shall regard your heave offering as the grain out of the barn, and the wine out of the winepress.

28 And ye also shall give the heave offering unto the LORD of all your tithes, which ye take of the children of Israel, to give the heave offering of the LORD unto Aaron the priest.

29 Of all that is given unto you ye shall offer of every heave offering unto the LORD, of all that is sanctified of it.

30 And say unto them: If ye therefore gather the best thereof, it shall be counted unto the Levites as the revenue of the barn, and as the revenue of the winepress.

31 And ye shall eat it in every place, ye and your children: for it is your reward for your service in the tabernacle of the congregation.

32 So ye shall not sin in it, if ye take the best part of it; neither shall ye profane the holy things of the children of Israel, nor die.