Numbers 18

¹ Then Yahweh said to Aaron: ‘You and your sons, and your whole family shall bear the burden of transgressions against the sanctuary. You and your sons with you shall bear the burden of the transgressions of your priesthood.

² Let your brothers of the branch of Levi, your father’s tribe, come with you too. They are to join you and serve you, yourselves and your sons, before the Tent of the Testimony.

³ They are to be at your service and the service of the whole Tent. Provided they do not come near the sacred vessels or the altar, they will be in no more danger of death than you.

⁴ They are to join you, they are to take charge of the Tent of Meeting for the entire ministry of the Tent, and no layman shall come near you.

⁵ You must take charge of the sanctuary and charge of the altar, and the wrath will never again fall on the sons of Israel.

⁶ I myself have chosen your brothers, the Levites, from among the sons of Israel as a gift to you. As ‘oblates’ they will belong to Yahweh, to serve at the Tent of Meeting.

⁷ You and your sons will undertake the priestly duties in all that concerns the altar and all that lies behind the veil.[*a] You will perform the liturgy, the duties of which I entrust to your priesthood. But the layman who comes near shall die.’

⁸ Yahweh said to Aaron: ‘I myself have given you charge of all that is set aside for me. Everything that the sons of Israel consecrate I give to you as your portion, as well as to your sons, by perpetual ordinance.

⁹ This is what shall be yours of the most holy things, of the consecrated food: every offering that the sons of Israel give back to me, whether it be an oblation or a sacrifice for sin or a sacrifice of reparation, is a thing most holy; it shall belong to you and your sons

¹⁰ You may eat these most holy things. Every male may eat them. You are to count them sacred.

¹¹ ‘To you also shall belong whatever is set aside from the offerings of the sons of Israel to be held out with the gesture of offering; this I give to you, as well as to your sons and daughters by perpetual ordinance. Every undefiled person in your house may eat it.

¹² All the best of the oil, all the best of the wine and wheat, the first-fruits made over by them to Yahweh, these I give to you.

¹³ All the first produce of their land which they bring to Yahweh shall be yours. Every undefiled person in your house may eat them.

¹⁴ All in Israel on which the ban is laid shall be yours.

¹⁵ Every first-born brought to Yahweh shall be yours, of all living creatures, whether man or beast; nevertheless you must redeem the first-born of man, and you must redeem the first-born of an unclean beast.

¹⁶ You must redeem it in the month in which it is born at the price of five shekels, each of sanctuary weight-which is twenty gerahs.

¹⁷ The first-born of cow, sheep and goat, these alone you shall not redeem. They are holy: you must sprinkle their blood on the altar and burn the fat as a burnt offering, an appeasing fragrance for Yahweh;

¹⁸ the meat shall be yours, together with the breast that has been presented with the gesture of offering, and the right thigh.

¹⁹ All that the sons of Israel set aside for Yahweh from the holy things, this I give to you, and to your sons and daughters, by perpetual ordinance. This is a covenant of salt for ever before Yahweh, for you and your descendants after you.’

²⁰ Yahweh said to Aaron: ‘You shall have no inheritance in their land, no portion of it among them shall be yours. It is I who will be your portion and your inheritance amongst the sons of Israel.

²¹ See, to the sons of Levi I give as their inheritance all the tithes collected in Israel, in return for their services, for the ministry they render in the Tent of Meeting.

²² The sons of Israel must no longer go near the Tent of Meeting; they would be burdened with sin and die.

²³ To Levi belongs the ministry of the Tent of Meeting, and the Levites will bear the burden of their sin. This is a perpetual law for all your descendants: the Levites are to have no inheritance among the sons of Israel.

²⁴ The tithe that the sons of Israel set aside for Yahweh, I give the Levites for their inheritance. For this reason I have told them that they are to have no inheritance among the sons of Israel.’

²⁵ Yahweh spoke to Moses and said,

²⁶ ‘You are to say to the Levites: “When you receive the tithe from the sons of Israel which they must pay you and which I am giving you as your inheritance, out of this you are to set aside a portion for Yahweh, a tithe of the tithe.

²⁷ This is to take the place of the portion set aside that is due from you, like the corn from the threshing-floor and new wine from the press.

²⁸ Thus you too will set aside a portion for Yahweh, of all the tithes you receive from the sons of Israel. You will give what you have set aside for Yahweh to Aaron the priest.

²⁹ Out of all the gifts you receive you will set aside a portion for Yahweh. From the best of all these things you will set aside the sacred portion.”

³⁰ ‘You are to say to them, “After you have set aside the best, all these gifts shall, for the Levites, take the place of the produce of the threshing-floor and of the wine press.

³¹ You may consume them anywhere, you and your people: this is your payment for serving in the Tent of Meeting.

³² You will not incur the burden of any sin on this account, once you have set aside the best; you will not be profaning the things consecrated by the sons of Israel, and you will not die.”‘