Numbers 18

1Yahweh said to Aaron, “You and your sons and your father’s family with you will bear the guilt for offenses against the sanctuary, and you and your sons with you will bear the guilt for offenses against your priesthood.

2Also bring with you your relatives, the tribe of Levi, your father’s tribe, so that they may join you and assist you while you and your sons with you are before the tent of the testimony.

3They are to carry out their duties to you and their duties for the whole tent, but they must not come near the holy furnishings or the altar, or both they and you will die.

4They are to join you and carry out the duties of the tent of meeting, all the work of the tent, and no unauthorized person may come near you.

5You are to carry out the duties of the sanctuary and the duties of the altar, so that wrath will not come on the Israelites again.

6I myself have taken your relatives the Levites from among the Israelites as a gift to you, given to Yahweh to do the work of the tent of meeting.

7But you and your sons with you are to guard your priesthood in everything concerning the altar and everything behind the curtain, and you are to serve there. I am giving you the priesthood as a gift for service. Any unauthorized person who comes near must be put to death.”

8Then Yahweh said to Aaron, “I myself have put you in charge of the contributions made to me, all the holy gifts of the Israelites. I have given them to you and your sons as your portion, a permanent share.

9This part of the most holy offerings, kept back from the fire, is to be yours: every offering they bring me, whether a grain offering, a sin offering, or a guilt offering, will be most holy for you and your sons.

10Eat it as a most holy offering. Every male may eat it; it is to be holy to you.

11This also is yours: the contribution from their gifts, from all the wave offerings of the Israelites. I have given them to you and to your sons and daughters with you as a permanent share. Everyone in your household who is clean may eat it.

12I have given you all the best of the olive oil and all the best of the new wine and grain, the firstfruits they give to Yahweh.

13The first ripe produce of everything in their land that they bring to Yahweh will be yours. Everyone in your household who is clean may eat it.

14Everything in Israel that is devoted to Yahweh will be yours.

15The firstborn of every womb, human or animal, that they offer to Yahweh will be yours. But you must redeem every human firstborn, and you are to redeem the firstborn of unclean animals.

16You are to redeem them when they are a month old, at the valuation of five shekels of silver by the sanctuary shekel, which is twenty gerahs.

17But 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 fire offering, a pleasing aroma to Yahweh.

18Their meat will be yours, just as the breast of the wave offering and the right thigh are yours.

19All the holy contributions that the Israelites set aside for Yahweh I have given to you and to your sons and daughters with you as a permanent share. It is a permanent covenant of salt before Yahweh for you and your descendants with you.”

20Yahweh said to Aaron, “You will have no inheritance in their land, and you will have no share among them. I am your share and your inheritance among the Israelites.

21To the Levites I have given all the tithes in Israel as their inheritance, in return for the work they do, the work of the tent of meeting.

22From now on the Israelites must not come near the tent of meeting, or they will bear the consequences of their sin and die.

23The Levites are to do the work of the tent of meeting, and they will bear the guilt for their offenses. This is a permanent statute throughout your generations. They will have no inheritance among the Israelites.

24For I have given to the Levites as their inheritance the tithes that the Israelites set aside as a contribution to Yahweh. That is why I have said about them, ‘They will have no inheritance among the Israelites.’”

25Yahweh said to Moses,

26“Speak to the Levites and say to them: When you receive from the Israelites the tithe I have given you from them as your inheritance, you are to set aside from it a contribution for Yahweh, a tenth of the tithe.

27Your contribution will be credited to you as though it were grain from the threshing floor or juice from the winepress.

28In this way you too are to set aside a contribution for Yahweh from all the tithes you receive from the Israelites. From them you are to give Yahweh’s contribution to Aaron the priest.

29From all the gifts you receive you are to set aside every contribution due to Yahweh, the best of them, the part that is holy.

30Say to them: When you have set aside the best of it, it will be credited to the Levites as produce from the threshing floor and the winepress.

31You and your households may eat it anywhere, for it is your wages in return for your work at the tent of meeting.

32When you have set aside the best of it, you will not bear any sin because of it. You must not profane the holy gifts of the Israelites, so that you will not die.”