Numbers 18
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1The Lord said to Aaron: You, your sons, and your ancestral house shall bear the sins concerning the holy things; you and your sons shall bear the sins concerning your priesthood.
2Bring your brothers, the tribe of Levi, your father's clan, near to yourself; let them join you and minister to you, while you and your sons with you are before the Tent of Testimony.
3They shall keep your charges and the charges of the tent, but they shall not approach the holy vessels or the altar, and neither they nor you shall die.
4They shall join you and keep the charges of the Tent of Testimony for all the ministries of the tent. An outsider shall not approach you.
5You shall keep the charges of the holy things and the charges of the altar, and there shall be no wrath among the sons of Israel.
6I have taken your brothers the Levites from among the sons of Israel, a gift given to the Lord, to perform the ministries of the Tent of Testimony.
7You and your sons with you shall preserve your priesthood in every matter of the altar and what is inside the veil, and you shall perform the ministries as a gift of your priesthood. The outsider who approaches shall die.
8The Lord spoke to Aaron: Look, I have given you charge of the firstfruits. From everything consecrated to Me by the sons of Israel, I have given these to you as a share of honor, and to your sons after you, as a perpetual ordinance.
9This shall be yours from the consecrated holy offerings: from all their gifts, all their sacrifices, every trespass offering, and all their sin offerings that they render to Me. From all the holy things these shall belong to you and your sons.
10You shall eat them in the most holy place; every male may eat them—you and your sons. They shall be holy to you.
11This also shall be yours: the firstfruit of their gifts. From all the presented portions of the sons of Israel I have given these to you, your sons, and your daughters with you as a perpetual ordinance. Everyone clean in your house may eat them.
12Every firstfruit of oil and every firstfruit of wine and grain—their firstfruit that they give to the Lord—I have given to you.
13All the first produce of everything in their land that they bring to the Lord shall be yours. Everyone clean in your house may eat it.
14Everything placed under a vow of devotion among the sons of Israel shall be yours.
15Everything that opens the womb of all flesh that they present to the Lord, from human beings to livestock, shall be yours. Yet the human firstborn shall be redeemed by a ransom, and you shall redeem the firstborn of unclean livestock.
16Its redemption shall be from one month old; the valuation is five shekels by the holy shekel, which is twenty obols.
17But you shall not redeem the firstborn of calves, sheep, or goats; they are holy. You shall pour their blood against the altar and offer up the fat as an offering, a fragrant aroma to the Lord.
18Their flesh shall be yours, just as the breast of the presented portion and the right foreleg shall be yours.
19Every portion removed from the holy things that the sons of Israel remove for the Lord I have given to you, your sons, and your daughters with you as a perpetual ordinance. It is a covenant of everlasting salt before the Lord for you and your offspring after you.
20The Lord spoke to Aaron: You shall not inherit in their land, and you shall have no share among them, because I am your share and your inheritance among the sons of Israel.
21To the sons of Levi, look, I have given every tithe in Israel as an allotment in return for their ministries, the service they perform in the Tent of Testimony.
22The sons of Israel shall no longer approach the Tent of Testimony, incurring a death-bringing sin.
23The Levite himself shall perform the ministry of the Tent of Testimony, and they shall bear their offenses. It is a perpetual ordinance throughout their generations. Among the sons of Israel they shall receive no inheritance.
24For the tithes of the sons of Israel that they set apart for the Lord as a removed portion I have given to the Levites as an allotment. Therefore I have said to them: Among the sons of Israel they shall receive no allotment.
25The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
26You shall speak to the Levites and say to them: When you receive from the sons of Israel the tithe that I have given you from them as an allotment, you shall remove from it a portion for the Lord, a tithe of the tithe.
27Your removed portions shall be reckoned to you as grain from the threshing floor and as a removed portion from the winepress.
28Thus you also shall remove from the Lord's removed portions, from all your tithes that you receive from the sons of Israel; from them you shall give a removed portion for the Lord to Aaron the priest.
29From all your gifts you shall remove a portion for the Lord, or from all the firstfruits the consecrated portion from it.
30You shall say to them: When you remove the firstfruit from it, it shall be reckoned to the Levites as produce from the threshing floor and produce from the winepress.
31You and your households may eat it in any place, for these are your wages in return for your ministries in the Tent of Testimony.
32You shall incur no sin through it when you remove the firstfruit from it. You shall not profane the holy things of the sons of Israel, so that you do not die.
↠Numbers 17 · Numbers: all chapters · Numbers 19 →
Read this chapter with the Hebrew and Greek compared →
Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · working draft awaiting specialist review.