Numbers 18
1And the LORD said unto Aaron,
You and your sons and your father's house with you shall bear the iniquity in connection with the sanctuary: and you and your sons with you shall bear the iniquity in connection with your priesthood.
2And your brethren also of the tribe of Levi,
the tribe of your father, bring with you, that they may be joined unto you, and minister unto you: but you and your sons with you shall minister before the tabernacle of witness.
3And they shall keep your duties, and the duties of all the tabernacle: only they shall not come near the vessels of the sanctuary and the altar, that neither they, nor you also, die.
4And they shall be joined unto you, and keep the duties of the tabernacle of meeting, for all the service of the tabernacle: and a stranger shall not come near unto you.
5And you shall keep the duties of the sanctuary, and the duties of the altar: that there be no wrath any more upon the children of Israel.
6And 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 meeting.
7Therefore you and your sons with you shall keep your priest's office for everything at the altar, and within the veil; and you shall serve: I have given your priest's office unto you as a gift for service: and the stranger that comes near shall be put to death.
8And the LORD spoke unto Aaron,
Behold, I also have given you the duties of my heave offerings of all the hallowed things of the children of Israel; unto you have I given them as a portion to you, and to your sons, by an ordinance forever.
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 trespass offering of theirs, which they shall render unto me, shall be most holy for you and for your sons.
10In the most holy place shall you eat it; every male shall eat it: it shall be holy unto you.
11And this is yours; the heave offering of their gift, with all the wave offerings of the children of Israel: I have given them unto you, and to your sons and to your daughters with you, by a statute forever: everyone that is clean in your house shall eat of it.
12All the best of the oil, and all the best of the wine, and of the wheat, the first fruits of them which they shall offer unto the LORD, them have I given you.
13And whatsoever is first ripe in the land, which they shall bring unto the LORD, shall be yours; every one that is clean in your house shall eat of it.
14Every thing devoted in Israel shall be yours.
15Every thing that opens the womb in all flesh,
which they bring unto the LORD, whether it be of men or animals, shall be yours: nevertheless the firstborn of man shall you surely redeem, and the firstling of unclean animals shall you redeem.
16And those that are to be redeemed from a month old shall you redeem, according to your valuation, for the money of five shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs.
17But the firstling of a cow, or the firstling of a sheep, or the firstling of a goat, you shall not redeem; they are holy: you shall sprinkle their blood upon the altar, and shall burn their fat for an offering made by fire, for a sweet aroma unto the LORD.
18And the flesh of them shall be yours, as the wave breast and as the right shoulder are yours.
19All the heave offerings of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer unto the LORD, have I given you, and your sons and your daughters with you, by a statute forever: it is a covenant of salt forever before the LORD unto you and to your descendants with you.
20And the LORD spoke unto Aaron,
You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any part among them: I am your part and your inheritance among the children of Israel.
21And, 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 meeting.
22Neither must the children of Israel henceforth come near the tabernacle of meeting, lest they bear sin, and die.
23But the Levites shall do the service of the tabernacle of meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity: it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations, that among the children of Israel they have no inheritance.
24But the tithes of the children of Israel, which they offer as a 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.
25And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying,
26Thus speak unto the Levites, and say unto them, When you take of the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then you shall offer up a heave offering of it for the LORD, even a tenth part of the tithe.
27And this your heave offering shall be reckoned unto you, as though it were the grain of the threshing floor, and as the fullness of the winepress.
28Thus you also shall offer a heave offering unto the LORD of all your tithes, which you receive of the children of Israel; and you shall give thereof the LORD'S heave offering to Aaron the priest.
29Out of all your gifts you shall offer every heave offering of the LORD, of all the best thereof, even the hallowed part thereof out of it.
30Therefore you shall say unto them, When you have heaved the best thereof from it, then it shall be counted unto the Levites as the increase of the threshing floor, and as the increase of the winepress.
31And you shall eat it in every place, you and your households: for it is your reward for your service in the tabernacle of meeting.
32And you shall bear no sin by reason of it, when you have offered from it the best of it: neither shall you pollute the holy things of the children of Israel, lest you die.
Commentaries for Numbers 18:0