Numbers 18:21-32

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

²¹ “To the Levites I have given every tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service which they serve, their service in the tent of meeting. ²² And henceforth the people of Israel shall not come near the tent of meeting, lest they bear sin and die. ²³ But the Levites shall do the service of the tent of meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity; it shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations; and among the people of Israel they shall have no inheritance. ²⁴ For the tithe of the people of Israel, which they present as an offering to the Lord, I have given to the Levites for an inheritance; therefore I have said of them that they shall have no inheritance among the people of Israel.”

²⁵ And the Lord said to Moses, ²⁶ “Moreover you shall say to the Levites, ‘When you take from the people of Israel the tithe which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then you shall present an offering from it to the Lord, a tithe of the tithe. ²⁷ And your offering shall be reckoned to you as though it were the grain of the threshing floor, and as the fulness of the wine press. ²⁸ So shall you also present an offering to the Lord from all your tithes, which you receive from the people of Israel; and from it you shall give the Lord’s offering to Aaron the priest. ²⁹ Out of all the gifts to you, you shall present every offering due to the Lord, from all the best of them, giving the hallowed part from them.’ ³⁰ Therefore you shall say to them, ‘When you have offered from it the best of it, then the rest shall be reckoned to the Levites as produce of the threshing floor, and as produce of the wine press; ³¹ and you may eat it in any place, you and your households; for it is your reward in return for your service in the tent of meeting. ³² And you shall bear no sin by reason of it, when you have offered the best of it. And you shall not profane the holy things of the people of Israel, lest you die.’”