Numbers 18

Revised Geneva Translation

18 And the LORD said to Aaron, “You and your sons, and your father’s House with you, shall bear the iniquity of the Sanctuary. Both you and your sons with you shall bear the iniquity of your Priest’s office.

² “And also bring with you your brothers from the tribe of Levi, of the family of your father, who shall be joined with you and minister to you. But you and your sons with you shall minister before the Tabernacle of the Testimony.

³ “And they shall keep My charge, even the charge of all the Tabernacle. But they shall not come near the instruments of the Sanctuary, nor to the Altar, lest they die, both they and you.

⁴ “And they shall be joined with you and keep the charge of the Tabernacle of the Congregation for all the service of the Tabernacle. And no stranger shall come near to you.

⁵ “Therefore, you shall keep the charge of the Sanctuary, and the charge of the Altar, so no more wrath

⁶ “For lo, I have taken your brothers, the Levites, from among the children of Israel (who, as a gift of yours, are given to the LORD, to do the service of the Tabernacle of the Congregation).

⁷ “But you, and your sons with you, shall keep your Priest’s office for all things of the Altar, and within the Veil. Therefore, you shall serve. I have made your Priest’s office an office of service. Therefore, the stranger who comes near shall be killed.”

⁸ Again the LORD spoke to Aaron, “Behold, I have given you the keeping of My Offerings, of all the hallowed things of the children of Israel. I have given them to you for the anointing’s sake, and to your sons, for a perpetual Ordinance.

⁹ “This shall be yours of the Most Holy things, reserved from the fire. All their offering of all their Meat Offering and of all their Sin Offering and of all their Trespass Offering, which they bring to Me, that shall be Most Holy to you, and to your sons.

¹⁰ “You shall eat it in the Most Holy Place. Every male shall eat from it. It is Holy to you.

¹¹ “This also shall be yours: the Heave Offering of their gift, with all the Shake Offerings of the children of Israel. I have given them to you, and to your sons and to your daughters with you, to be a duty forever. All the clean in your house shall eat from it.

¹² “All the fat of the oil and all the fat of the wine, and of the wheat, which they shall offer to the LORD for their firstfruits, I have given them to you.

¹³ “And the first ripe of all that is in their land which they shall bring to LORD shall be yours. All the clean in your house shall eat from it.

¹⁴ “Everything separate from the common use in Israel shall be yours.

¹⁵ “All that first opens the womb of any flesh which they shall offer to the LORD, of man or beast, shall be yours. But the firstborn of man you shall redeem, and the firstborn of the unclean beast you shall redeem.

¹⁶ “And those who are to be redeemed you shall redeem from the age of a month (according to your estimation) for the sum of five shekels, after the shekel of the Sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs.

¹⁷ “But the firstborn of a cow, or the firstborn of a sheep, or the firstborn of a goat you shall not redeem. They are holy. You shall sprinkle their blood at the Altar. And you shall burn their fat. It is a sacrifice made by fire for a sweet savor to the LORD.

¹⁸ “And the flesh of them shall be yours, as the shake breast and as the right shoulder shall be yours.

¹⁹ “All the Heave Offerings of the holy things which the children of Israel shall offer to the LORD I have given you, and your sons, and your daughters with you, to be a duty forever. It is a perpetual Covenant of Salt before the LORD, to you and to your seed with you.”

²⁰ And the LORD said to Aaron, “You shall have no inheritance in their land. Nor shall you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the children of Israel.

²¹ “For behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tithes in Israel for an inheritance, for their service which they serve in the Tabernacle of the Congregation.

²² “Nor shall the children of Israel come near the Tabernacle of the Congregation anymore, lest they sustain sin and die.

²³ “But the Levites shall do the service in the Tabernacle of the Congregation; and they shall bear their sin. It is a Law, forever, in your generations, that among the children of Israel they possess no inheritance.

²⁴ “For the tithes of the children of Israel, which they shall offer as an offering to the LORD, I have given to the Levites for an inheritance. Therefore, I have said to them, ‘You shall possess no inheritance among the children of Israel.’”

²⁵ And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

²⁶ “Also speak to the Levites, and say to them, “When you shall take the tithes from the children of Israel, which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then you shall take a Heave Offering of it for the LORD (one tenth of the tithe).

²⁷ “And your Heave Offering shall be reckoned to you as the corn of the barn or as the abundance of the winepress.

²⁸ “So you shall also offer a Heave Offering to the LORD from all your tithes which you shall receive from the children of Israel. And you shall give the LORD’s Heave Offering from it to Aaron the Priest.

²⁹ “You shall offer all the LORD’s Heave Offerings from all your gifts. From all the fat of them you shall offer the holy things.

³⁰ “Therefore, you shall say to them, ‘When you have offered the fat of them, then it shall be counted to the Levites as the increase of the corn floor or as the increase of the winepress.

³¹ ‘And you shall eat it in all places, you and your households, for it is your wages for your service in the Tabernacle of the Congregation.

³² ‘And you shall bear no sin by reason of it, when you have offered the fat of it. Nor shall you pollute the holy things of the children of Israel, lest you die.’”