< Numbers 18 >
1 And the LORD said unto Aaron, You and your sons and your father's house with you shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary: and you and your sons with you shall bear the iniquity of your priesthood.
2 And your brethren also of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, bring you 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.
3 And they shall keep your charge, and the charge of all the tabernacle: only they shall not come nigh the vessels of the sanctuary and the altar, that neither they, nor all of you also, die.
4 And they shall be joined unto you, and keep the charge of the tabernacle of the congregation, for all the service of the tabernacle: and a stranger shall not come nigh unto you.
5 And all of you shall keep the charge of the sanctuary, and the charge of the altar: that there be no wrath any more upon the children of Israel.
6 And 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 the congregation.
7 Therefore you and your sons with you shall keep your priest's office for everything of the altar, and within the vail; and all of you shall serve: I have given your priest's office unto you as a service of gift: and the stranger that comes nigh shall be put to death.
8 And the LORD spoke unto Aaron, Behold, I also have given you the charge of mine heave offerings of all the hallowed things of the children of Israel; unto you have I given them by reason of the anointing, and to your sons, by an ordinance for ever.
9 This shall be your of the most holy things, reserved from the fire: every oblation of theirs, every food 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.
10 In the most holy place shall you eat it; every male shall eat it: it shall be holy unto you.
11 And 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 for ever: every one that is clean in your house shall eat of it.
12 All 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.
13 And 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.
14 Every thing devoted in Israel shall be yours.
15 Every thing that opens the womb in all flesh, which they bring unto the LORD, whether it be of men or beasts, shall be yours: nevertheless the firstborn of man shall you surely redeem, and the first born of unclean beasts shall you redeem.
16 And those that are to be redeemed from a month old shall you redeem, according to your estimation, for the money of five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs.
17 But the first born of a cow, or the first born of a sheep, or the first born 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 savour unto the LORD.
18 And the flesh of them shall be yours, as the wave breast and as the right shoulder are yours.
19 All 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 for ever: it is a covenant of salt for ever before the LORD unto you and to your seed with you.
20 And 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.
21 And, 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 the congregation.
22 Neither must the children of Israel henceforth come nigh the tabernacle of the congregation, lest they bear sin, and die.
23 But the Levites shall do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they shall bear their iniquity: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations, that among the children of Israel they have no inheritance.
24 But the tithes of the children of Israel, which they offer as an 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.
25 And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying,
26 Thus speak unto the Levites, and say unto them, When all of you take of the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then all of you shall offer up an heave offering of it for the LORD, even a tenth part of the tithe.
27 And this your heave offering shall be reckoned unto you, as though it were the corn of the threshing floor, and as the fullness of the winepress.
28 Thus all of you also shall offer an heave offering unto the LORD of all your tithes, which all of you receive of the children of Israel; and all of you shall give thereof the LORD's heave offering to Aaron the priest.
29 Out of all your gifts all of you shall offer every heave offering of the LORD, of all the best thereof, even the hallowed part thereof out of it.
30 Therefore you shall say unto them, When all of 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.
31 And all of you shall eat it in every place, all of you and your households: for it is your reward for your service in the tabernacle of the congregation.
32 And all of you shall bear no sin by reason of it, when all of you have heaved from it the best of it: neither shall all of you pollute the holy things of the children of Israel, lest all of you die.