Numbers 18

1 And YHWH says to Aaron, “You, and your sons, and the house of your father with you, bear the iniquity of the sanctuary; and you and your sons with you bear the iniquity of your priesthood;

2 and also your brothers, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, bring near with you, and they are joined to you, and serve you, even you and your sons with you, before the Tent of the Testimony.

3 And they have kept your charge, and the charge of all the tent; only, they do not come near to the vessels of the holy place and to the altar, and they do not die, either they or you;

4 and they have been joined to you and have kept the charge of the Tent of Meeting for all the service of the tent; and a stranger does not come near to you;

5 and you have kept the charge of the holy place and the charge of the altar, and there is no more wrath against the sons of Israel.

6 And I, behold, have taken your brothers the Levites from the midst of the sons of Israel; they are a gift given to you by YHWH to do the service of the Tent of Meeting;

7 and you and your sons with you keep your priesthood for everything of the altar and within the veil, and you have served; I make your priesthood a gift [for] service; and the stranger who is coming near is put to death.”

8 And YHWH speaks to Aaron: “And I, behold, have given to you the charge of My raised-offerings, of all the hallowed things of the sons of Israel—I have given them to you and to your sons for the anointing, by a continuous statute.

9 This is yours from the most holy things, from the fire: all their offering, of all their present, and of all their sin-offering, and of all their guilt-offering, which they give back to Me, is most holy to you and to your sons;

10 you eat it among the most holy things; every male eats it; it is holy to you.

11 And this [is] yours: the raised-offering of their gift, with all the wave-offerings of the sons of Israel; I have given them to you, and to your sons, and to your daughters with you, by a continuous statute; every clean one in your house eats it;

12 all the best of the oil, and all the best of the new wine, and wheat—their first-[fruits] which they give to YHWH—I have given them to you.

13 The first-fruits of all that [is] in their land, which they bring to YHWH, are yours; every clean one in your house eats it;

14 every devoted thing in Israel is yours;

15 everyone opening a womb of all flesh which they bring near to YHWH, among man and among beast, is yours; only, you certainly ransom the firstborn of man, and you ransom the firstling of the unclean beast.

16 And their ransomed ones from a son of a month, you ransom with your valuation [for] five shekels of silver, by the shekel of the holy place; it [is] twenty gerahs.

17 Only, the firstling of a cow, or the firstling of a sheep, or the firstling of a goat, you do not ransom, they [are] holy: you sprinkle their blood on the altar, and you make incense of their fat [as] a fire-offering of refreshing fragrance to YHWH;

18 and their flesh is yours, as the breast of the wave-offering and as the right leg are yours.

19 All the raised-offerings of the holy things, which the sons of Israel lift up to YHWH, I have given to you, and to your sons, and to your daughters with you, by a continuous statute—a covenant of salt; it [is] continuous before YHWH to you and to your seed with you.”

20 And YHWH says to Aaron, “You do not inherit in their land, and you do not have a portion in their midst: I [am] your portion and your inheritance in the midst of the sons of Israel;

21 and to the sons of Levi, behold, have given all the tenth in Israel for inheritance in exchange for their service which they are serving—the service of the Tent of Meeting.

22 And the sons of Israel no longer come near to the Tent of Meeting, to bear sin, to die,

23 and the Levites have done the service of the Tent of Meeting, and they bear their iniquity; [it is] a continuous statute throughout your generations that they have no inheritance in the midst of the sons of Israel;

24 but the tithe of the sons of Israel which they lift up to YHWH, a raised-offering, I have given to the Levites for inheritance; therefore I have said of them, They have no inheritance in the midst of the sons of Israel.”

25 And YHWH speaks to Moses, saying,

26 “And you speak to the Levites, and you have said to them: When you take the tithe from the sons of Israel which I have given to you from them for your inheritance, then you have lifted up the raised-offering of YHWH from it, a tithe of the tithe;

27 and your raised-offering has been reckoned to you as grain from the threshing-floor and as the fullness from the wine-vat;

28 so you lift up—you also—the raised-offering of YHWH from all your tithes which you receive from the sons of Israel; and you have given the raised-offering of YHWH from it to Aaron the priest;

29 out of all your gifts you lift up every raised-offering of YHWH, out of all its fat—its hallowed part—out of it.

30 And you have said to them: In your lifting up its fat out of it, then it has been reckoned to the Levites as increase of a threshing-floor and as increase of a wine-vat;

31 and you have eaten it in every place, you and your households, for it [is] your hire in exchange for your service in the Tent of Meeting;

32 and you bear no sin for it in your lifting up its fat out of it, but you do not defile the holy things of the sons of Israel, and you do not die.”