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Numbers 18

1Yahweh said to Aaron, “You, your sons, and your ancestral house with you shall bear responsibility for wrongdoing against the sanctuary. You and your sons with you shall bear responsibility for wrongdoing against your priesthood.

2Bring your brothers also, the tribe of Levi, your father’s branch, near with you, so that they may be joined to you and serve you while you and your sons with you are before the tent of the testimony.

3They are to keep your charge and the charge of the whole tent, but they must not approach the sanctuary equipment or the altar, lest both they and you die.

4They are to be joined to you and keep charge of the tent of meeting for all the tent’s work. No unauthorized person may approach you.

5You are to keep charge of the sanctuary and the altar so that wrath will no longer fall on the sons of Israel.

6Look, I myself have taken your brothers the Levites from among the sons of Israel as a gift to you, given to Yahweh to do the work of the tent of meeting.

7You and your sons with you are to keep your priesthood in everything concerning the altar and what is inside the veil, and perform the service. I give your priesthood to you as a gift of service. An unauthorized person who approaches must be put to death.”

8Yahweh spoke to Aaron, “Look, I have given you charge of my contributions. All the holy gifts of the sons of Israel I have given to you as your allotted portion, and to your sons as a lasting statute.

9This shall be yours from the most holy things, reserved from the fire: every offering of theirs, every grain offering, every purification offering, and every reparation offering that they return to me. It is most holy for you and for your sons.

10You are to eat it as a most holy thing. Every male may eat it; it shall be holy to you.

11This also is yours: the contribution from their gifts, all the wave offerings of the sons of Israel. I have given them to you and to your sons and daughters with you as a lasting statute. Everyone clean in your household may eat it.

12All the best of the fresh oil, all the best of the new wine and grain, the first of them that they give to Yahweh, I have given to you.

13The first ripe produce of everything in their land that they bring to Yahweh shall be yours. Everyone clean in your household may eat it.

14Everything devoted in Israel shall be yours.

15Every firstborn that opens the womb, of all flesh that they present to Yahweh, human or animal, shall be yours. But you must redeem the human firstborn, and redeem the firstborn of unclean animals.

16Those to be redeemed you are to redeem from one month old, according to your valuation, for five silver shekels by the sanctuary shekel, which is twenty gerahs.

17But you must not redeem the firstborn of cattle, sheep, or goats. They are holy. Splash their blood on the altar and burn their fat as an offering by fire, a pleasing aroma for Yahweh.

18Their flesh shall be yours; like the breast of the wave offering and the right thigh, it shall be yours.

19All the contributions of holy things that the sons of Israel set aside for Yahweh I have given to you and your sons and daughters with you as a lasting statute. It is a lasting covenant of salt before Yahweh for you and your offspring with you.”

20Yahweh said to Aaron, “You shall have no inheritance in their land and no share among them. I am your share and your inheritance among the sons of Israel.

21Look, I have given the sons of Levi every tithe in Israel as an inheritance in return for the work they perform, the work of the tent of meeting.

22The sons of Israel must no longer approach the tent of meeting, lest they bear sin and die.

23The Levites themselves are to do the work of the tent of meeting, and they shall bear responsibility for wrongdoing against it. This is a lasting statute throughout your generations. They shall inherit no landholding among the sons of Israel.

24For I have given the Levites as an inheritance the tithe that the sons of Israel set aside as a contribution to Yahweh. That is why I have said of them: They shall inherit no landholding among the sons of Israel.”

25Yahweh spoke to Moses:

26“Speak to the Levites and say to them: When you receive from the sons of Israel the tithe I have given you from them as your inheritance, set aside from it Yahweh’s contribution, a tithe of the tithe.

27Your contribution shall be reckoned to you like grain from the threshing floor and the full yield from the winepress.

28In this way you too shall set aside Yahweh’s contribution from all the tithes you receive from the sons of Israel, and from them give Yahweh’s contribution to Aaron the priest.

29From all the gifts you receive, set aside every contribution due to Yahweh, from all the best of it, its consecrated portion.

30Say to them: When you have set aside the best of it, the rest shall be reckoned to the Levites like the produce of the threshing floor and the produce of the winepress.

31You and your households may eat it anywhere, because it is your wages in return for your work at the tent of meeting.

32You will bear no sin on its account when you set aside the best of it. You must not profane the holy gifts of the sons of Israel, or you will die.”

Translation notes 4

18:1–7 — Responsibility and limits. Bearing wrongdoing here includes accountability for violations in the sphere entrusted to the priests or Levites. The two groups have distinct duties; the Levites must not approach the holy equipment or altar for priestly work. “Unauthorized” is defined by those responsibilities.

18:8–14 — Holy gifts. The uncommon word rendered “allotted portion” may relate to anointing or a priestly due. Verse 10 can be read “in a most holy place” or “as a most holy thing”; the latter fits the class of food, without directing ordinary priests into the inner sanctuary. The eligibility for male priests in verse 10 differs from clean sons and daughters in verse 11.

18:15–19 — Firstborn and salt. Human firstborn and firstborn unclean animals are redeemed; cattle, sheep, and goats are not. Splashing blood differs from sprinkling it in other rituals. “Covenant of salt” retains an ancient image of a binding, enduring arrangement; salt is also required with offerings in Leviticus 2:13.

18:20–32 — Tithes and inheritance. A tithe is a tenth. The Levites receive Israel’s tithes in place of a tribal landholding and give a tenth of those tithes to the priest. The best portion must be set aside before their households may eat the remainder as wages. These agricultural arrangements are not recast as modern currency or a different tithe law.