Numbers 18:21-32

New King James Version

Tithes for Support of the Levites

²¹“Behold, ^(A)I have given the children of Levi all the tithes in Israel as ^[a]an inheritance in return for the work which they perform, ^(B)the work of the tabernacle of meeting. ²²^(C)Hereafter the children of Israel shall not come near the tabernacle of meeting, ^(D)lest they bear sin and die. ²³But the Levites shall perform the work of the tabernacle of meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity; it shall be a statute forever, throughout your generations, that among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance. ²⁴For the tithes of the children of Israel, which they offer up as a heave offering to the Lord, I have given to the Levites ^[b]as an inheritance; therefore I have said to them, ‘Among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.’ ”

The Tithe of the Levites

²⁵Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²⁶“Speak thus to the Levites, and say to them: ‘When you take from the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them as your inheritance, then you shall offer up a heave offering of it to the Lord, ^(E)a tenth of the tithe. ²⁷And your heave offering shall be reckoned to you as though it were the grain of the ^(F)threshing floor and as the fullness of the winepress. ²⁸Thus you shall also offer a heave offering to the Lord from all your tithes which you receive from the children of Israel, and you shall give the Lord’s heave offering from it to Aaron the priest. ²⁹Of all your gifts you shall offer up every heave offering due to the Lord, from all the ^[c]best of them, the consecrated part of them.’ ³⁰Therefore you shall say to them: ‘When you have lifted up the best of it, then the rest shall be accounted to the Levites as the produce of the threshing floor and as the produce of the winepress. ³¹You may eat it in any place, you and your households, for it is ^(G)your ^[d]reward for your work in the tabernacle of meeting. ³²And you shall ^(H)bear no sin because of it, when you have lifted up the best of it. But you shall not ^(I)profane the holy gifts of the children of Israel, lest you die.’ ”