Tithes

^22 (A)“You shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year. ²³ And before the Lord your God, in the place that he will choose, to make his name dwell there, ^(B)you shall eat the tithe of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil, ^(C)and the firstborn of your herd and flock, ^(D)that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. ²⁴ And if the way is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, when the Lord your God blesses you, because ^(E)the place is too far from you, which the Lord your God chooses, to set his name there, ²⁵ then you shall turn it into money and bind up the money in your hand and go to the place that the Lord your God chooses ²⁶ and spend the money for whatever you desire—oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves. And ^(F)you shall eat there before the Lord your God and rejoice, you and your household. ²⁷ And you shall not neglect ^(G)the Levite who is within your towns, for ^(H)he has no portion or inheritance with you.

^28 (I)“At the end of every three years you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in the same year and lay it up within your towns. ²⁹ And the Levite, because ^(J)he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your towns, shall come and eat and be filled, that ^(K)the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do.

^30 (A)“Every tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is the Lord's; it is holy to the Lord. ³¹ If a man wishes to redeem some of his tithe, he shall add a fifth to it. ³² And every tithe of herds and flocks, every tenth animal of all that ^(B)pass under the herdsman's staff, shall be holy to the Lord. ³³ One shall not differentiate between good or bad, ^(C)neither shall he make a substitute for it; and if he does substitute for it, then both it and the substitute shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed.”

^34 (D)These are the commandments that the Lord commanded Moses for the people of Israel ^(E)on Mount Sinai.

⁵ As soon as the command was spread abroad, the people of Israel gave in abundance the firstfruits of grain, wine, oil, honey, and of all the produce of the field. And they brought in abundantly ^(A)the tithe of everything. ⁶ And the people of Israel and Judah who lived in the cities of Judah also brought in the tithe of cattle and sheep, and ^(B)the tithe of the dedicated things that had been dedicated to the Lord their God, and laid them in heaps. ⁷ In the third month they began to pile up the heaps, and finished them in the seventh month. ⁸ When Hezekiah and the princes came and saw the heaps, they blessed the Lord and his people Israel. ⁹ And Hezekiah questioned the priests and the Levites about the heaps. ¹⁰ Azariah the chief priest, who was ^(C)of the house of Zadok, answered him, “Since they began to bring the contributions into the house of the Lord, we have eaten and had enough and have plenty left, ^(D)for the Lord has blessed his people, so that we have this large amount left.”

¹¹ Then Hezekiah commanded them to prepare ^(E)chambers in the house of the Lord, and they prepared them. ¹² And they faithfully brought in the contributions, the tithes, and the dedicated things. The chief officer ^(F)in charge of them was Conaniah the Levite, with ^(G)Shimei his brother as second,