Offerings for Priests and Levites

18 The Levitical(A) priests—indeed, the whole tribe of Levi—are to have no allotment or inheritance with Israel. They shall live on the food offerings(B) presented to the Lord, for that is their inheritance.(C) They shall have no inheritance among their fellow Israelites; the Lord is their inheritance,(D) as he promised them.(E)

This is the share due the priests(F) from the people who sacrifice a bull(G) or a sheep: the shoulder, the internal organs and the meat from the head.(H) You are to give them the firstfruits of your grain, new wine and olive oil, and the first wool from the shearing of your sheep,(I) for the Lord your God has chosen them(J) and their descendants out of all your tribes to stand and minister(K) in the Lord’s name always.(L)

If a Levite moves from one of your towns anywhere in Israel where he is living, and comes in all earnestness to the place the Lord will choose,(M) he may minister in the name(N) of the Lord his God like all his fellow Levites who serve there in the presence of the Lord. He is to share equally in their benefits, even though he has received money from the sale of family possessions.(O)

Read full chapter

Priests and Levites

18 Neither the levitical priests nor any Levite tribe member will have a designated inheritance in Israel. They can eat the sacrifices offered to the Lord, which are the Lord’s portion,[a] but they won’t share an inheritance with their fellow Israelites. The Lord alone is the Levites’ inheritance—just as God promised them.

Now this is what the priests may keep from the people’s sacrifices of oxen or sheep: They must give the priest the shoulder, the jaws, and the stomach. You must also give the priest the first portions of your grain, wine, and oil, and the first of your sheep’s shearing because the Lord your God selected Levi from all of your tribes to stand and minister in the Lord’s name—both him and his descendants for all time.

Now if a Levite leaves one of your cities or departs from any location in Israel where he’s been living and, because he wants to, comes to the location the Lord selects and ministers in the Lord his God’s name, just like his relatives—the other Levites serving there in the Lord’s presence— he is allowed to eat equal portions, despite the finances he has from his family.[b]

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Deuteronomy 18:1 Heb uncertain
  2. Deuteronomy 18:8 Heb uncertain