Numbers 18
Lexham English Bible
The Duties of the Priests and Levities
18 Yahweh said to Aaron, “You, your sons, and your family with you will bear the guilt of the sanctuary, and you and your sons with you will bear the guilt of your priesthood. 2 Moreover, bring your brothers with you, the tribe of Levi the tribe of your father, that they may be joined to you and minister to you, you and your sons with you before the tent of testimony. 3 They will keep your responsibility and the responsibility of all the tent, only they may not come near the vessels of the sanctuary and the altar, so both you and they will not die. 4 They will be joined to you, and they will keep the responsibility of the tent of assembly for the entire service of the tent; a stranger may not come near you. 5 You will keep the responsibility of the sanctuary and the responsibility of the altar, and there will no longer be wrath on the Israelites.[a] 6 Look, I myself have chosen your brothers the Levites from the midst of the children. They are a gift to you given from Yahweh to perform the work of the tent of assembly. 7 But you with your sons will keep your priesthood to perform your priestly duties for everything at the altar[b] and for the area behind the curtain.[c] I give you the priesthood as a gift, but the stranger who approaches will be put to death.”
Portions for the Priests
8 Yahweh spoke to Aaron, “Behold, I myself have given to you the responsibility of my contributions for all the holy objects of the Israelites;[d] I have given them as a portion to you and your sons as an eternal decree. 9 This will be for you from the sanctuary of the holy things from the fire; all of their offerings, from every grain offering, from every sin offering, and from every guilt offering which they will bring to me is a most holy thing[e] for you and your sons. 10 You will eat it in the most holy place;[f] every male will eat it. It will be a holy object to you. 11 This is also for you: the contribution of their gift of the wave offerings of the children Israel. I have given them to you and your sons and your daughters with you as an eternal decree; whoever is clean in your house may eat it. 12 All the finest olive oil and all the finest new wine and their best grain that they have given to Yahweh, I have given them to you. 13 The firstfruits of all that is in their land that they present to Yahweh will be for you; whoever is clean in your house may eat it. 14 All consecrated possessions[g] in Israel will be for you. 15 All the first offspring of a womb of any creature that they offer to Yahweh, whether human or animal, will be yours; you will surely redeem the firstborn of the human and the unclean firstborn of the animal. 16 As to their price of redemption, from a one-month-old[h] you will redeem them according to your proper value, five shekels of silver according to the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerah. 17 Only the firstborn of an ox or the firstborn of a sheep or the firstborn of a goat you will not redeem; they are holy. Their blood you will sprinkle over the altar, and their fat you will turn into smoke as an offering made by fire, a fragrance of appeasement for Yahweh. 18 But their flesh will be for you like the breast section of the wave offering, and it will be for you like the right upper thigh. 19 All the contributions of holiness that the Israelites[i] offer to Yahweh I have given to you and your sons and your daughters with you as an eternal decree; it is an eternal covenant of salt before[j] Yahweh to you and your offspring with you.” 20 Then Yahweh said to Aaron, “You will not receive an inheritance in their land, and there will not be a plot of ground for you in the midst of the Israelites.[k]
21 “Behold, I have given to the descendants[l] of Levi every tithe in Israel as an inheritance in return for their service, which they are doing, the work of the tent of assembly. 22 The Israelites[m] will not come near again to the tent of assembly, or they will bear sin[n] and die. 23 The Levites[o] will perform the service of the tent of assembly, and they will bear their guilt, an eternal decree for all your generations. But they will not receive an inheritance in the midst of the Israelites[p] 24 because the tithes[q] of the Israelites[r] that are offered[s] to Yahweh as a contribution, I have given to the Levites as an inheritance; therefore I said to them, ‘They will not receive an inheritance in the midst of the Israelites.’”[t]
25 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 26 “You will speak to the Levites and say to them, ‘When you receive the tithe from the Israelites[u] that I have given to you from them for your inheritance, you will present[v] a contribution from it to Yahweh, a tithe from a tithe. 27 Your contribution will be credited to you like the grain from the threshing floor and like the produce from the press. 28 So you will present[w] your own contribution to Yahweh from all your tithes that you receive from the Israelites;[x] from it you will give the contribution of Yahweh to Aaron the priest. 29 From all your gifts you will present[y] every contribution of Yahweh, from all its fat, the part that is sacred.’ 30 You will say to them, ‘When you are presenting[z] its fat, the rest will be credited to the Levites like a yield of the threshing floor and like a yield from the press. 31 You may eat it anywhere, you and your household, because it is a wage in return for your service in the tent of assembly. 32 You will not bear any sin because you have presented[aa] its fat; you will not defile the holy objects of the Israelites,[ab] or you will die.’”
Footnotes
- Numbers 18:5 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
- Numbers 18:7 Or “for all the things of the altar”
- Numbers 18:7 Literally “the house of the curtain”
- Numbers 18:8 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
- Numbers 18:9 Literally “a holy object of holiness”
- Numbers 18:10 Alternatively “as a holy object of holiness”
- Numbers 18:14 Hebrew “possession”
- Numbers 18:16 Literally “a son of a month”
- Numbers 18:19 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
- Numbers 18:19 Literally “in the presence of”
- Numbers 18:20 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
- Numbers 18:21 Or “sons”
- Numbers 18:22 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
- Numbers 18:22 The NRSV translates “they will incur guilt”
- Numbers 18:23 Hebrew “Levite”
- Numbers 18:23 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
- Numbers 18:24 Hebrew “tithe”
- Numbers 18:24 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
- Numbers 18:24 Hebrew “raised up”
- Numbers 18:24 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
- Numbers 18:26 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
- Numbers 18:26 Literally “you will raise up”
- Numbers 18:28 Literally “you will raise up”
- Numbers 18:28 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
- Numbers 18:29 Literally “you will raise up”
- Numbers 18:30 Literally “you are raising up”
- Numbers 18:32 Literally “you have raised up”
- Numbers 18:32 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
Numbers 18
American Standard Version
18 And Jehovah said unto Aaron, Thou and thy sons and thy fathers’ house with thee shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary; and thou and thy sons with thee shall bear the iniquity of your priesthood. 2 And thy brethren also, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of thy father, bring thou near with thee, that they may be joined unto thee, and minister unto thee: but thou and thy sons with thee shall be before the tent of the testimony. 3 And they shall keep thy charge, and the charge of all the Tent: only they shall not come nigh unto the vessels of the sanctuary and unto the altar, that they die not, neither they, nor ye. 4 And they shall be joined unto thee, and keep the charge of the tent of meeting, for all the service of the Tent: and a stranger shall not come nigh unto you. 5 And ye shall keep the charge of the sanctuary, and the charge of the altar; that there be wrath no more upon the children of Israel. 6 And I, behold, I have taken your brethren the Levites from among the children of Israel: to you they are a gift, given unto Jehovah, to do the service of the tent of meeting. 7 And thou and thy sons with thee shall keep your priesthood for everything of the altar, and for that within the veil; and ye shall serve: I give you the priesthood as a service of gift: and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death.
8 And Jehovah spake unto Aaron, And I, behold, I have given thee the charge of my heave-offerings, even all the hallowed things of the children of Israel; unto thee have I given them [a]by reason of the anointing, and to thy sons, as a portion for ever. 9 This shall be thine of the most holy things, reserved from the fire: every oblation of theirs, even every meal-offering of theirs, and every sin-offering of theirs, and every trespass-offering of theirs, which they shall render unto me, shall be most holy for thee and for thy sons. 10 As the most holy things shalt thou eat thereof; every male shall eat thereof: it shall be holy unto thee. 11 And this is thine: the heave-offering of their gift, even all the wave-offerings of the children of Israel; I have given them unto thee, and to thy sons and to thy daughters with thee, as a portion for ever; every one that is clean in thy house shall eat thereof. 12 All the [b]best of the oil, and all the [c]best of the vintage, and of the grain, the first-fruits of them which they give unto Jehovah, to thee have I given them. 13 The first-ripe fruits of all that is in their land, which they bring unto Jehovah, shall be thine; every one that is clean in thy house shall eat thereof. 14 Everything devoted in Israel shall be thine. 15 Everything that openeth the womb, of all flesh which they offer unto Jehovah, both of man and beast shall be thine: nevertheless the first-born of man shalt thou surely redeem, and the firstling of unclean beasts shalt thou redeem. 16 [d]And those that are to be redeemed of them from a month old shalt thou redeem, according to thine estimation, for the money of five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary (the same is twenty gerahs). 17 But the firstling of a cow, or the firstling of a sheep, or the firstling of a goat, thou shalt not redeem; they are holy: thou shalt sprinkle their blood upon the altar, and shalt burn their fat for an offering made by fire, for a sweet savor unto Jehovah. 18 And the flesh of them shall be thine, as the wave-breast and as the right thigh, it shall be thine. 19 All the heave-offerings of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer unto Jehovah, have I given thee, and thy sons and thy daughters with thee, as a portion for ever: it is a covenant of salt for ever before Jehovah unto thee and to thy seed with thee. 20 And Jehovah said unto Aaron, Thou shalt have no inheritance in their land, neither shalt thou have any portion among them: I am thy portion and thine inheritance among the children of Israel.
21 And unto the children of Levi, behold, I have given all the tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service which they serve, even the service of the tent of meeting. 22 And henceforth the children of Israel shall not come nigh the tent of meeting, lest they bear sin, and die. 23 But the Levites shall do the service of the tent of meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations; and among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance. 24 For the tithe of the children of Israel, which they offer as a heave-offering unto Jehovah, I have given to the Levites for an inheritance: therefore I have said unto them, Among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.
25 And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, 26 Moreover thou shalt speak unto the Levites, and say unto them, When ye take of the children of Israel the tithe which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then ye shall offer up a heave-offering of it for Jehovah, a tithe of the tithe. 27 And your heave-offering shall be reckoned unto you, as though it were the grain of the threshing-floor, and as the fulness of the winepress. 28 Thus ye also shall offer a heave-offering unto Jehovah of all your tithes, which ye receive of the children of Israel; and thereof ye shall give Jehovah’s heave-offering to Aaron the priest. 29 Out of all your gifts ye shall offer every heave-offering of Jehovah, of all the [e]best thereof, even the hallowed part thereof out of it. 30 Therefore thou shalt say unto them, When ye heave the [f]best thereof from it, then it shall be reckoned unto the Levites as the increase of the threshing-floor, and as the increase of the winepress. 31 And ye shall eat it in every place, ye and your households: for it is your reward in return for your service in the tent of meeting. 32 And ye shall bear no sin by reason of it, when ye have heaved from it the [g]best thereof: and ye shall not profane the holy things of the children of Israel, [h]that ye die not.
Footnotes
- Numbers 18:8 Or, for a portion
- Numbers 18:12 Hebrew fat.
- Numbers 18:12 Hebrew fat.
- Numbers 18:16 Or, And as to their redemption money, from a month old shalt thou redeem them
- Numbers 18:29 Hebrew fat.
- Numbers 18:30 Hebrew fat.
- Numbers 18:32 Hebrew fat.
- Numbers 18:32 Or, neither shall ye die
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