Duties of Priests and Levites

18 So the Lord said to Aaron, “You and your sons and your father's house with you shall ^(A)bear iniquity connected with the sanctuary, ^(B)and you and your sons with you shall bear iniquity connected with your priesthood. ² And with you bring your brothers also, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, that they may ^(C)join you and ^(D)minister to you while you and your sons with you are before the tent of the testimony. ³ They shall keep guard over you and ^(E)over the whole tent, ^(F)but shall not come near to the vessels of the sanctuary or to the altar ^(G)lest they, and you, die. ⁴ They shall join you and keep guard over the tent of meeting for all the service of the tent, ^(H)and no outsider shall come near you. ⁵ And you shall ^(I)keep guard over the sanctuary and over the altar, ^(J)that there may never again be wrath on the people of Israel. ^6 (K)And behold, I have taken your brothers the Levites from among the people of Israel. ^(L)They are a gift to you, given to the Lord, to do the service of the tent of meeting. ⁷ And ^(M)you and your sons with you shall guard your priesthood for all that concerns the altar and ^(N)that is within the veil; and you shall serve. I give your priesthood as a gift,^[a] and ^(O)any outsider who comes near shall be put to death.”

⁸ Then the Lord spoke to Aaron, “Behold, ^(P)I have given you charge of the contributions made to me, all the consecrated things of the people of Israel. I have given them to you ^(Q)as a portion and to your sons as a perpetual due. ⁹ This shall be yours of the most holy things, reserved from the fire: every offering of theirs, every grain offering of theirs and every ^(R)sin offering of theirs and every ^(S)guilt offering of theirs, which they render to me, shall be most holy to you and to your sons. ¹⁰ In a most holy place shall you eat it. Every male may eat it; it is holy to you. ¹¹ This also is yours: the contribution of their gift, all the ^(T)wave offerings of the people of Israel. I have given them to ^(U)you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a perpetual due. ^(V)Everyone who is clean in your house may eat it. ^12 (W)All the best of the oil and all the best of the wine and of the grain, ^(X)the firstfruits of what they give to the Lord, I give to you. ¹³ The first ripe fruits of all that is in their land, ^(Y)which they bring to the Lord, shall be yours. ^(Z)Everyone who is clean in your house may eat it. ^14 (AA)Every devoted thing in Israel shall be yours. ^15 (AB)Everything that opens the womb of all flesh, whether man or beast, which they offer to the Lord, shall be yours. Nevertheless, ^(AC)the firstborn of man you shall redeem, and the firstborn of unclean animals you shall redeem. ¹⁶ And their redemption price ^(AD)(at a month old you shall redeem them) you shall fix at five shekels^[b] in silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, ^(AE)which is twenty gerahs. ^17 (AF)But the firstborn of a cow, or the firstborn of a sheep, or the firstborn of a goat, you shall not redeem; they are holy. You shall sprinkle their blood on the altar and shall burn their fat as a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. ¹⁸ But their flesh shall be yours, as ^(AG)the breast that is waved and as the right thigh are yours. ^19 (AH)All the holy contributions that the people of Israel present to the Lord I give to you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a perpetual due. ^(AI)It is a covenant of salt forever before the Lord for you and for your offspring with you.” ²⁰ And the Lord said to Aaron, “You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any portion among them. ^(AJ)I am your portion and your inheritance among the people of Israel.

^21 (AK)“To the Levites I have given every tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service that they do, their service in the tent of meeting, ^22 (AL)so that the people of Israel do not come near the tent of meeting, ^(AM)lest they bear sin and die. ²³ But ^(AN)the Levites shall do the service of the tent of meeting, ^(AO)and they shall bear their iniquity. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations, and among the people of Israel they shall have no inheritance. ²⁴ For the tithe of the people of Israel, which ^(AP)they present as a contribution to the Lord, I have given to the Levites for an inheritance. Therefore I have said of them that they shall have no inheritance ^(AQ)among the people of Israel.”

²⁵ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²⁶ “Moreover, you shall speak and say to the Levites, ‘When you take from the people of Israel the tithe that I have given you from them for your inheritance, then you shall present a contribution from it to the Lord, ^(AR)a tithe of the tithe. ^27 (AS)And your contribution shall be counted to you as though it were the grain of the threshing floor, and as the fullness of the winepress. ²⁸ So you shall also present a contribution to the Lord from all your tithes, which you receive from the people of Israel. And from it you shall give the Lord's contribution to Aaron the priest. ²⁹ Out of all the gifts to you, you shall present every contribution due to the Lord; from each its best part is to be dedicated.’ ³⁰ Therefore you shall say to them, ‘When you have offered from it the best of it, ^(AT)then the rest shall be counted to the Levites as produce of the threshing floor, and as produce of the winepress. ³¹ And you may eat it in any place, you and your households, for it is ^(AU)your reward in return for your service in the tent of meeting. ³² And you shall ^(AV)bear no sin by reason of it, when you have contributed the best of it. But you shall not ^(AW)profane the holy things of the people of Israel, lest you die.’”

Jesus, Founder and Perfecter of Our Faith

12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and ^(A)sin which clings so closely, and ^(B)let us run ^(C)with endurance the race that is ^(D)set before us, ² looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, ^(E)who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising ^(F)the shame, and ^(G)is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Do Not Grow Weary

^3 (H)Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or ^(I)fainthearted. ⁴ In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. ⁵ And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

⁷ It is for discipline that you have to endure. ^(M)God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? ⁸ If you are left without discipline, ^(N)in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. ⁹ Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to ^(O)the Father of spirits ^(P)and live? ¹⁰ For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, ^(Q)that we may share his holiness. ^11 (R)For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields ^(S)the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

¹² Therefore ^(T)lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, ¹³ and ^(U)make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint ^(V)but rather be healed. ^14 (W)Strive for peace with everyone, and for the ^(X)holiness ^(Y)without which no one will see the Lord. ¹⁵ See to it that no one ^(Z)fails to obtain the grace of God; that no ^(AA)“root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; ¹⁶ that no one is ^(AB)sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. ¹⁷ For you know that ^(AC)afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

A Kingdom That Cannot Be Shaken

¹⁸ For you have not come to ^(AD)what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest ¹⁹ and ^(AE)the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words ^(AF)made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. ²⁰ For they could not endure the order that was given, ^(AG)“If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” ²¹ Indeed, ^(AH)so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” ²² But you have come to ^(AI)Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, ^(AJ)the heavenly Jerusalem, and to ^(AK)innumerable angels in festal gathering, ²³ and to ^(AL)the assembly^[a] of the firstborn who are ^(AM)enrolled in heaven, and to ^(AN)God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, ²⁴ and to Jesus, ^(AO)the mediator of a new covenant, and to ^(AP)the sprinkled blood ^(AQ)that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

²⁵ See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For ^(AR)if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. ²⁶ At that time ^(AS)his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, ^(AT)“Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” ²⁷ This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates ^(AU)the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. ²⁸ Therefore let us be grateful for receiving ^(AV)a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus ^(AW)let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, ²⁹ for our ^(AX)God is a consuming fire.