Numbers 18
18
Duties of Priests and Levites
1Then the Lord said to Aaron: #Num. 17:13“You and your sons and your father’s house with you shall #Ex. 28:38; Lev. 10:17; 22:16bear the iniquity related to the sanctuary, and you and your sons with you shall bear the iniquity associated with your priesthood. 2Also bring with you your brethren of the #Gen. 29:34; Num. 1:47tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, that they may be #Num. 3:5–10joined with you and serve you while you and your sons are with you before the tabernacle of witness. 3They shall attend to your needs and #Num. 3:25, 31, 36all the needs of the tabernacle; #Num. 16:40but they shall not come near the articles of the sanctuary and the altar, #Num. 4:15lest they die—they and you also. 4They shall be joined with you and attend to the needs of the tabernacle of meeting, for all the work of the tabernacle; #Num. 3:10but an outsider shall not come near you. 5And you shall attend to the duties of the sanctuary and #Ex. 27:21; 30:7; Lev. 24:3the duties of the altar, #Num. 8:19; 16:46that there may be no more wrath on the children of Israel. 6Behold, I Myself have #Num. 3:12, 45taken your brethren the Levites from among the children of Israel; #Num. 3:9they are a gift to you, given by the Lord, to do the work of the tabernacle of meeting. 7Therefore #Num. 3:10; 18:5you and your sons with you shall attend to your priesthood for everything at the altar and #Heb. 9:3, 6behind the veil; and you shall serve. I give your priesthood to you as a #Matt. 10:8; 1 Pet. 5:2, 3gift for service, but the outsider who comes near shall be put to death.”
Offerings for Support of the Priests
8And the Lord spoke to Aaron: “Here, #Lev. 6:16, 18; 7:28–34; Num. 5:9I Myself have also given you charge of My heave offerings, all the holy gifts of the children of Israel; I have given them #Ex. 29:29; 40:13, 15as a portion to you and your sons, as an ordinance forever. 9This shall be yours of the most holy things reserved from the fire: every offering of theirs, every #Lev. 2:2, 3; 10:12, 13grain offering and every #Lev. 6:25, 26sin offering and every #Lev. 7:7; Num. 5:8–10trespass offering which they render to Me, shall be most holy for you and your sons. 10#Lev. 6:16, 26In a most holy place you shall eat it; every male shall eat it. It shall be holy to you.
11“This also is yours: #Ex. 29:27, 28; Deut. 18:3–5the heave offering of their gift, with all the wave offerings of the children of Israel; I have given them to you, and your sons and daughters with you, as an ordinance forever. #Lev. 22:1–16Everyone who is clean in your house may eat it.
12#Ex. 23:19; Neh. 10:35, 36“All the best of the oil, all the best of the new wine and the grain, #Ex. 22:29; Lev. 23:20their firstfruits which they offer to the Lord, I have given them to you. 13Whatever first ripe fruit is in their land, #Ex. 22:29; 23:19; 34:26which they bring to the Lord, shall be yours. Everyone who is clean in your house may eat it.
14#Lev. 27:1–33“Every devoted thing in Israel shall be yours.
15“Everything that first opens #Ex. 13:2the womb of all flesh, which they bring to the Lord, whether man or beast, shall be yours; nevertheless the firstborn of man you shall surely redeem, and #Ex. 13:12–15; Num. 3:46; Luke 2:22–24the firstborn of unclean animals you shall redeem. 16And those redeemed of the devoted things you shall redeem when one month old, #Lev. 27:6according to your valuation, for five shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, which is #Ex. 30:13twenty gerahs. 17#Deut. 15:19But the firstborn of a cow, the firstborn of a sheep, or the firstborn of a goat you shall not redeem; they are holy. #Lev. 3:2, 5You shall sprinkle their blood on the altar, and burn their fat as an offering made by fire for a sweet aroma to the Lord. 18And their flesh shall be yours, just as the #Ex. 29:26–28; Lev. 7:31–36wave breast and the right thigh are yours.
19“All the heave offerings of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer to the Lord, I have given to you and your sons and daughters with you as an ordinance forever; #Lev. 2:13; 2 Chr. 13:5; (Mark 9:49, 50)it is a covenant of salt forever before the Lord with you and your descendants with you.”
20Then the Lord said to Aaron: “You shall have #Deut. 10:8, 9; 12:12; 14:27–29; 18:1, 2; Josh. 13:14, 33no inheritance in their land, nor shall you have any portion among them; #Ps. 16:5; Ezek. 44:28I am your portion and your inheritance among the children of Israel.
Tithes for Support of the Levites
21“Behold, #Lev. 27:30–33; Deut. 14:22–29; Neh. 10:37; 12:44; Mal. 3:8–10; (Heb. 7:4–10)I have given the children of Levi all the tithes in Israel as an inheritance in return for the work which they perform, #Num. 3:7, 8the work of the tabernacle of meeting. 22#Num. 1:51Hereafter the children of Israel shall not come near the tabernacle of meeting, #Lev. 22:9lest 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 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, #Neh. 10:38a tenth of the tithe. 27And your heave offering shall be reckoned to you as though it were the grain of the #Num. 15:20; (2 Cor. 8:12)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 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 #(Matt. 10:10; Luke 10:7); 1 Cor. 9:13; (1 Tim. 5:18)your reward for your work in the tabernacle of meeting. 32And you shall #Lev. 19:8; 22:16; Ezek. 22:26bear no sin because of it, when you have lifted up the best of it. But you shall not #Lev. 22:2, 15profane the holy gifts of the children of Israel, lest you die.’ ”
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Numbers 18: NKJV
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The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.