Numbers 18

Numbers 18:1 So Yahveh said to Aaron, “You and your sons and your father’s house with you will bear the violation connected with the sanctuary, and you and your sons with you will bear the violation connected with your priesthood.

Numbers 18:2 And with you bring your brothers also, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, that they may join you and serve you while you and your sons with you are at the face of the tent of the reminder.

Numbers 18:3 They will keep guard over you and over the whole tent, but will not come near to the vessels of the sanctuary or to the altar or else they, and you, will die.

Numbers 18:4 They will join you and keep guard over the conference tent for all the service of the tent, and no unauthorized person will come near you.

Numbers 18:5 And you will keep guard over the sanctuary and over the altar, so that there may never again be wrath on the people of Israel.

Numbers 18:6 And notice, I have taken your brothers the Levites from among the people of Israel. They are a gift to you, given to Yahveh, to do the service of the conference tent.

Numbers 18:7 And you and your sons with you will guard your priesthood for all that concerns the altar and that is within the veil; and you will serve. I give your priesthood as a gift, and any unauthorized person who comes near will be put to death.”

Numbers 18:8 Then Yahveh spoke to Aaron, “notice, 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 as a portion and to your sons as a permanent due.

Numbers 18:9 This will be yours of the most holy things, reserved from the fire: every offering of theirs, every tribute offering of theirs and every failure offering of theirs and every reparation offering of theirs, which they render to me, will be most holy to you and to your sons.

Numbers 18:10 In a most holy place will you eat it. Every male may eat it; it is holy to you.

Numbers 18:11 This also is yours: the contribution of their gift, all the presentation offerings of the people of Israel. I have given them to you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a permanent due. Everyone who is pure in your house may eat it.

Numbers 18:12 All the best of the oil and all the best of the wine and of the grain, the firstfruits of what they give to Yahveh, I give to you.

Numbers 18:13 The first ripe fruits of all that is in their land, which they bring to Yahveh, will be yours. Everyone who is pure in your house may eat it.

Numbers 18:14 Every devoted thing in Israel will be yours.

Numbers 18:15 Everything that opens the uterus of all flesh, whether man or animal, which they offer to Yahveh, will be yours. Nevertheless, the firstborn human you will redeem, and the firstborn of contaminated animals you will redeem.

Numbers 18:16 And their redemption price (at a month old you will redeem them) you will fix at five shekels in silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs.

Numbers 18:17 But the firstborn of a cow, or the firstborn of a sheep, or the firstborn of a goat, you will not redeem; they are holy. You will spritz their blood on the altar and will burn their fat as a fire offering, with a pacifying aroma to Yahveh.

Numbers 18:18 But their flesh will be yours, as the breast that is waved and as the right thigh are yours.

Numbers 18:19 All the holy contributions that the people of Israel present to Yahveh I give to you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a permanent due. It is a covenant of salt forever at the face of Yahveh for you and for your offspring with you.”

Numbers 18:20 And Yahveh said to Aaron, “You will have no inheritance in their land, neither will you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the people of Israel.

Numbers 18:21 “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 conference tent,

Numbers 18:22 so that the people of Israel do not come near the conference tent, lest they pay for their failure and die.

Numbers 18:23 But the Levites will do the service of the conference tent, and they will bear their violation. It will be a permanent prescription throughout your generations, and among the people of Israel they will have no inheritance.

Numbers 18:24 Because the tithe of the people of Israel, which they present as a contribution to Yahveh, I have given to the Levites for an inheritance. Therefore I have said of them that they will have no inheritance among the people of Israel.”

Numbers 18:25 And Yahveh spoke to Moses, and this is what he said,

Numbers 18:26 “Moreover, you will 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 will present a contribution from it to Yahveh, a tithe of the tithe.

Numbers 18:27 And your contribution will be counted to you as though it were the grain of the threshing floor, and like the fullness of the winepress.

Numbers 18:28 So you will also present a contribution to Yahveh from all your tithes, which you receive from the people of Israel. And from it you will give Yahveh’s contribution to Aaron the priest.

Numbers 18:29 Out of all the gifts to you, you will present every contribution due to Yahveh; from each its best part is to be dedicated.’

Numbers 18:30 Therefore you will say to them, ‘When you have offered from it the best of it, then the rest will be counted to the Levites as produce of the threshing floor, and like produce of the winepress.

Numbers 18:31 And you may eat it in any place, you and your households, because it is your reward in return for your service in the conference tent.

Numbers 18:32 And you will pay for your failure by reason of it, when you have contributed the best of it. But you will not profane the holy things of the people of Israel, or else you will die.'”

Numbers 18 quotes:

“Now, once more, it’s time to regroup. Boundaries have been crossed, relationships shattered. Somehow they must be restored. The smells of fire and death still hang over their tents, the grave of Korah and crowd runs like a ravine through their midst, and the bronze covering the altar and the almonds on Aaron’s rod have yet to lose their sheen. Momentarily, at least, Israel is alert and attentive. Indeed, the last words heard in the camp cry out from the very bowels of God’s people: “Are we all to perish?””

Boyce Richard Nelson. Leviticus and Numbers. 1st ed. Westminster John Knox Press 2008. p. 181

“Thus the people are taught that in that very priesthood which they had so despised and spoken against, they were to find their security ; and at the same time God offsets any tendency to conceit in Aaron, by laying upon him the holy responsibilities, as well as the privileges of the priesthood.”

Saxe, Grace. Studies in Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Grace Saxe, 1921. p. 43.

“The priests and Levites would not be able to serve with the singleminded devotion the work demanded if they were troubled about life’s material necessities. The initial set of rules describes how the priests were to be maintained (8-20), before outlining the prescribed support for the Levites (21-32). The passage suggests some important guidelines regarding our own financial responsibilities towards God’s servants.”

Brown Raymond. The Message of Numbers : Journey to the Promised Land. InterVarsity Press 2002. p. 157.

“The rules about tithes and firstlings show how Israel was to acknowledge the ministry of the priests and Levites (ch. 18).”

“Inasmuch as the Levites did not work for a living, but depended upon the tithes, Moses spelled out just what was to belong to them. Everything—oil, grain, and meat—was to be tithed to support the Levites.”

Gutzke, Manford George. Plain Talk on Leviticus and Numbers. Zondervan Pub. House., 1981. p. 106.