Daily Bread

Duties of Priests and Levites

18 The Lord said to Aaron, “You, your sons and your family are to bear the responsibility for offenses connected with the sanctuary,^(A) and you and your sons alone are to bear the responsibility for offenses connected with the priesthood. ² Bring your fellow Levites from your ancestral tribe to join you and assist you when you and your sons minister^(B) before the tent of the covenant law. ³ They are to be responsible to you^(C) and are to perform all the duties of the tent,^(D) but they must not go near the furnishings of the sanctuary or the altar. Otherwise both they and you will die.^{(E) 4} They are to join you and be responsible for the care of the tent of meeting—all the work at the tent—and no one else may come near where you are.^(F)

⁵ “You are to be responsible for the care of the sanctuary and the altar,^(G) so that my wrath will not fall on the Israelites again. ⁶ I myself have selected your fellow Levites from among the Israelites as a gift to you,^(H) dedicated to the Lord to do the work at the tent of meeting.^{(I) 7} But only you and your sons may serve as priests in connection with everything at the altar and inside the curtain.^(J) I am giving you the service of the priesthood as a gift.^(K) Anyone else who comes near the sanctuary is to be put to death.^(L)”

Offerings for Priests and Levites

⁸ Then the Lord said to Aaron, “I myself have put you in charge of the offerings presented to me; all the holy offerings the Israelites give me I give to you and your sons as your portion,^(M) your perpetual share.^{(N) 9} You are to have the part of the most holy offerings^(O) that is kept from the fire. From all the gifts they bring me as most holy offerings, whether grain^(P) or sin^[a](Q) or guilt offerings,^(R) that part belongs to you and your sons. ¹⁰ Eat it as something most holy; every male shall eat it.^(S) You must regard it as holy.^(T)

¹¹ “This also is yours: whatever is set aside from the gifts of all the wave offerings^(U) of the Israelites. I give this to you and your sons and daughters as your perpetual share.^(V) Everyone in your household who is ceremonially clean^(W) may eat it.

¹² “I give you all the finest olive oil and all the finest new wine and grain^(X) they give the Lord^(Y) as the firstfruits of their harvest.^{(Z) 13} All the land’s firstfruits that they bring to the Lord will be yours.^(AA) Everyone in your household who is ceremonially clean may eat it.^(AB)

¹⁴ “Everything in Israel that is devoted^[b] to the Lord^(AC) is yours. ¹⁵ The first offspring of every womb, both human and animal, that is offered to the Lord is yours.^(AD) But you must redeem^(AE) every firstborn^(AF) son and every firstborn male of unclean animals.^{(AG) 16} When they are a month old,^(AH) you must redeem them at the redemption price set at five shekels^[c](AI) of silver, according to the sanctuary shekel,^(AJ) which weighs twenty gerahs.^(AK)

¹⁷ “But you must not redeem the firstborn of a cow, a sheep or a goat; they are holy.^(AL) Splash their blood^(AM) against the altar and burn their fat^(AN) as a food offering, an aroma pleasing to the Lord.^{(AO) 18} Their meat is to be yours, just as the breast of the wave offering^(AP) and the right thigh are yours.^{(AQ) 19} Whatever is set aside from the holy^(AR) offerings the Israelites present to the Lord I give to you and your sons and daughters as your perpetual share. It is an everlasting covenant of salt^(AS) before the Lord for both you and your offspring.”

²⁰ The Lord said to Aaron, “You will have no inheritance in their land, nor will you have any share among them;^(AT) I am your share and your inheritance^(AU) among the Israelites.

²¹ “I give to the Levites all the tithes^(AV) in Israel as their inheritance^(AW) in return for the work they do while serving at the tent of meeting.^{(AX) 22} From now on the Israelites must not go near the tent of meeting, or they will bear the consequences of their sin and will die.^{(AY) 23} It is the Levites who are to do the work at the tent of meeting and bear the responsibility for any offenses they commit against it. This is a lasting ordinance^(AZ) for the generations to come.^(BA) They will receive no inheritance^(BB) among the Israelites.^{(BC) 24} Instead, I give to the Levites as their inheritance the tithes that the Israelites present as an offering to the Lord.^(BD) That is why I said concerning them: ‘They will have no inheritance among the Israelites.’”

²⁵ The Lord said to Moses, ²⁶ “Speak to the Levites and say to them: ‘When you receive from the Israelites the tithe I give you^(BE) as your inheritance, you must present a tenth of that tithe as the Lord’s offering.^{(BF) 27} Your offering will be reckoned^(BG) to you as grain from the threshing floor^(BH) or juice from the winepress.^{(BI) 28} In this way you also will present an offering to the Lord from all the tithes^(BJ) you receive from the Israelites. From these tithes you must give the Lord’s portion to Aaron the priest. ²⁹ You must present as the Lord’s portion the best and holiest part of everything given to you.’

³⁰ “Say to the Levites: ‘When you present the best part, it will be reckoned to you as the product of the threshing floor or the winepress.^{(BK) 31} You and your households may eat the rest of it anywhere, for it is your wages for your work at the tent of meeting.^{(BL) 32} By presenting the best part^(BM) of it you will not be guilty in this matter;^(BN) then you will not defile the holy offerings^(BO) of the Israelites, and you will not die.’”