Numbers 18

English MEV 2014 (Modern English Version)

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1And the Lord said to Aaron: You and your sons and your father’s house with you will bear the iniquity of the sanctuary, and you and your sons with you will bear the iniquity of your priesthood.

2Your brothers also of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, bring with you, and let them be joined with you, and minister to you. But you and your sons with you will minister before the tent of witness.

3They will perform duties for you and for the whole tent, but they will not come near the vessels of the sanctuary or the altar, so that neither they nor you die.

4They will be joined to you and perform the duties of the tent of meeting, for all the service of the tent; no foreigner will come near you.

5You yourselves will perform the duties of the sanctuary and the duties of the altar, so that wrath may never come upon the Israelites again.

6And behold, I have taken your brothers, the Levites, from among the Israelites; they are given to you as a gift from the Lord to perform the service of the tent of meeting.

7And you and your sons with you will attend to your priesthood for everything at the altar, and within the veil, and you will serve. I have given your priesthood to you as a gift service, and the foreigner that comes near will be put to death.

8The Lord spoke to Aaron: Behold, I have given you charge of the offerings made to Me, all the sanctified gifts of the Israelites. To you and to your sons have I given them as a portion, as an ordinance forever.

9This will be yours of the most holy things, reserved from the fire: All of their offerings, all of their grain offerings and all of their sin offerings, and all of their guilt offerings, which they render to Me, will be most holy for you and for your sons.

10In a most holy place shall you eat it; every male shall eat it. It shall be holy to you.

11This is yours: the offering of their gift, with all the wave offerings of the Israelites. I have given them to you and to your sons and to your daughters with you, as an eternal statute. Everyone who is clean in your house will eat of it.

12All the best of the oil, and all the best of the wine, and of the wheat, the firstfruits of what they will offer to the Lord, those have I given to you.

13The first ripe fruit of all which is in their land, which they will bring to the Lord, will be yours. Everyone who is clean in your house will eat of it.

14Everything devoted in Israel will be yours.

15Everything that opens the womb of all flesh, which they bring to the Lord, whether it is of men or animals, will be yours. However, you will surely redeem the firstborn of man, and the firstborn of unclean beasts you will redeem.

16Their redemption price, reckoned from one month of age, is five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs.

17But the firstborn of a herd animal, or the firstborn of a sheep, or the firstborn of a goat, you will not redeem. They are holy. You will splash their blood on the altar and will burn their fat as a fire offering, as a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

18Their flesh will be yours, as the wave breast and as the right shoulder are yours.

19All the offerings of the holy things which the Israelites offer to the Lord I have given to you, and to your sons and your daughters with you, as an eternal statute. It is a covenant of salt forever before the Lord, to you and to your seed with you.

20The Lord said to Aaron: You will not have an inheritance in their land, nor will you have any territory among them. I am your territory and your inheritance among the Israelites.

21I have given the Levites all the tithes in Israel for an inheritance, for their service, which they serve, even the service of the tent of meeting.

22Hereafter, the Israelites shall not come near the tent of meeting, lest they bear sin and die.

23But the Levites will do the service of the tent of meeting, and they will bear their iniquity. It will be an eternal statute throughout your generations, that among the Israelites they have no inheritance.

24But the tithes of the Israelites, which they offer as an offering to the Lord, I have given to the Levites to inherit. Therefore I have said to them, among the Israelites they will have no inheritance.

25The Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

26You will speak to the Levites, and say to them: When you take from the Israelites the tithes that I have given you from them for your inheritance, then you will offer up an offering of it to the Lord, even one-tenth of the tithe.

27And this offering will be counted to you, as though it was the grain of the threshing floor, and as the fullness of the winepress.

28Thus you also will set apart an offering to the Lord from all the tithes which you receive from the Israelites. Out of them you will give the offering of the Lord to Aaron the priest.

29Out of all your gifts you shall present every offering due to the Lord, from all the best of them, the consecrated part of them.

30You will say to them: When you have offered the best from it, then it will be counted to the Levites as the increase of the threshing floor, and as the increase of the winepress.

31You will eat it in every place, you and your households, because it is your reward for your service in the tent of meeting.

32You will bear no sin because of it, when you have offered the best of it. The holy things of the Israelites you will not pollute, and you will not die.

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