The Father Appoints His Priests and Levites
18 1 Our Father said to Aaron, "You and your sons and your father's house with you shall bear the guilt connected with the sanctuary, and you and your sons with you shall bear the guilt connected with your priesthood." 2 Also bring your brothers with you — the tribe of Levi, your father's tribe — so they may join you and serve you while you and your sons are before the tent of the testimony. 3 They shall carry out your duties and be responsible for the whole tent, but they shall not come near the sacred objects of the sanctuary or the altar, or both they and you will die. 4 They shall join you and carry out the duties of the tent of meeting, all the service of the tent, and no outsider shall come near you.
5 You shall be responsible for the sanctuary and the altar, so that wrath may never again fall on the people of Israel. 6 I myself have taken your brothers the Levites from among the people of Israel. They are a gift to you, given to me, to do the service of the tent of meeting. 7 But you and your sons with you shall guard your priesthood in everything concerning the altar and behind the inner curtain, and there you shall serve. I give your priesthood as a gift, and any outsider who comes near shall be put to death.
The Father Provides for His Servants
8 Our Father said to Aaron, "I have put you in charge of the contributions made to me, all the holy gifts of the people of Israel. I have given them to you and to your sons as a portion, a permanent share." 9 This shall be yours from the most holy things, not burned on the altar: every offering of theirs, every grain offering, every sin offering, and every guilt offering that they render to me shall be most holy for you and for your sons. 10 You shall eat it in a most holy place. Every male may eat it; it shall be holy to you.
11 This also is yours: the contribution of their gift, all the wave offerings of the people of Israel. I have given them to you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a permanent share. Everyone in your house who is clean may eat it. 12 All the best of the oil and all the best of the new wine and of the grain, the firstfruits they give to me, I give to you. 13 The firstfruits of everything their land produces, which they bring to me, shall be yours. Everyone in your house who is clean may eat it.
14 Every devoted thing in Israel shall be yours. 15 The firstborn of every mother, human or animal, that they offer to me shall be yours. Nevertheless, you must redeem the firstborn of man, and you shall redeem the firstborn of unclean animals. 16 Set their redemption price when they are one month old: about two ounces of silver, by the sanctuary standard.
17 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 burn their fat as a food offering, a pleasing aroma to me. 18 But their flesh shall be yours, just as the breast that is waved and the right thigh are yours. 19 All the holy contributions that the people of Israel present to me I give to you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a permanent share. It is a covenant of salt forever before me, for you and for your offspring with you. 1 1 v19 A covenant of salt was an unbreakable, everlasting agreement — salt preserves and never spoils, symbolizing permanence.
20 Our Father said to Aaron, "You shall have no inheritance in their land, nor shall you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the people of Israel."
21 To the Levites I have given every tithe in Israel as an inheritance, in return for the service they perform, the service of the tent of meeting. 22 The people of Israel shall no longer come near the tent of meeting, or they will incur guilt and die. 23 But the Levites shall do the service of the tent of meeting, and they shall bear responsibility for their own offenses. 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 they present as a contribution to me, I have given to the Levites as an inheritance. Therefore I have told them they shall have no inheritance among the people of Israel.
25 Our Father spoke to Moses, saying,
26 "Speak to the Levites and say to them: When you take from the people of Israel the tithe that I have given you from them as your inheritance, then you shall present a contribution from it to me, a tithe of the tithe." 27 Your contribution will be treated as though it were the grain from the threshing floor and the fresh wine from the winepress. 28 So you also shall present a contribution to me from all your tithes that you receive from the people of Israel, and from it you shall give my contribution to Aaron the priest. 29 Out of all the gifts you receive, you shall present every contribution due to me; from each one, set aside the best and holiest part.
30 Therefore say to them: When you have offered the best of it, the rest will count for the Levites as the produce of the threshing floor and the produce of the winepress. 31 You may eat it anywhere, you and your households, for it is your reward for your service in the tent of meeting. 32 You will incur no guilt because of it, once you have offered the best of it. But you shall not profane the holy things of the people of Israel, or you will die.