Numbers 18 - English Standard Version Anglicised (ESVUK)

Duties of Priests and Levites

18 So the Lord said to Aaron, “You and your sons and your father's house with you shall ^(A)bear iniquity connected with the sanctuary, ^(B)and you and your sons with you shall bear iniquity connected with your priesthood. ² And with you bring your brothers also, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, that they may ^(C)join you and ^(D)minister to you while you and your sons with you are before the tent of the testimony. ³ They shall keep guard over you and ^(E)over the whole tent, ^(F)but shall not come near to the vessels of the sanctuary or to the altar ^(G)lest they, and you, die. ⁴ They shall join you and keep guard over the tent of meeting for all the service of the tent, ^(H)and no outsider shall come near you. ⁵ And you shall ^(I)keep guard over the sanctuary and over the altar, ^(J)that there may never again be wrath on the people of Israel. ^{6 (K)}And behold, I have taken your brothers the Levites from among the people of Israel. ^(L)They are a gift to you, given to the Lord, to do the service of the tent of meeting. ⁷ And ^(M)you and your sons with you shall guard your priesthood for all that concerns the altar and ^(N)that is within the veil; and you shall serve. I give your priesthood as a gift,^[a] and ^(O)any outsider who comes near shall be put to death.”

⁸ Then the Lord spoke to Aaron, “Behold, ^(P)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 ^(Q)as a portion and to your sons as a perpetual due. ⁹ This shall be yours of the most holy things, reserved from the fire: every offering of theirs, every grain offering of theirs and every ^(R)sin offering of theirs and every ^(S)guilt offering of theirs, which they render to me, shall be most holy to you and to your sons. ¹⁰ In a most holy place shall you eat it. Every male may eat it; it is holy to you. ¹¹ This also is yours: the contribution of their gift, all the ^(T)wave offerings of the people of Israel. I have given them to ^(U)you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a perpetual due. ^(V)Everyone who is clean in your house may eat it. ^{12 (W)}All the best of the oil and all the best of the wine and of the grain, ^(X)the firstfruits of what they give to the Lord, I give to you. ¹³ The first ripe fruits of all that is in their land, ^(Y)which they bring to the Lord, shall be yours. ^(Z)Everyone who is clean in your house may eat it. ^{14 (AA)}Every devoted thing in Israel shall be yours. ^{15 (AB)}Everything that opens the womb of all flesh, whether man or beast, which they offer to the Lord, shall be yours. Nevertheless, ^(AC)the firstborn of man you shall redeem, and the firstborn of unclean animals you shall redeem. ¹⁶ And their redemption price ^(AD)(at a month old you shall redeem them) you shall fix at five shekels^[b] in silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, ^(AE)which is twenty gerahs. ^{17 (AF)}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 shall burn their fat as a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. ¹⁸ But their flesh shall be yours, as ^(AG)the breast that is waved and as the right thigh are yours. ^{19 (AH)}All the holy contributions that the people of Israel present to the Lord I give to you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a perpetual due. ^(AI)It is a covenant of salt for ever before the Lord for you and for your offspring with you.” ²⁰ And the Lord said to Aaron, “You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any portion among them. ^(AJ)I am your portion and your inheritance among the people of Israel.

^{21 (AK)}“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 tent of meeting, ^{22 (AL)}so that the people of Israel do not come near the tent of meeting, ^(AM)lest they bear sin and die. ²³ But ^(AN)the Levites shall do the service of the tent of meeting, ^(AO)and they shall bear their iniquity. 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 ^(AP)they present as a contribution to the Lord, I have given to the Levites for an inheritance. Therefore I have said of them that they shall have no inheritance ^(AQ)among the people of Israel.”

²⁵ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²⁶ “Moreover, you shall 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 shall present a contribution from it to the Lord, ^(AR)a tithe of the tithe. ^{27 (AS)}And your contribution shall be counted to you as though it were the grain of the threshing floor, and as the fullness of the wine press. ²⁸ So you shall also present a contribution to the Lord from all your tithes, which you receive from the people of Israel. And from it you shall give the Lord's contribution to Aaron the priest. ²⁹ Out of all the gifts to you, you shall present every contribution due to the Lord; from each its best part is to be dedicated.’ ³⁰ Therefore you shall say to them, ‘When you have offered from it the best of it, ^(AT)then the rest shall be counted to the Levites as produce of the threshing floor, and as produce of the wine press. ³¹ And you may eat it in any place, you and your households, for it is ^(AU)your reward in return for your service in the tent of meeting. ³² And you shall ^(AV)bear no sin by reason of it, when you have contributed the best of it. But you shall not ^(AW)profane the holy things of the people of Israel, lest you die.’”

Footnotes

1. Numbers 18:7 Hebrew service of gift
2. Numbers 18:16 A shekel was about 2/5 of an ounce or 11 grams

Cross references

1. Numbers 18:1 : ver. 23; See Ex. 28:38
2. Numbers 18:1 : ver. 23
3. Numbers 18:2 : [Gen. 29:34]
4. Numbers 18:2 : See ch. 3:6-10
5. Numbers 18:3 : ch. 3:25, 31, 36
6. Numbers 18:3 : ch. 16:40
7. Numbers 18:3 : ch. 4:15
8. Numbers 18:4 : See ch. 17:13
9. Numbers 18:5 : ch. 3:38; Ex. 27:21; 30:7; Lev. 24:3
10. Numbers 18:5 : See Lev. 10:6
11. Numbers 18:6 : ch. 3:12, 45
12. Numbers 18:6 : ch. 3:9; 8:19
13. Numbers 18:7 : ch. 3:10
14. Numbers 18:7 : Heb. 9:3, 6
15. Numbers 18:7 : See ch. 1:51
16. Numbers 18:8 : ch. 5:9; Lev. 7:32
17. Numbers 18:8 : Ex. 29:29; 40:13, 15
18. Numbers 18:9 : Lev. 4:22, 27; 6:25, 26
19. Numbers 18:9 : Lev. 7:7; 14:13
20. Numbers 18:11 : Ex. 29:27, 28; Lev. 7:30, 34
21. Numbers 18:11 : Lev. 10:14; [Deut. 18:3]
22. Numbers 18:11 : [Lev. 22:2, 3, 11-13]
23. Numbers 18:12 : Deut. 18:4
24. Numbers 18:12 : Ex. 23:19; 34:26; Neh. 10:35, 36
25. Numbers 18:13 : Ex. 22:29; Lev. 2:14; Deut. 26:2
26. Numbers 18:13 : [See ver. 11 above]; [Lev. 22:2, 3, 11-13]
27. Numbers 18:14 : Lev. 27:28
28. Numbers 18:15 : See Ex. 13:2
29. Numbers 18:15 : Ex. 13:13; 34:20
30. Numbers 18:16 : ch. 3:47; Lev. 27:2, 6
31. Numbers 18:16 : See Ex. 30:13
32. Numbers 18:17 : Deut. 15:19
33. Numbers 18:18 : Ex. 29:26, 28; Lev. 7:31, 32, 34
34. Numbers 18:19 : ver. 11
35. Numbers 18:19 : Lev. 2:13; 2 Chr. 13:5
36. Numbers 18:20 : ver. 23, 24; Deut. 10:9; 12:12; 14:27; 18:1, 2; Josh. 13:33; 14:3; 18:7; Ezek. 44:28
37. Numbers 18:21 : ver. 24, 26; Lev. 27:30, 32; Deut. 14:22; Neh. 10:37; 12:44; Heb. 7:5, 8, 9; [Gen. 14:20; 28:22]
38. Numbers 18:22 : See ch. 1:51
39. Numbers 18:22 : Lev. 22:9
40. Numbers 18:23 : ch. 3:7
41. Numbers 18:23 : ver. 1
42. Numbers 18:24 : ver. 19, 26, 29
43. Numbers 18:24 : ver. 20, 21, 26
44. Numbers 18:26 : Neh. 10:38
45. Numbers 18:27 : ver. 30
46. Numbers 18:30 : ver. 27
47. Numbers 18:31 : [Matt. 10:10; Luke 10:7; 1 Tim. 5:17, 18]; See 1 Cor. 9:4-14
48. Numbers 18:32 : Lev. 19:8; 22:16
49. Numbers 18:32 : Lev. 22:2, 15