The Priests’ Portion
1Yahweh said to Aaron, “You, 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. 2But bring your brothers, the tribe of Levi, your father’s tribe, near with you, and let them join you and minister to you, while you and your sons with you are before the tent of the testimony. 3They shall keep your charge and the charge of the whole tent, but they must not come near the vessels of the sanctuary or the altar, so that neither they nor you will die. 4They shall join you and keep the charge of the tent of meeting, for all the service of the tent, and no outsider shall come near you. 5You shall keep the charge of the sanctuary and the charge of the altar, so that wrath will not come again upon the Israelites. 6As for me, I have taken your brothers the Levites from among the Israelites; they are a gift to you, given to Yahweh, to do the service of the tent of meeting. 7But you and your sons with you shall attend to your priesthood for everything concerning the altar and what is inside the curtain, and you shall serve. I give you your priesthood as a gift of service; any outsider who comes near shall be put to death.”
What Belongs to Aaron
8Yahweh spoke to Aaron: “As for me, I have given you charge of my contributions, all the holy things of the Israelites. I have given them to you and to your sons as your portion, a lasting statute. 9This shall be yours from the most holy things, reserved from the fire: 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. 10You shall eat it as a most holy thing; every male may eat it. It shall be holy to you. 11This also is yours: the contribution of their gift, all the wave offerings of the Israelites. I have given them to you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a lasting statute. Everyone who is clean in your household may eat it. 12All the best of the oil, and all the best of the new wine and the grain, the firstfruits that they give to Yahweh, I have given to you. 13The first ripe produce of everything in their land, which they bring to Yahweh, shall be yours. Everyone who is clean in your household may eat it. 14Everything devoted in Israel shall be yours. 15Every firstborn that opens the womb, of all flesh, whether man or beast, which they present to Yahweh, shall be yours. But you shall surely redeem the firstborn of man, and you shall redeem the firstborn of an unclean animal. 16Its redemption price, from a month old, you shall set at five shekels of silver, according to the sanctuary shekel, which is twenty gerahs. 17But the firstborn of an ox, 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 an offering by fire, a pleasing aroma to Yahweh. 18Their meat shall be yours, just as the breast that is waved and the right thigh are yours. 19All the contributions of the holy things that the Israelites present to Yahweh I have given to you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a lasting statute. It is an everlasting covenant of salt before Yahweh, for you and for your descendants with you.”
The Levites’ Inheritance
20Yahweh said to Aaron, “You shall have no inheritance in their land, and you shall have no portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the Israelites. 21To the descendants of Levi I have given every tithe in Israel as an inheritance, in return for their service, the service they perform at the tent of meeting. 22The Israelites are no longer to come near the tent of meeting, or they will bear the consequences of sin and die. 23The Levites alone shall perform the service of the tent of meeting, and they shall bear their own guilt. This is a lasting statute throughout your generations, that among the Israelites the Levites shall have no inheritance. 24For the tithe of the Israelites, which they present as a contribution to Yahweh, I have given to the Levites as an inheritance. That is why I said of them: they shall have no inheritance among the Israelites.”
The Tithe of the Tithe
25Yahweh spoke to Moses. He said, 26“Speak to the Levites and tell them: When you receive from the Israelites the tithe that I have given you from them as your inheritance, you shall present from it a contribution to Yahweh, a tithe of the tithe. 27Your contribution will be reckoned to you as though it were grain from the threshing floor, or the full yield of the winepress. 28In this way you also shall present a contribution to Yahweh from all your tithes that you receive from the Israelites, and from it you shall give Yahweh’s contribution to Aaron the priest. 29From all your gifts you shall present every contribution due to Yahweh, from the best of it, its holiest part. 30So say to them: When you have presented the best of it, then the rest shall be reckoned to the Levites as produce of the threshing floor, or as produce of the winepress. 31You may eat it anywhere, you and your households, for it is your wages in return for your service at the tent of meeting. 32You will bear no guilt because of it, once you have presented the best of it; but you must not defile the holy things of the Israelites, or you will die.”
