Duties of Priests and Levites

¹YHWH said to Aaron, “You, your sons, your fathers’ house with you, y’all will bear the iniquity of the sanctuary. You and your sons with you, y’all will bear the iniquity of y’all’s priesthood.

²But bring your brothers, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, so that they joined you and minister to you, while you and your sons with you are before the Tent of the Testimony.

³They are to keep your commands and the duty of the whole Tent, but they must not come near to the vessels of the sanctuary and to the altar. Otherwise both they and y’all will die.

⁴They are to be joined with you and be responsible of the Tent of Meeting, for all the service of the Tent. A stranger may not come near to y’all.

⁵“Y’all are to perform the duty of the sanctuary and the duty of the altar, so that there be no more wrath on the children of Israel.

⁶Look, I have selected y’all’s brothers the Levites from among the children of Israel. They are a gift to y’all, dedicated to YHWH, to do the service of the Tent of Meeting.

⁷You and your sons, y’all are to carry out y’all’s priesthood for everything of the altar, and for that within the veil. Y’all must serve. I give the service of the priesthood to y’all as a gift. The stranger who comes near must be put to death.”

⁸YHWH spoke to Aaron, “Look, I myself have given you the command of my wave offerings, even all the holy things of the children of Israel. I have given them to you by reason of the anointing, and to your sons, as a portion forever.

⁹This will be yours of the most holy things from the fire: every offering of theirs that they give to me, every meal offering, sin offering, or trespass offering will be most holy for you and for your sons.

¹⁰You are to eat of it like the most holy things. Every male may eat it. It is to be holy to you.

¹¹“This is yours, too: the wave offering of their gift, all the wave offerings of the children of Israel. I have given them to you, your sons, and your daughters as a portion forever. Everyone who is clean in your house may eat of it.

¹²“I have given to you all the best of the oil, all the best of the vintage, and of the grain, the first fruits of them which they give to YHWH.

¹³The first-ripe fruits of all that is in their land, which they bring to YHWH belongs to you. Everyone who is clean in your house may eat of it.

¹⁴“Everything devoted in Israel belongs to you.

¹⁵Every firstborn flesh that opens the womb, both of human and animal, presented to YHWH is yours. Nevertheless, you are to redeem-redeem a human firstborn and redeem the firstborn of unclean animals.

¹⁶You must redeem those who are to be redeemed of them from a month old, according to your estimation, for five shekels of money, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, which weighs twenty gerahs.[#18:16 A shekel is about 10 grams or about 0.35 ounces.; #18:16 A gerah is about 0.5 grams or about 7.7 grains.]

¹⁷“But you must not redeem the firstborn of a cow, sheep, or goat. They are holy. You are to sprinkle their blood on the altar and burn their fat for an offering made by fire, a pleasant aroma to YHWH.

¹⁸Their meat is yours. It belongs to you like the breast of wave offering and the right thigh.

¹⁹All the wave offerings of the holy things which the children of Israel offer to YHWH, I have given you and your sons and your daughters with you, as a portion forever. It is a covenant of salt forever before YHWH to you and to your offspring with you.”

²⁰YHWH said to Aaron, “You will have no inheritance in their land, nor will you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the children of Israel.

²¹“Look, I have given the children of Levi all the tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service which they serve, even the service of the Tent of Meeting.

²²Henceforth the children of Israel must not come near the Tent of Meeting, or they bear sin and die.

²³But the Levites are to do the service of the Tent of Meeting, and they will bear their iniquity. It is to be a permanent statute throughout y’all’s generations. Among the children of Israel, they will have no inheritance.

²⁴For the tithe of the children of Israel, which they offer as a wave offering to YHWH, I have given to the Levites for an inheritance. Therefore I have said to them, ‘Among the children of Israel they will have no inheritance.’”

²⁵YHWH spoke to Moses, saying,

²⁶“Moreover you must speak to the Levites, and tell them, ‘When y’all take from the children of Israel the tithe which I have given y’all from them for y’all’s inheritance, then y’all are to present an offering from it to YHWH, a tithe of the tithe.

²⁷Y’all’s offering will be credited to y’all, as though it were the grain of the threshing floor, or fresh off the winepress.

²⁸Thus y’all are also to present an offering to YHWH from the tithes y’all receive from the children of Israel. From it y’all are to give YHWH’s offering to Aaron the priest.

²⁹Y’all must present an offering to YHWH from all y’all’s gifts, from the best, the holy part of them.’

³⁰“Therefore you are to tell them, ‘When y’all have offered the best of it, then it will be credited to the Levites as the product of the threshing floor, and as the product of the winepress.

³¹Y’all and y’all’s households may eat it anywhere. It is y’all’s compensation in return for y’all’s service in the Tent of Meeting.

³²Y’all will bear no sin because of it once y’all have offered the best of it. But y’all must not profane the holy things of the children of Israel, so that y’all will not die.’”