Chapter 18

¹Yahweh said to Aaron, You and your sons and your fathers’ house with you shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary; and you and your sons with you shall bear the iniquity of your priesthood. ²Your brothers also, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, bring you near with you, that they may be joined to you, and minister to you: but you and your sons with you shall be before the tent of the testimony. ³They shall keep your charge, and the charge of all the Tent: only they shall not come near to the vessels of the sanctuary and to the altar, that they not die, neither they, nor you. ⁴They shall be joined to you, and keep the charge of the tent of meeting, for all the service of the Tent: and a stranger shall not come near to you. ⁵You shall keep the charge of the sanctuary, and the charge of the altar; that there be wrath no more on the children of Israel. ⁶I, behold, I have taken your brothers the Levites from among the children of Israel: to you they are a gift, given to Yahweh, to do the service of the tent of meeting. ⁷You and your sons with you shall keep your priesthood for everything of the altar, and for that within the veil; and you shall serve: I give you the priesthood as a service of gift: and the stranger who comes near shall be put to death. ⁸Yahweh spoke to Aaron, I, behold, I have given you the charge of my wave offerings, even all the holy things of the children of Israel; to you have I given them by reason of the anointing, and to your sons, as a portion forever. ⁹This shall be your of the most holy things, reserved from the fire: every offering of theirs, even every meal offering of theirs, and every sin offering of theirs, and every trespass offering of theirs, which they shall render to me, shall be most holy for you and for your sons. ¹⁰As the most holy things shall you eat of it; every male shall eat of it: it shall be holy to you. ¹¹This is your: the wave offering of their gift, even all the wave offerings of the children of Israel; I have given them to you, and to your sons and to your daughters with you, as a portion forever; everyone who is clean in your house shall eat of it. ¹²All the best of the oil, and all the best of the vintage, and of the grain, the first fruits of them which they give to Yahweh, to you have I given them. ¹³The first-ripe fruits of all that is in their land, which they bring to Yahweh, shall be yours; everyone who is clean in your house shall eat of it. ¹⁴Everything devoted in Israel shall be yours. ¹⁵Everything that opens the womb, of all flesh which they offer to Yahweh, both of man and animal shall be yours: nevertheless the firstborn of man shall you surely redeem, and the firstborn of unclean animals shall you redeem. ¹⁶Those who are to be redeemed of them from a month old shall you redeem, according to your estimation, for the money of five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary (the same is twenty gerahs). ¹⁷But 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 for an offering made by fire, for a sweet savor to Yahweh. ¹⁸The flesh of them shall be your, as the wave offering breast and as the right thigh, it shall be yours. ¹⁹All the wave offerings of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer to Yahweh, have I given you, and your sons and your daughters with you, as a portion forever: it is a covenant of salt forever before Yahweh to you and to your seed with you. ²⁰Yahweh said to Aaron, You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any portion among them: I am your portion and your inheritance among the children of Israel. ²¹To the children of Levi, behold, I have given 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 shall not come near the tent of meeting, lest they bear sin, and die. ²³But the Levites shall do the service of the tent of meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity: it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations; and among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance. ²⁴For the tithe of the children of Israel, which they offer as a wave offering to Yahweh, I have given to the Levites for an inheritance: therefore I have said to them, Among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance. ²⁵Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ²⁶Moreover you shall speak to the Levites, and tell them, When you take of the children of Israel the tithe which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then you shall offer up a wave offering of it for Yahweh, a tithe of the tithe. ²⁷Your wave offering shall be reckoned to you, as though it were the grain of the threshing floor, and as the fullness of the winepress. ²⁸Thus you also shall offer a wave offering to Yahweh of all your tithes, which you receive of the children of Israel; and of it you shall give Yahweh’s wave offering to Aaron the priest. ²⁹Out of all your gifts you shall offer every wave offering of Yahweh, of all the best of it, even the holy part of it out of it. ³⁰Therefore you shall tell them, When you heave the best of it from it, then it shall be reckoned to the Levites as the increase of the threshing floor, and as the increase of the winepress. ³¹You shall eat it in every place, you and your households: for it is your reward in return for your service in the tent of meeting. ³²You shall bear no sin by reason of it, when you have heaved from it the best of it: and you shall not profane the holy things of the children of Israel, that you not die.