So the LORD said to Aaron, “You and your sons and your father's
house with you shall bear iniquity connected with the sanctuary,
and you and your sons with you shall bear iniquity connected with
your priesthood. And with you bring your brothers also, the tribe
of Levi, the tribe of your father, that they may join you and
minister to you while you and your sons with you are before the
tent of the testimony. They shall keep guard over you and over the
whole tent, but shall not come near to the vessels of the sanctuary
or to the altar lest they, and you, die. They shall join you and
keep guard over the tent of meeting for all the service of the
tent, and no outsider shall come near you. And you shall keep guard
over the sanctuary and over the altar, that there may never again
be wrath on the people of Israel. And behold, I have taken your
brothers the Levites from among the people of Israel. They are a
gift to you, given to the LORD, to do the service of the tent of
meeting. And you and your sons with you shall guard your priesthood
for all that concerns the altar and that is within the veil; and
you shall serve. I give your priesthood as a gift, and any outsider
who comes near shall be put to death.”
Then the LORD spoke to Aaron, “Behold, 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 as a portion and to your
sons as a perpetual due. This shall be yours of the most holy
things, reserved from the fire: every offering of theirs, every
grain offering of theirs and every sin offering of theirs and every
guilt offering of theirs, which they render to me, shall be most
holy to you and to your sons. In a most holy place shall you eat
it. Every male may eat it; it is holy to you. 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 perpetual due. Everyone who is clean in
your house may eat it. All the best of the oil and all the best of
the wine and of the grain, the firstfruits of what they give to the
LORD, I give to you. The first ripe fruits of all that is in their
land, which they bring to the LORD, shall be yours. Everyone who is
clean in your house may eat it. Every devoted thing in Israel shall
be yours. Everything that opens the womb of all flesh, whether man
or beast, which they offer to the LORD, shall be yours.
Nevertheless, the firstborn of man you shall redeem, and the
firstborn of unclean animals you shall redeem. And their redemption
price (at a month old you shall redeem them) you shall fix at five
shekels in silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, which
is twenty gerahs. 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.
But their flesh shall be yours, as the breast that is waved and as
the right thigh are yours. 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. It is a covenant
of salt forever before the LORD for you and for your offspring with
you.” And the LORD 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 people of Israel.
“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, so that the people of Israel do not
come near the tent of meeting, lest they bear sin and die. But the
Levites shall do the service of the tent of meeting, 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. For the tithe of the people of Israel, which 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 among the people of Israel.”
And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “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, a tithe
of the tithe. And your contribution shall be counted to you as
though it were the grain of the threshing floor, and as the
fullness of the winepress. 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. 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.’ Therefore you shall say to them, ‘When you have
offered from it the best of it, then the rest shall be counted to
the Levites as produce of the threshing floor, and as produce of
the winepress. And you may eat it in any place, you and your
households, for it is your reward in return for your service in the
tent of meeting. And you shall bear no sin by reason of it, when
you have contributed the best of it. But you shall not profane the
holy things of the people of Israel, lest you die.’”
