Numbers Chapter 18    

¹Yahweh said to Aaron, “You and your sons and your fathers’ house with you will bear the iniquity of the sanctuary; and you and your sons with you will bear the iniquity of your priesthood.
  ²Your brothers also, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, bring near with you, that they may be joined to you and serve you, but you and your sons with you may be before the tent of the testimony.
  ³They are to keep your commands and the duty of all the Tent, only they must not come near to the utensils of the sanctuary or to the altar so that they do not die, neither they nor you.
  ⁴They are to be joined to you and keep the responsibility of the Tent of Meeting, for all the service of the Tent; and a stranger may not come near to you.
 

⁵“You are to perform the duty of the sanctuary and the duty of the altar; that there be no more wrath 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 will attend to your priesthood for everything that concerns the altar and inside the curtain, and you are to serve. I give you the priesthood as a service of gift, and the stranger who comes near will be put to death.”
 

⁸Yahweh spoke to Aaron, “I, behold, I have given you the command 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 will be yours of the most holy things from the fire: every approach offering of theirs, even every grain offering of theirs and every sin offering of theirs, and every trespass offering of theirs that they bring to me 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 of it. It is to be holy to you.
 

¹¹“This is yours, too: 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 may eat of it.
  ¹²All the best of the oil and all the best of the vintage, and of the grain, the firstfruits of what they give to Yahweh, I have given it to you.
  ¹³The first-ripe fruits of all that is in their land that they bring to Yahweh will be yours; everyone who is clean in your house may eat of it.
 

¹⁴“Everything in Israel devoted to Yahweh will be yours.
  ¹⁵Everything that opens the womb of all flesh that they offer to Yahweh, both of man and animal, will be yours; nevertheless you must redeem, yes, redeem, the firstborn of man, and you must redeem the firstborn of unclean animals.
  ¹⁶You will redeem those who are to be redeemed of them from a month old, and your price is to be set at five shekels^a of silver according to the shekel of the sanctuary, which is 20 gerahs.
 

¹⁷“But you must not redeem the firstborn of a cow, or the firstborn of a sheep, or the firstborn of a goat. They are holy. You are to sprinkle their blood on the altar and are to burn their fat into smoke for an offering made by fire, for a soothing aroma to Yahweh.
  ¹⁸Their flesh will be yours; like the wave offering breast and like the right thigh, it will be yours.
 

¹⁹“All the wave offerings of the holy things that the children of Israel offer to Yahweh I have given to 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 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“To the children of Levi, behold, I have given all the tithe in Israel for an inheritance in return for their service that they serve, even the service of the Tent of Meeting.
  ²²Henceforth the children of Israel must not come near the Tent of Meeting, lest they bear sin and die.
  ²³But the Levites will do the service of the Tent of Meeting and they will bear their iniquity; it will be a statute forever throughout your generations, and among the children of Israel they will have no inheritance.
  ²⁴For the tithe of the children of Israel that 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 will have no inheritance.’”
 

²⁵Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
  ²⁶“Moreover you are to speak to the Levites and tell them: When you take of the children of Israel the tithe that I have given to you from them for your inheritance, then you must offer up a wave offering of it for Yahweh, a tithe of the tithe.
  ²⁷Your wave offering will be reckoned to you, as though it were the grain of the threshing floor and as the fullness of the winepress.
  ²⁸Thus you also are to offer a wave offering to Yahweh of all your tithes that you receive of the children of Israel; and of it you are to give Yahweh’s wave offering to Aaron the priest.
  ²⁹Out of all your gifts you must offer every wave offering of Yahweh, of all its best, even the holy part of it out of it.
 

³⁰“Therefore you are to tell them: When you heave its best from it, then it is to be reckoned to the Levites as the increase of the threshing floor and as the increase of the winepress.
  ³¹You may 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 will not incur guilt because of it when you have heaved from it its best, and you must not profane the holy things of the children of Israel so that you do not die.‘”