Old Testament

New Testament

Numbers 18:1-16 Common English Bible (CEB)

1. The Lord said to Aaron: You, your sons, and your household will bear the guilt of offenses connected with the sanctuary. You and your sons will bear the guilt of offenses connected with your priesthood.

2. Bring with you your brothers from the tribe of Levi, your father’s tribe, so that they can assist you and serve you and your sons before the covenant tent.

3. They will perform their duties for you and the service for the entire tent. But they will not approach the holy equipment of the sanctuary or the altar, lest both they and you die.

4. They will assist you and they will perform the duties of the meeting tent with regard to all the work of the tent. But no outsider may accompany you.

5. You will perform the duties of the sanctuary and the altar. Then there will no longer be any anger against the Israelites.

6. I have taken your brothers, the Levites, from the Israelites. They are a gift to you, dedicated to the Lord to perform the service of the meeting tent.

7. You and your sons must perform the duties of your priesthood for all the matters of the altar and the area behind the curtain. I give you your priestly service as a gift. But an outsider who approaches will die.

8. The Lord spoke to Aaron: I now place you in charge of my gifts, including all the Israelites’ sacred offerings. I have given them to you and your sons as an allowance. This is a permanent regulation.

9. This is what belongs to you from the most holy offerings, from the offerings by fire: all their offerings, including their grain offerings, their purification offerings, and their compensation offerings. The most holy offerings that they bring to me will be yours and your sons’.

10. You will eat it as a most holy thing. Every male may eat it. It will be holy to you.

11. This will also belong to you, your sons, and your daughters: I’m giving you the gift offerings and all the Israelites’ uplifted offerings. This is a permanent regulation. Anyone who is clean in your household may eat it.

12. All the choice oil, new wine, and the grain’s first harvest that they give to the Lord, I’m giving to you.

13. The early produce of everything in their land, which they bring to the Lord, will be yours. Anyone who is clean in your household may eat it.

14. Everything that is devoted to the Lord in Israel will be yours.

15. Any oldest male from the womb of any living thing that is presented to the Lord, whether human or animal, will be yours. However, you will redeem the oldest males of humans and of unclean animals.

16. Their redemption price from one month of age you will calculate at five shekels of silver according to the sanctuary shekel, which is twenty gerahs.

Read complete chapter Numbers 18