Numbers 18:16-26

¹⁶When they are one month old you shall pay the redemption price of five shekels of silver, (using the sanctuary shekel standard), equivalent to twenty gerahs.

¹⁷But you are not allowed to redeem the firstborn of an ox, a sheep, or a goat because they are holy. You shall sprinkle their blood on the altar, and burn their fat as a burnt offering accepted by the Lord.

¹⁸Their meat is yours, in the same way that the breast and right thigh of the wave offering are yours.

¹⁹I am giving all the voluntary gifts that the Israelites present to the Lord to you and to your sons and daughters as a permanent rule. It is a permanent agreement of salt before the Lord for you and your descendants.”

²⁰“You won't possess property in their country, and you won't have a share in their land. I am your share and your possession among the Israelites.

²¹Instead I have given the Levites all the tithes in Israel as compensation for the service they provide in doing the work in the Tent of Meeting.

²²The Israelites are no longer allowed to approach the Tent of Meeting, or they will commit an offense and die.

²³The Levites are to carry out the work in the Tent of Meeting, and they must take responsibility for any sins involved. This is a permanent rule for all future generations. The Levites won't receive a share of land among the Israelites.

²⁴Instead I have given to the Levites as their compensation the tithe that the Israelites give to the Lord as a contribution. That's why I told them that they wouldn't receive a share of land among the Israelites.”

²⁵The Lord told Moses,

²⁶“Talk to the Levites and explain to them, ‘When you receive from the Israelites the tithe that I have given you as your compensation, you must return part of it as an offering to the Lord: a tithe of the tithe.