Numbers 18:4-21

⁴Soothly be they with thee, and wake they in the keepings of the tabernacle, and in all the ceremonies thereof. An alien shall not be meddled or mingled with you.

⁵Wake ye or Watch in the keeping of the saintuary, and in the service of the altar, lest indignation rise upon the sons of Israel.

⁶Lo! I have given to you your brethren, the deacons or Levites, from the midst of the sons of Israel, and I have given you them a free gift of the Lord, that they serve in the services of the tabernacle.

⁷Soothly thou and thy sons, keep your priesthood; and all things that pertain to the adorning of the altar, and be within the veil, shall be ministered by the priests; if any stranger nigheth thereto, he shall be slain.

⁸The Lord spake to Aaron, Lo! I have given to thee the keeping of my first fruits; I have given to thee, and to thy sons, all things that be hallowed of the sons of Israel, for the priest’s office everlasting lawful things.

⁹Therefore thou shalt take these things of those things that be hallowed, and be offered to the Lord; each offering, and sacrifice, and whatever thing is yielded to me for sin and for trespass, and cometh into holy of holy things, shall be thine and thy sons.

¹⁰Thou shalt eat it in the saintuary; males only shall eat thereof, for it is hallowed to the Lord.

¹¹Soothly I have given to thee, and to thy sons and thy daughters, by everlasting right, the first fruits which the sons of Israel avow and offer; he that is clean in thine house, shall eat those things.

¹²I have given to thee all the mar-row, or the best, of oil, and of wine, and of wheat, whatever thing of the first fruits they shall offer to the Lord.

¹³All the beginnings of fruits which the earth bringeth forth, and be brought to the Lord, shall fall into thine uses; he that is clean in thine house, shall eat of those or them.

¹⁴All things that the sons of Israel yield by a vow, shall be thine.

¹⁵Whatever thing cometh first forth of the womb of all flesh, which they offer to the Lord, whether it is of men, either of beasts, it shall be of thy right; so only that thou take price for the first begotten child of man, and that thou make each beast that is unclean to be bought again;

¹⁶whose again-buying shall be after one month, for five shekels of silver, by the weight of the saintuary; a shekel hath twenty halfpence.

¹⁷Forsooth thou shalt not make the first engendered of an ox, and of sheep, and of goat, to be again-bought, for those or they be hallowed to the Lord; only thou shalt pour the blood of those or them upon the altar, and thou shalt burn the inner fatness into sweetest odour to the Lord.

¹⁸Soothly the flesh shall fall into thine use, as the breast hallowed and the right shoulder, shall be thine.

¹⁹I have given to thee, and to thy sons and thy daughters, by everlasting right, all the first fruits of the saintuary, which the sons of Israel offer to the Lord; it is everlasting covenant of salt before the Lord, to thee, and to thy sons.

²⁰And the Lord said to Aaron, Ye shall not wield anything of heritage in the land of Israel, neither ye shall have part among them; I am thy part and thine heritage, in the midst of the sons of Israel.

²¹Soothly, I gave to the sons of Levi all the tithes of Israel into possession, for the service by which they serve me in the tabernacle of the bond of peace;