M² T¹ 18:1-32: Laws for Priests and Levites.
T² 19:1-22. Laws for People.
T¹ U¹ 1-7. Priests and the offices.
U² 8-19. Priests and their dues. Generally.
U³ 20-24. Priests and their inheritance.
U4 25-32. Priests and their dues. From the Levites.
U¹ w¹ 1. Priests.
x¹ 2-4. Levites.
w² 5. Priests.
ײ 6. Levites.
w³ 7. Priests.Numbers 18)
1: And the Lord said to Aaron (see 3:40), "You and your sons and your father's house with you shall bear the perverseness of the sanctuary: and you and your sons with you shall bear the perverseness of your priesthood.
2: And your brethren also of the tribe (= staff) of Levi, the staff of your father, you bring with you, that they may be joined to you, and minister to you: but you and your sons with you shall minister before the tent of the congregation.
3: And they shall keep your charge, and the charge of all the tent of the congregation: only they shall not come near the vessels of the sanctuary and the altar, that neither they, nor you also, die.
4: And they shall be joined to you, and keep the charge of the tent of the congregation, for all the service of the tent of the congregation: and a stranger shall not come near to you.
5: And you all shall keep the charge of the sanctuary, and the charge of the altar: that there be no wrath any more upon the sons of Israel.
6: And I, behold, I have taken your brethren the Levites from among the sons of Israel: to you they are given as a gift for the Lord, to do the solemn service of the tent of the congregation.
7: Therefore you and you sons with you shall keep your priest's office for every thing of the altar, and within the veil; and you all shall serve: I have given your priest's office to you as a service of gift: and the stranger that comes near shall be put to death."
8: And the Lord spoke to Aaron (see 1:1), "Behold, I also have given you the charge of My heave offerings of all the hallowed (= separated, see Ex.3:5) things of the sons of Israel; to you have I given them by reason of the anointing (Fig., for the priesthood associated with it), and to your sons, by an ordinance for ever.
9: This shall be yours of the holy of holiest things, reserved from the fire: every approach offering of theirs, every meal offering of theirs, and every sin offering of theirs, and every trespass offering of theirs, which they shall render to Me, it shall be the holiest of holies for you and for your sons.
10: In the holiest of holies shall you eat it; every male shall eat it: it shall be set apart to thee.
11: And this is yours; the heave offering of their gift, with all the wave offerings of the sons of Israel: I have given them to you, and to you sons and to your daughters with you, by a statute for ever: every one that is clean in your house shall eat of it.
12: All the best of the oil, and all the best of the new wine (so called because it gets possession of the brain), and of the wheat, the first fruits of them which they shall offer to the Lord, them have I given you.
13: And whatsoever is first ripe in their land, which they shall bring to the Lord, shall be yours; every one that is clean in your house shall eat of it.
14: Every thing (see Lev.27:28) devoted (see Lev.27:1) in Israel shall be yours.
15: Every thing that opens the womb (see 3:13. Ex. 13:2; 34:19. Lev. 27:26) in all flesh, which they bring to the Lord, whether it be of mankind or beasts, shall be yours: nevertheless the firstborn of mankind shall you surely ransom (see Ex. 6:6), and the firstborn of unclean beasts shall you ransom.
16: And those that are to be ransomed from a month old shall you ransom, according to your estimation, for the money of five shekels (approx. 2½ oz.), after the shekel (weight) of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs (½ oz.).
17: But the firstborn of a cow, or the firstborn of a sheep, or the firstborn of a goat, you shall not redeem; they are set apart: you shall sprinkle their blood upon the altar, and shalt burn (as incense) their fat for an offering made by fire, for a sweet satisfaction to the Lord (see Lev. 1:9).
18: And the flesh of them shall be yours, as the wave breast and as the right shoulder are yours.
19: All the heave offerings of the set apart things, which the sons of Israel offer to the Lord, have I given to you, and your sons and your daughters with you, by a statute for ever: it is a covenant of salt for ever before the Lord to you and to your seed with you." (Heb. covenant = berîth, from barah, to cut; hence to eat. As salt was scarce and precious, and used with all eating, so it was put by the Fig. Metonymy [of Adjunct], for eating, just as the breaking of bread was. See Isa.58:7 [A.V. "deal"]; Jer. 16:7 [A.V. "bear"]. Lam. 4:4. Ezek. 18:7 {A.V. "given"]. Hence when wages were paid in kind, by finding the worker in food, "salt" was put for wage generally; so that a worker was spoken of as being worth, or not worth, his "salt". "A covenant of salt" was therefore a covenant made by sacrifice, which was first cut in two [Gen. 15:10-18. Jer. 34:18,19] and then eaten, thus solemnizing an inviolable covenant)
U³ y 20-. Negative. Not the land.
x -20. Positive. Yahaveh.
x 21-24. Positive. The tenth.
y 25-32. Negative. Not the tenth of the tenth.
20: And the Lord spoke to Aaron, "You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any part among them: I am your part and your inheritance among the sons of Israel.
21: And, behold, I have given the sons of Levi all the tenth in Israel instead of an inheritance, for their service which they serve, even the service of the tent of the congregation.
22: Neither must the sons of Israel henceforth come near the tent of the congregation, lest they bear sin, and die.
23: But the Levites shall do the service of the tent of the congregation, and they shall bear their perverseness: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations, that among the sons of Israel they have no inheritance.
24: But the tithes of the sons of Israel, which they offer as an heave offering to the Lord, I have given to the Levites to inherit: therefore I have said to them, Among the sons of Israel they shall have no inheritance."
25: And Yehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
26: "Thus speak to the Levites, and say to them, 'When you all take of the sons of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then you all shall offer up an heave offering of it for the Lord, even a tenth part of the tithe.
27: And this your heave offering shall be reckoned to you, as though it were the corn from the threshing-floor, and as the fullness of the wine-press.
28: Thus you all also shall offer an heave offering to the Lord of all your tithes, which you all receive of the children of Israel; and you all shall give thereof the Lord's heave offering to Aaron the priest.
29: Out of all your gifts you all shall offer every heave offering of the Lord, of all the best thereof, even the separated part thereof out of it.'
30: Therefore you shall say to them, 'When you have heaved the best thereof from it, then it shall be counted to the Levites as the increase of the threshing-floor, and as the increase of the wine-press.
31: And you all shall eat it in every place, you all and your households: for it is your reward for your service in the tabernacle of the congregation.
32: And you all shall bear no sin by reason of it, when you all have heaved from it the best of it: neither shall you all pollute the set apart things of the sons of Israel, lest you all die.' "