1 And Jehovah said to Aaron: You and your sons and your fathers house with you shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary, and you and your sons with you shall bear the iniquity of your priesthood.
2 Also bring with you your brethren of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, that they may be joined with you and serve you while you and your sons are with you before the tent of witness.
3 They shall keep your charge and the charge of all the tent; but they shall not come near the vessels of the sanctuary and the altar, that they not die; they and you also.
4 They shall be joined to you and keep the charge of the tent of meeting, for all the service of the tent; but a stranger shall not come near you.
5 And you shall keep the charge of the sanctuary and the charge of the altar, that there be no more wrath upon the children of Israel.
6 And I, behold, I have taken your brethren the Levites from among the children of Israel; they are a gift to you, given by Jehovah, to do the service of the tent of meeting.
7 Therefore you and your sons with you shall keep your priesthood in everything at the altar and behind the veil; and you shall serve. I give your priesthood to you as a gift of service, but the stranger who comes near shall be put to death.
8 And Jehovah spoke to Aaron: I, behold I have also given you the charge of My heave offerings, all the holy things of the children of Israel; I have given them to you and your sons because of the anointing, as a perpetual ordinance.
9 This shall be yours of the set apart, holy, things from the fire: every offering of theirs, every grain offering and every sin offering and every trespass offering which they return to Me, shall be set apart, holy, for you and your sons.
10 In a set apart, holy place you shall eat it; every male shall eat it. It shall be holy to you.
11 This also is yours: the heave offering of their gift, with all the wave offerings of the children of Israel; I have given them to you, and your sons and daughters with you, as a perpetual ordinance. Everyone who is clean in your house shall eat it.
12 All the best of the oil, all the best of the new wine and the grain, the firstfruits which they offer unto Jehovah, I have given them to you.
13 The first ripe fruit that is in their land which they bring unto Jehovah shall be yours. Everyone who is clean in your house shall eat it.
14 Every devoted thing in Israel shall be yours.
15 Everything that opens the womb of all flesh, which they bring unto Jehovah, whether man or beast, shall be yours; nevertheless the firstborn of man you shall ransom to redeem, and the firstborn of unclean animals you shall redeem.
16 And the redeemed things you shall redeem after it is a month old, according to your valuation, for five shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary; which is twenty gerahs.
17 But the firstborn of a cow, the firstborn of a sheep, or the firstborn of a goat you shall not redeem; they are holy. You shall sprinkle their blood on the altar, and burn their fat with smoke as an offering by fire for a soothing aroma unto Jehovah.
18 And their flesh shall be yours, as the wave breast and the right thigh are yours.
19 All the heave offerings of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer unto Jehovah, I have given to you and your sons and daughters with you as a perpetual ordinance; it is a covenant of salt always before Jehovah with you and your seed with you.
20 And Jehovah said to Aaron: You shall have no inheritance in their land, nor shall you have any portion among them; I am your portion and your inheritance among the children of Israel.
21 Behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tithes in Israel as an inheritance in return for the service in which they serve, the service of the tent of meeting.
22 Neither shall the children of Israel come anymore near the tent of meeting, lest they bear sin and die.
23 But the Levites shall do the work of service of the tent of meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity; it shall be a perpetual statute, throughout your generations, that they shall have no inheritance among the children of Israel.
24 For the tithes of the children of Israel, which they offer up as a heave offering unto Jehovah, I have given to the Levites as an inheritance; therefore I have said to them, They shall have no inheritance among the children of Israel.
25 And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying,
26 Speak thus to the Levites, and say to them: When you take from the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them as your inheritance, then you shall offer up a heave offering of it unto Jehovah, a tithe of the tithe.
27 And your heave offering shall be reckoned to you as though it were the grain of the threshing floor and as the fullness of the winepress.
28 Thus you shall also offer a heave offering unto Jehovah from all your tithes which you receive from the children of Israel, and you shall give the heave offering of Jehovah from it to Aaron the priest.
29 Of all your gifts you shall offer up every heave offering of Jehovah, from all the best of them, the consecrated part of them.
30 Therefore you shall say to them: When you have lifted up the best of it, then the rest shall be accounted to the Levites as the produce of the threshing floor and as the produce of the winepress.
31 You shall eat it in any place, you and your houses, for it is your wages for your service in the tent of meeting.
32 And you shall bear no sin because of it, when you have lifted up from it the best of it. And you shall not profane the holy things of the children of Israel, that you not die.