1 And the Lord spoke to Aaron, saying, Thou and thy sons and thy father’s house shall bear the sins of the holy things, and thou and thy sons shall bear the iniquity of your priesthood. 2 And take to thyself thy brethren the tribe of Levi, the family of thy father, and let them be joined to thee, and let them minister to thee; and thou and thy sons with thee [shall minister] before the tabernacle of witness. 3 And they shall keep thy charges, and the charges of the tabernacle; only they shall not approach the holy vessels and the altar, so both they and you shall not die. 4 And they shall be joined to thee, and shall keep the charges of the tabernacle of witness, in all the services of the tabernacle; and a stranger shall not approach to thee. 5 And ye shall keep the charges of the holy things, and the charges of the altar, and [so] there shall not be anger among the children of Israel. 6 And I have taken your brethren the Levites out of the midst of the children of Israel, a present given to the Lord, to minister in the services of the tabernacle of witness. 7 And thou and thy sons after thee shall keep up your priestly ministration, according to the whole manner of the altar, and that which is within the veil; and ye shall minister in the services as the office of your priesthood; and the stranger that comes near shall die. 8 And the Lord said to Aaron, And, behold, I have given you the charge of the firstfruits of all things consecrated to me by the children of Israel; and I have given them to thee as an honor, and to thy sons after thee for a perpetual ordinance. 9 And let this be to you from all the holy things that are consecrated [to me, even] the burnt offerings, from all their gifts, and from all their sacrifices, and from every trespass offering of theirs, and from all their sin offerings, whatever things they give to me of all their holy things, they shall be thine and thy sons’. 10 In the most holy place shall ye eat them; every male shall eat them, thou and thy sons: they shall be holy to thee. 11 And this shall be to you of the firstfruits of their gifts, of all the wave offerings of the children of Israel; to thee have I given them and to thy sons and thy daughters with thee, a perpetual ordinance; every clean person in thy house shall eat them. 12 Every first offering of oil, and every first offering of wine, their firstfruits of corn, whatsoever they may give to the Lord, to thee have I given them. 13 All the firstfruits that are in their land, whatsoever they shall offer to the Lord, shall be thine: every clean person in thy house shall eat them. 14 Every devoted thing among the children of Israel shall be thine. 15 And everything that opens the womb of all flesh, whatsoever they bring to the Lord, whether man or beast, shall be thine: only the firstborn of men shall be surely redeemed, and thou shalt redeem the firstborn of unclean cattle. 16 And the redemption of them [shall be] from a month old; their valuation of five shekels—it is twenty oboli according to the holy shekel. 17 But thou shalt not redeem the firstborn of calves and the firstborn of sheep and the firstborn of goats; they are holy: and thou shalt pour their blood upon the altar, and thou shalt offer the fat as a burnt offering for a smell of sweet savor to the Lord. 18 And the flesh shall be thine, as also the breast of the wave offering and as the right shoulder, it shall be thine. 19 Every special offering of the holy things, whatsoever the children of Israel shall specially offer to the Lord, I have given to thee and to thy sons and to thy daughters with thee, a perpetual ordinance: it is a covenant of salt forever before the Lord, for thee and thy seed after thee. 20 And the Lord said to Aaron, Thou shalt have no inheritance in their land, neither shalt thou have any portion among them; for I [am] thy portion and thine inheritance in the midst of the children of Israel. 21 And, behold, I have given to the sons of Levi every tithe in Israel for an inheritance for their services, whereinsoever they perform ministry in the tabernacle of witness. 22 And the children of Israel shall no more draw nigh to the tabernacle of witness to incur fatal guilt. 23 And the Levite himself shall perform the service of the tabernacle of witness; and they shall bear their iniquities, it is a perpetual statute throughout their generations; and in the midst of the children of Israel they shall not receive an inheritance. 24 Because I have given as a distinct portion to the Levites for an inheritance the tithes of the children of Israel, whatsoever they shall offer to the Lord; therefore I said to them, In the midst of the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance. 25 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 26 Thou shalt also speak to the Levites, and shalt say to them, If ye take the tithe from the children of Israel, which I have given you from them for an inheritance, then shall ye separate from it a heave offering to the Lord, a tenth of the tenth. 27 And your heave offerings shall be reckoned to you as corn from the floor, and an offering from the winepress. 28 So shall ye also separate them from all the offerings of the Lord out of all your tithes, whatsoever ye shall receive from the children of Israel; and ye shall give of them an offering to the Lord to Aaron the priest. 29 Of all your gifts ye shall offer an offering to the Lord, and of every firstfruit the consecrated part from it. 30 And thou shalt say to them, When ye shall offer the firstfruits from it, then shall it be reckoned to the Levites as produce from the threshing floor, and as produce from the winepress. 31 And ye shall eat it in any place, ye and your families; for this is your reward for your services in the tabernacle of witness. 32 And ye shall not bear sin by reason of it, for ye shall have offered an offering of firstfruits from it, and ye shall not profane the holy things of the children of Israel, that ye die not.
Numbers · Updated Brenton English Septuagint
Numbers 18 Updated Brenton English Septuagint
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Notes on this text (1)
- Same Septuagint text as Brenton, with modernised spelling.
People & places in this chapter
From this site's family tree and Bible maps, only where those guides cite this chapter.
People
Moses
Drawn from the Nile, he led Israel out of Egypt and received God's Law.
Cited in the guide: Exodus 2–Deuteronomy 34
Cross references (30)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Exodus 28:38; 1 Peter 2:24; Acts 20:26–27; Hebrews 4:15; Ezekiel 3:18–19
- 2 Genesis 29:34; Numbers 18:4; Numbers 17:7; Numbers 8:22; 2 Chronicles 30:16
- 3 Numbers 4:15; Numbers 3:36; Numbers 3:25; Numbers 3:31; Numbers 16:40
- 4 2 Samuel 6:6–7; Numbers 3:10; 1 Samuel 6:19; Numbers 1:51
- 5 Exodus 27:21; Leviticus 24:3; Numbers 16:46; Numbers 8:2; 1 Timothy 3:15
- 6 Numbers 3:9; Numbers 3:45; Numbers 3:12; Isaiah 48:15; Ezekiel 34:11
- 7 Numbers 3:10; John 3:27; Romans 15:15–16; Numbers 16:40; Numbers 18:20
- 8 Leviticus 6:16; Exodus 29:29; Leviticus 6:18; Exodus 40:15; Leviticus 7:6
- 9 Leviticus 7:7; Leviticus 14:13; Leviticus 6:25–26; Leviticus 5:1; Leviticus 4:22
- 10 Leviticus 6:29; Leviticus 7:6; Leviticus 6:16; Leviticus 10:17; Leviticus 14:13
- 11 Deuteronomy 18:3; Leviticus 10:14; Exodus 29:27–28; Leviticus 22:1–16; Leviticus 7:14
- 12 Exodus 23:19; Deuteronomy 18:4; Exodus 34:26; Leviticus 2:14; Leviticus 23:17
- 13 Exodus 22:29; Exodus 23:19; Hosea 9:10; Jeremiah 24:2; Micah 7:1
- 14 Leviticus 27:28; Ezekiel 44:29
- 15 Exodus 34:20; Exodus 13:2; Exodus 13:12–13; Exodus 22:29; Numbers 3:13
- 16 Exodus 30:13; Numbers 3:47; Ezekiel 45:12; Leviticus 27:2–7; Leviticus 27:25
- 17 Leviticus 3:2–5; Deuteronomy 15:19–22; Exodus 29:16
- 18 Exodus 29:26–28; Leviticus 7:31–34
- 19 2 Chronicles 13:5; Leviticus 2:13; Numbers 18:11; Leviticus 7:14; Numbers 31:29
- 20 Ezekiel 44:28; Deuteronomy 10:9; Joshua 13:33; Deuteronomy 18:1–2; Lamentations 3:24
- 21 Nehemiah 12:44; Nehemiah 10:37; Numbers 18:6; Deuteronomy 14:22–29; Hebrews 7:5
- 22 Leviticus 22:9; Numbers 3:38; Numbers 18:7; Leviticus 20:20; Numbers 3:10
- 23 Numbers 18:1; Numbers 3:7; Numbers 18:20
- 24 Numbers 18:26; Malachi 3:8–10
- 26 Nehemiah 10:38; Numbers 18:21
- 27 Numbers 18:30; Leviticus 6:19–23; Deuteronomy 15:14; Hosea 9:1–2; 2 Kings 6:27
- 28 Genesis 14:18; Hebrews 6:20–7:10
- 30 Matthew 10:37–39; Numbers 18:27–28; Malachi 1:8; Genesis 43:11; Deuteronomy 6:5
- 31 1 Corinthians 9:10–14; Matthew 10:10; 1 Timothy 5:17–18; Luke 10:7; Deuteronomy 14:22–23
- 32 Leviticus 19:8; Leviticus 22:2; 1 Corinthians 11:27; Numbers 18:22; Leviticus 22:15–16
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
Of whom again Moses says, "They shall have no inheritance, for the Lord Himself is their inheritance." And again, "The priests the Levites shall have no part in the whole tribe of Levi, nor substance with Israel; their substance is the offerings (fructifications) of the Lord: these shall they eat." Wherefore also Paul says, "I do not seek after a …