Numbers 18

KJV · Chapter 18/36

1And the Lord said unto Aaron, Thou and thy sons and thy father’s house with thee shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary: and thou and thy sons with thee shall bear the iniquity of your priesthood.

2And thy brethren also of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of thy father, bring thou with thee, that they may be joined unto thee, and minister unto thee: but thou and thy sons with thee shall minister before the tabernacle of witness.

3And they shall keep thy charge, and the charge of all the tabernacle: only they shall not come nigh the vessels of the sanctuary and the altar, that neither they, nor ye also, die.

4And they shall be joined unto thee, and keep the charge of the tabernacle of the congregation, for all the service of the tabernacle: and a stranger shall not come nigh unto you.

5And ye shall keep the charge of the sanctuary, and the charge of the altar: that there be no wrath any more upon the children of Israel.

6And I, behold, I have taken your brethren the Levites from among the children of Israel: to you they are given as a gift for the Lord, to do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation.

7Therefore thou and thy sons with thee shall keep your priest’s office for every thing of the altar, and within the vail; and ye shall serve: I have given your priest’s office unto you as a service of gift: and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death.

8And the Lord spake unto Aaron, Behold, I also have given thee the charge of mine heave offerings of all the hallowed things of the children of Israel; unto thee have I given them by reason of the anointing, and to thy sons, by an ordinance for ever.

9This shall be thine of the most holy things, reserved from the fire: every oblation of theirs, every meat offering of theirs, and every sin offering of theirs, and every trespass offering of theirs, which they shall render unto me, shall be most holy for thee and for thy sons.

10In the most holy place shalt thou eat it; every male shall eat it: it shall be holy unto thee.

11And this is thine; the heave offering of their gift, with all the wave offerings of the children of Israel: I have given them unto thee, and to thy sons and to thy daughters with thee, by a statute for ever: every one that is clean in thy house shall eat of it.

12All the best of the oil, and all the best of the wine, and of the wheat, the firstfruits of them which they shall offer unto the Lord, them have I given thee.

13And whatsoever is first ripe in the land, which they shall bring unto the Lord, shall be thine; every one that is clean in thine house shall eat of it.

14Every thing devoted in Israel shall be thine.

15Every thing that openeth the matrix in all flesh, which they bring unto the Lord, whether it be of men or beasts, shall be thine: nevertheless the firstborn of man shalt thou surely redeem, and the firstling of unclean beasts shalt thou redeem.

16And those that are to be redeemed from a month old shalt thou redeem, according to thine estimation, for the money of five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs.

17But the firstling of a cow, or the firstling of a sheep, or the firstling of a goat, thou shalt not redeem; they are holy: thou shalt sprinkle their blood upon the altar, and shalt burn their fat for an offering made by fire, for a sweet savour unto the Lord.

18And the flesh of them shall be thine, as the wave breast and as the right shoulder are thine.

19All the heave offerings of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer unto the Lord, have I given thee, and thy sons and thy daughters with thee, by a statute for ever: it is a covenant of salt for ever before the Lord unto thee and to thy seed with thee.

20And the Lord spake unto Aaron, Thou shalt have no inheritance in their land, neither shalt thou have any part among them: I am thy part and thine inheritance among the children of Israel.

21And, behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tenth in Israel for an inheritance, for their service which they serve, even the service of the tabernacle of the congregation.

22Neither must the children of Israel henceforth come nigh the tabernacle of the congregation, lest they bear sin, and die.

23But the Levites shall do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they shall bear their iniquity: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations, that among the children of Israel they have no inheritance.

24But the tithes of the children of Israel, which they offer as an heave offering unto the Lord, I have given to the Levites to inherit: therefore I have said unto them, Among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.

25And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

26Thus speak unto the Levites, and say unto them, When ye take of the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then ye shall offer up an heave offering of it for the Lord, even a tenth part of the tithe.

27And this your heave offering shall be reckoned unto you, as though it were the corn of the threshingfloor, and as the fulness of the winepress.

28Thus ye also shall offer an heave offering unto the Lord of all your tithes, which ye receive of the children of Israel; and ye shall give thereof the Lord’s heave offering to Aaron the priest.

29Out of all your gifts ye shall offer every heave offering of the Lord, of all the best thereof, even the hallowed part thereof out of it.

30Therefore thou shalt say unto them, When ye have heaved the best thereof from it, then it shall be counted unto the Levites as the increase of the threshingfloor, and as the increase of the winepress.

31And ye shall eat it in every place, ye and your households: for it is your reward for your service in the tabernacle of the congregation.

32And ye shall bear no sin by reason of it, when ye have heaved from it the best of it: neither shall ye pollute the holy things of the children of Israel, lest ye die.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

God clearly establishes the responsibilities and provision for the priests and Levites: they receive portions of the people's offerings as their means of living, since they would have no inheritance of land like the other tribes, and the Levites in turn give a tithe of what they receive to the priests.

Explanation

This chapter practically organizes the support of those serving full-time in religious ministry: with no land of their own to farm, priests and Levites depended directly on the people's offerings, creating an interdependence that united the whole nation around worship of God. The statement that 'the LORD is your portion and your inheritance' (v. 20) to Aaron is one of the most beautiful affirmations in the Bible about finding identity and security in relationship with God rather than in material possessions. The principle of the 'tithe of the tithe' (Levites giving a portion of what they received to the priests) shows a chain of generosity at multiple levels within the religious structure itself. The application for today: supporting those who serve the faith community full-time is a consistent biblical principle, not merely a modern practice.

Fun facts

  • The phrase 'I am your portion and your inheritance' (v. 20), spoken to Aaron, is echoed almost literally by the psalmist in Psalms 16:5 and 73:26, showing how this idea became a lasting spiritual expression of trusting in God above material possessions.
  • This system of priestly support through tithes and offerings is cited by Paul in the New Testament (1 Corinthians 9:13-14) as a precedent for supporting those who work in gospel ministry.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Numbers 18:1Answering directly the people’s fear at the end of the previous chapter, God explains to Aaron that responsibility for any wrong related to the sanctuary falls on him and his priestly family, not on the common people.
  2. Numbers 18:2Aaron was to bring his own relatives, the tribe of Levi, near to help him, while he and his sons remained directly responsible for the tent of the testimony.
  3. Numbers 18:3The Levites would take care of the tent in general, but could not come near the sacred objects or the altar, under penalty of death both for them and for the priests.
  4. Numbers 18:4They would join Aaron in caring for all the service of the tent of the congregation, but no outsider, from outside the tribe of Levi, could come near.
  5. Numbers 18:5It fell specifically to Aaron and his sons to care for the sanctuary and the altar, precisely so that a tragedy like Korah’s would never happen again.
  6. Numbers 18:6God reinforces that the Levites were taken from among the people as a gift to Aaron, given to serve in the work of the tent of the congregation.
  7. Numbers 18:7The priesthood itself, everything related to the altar and the innermost space of the tent, was exclusive to Aaron and his sons; any outsider who came near would die.
  8. Numbers 18:8God also explains to Aaron that he would receive a portion of the heave offerings and the holy things brought by the people, as a permanent provision tied to his anointing as priest.
  9. Numbers 18:9Of the most holy things, everything left over from the offerings, grain offerings, sin offerings, and guilt offerings, would be food reserved only for Aaron and his sons.
  10. Numbers 18:10This portion was to be eaten in a most holy place, and only the men of the priestly family could eat it, since it was considered sacred.
  11. Numbers 18:11Besides that, the heave portion of the people’s offerings also belonged to Aaron’s family, including his daughters, as long as they were ritually clean to eat it.
  12. Numbers 18:12The best of the oil, the new wine, and the wheat, the firstfruits offered to the Lord, were also given to Aaron.
  13. Numbers 18:13The first ripe fruits of everything the land produced, brought to the Lord, belonged to Aaron, and anyone clean in his household could eat of them.
  14. Numbers 18:14Everything formally devoted to God in Israel also belonged to Aaron.
  15. Numbers 18:15Every firstborn, whether of humans or animals, belonged to God, but this did not mean human sacrifice: firstborn sons had to be redeemed with money, and unclean animals, which could not be offered, were also redeemed this way. Only the firstborn of clean animals were actually offered up.
  16. Numbers 18:16Whoever needed to redeem a firstborn from a month old paid five shekels of silver, calculated by the official weight of the sanctuary shekel.
  17. Numbers 18:17But the firstborn of a cow, sheep, or goat could not be redeemed: they were considered holy and were to be sacrificed, with the blood sprinkled on the altar and the fat burned as an offering.
  18. Numbers 18:18The meat of these sacrificed animals went to Aaron, the same way the breast and the right thigh of other wave offerings did.
  19. Numbers 18:19The phrase “a covenant of salt for ever” was an ancient way of saying that agreement was permanent and reliable, because salt was used as a preservative and a symbol of something that does not spoil or change. It is an image that appears a few times in the Bible to reinforce that a promise was final.
  20. Numbers 18:20God tells Aaron that he would have no land of his own as an inheritance among the tribes, because the Lord Himself would be his inheritance and his portion.
  21. Numbers 18:21Since the Levites received no land of their own in Canaan, God determines that they would live off the tithes given by the rest of the people. It was their system of support: in exchange for the work of managing worship at the tabernacle, they received a fixed share of what the other tribes produced.
  22. Numbers 18:22After all this was arranged, ordinary Israelites were no longer to come near the tent of the congregation, so as not to risk dying because of it.
  23. Numbers 18:23It fell exclusively to the Levites to perform this service, and they would bear any responsibility tied to it, without receiving land of their own as an inheritance.
  24. Numbers 18:24The practical reason the Levites had no land is that they received the tithes of the people as their own form of support and inheritance.
  25. Numbers 18:25The Lord speaks once more to Moses, now to explain a specific rule about what the Levites themselves were to do with the tithes they received.
  26. Numbers 18:26The Levites also had to set apart a portion of what they received: a tithe of the tithe, offered to the Lord.
  27. Numbers 18:27This offering from the Levites would count as if it were produce of the harvest, equivalent to grain from the threshing floor or wine from the winepress.
  28. Numbers 18:28So the Levites also presented their portion to the Lord, handing over this specific offering to Aaron the priest.
  29. Numbers 18:29Of everything they received, the Levites were to set apart the best as the holy portion belonging to the Lord.
  30. Numbers 18:30Once that best portion was set apart, the rest counted normally as belonging to the Levites, as the produce of their own harvest.
  31. Numbers 18:31The Levites could eat the rest anywhere, together with their families, since that was payment for their work at the tent of the congregation.
  32. Numbers 18:32As long as they correctly set apart the best portion for the Lord, the Levites committed no sin in eating the rest, avoiding profaning the holy things of the people.

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