1And YHWH said to Aaron, “You and your sons and your father’s house with you shall bear any crime of the holy place, and you and your sons with you shall bear any crime of your priesthood.
2And bring forward your brothers, the tribe of Levi, your father’s tribe, with you as well, and they shall be connected to you and shall minister to you, and you and your sons with you shall be in front of the Tent of the Testimony.
18:2. connected. The word is the verbal form of the word “Levite.” Some would say that it might shed light on the original meaning of the term Levite as being someone who is joined or attached to the sacred in order to perform service; in other words, a priest. In this verse, it is used to mean that these persons are rather attached to the priests, in order to perform service to the priests; in other words, Levites are designated as secondary clergy, whose task is to assist the priests.
3And they shall keep your charge, the charge of all of the tent, but they shall not come close to the equipment of the holy and to the altar, so they will not die, both they and you.
4And they shall be connected to you and shall keep the charge of the Tent of Meeting, for all the work of the tent, but an outsider shall not come close to you.
5And you shall keep the charge of the holy and the charge of the altar, so there will not be any more rage at the children of Israel.
6And I, here, I have taken your brothers, the Levites from among the children of Israel as a gift to you, given for YHWH, to do the work of the Tent of Meeting.
7And you and your sons with you shall watch over your priesthood for everything of the altar’s and for inside the pavilion, and you shall serve. I give your priesthood as a gift of service. And the outsider who comes close shall be put to death.”
8And YHWH said to Aaron, “And I, here, I have given charge of my donations to you for all the holy things of the children of Israel. I have given them to you as an anointing and to your sons as an eternal law.
18:8. anointing. Meaning the donations that they acquire by virtue of being anointed as Israel’s priests (see Exod 29:27–28; Lev 7:35–36).
9This shall be yours from the holy of holies, from the fire: every offering of theirs, every grain offering of theirs and every sin offering of theirs and every guilt offering of theirs that they will pay back to me. It is holy of holies for you and for your sons.
18:9. guilt offering that they will pay back. See the case in Num 5:7–8.
10You shall eat it in the holy of holies. Every male shall eat it. It shall be holy to you.
18:10. in the holy of holies. Meaning in the holiest of holy conditions.
11“And this is yours: their gift donation, all the elevation offerings of the children of Israel. I have given them to you and to your sons and to your daughters with you as an eternal law. Everyone who is pure in your house shall eat it.
12“All the best of the oil and all the best of the wine and grain, the first of them that they will give to YHWH: I have given them to you.
13The firstfruits of everything that is in their land that they will bring to YHWH shall be yours. Everyone who is pure in your house shall eat it.
14Every devoted thing in Israel shall be yours.
18:14. devoted thing. Anything that one formally devotes to God cannot ever be sold or redeemed, and it becomes the priests’ property.
15Every first birth of a womb of all flesh that they will bring forward to YHWH, human and animal, shall be yours. Just: you shall redeem the human firstborn, and you shall redeem the firstborn of an impure animal.
16And their redemption price: from one month old you shall redeem it at your appraisal, five shekels of silver by the shekel of the Holy. It is twenty gerah.
17Just: you shall not redeem a firstborn of an ox or firstborn of a sheep or firstborn of a goat. They are holy. You shall fling their blood on the altar and burn their fat to smoke, a fire offering for a pleasant smell to YHWH.
18And their meat shall be yours; like the breast of the elevation offering and the right thigh it shall be yours.
19All the donations of the holy things that the children of Israel will donate to YHWH I have given to you and to your sons and to your daughters with you as an eternal law. It is an eternal covenant of salt in front of YHWH for you and for your seed with you.”
18:19. covenant of salt. Salt is associated with the offerings that are given to the priests. Lev 2:13 emphasizes, “You shall sprinkle every offering of a grain offering with salt. And you shall not let the salt of your God’s covenant cease from on your grain offering; you shall bring salt on all your offerings.” (Some take the fact that salt is a preservative to imply that “covenant of salt” means a long-lasting covenant.) It is a custom to this day to sprinkle some salt on the bread at the Sabbath meal as a memorial of this practice.
20And YHWH said to Aaron, “You shall not have a legacy in their land, and you shall not have a portion among them. I am your portion and your legacy among the children of Israel.
21And to the children of Levi, here, I’ve given every tithe in Israel as a legacy in exchange for their work that they’re doing, the service of the Tent of Meeting.
22And the children of Israel shall not come near to the Tent of Meeting anymore so as to bear sin and die.
23But he, the Levite, shall do the service of the Tent of Meeting, and they shall bear their crime. It is an eternal law through your generations. And they shall not have a legacy among the children of Israel,
24because I’ve given to the Levites as a legacy the tithe of the children of Israel that they will give to YHWH as a donation. On account of this I’ve said to them: they shall not have a legacy among the children of Israel.”
25And YHWH spoke to Moses, saying,
26“And you shall speak to the Levites and say to them: ‘When you will take the tithe from the children of Israel that I have given you from them as your legacy, then you shall make a donation for YHWH from it, a tithe of the tithe.
27And it will be counted for you as your donation, like grain from the threshing floor and like the fill of the winepress.
28So you shall donate, you too, a donation for YHWH from all your tithes that you will take from the children of Israel, and you shall give a donation for YHWH to Aaron, the priest, from them.
29From all your gifts you shall make every donation for YHWH, from all the best of it, its holy part from it.’
30And you shall say to them: ‘When you donate the best of it from it, then it shall be counted to the Levites like the produce of the threshing floor and like the produce of the winepress.
31And you shall eat it in every place, you and your house, because it is compensation for you in exchange for your work in the Tent of Meeting.
32And you will not bear sin over it, when you have donated its best from it, so you will not desecrate the holy things of the children of Israel, and you will not die.’”
