Numbers 18:21-32

New Catholic Bible

²¹ Tithes Owed to the Levites.“I give the Levites all the tithes in Israel, an inheritance for the work that they perform in serving in the tent of meeting. ²² From now on the people of Israel must not approach the tent of meeting lest they sin and die. ²³ The Levites will do the work of the tent of meeting. They will bear responsibility for offenses against it. This is an everlasting ordinance for all your generations. They will receive no inheritance from among the people of Israel. ²⁴ I have given the Levites an inheritance of the tithes that the people of Israel present as an offering to the Lord. This is why I have said to them, ‘They will have no inheritance among the people of Israel.’ ”

²⁵ Tithes Paid by the Levites.^[a] The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²⁶ “Speak to the Levites and say to them, ‘When you receive a tithe from the people of Israel which I give you as an inheritance, you are to present a tithe of the tithe as the Lord’s offering. ²⁷ Your offering will be reckoned to you as grain from the threshing floor or as produce from the winepress. ²⁸ You shall present an offering to the Lord from all your tithes that you receive from the people of Israel; you will give the Lord’s offering to Aaron the priest from them. ²⁹ The Lord’s offering will come from the best and the holiest portion of all the gifts that you offer up.’ ³⁰ Therefore, you will say to them, ‘When you have lifted up the best of it, the rest will be apportioned to the Levites as the produce of the threshing floor and the produce of the winepress. ³¹ You can eat it anywhere, you and your households, as your reward for your service in the tent of meeting. ³² You will bear no guilt in this when you offer up the best of it, nor will you defile the holy gifts of Israel, lest you die.’ ”