Numbers 18:21-30

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

²¹ “To the Levites I have given every tithe in Israel for a possession in return for the service that they perform, the service in the tent of meeting.^{(A) 22} From now on the Israelites shall no longer approach the tent of meeting, or else they will incur guilt and die.^{(B) 23} But the Levites shall perform the service of the tent of meeting, and they shall bear responsibility for their own offenses; it shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations. But among the Israelites they shall have no allotment,^{(C) 24} because I have given to the Levites as their portion the tithe of the Israelites, which they set apart as an offering to the Lord. Therefore I have said of them that they shall have no allotment among the Israelites.”

²⁵ The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²⁶ “You shall say to the Levites: When you receive from the Israelites the tithe that I have given you from them for your portion, you shall set apart an offering from it to the Lord, a tithe of the tithe.^{(D) 27} It shall be reckoned to you as your gift, the same as the grain of the threshing floor and the fullness of the winepress. ²⁸ Thus you also shall set apart an offering to the Lord from all the tithes that you receive from the Israelites, and from them you shall give the Lord’s offering to the priest Aaron.^{(E) 29} Out of all the gifts to you, you shall set apart every offering due to the Lord; the best of all of them is the part to be consecrated. ³⁰ Say also to them: When you have set apart the best of it, then the rest shall be reckoned to the Levites as produce of the threshing floor and as produce of the winepress.