Numbers 18

1 So the LORD said to Aaron, “ You and your sons and your father ’s house must bear the iniquity involving the sanctuary. And you and your sons alone must bear the iniquity involving your priesthood. 2 But bring with you also your brothers from the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, that they may join you and assist you and your sons before the Tent of the Testimony. 3 And they shall attend to your duties and to all the duties of the Tent; but they must not come near to the furnishings of the sanctuary or the altar, or both they and you will die. 4 They are to join you and attend to the duties of the Tent of Meeting, doing all the work at the Tent; but no outsider may come near you. 5 And you shall attend to the duties of the sanctuary and of the altar, so that wrath may not fall on the Israelites again. 6 Behold, I Myself have selected your fellow Levites from the Israelites as a gift to you, dedicated to the LORD to perform the service for the Tent of Meeting. 7 But only you and your sons shall attend to your priesthood for everything concerning the altar and what is inside the veil, and you are to perform that service. I am giving you the work of the priesthood as a gift, but any outsider who comes near the sanctuary must be put to death.” Offerings for Priests and Levites 8 Then the LORD said to Aaron, “ Behold, I have put you in charge of My offerings. As for all the sacred offerings of the Israelites, I have given them to you and your sons as a portion and a permanent statute. 9 A portion of the most holy offerings reserved from the fire will be yours. From all the offerings they render to Me as most holy offerings, whether grain offerings or sin offerings or guilt offerings, that part belongs to you and your sons. 10 You are to eat it as a most holy offering, and every male may eat it. You shall regard it as holy. 11 And this is yours as well: the offering of their gifts, along with all the wave offerings of the Israelites. I have given this to you and your sons and daughters as a permanent statute. Every ceremonially clean person in your household may eat it. 12 I give you all the freshest olive oil and all the finest new wine and grain that the Israelites give to the LORD as their firstfruits. 13 The firstfruits of everything in their land that they bring to the LORD will belong to you. Every ceremonially clean person in your household may eat them. 14 Every devoted thing in Israel belongs to you. 15 The firstborn of every womb, whether man or beast, that is offered to the LORD belongs to you. But you must surely redeem every firstborn son and every firstborn male of unclean animals. 16 You are to pay the redemption price for a month-old male according to your valuation: five shekels of silver, according to the sanctuary shekel, which is twenty gerahs. 17 But you must not redeem the firstborn of an ox, a sheep, or a goat; they are holy. You are to sprinkle their blood on the altar and burn their fat as an offering made by fire, a pleasing aroma to the LORD. 18 And their meat belongs to you, just as the breast and right thigh of the wave offering belong to you. 19 All the holy offerings that the Israelites present to the LORD I give to you and to your sons and daughters as a permanent statute. It is a permanent covenant of salt before the LORD for you and your offspring.” 20 Then the LORD said to Aaron, “ You will have no inheritance in their land, nor will you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the Israelites. 21 Behold, I have given to the Levites all the tithes in Israel as an inheritance in return for the work they do, the service of the Tent of Meeting. 22 No longer may the Israelites come near to the Tent of Meeting, or they will incur guilt and die. 23 The Levites are to perform the work of the Tent of Meeting, and they must bear their iniquity. This is a permanent statute for the generations to come. The Levites will not receive an inheritance among the Israelites. 24 For I have given to the Levites as their inheritance the tithe that the Israelites present to the LORD as a contribution. That is why I told them that they would not receive an inheritance among the Israelites.” 25 And the LORD instructed Moses, 26 “ Speak to the Levites and tell them: ‘ When you receive from the Israelites the tithe that I have given you as your inheritance, you must present part of it as an offering to the LORD — a tithe of the tithe. 27 Your offering will be reckoned to you as grain from the threshing floor or juice from the winepress. 28 So you are to present an offering to the LORD from all the tithes you receive from the Israelites, and from these you are to give the LORD ’s offering to Aaron the priest. 29 You must present the offering due the LORD from all the best of every gift, the holiest part of it.’ 30 Therefore say to the Levites, ‘ When you have presented the best part, it will be reckoned to you as the produce of the threshing floor or winepress. 31 And you and your households may eat the rest of it anywhere; it is the compensation for your work at the Tent of Meeting. 32 Once you have presented the best part of it, you will not incur guilt because of it. But you must not defile the sacred offerings of the Israelites, or else you will die.’”

✦ What the text says

## Summary Numbers 18 records Yahweh's instructions to Aaron and the Levites regarding priestly and Levitical duties. Aaron and his sons bear responsibility for the sanctuary and altar, receive portions of Israel's offerings as their perpetual due, and are told they will have no land inheritance because Yahweh Himself is their portion. The Levites receive the tithe of Israel as their inheritance for their service, but must in turn give a tithe of that tithe to the priests. ## Key words - *avon* ("guilt/iniquity", H5771G) — appears repeatedly as the object carried (*nasa*) by priests/Levites; a construct noun expressing responsibility tied to specific domains: sanctuary, priesthood. - *mishmeret* ("service/charge/duty", H4931) — a feminine construct noun used throughout to define the assigned "watch" or responsibility of priests versus Levites over the tent, altar, and holy things. - *terumah* ("contribution", H8641) — the technical term for a portion set aside/lifted for Yahweh; used for both Israel's gifts to priests and the Levites' tithe-of-the-tithe to priests. - *nachalah* ("inheritance", H5159) — used negatively for Aaron/Levites ("you will have no inheritance in the land") and positively for the tithe itself, which becomes their nachalah. - *chelev* ("best/fat", H2459) — construct noun designating the choicest portion (of oil, wine, grain, or the Levites' tithe) that must be set apart as terumah. ## What the text says The chapter is structured as divine speech (*va-yomer Yahweh*, H0559/H3068G) addressed first to Aaron (vv.1–20), then to Moses concerning the Levites (vv.25–32). The repeated use of *tisu et-avon* ("you will bear the guilt of", H5375J + H5771G) in verse 1 distinguishes two separate liabilities: Aaron's house bears guilt tied to the sanctuary itself, while Aaron and his sons alone (marked by the added phrase "with you" via *itakh*, H0854) bear guilt tied to the priesthood specifically — a distinction the construct chain *avon + noun* makes grammatically explicit in Hebrew but which can blur in translation. The verb *nichlal* ("cling/join", H3867A) describes the Levites' relationship to Aaron using niphal (reflexive) forms — "they will join themselves" — emphasizing that Levitical service is an attachment to the priesthood rather than an independent office. The sequential perfect forms (*ve-shamru*, *ve-avadtem*, etc.) chain a series of obligations as consequences following from Yahweh's initial statement. ## Differences between versions In verse 1, the LXX renders *tisu et-avon ha-miqdash* ("you will bear the guilt of the sanctuary") with λήμψεσθε τὰς ἀπαρχὰς τῶν ἁγίων ("you will receive the firstfruits of the holy things") for the first clause, shifting from a burden/liability sense to a reception/benefit sense, while keeping τὰς ἁμαρτίας ("the sins") for the second clause concerning the priesthood — producing an internal inconsistency between the two parallel Hebrew clauses that the Vulgate does not show (it renders both with *portabitis/sustinebitis* "you will bear/carry").

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.