Numbers 18 · Parashat Korach

And the Lord said to Aharon, 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.

And thy brethren also of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of thy father, bring thou near with thee, that they may be joined to thee, and minister to thee: but thou and thy sons with thee shall minister before the tent of the Testimony.

And they shall keep thy charge, and the charge of all the tent: only they shall not come near the vessels of the sanctuary and the altar, that neither they, nor you, die.

And they shall be joined to thee, and keep the charge of the Tent of Meeting, for all the service of the tent, and a stranger shall not come near to you.

And you shall keep the charge of the sanctuary, and the charge of the altar: that there be no wrath any more upon the children of Yisra᾽el.

And I, behold, I have taken your brethren the Levites from among the children of Yisra᾽el: to you they are given as a gift for the Lord, to do the service of the Tent of Meeting.

Therefore thou and thy sons with thee shall keep your priest’s office for everything that concerns the altar, and within the veil: and you shall serve: I have given your priest’s office to you as a service of gift: and the stranger that comes near shall be put to death.

And the Lord spoke to Aharon, Behold, I also have given thee the charge of my heave offerings of all the hallowed things of the children of Yisra᾽el; unto thee have I given them by reason of the anointing, and to thy sons, by an ordinance for ever.

This shall be thine of the most holy things, reserved from the fire: every offering of theirs, every meal offering of theirs, and every sin offering of theirs, and every guilt offering of theirs, which they shall render to me, shall be most holy for thee and for thy sons.

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

And this is thine; the heave offering of their gift, for all the wave offerings of the children of Yisra᾽el: I have given them to 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.

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

The first ripe fruit of all that is in the land, which they shall bring to the Lord, shall be thine; every one that is clean in thy house shall eat of it.

Everything devoted in Yisra᾽el shall be thine.

Everything that opens the womb in all flesh, which they bring to 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.

And those that are to be redeemed shall be redeemable from a month old according to the usual estimation, for the money of five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gera.

But the firstling of an ox, 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 to the Lord.

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

All the heave offerings of the holy things, which the children of Yisra᾽el offer to 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 to thee and to thy seed with thee.

And the Lord spoke to Aharon, Thou shalt have no inheritance in their land, neither shalt thou have any part among them: I am thy portion and thy inheritance among the children of Yisra᾽el.

And, behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tenth in Yisra᾽el for an inheritance, for their service which they serve, even the service of the Tent of Meeting.

Neither must the children of Yisra᾽el henceforth come near the Tent of Meeting, lest they bear sin, and die.

But the Levites shall do the service of the Tent of Meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations, that among the children of Yisra᾽el they have no inheritance.

But the tithes of the children of Yisra᾽el, which they offer as a gift to the Lord, I have given to the Levites to inherit: therefore I have said to them, Among the children of Yisra᾽el they shall have no inheritance.

And the Lord spoke to Moshe, saying,

Thus speak to the Levites, and say to them, When you take of the children of Yisra᾽el the tithes which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then you shall offer up from it a gift for the Lord, even a tenth part of the tithe.

And this your gift shall be reckoned to you, as though it were the corn of the threshingfloor, and as the fulness of the winepress.

Thus you also shall offer a gift to the Lord of all your tithes, which you receive of the children of Yisra᾽el; and you shall give of it the Lord’s gift to Aharon the priest.

Out of all that is given to you, you shall set aside all that is due as a gift to the Lord, of all the best thereof, even the hallowed part of it.

Therefore thou shalt say to them, When you have set aside the best of it, then it shall be counted to the Levites as the increase of the threshingfloor, and as the increase of the winepress.

And you shall eat it in every place, you and your households: for it is your reward for your service in the Tent of Meeting.

And you shall bear no sin by reason of it, when you have set aside from it the best of it: nor shall you pollute the holy things of the children of Yisra᾽el, lest you die.