Numbers 18

And the Lord said to Aaron, saying: You and your sons and your ancestral house shall bear the sins of the holy things; and you and your sons shall bear the sins of your priesthood.

And bring near to yourself your brothers, the tribe of Levi, the division of your father, and let them be joined to you and minister to you; but you and your sons with you shall be before the tent of witness.

And they shall keep your charges and the charges of the tent; only they shall not come near to the holy vessels or to the altar, so that they may not die, neither they nor you.

And they shall be joined to you and shall keep the charges of the tent of witness, according to all the services of the tent; and no man of another race shall come near to you.

And you shall keep the charges of the holy things and the charges of the altar, and there shall be no wrath among the sons of Israel.

And I myself have taken your brothers the Levites from the midst of the sons of Israel as a gift given to the Lord, to perform the services of the tent of witness.

And you and your sons with you shall carefully keep your priesthood in every matter of the altar and of what is within the veil, and you shall perform the services; I give your priesthood as a gift; and the man of another race who draws near shall die.

And the Lord spoke to Aaron: And behold, I have given you the keeping of the firstfruits from all the things consecrated to me by the sons of Israel; to you I have given them as a prerogative, and to your sons after you, a perpetual statute.

And this shall be yours from the consecrated holy things, from the burnt offerings: from all their gifts and from all their sacrifices and from every offence of theirs and from all the sin offerings, whatever they render to me; from all the holy things it shall be yours and your sons'.

In the most holy place you shall eat them; every male shall eat them, you and your sons; they shall be holy to you.

And this shall be yours: the firstfruits of their gifts, from all the wave offerings of the sons of Israel; to you I have given them, and to your sons and to your daughters with you, a perpetual statute; everyone who is clean in your house shall eat them.

Every firstfruit of oil and every firstfruit of wine and of grain, their firstfruits, whatever they may give to the Lord, to you I have given them.

All the first produce that is in their land, whatever they may bring to the Lord, shall be yours; everyone who is clean in your house shall eat them.

Everything devoted among the sons of Israel shall be yours.

And every firstborn of the womb from all flesh, which they offer to the Lord, from man to beast, shall be yours; only the firstborn of men shall be redeemed with a ransom, and the firstborn of unclean beasts you shall redeem.

And its redemption shall be from a month old; the valuation is five shekels, by the holy shekel — they are twenty obols.

But the firstborn of calves and the firstborn of sheep and the firstborn of goats you shall not redeem; they are holy. And you shall pour their blood against the altar, and you shall offer up the fat as a burnt offering, an aroma of fragrance to the Lord.

And the meat shall be yours, just as the breast of the wave offering and as the right foreleg shall be yours.

Every removed portion of the holy things, whatever the sons of Israel set aside for the Lord, I have given to you and to your sons and to your daughters with you, a perpetual statute; it is a covenant of salt forever before the Lord, for you and for your seed after you.

And the Lord spoke to Aaron: In their land you shall have no inheritance, and there shall be no portion for you among them, for I am your portion and your inheritance in the midst of the sons of Israel.

And to the sons of Levi, behold, I have given every tithe in Israel as an inheritance, in return for their services, whatever service they perform in the tent of witness.

And the sons of Israel shall no longer come near the tent of witness, to incur a deadly sin.

And the Levite himself shall perform the service of the tent of witness, and they shall bear their sins, a perpetual statute throughout their generations; and in the midst of the sons of Israel they shall not inherit an inheritance.

For the tithes of the sons of Israel, whatever they set apart to the Lord as a removed portion, I have given to the Levites as an inheritance; therefore I have said to them: In the midst of the sons of Israel they shall not inherit an inheritance.

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

And you shall speak to the Levites and say to them: When you receive from the sons of Israel the tithe which I have given you from them as an inheritance, then you shall set aside from it a removed portion to the Lord, a tithe of the tithe.

And your removed portions shall be reckoned to you as grain from the threshing floor and as a removed portion from the winepress.

So you also shall take away from the offerings of the Lord, from all your tithes which you receive from the sons of Israel; and from them you shall give an offering to the Lord, to Aaron the priest.

From all your gifts you shall take away an offering to the Lord, or from all the firstfruits that which is sanctified from it.

And you shall say to them: When you take away the firstfruits from it, it shall also be reckoned to the Levites as produce from the threshing floor and as produce from the winepress.

And you shall eat it in every place, you and your households, for this is your wages in return for your services in the tent of witness.

And you shall not bear sin because of it, if you take away the firstfruits from it; and you shall not profane the holy things of the sons of Israel, lest you die.