Numbers 18:8 – 19:22

Numbers 18

Offerings to Support the Priests and Levites

⁸ The Lord spoke to Aaron. This is what he said:

See, I myself have put you in charge of the elevated offerings made to me. All of the holy things from the Israelites I have given to you as an allotment and to your sons as a permanent right. ⁹ Part of the most holy things that are not burned in the fire will be yours. Every one of their offerings which they give to me—every one of their grain offerings, every one of their sin offerings, and every one of their restitution offerings—will be most holy for you and your sons. ¹⁰ You will eat it as a most holy thing. Every male may eat of it. It will be holy for you.

¹¹ This is yours too: the elevated offerings from their gifts, including all the wave offerings ^[1] from the Israelites. I have given them to you and to your sons and daughters with you as a permanent right. Everyone who is ceremonially clean in your house may eat it.

¹² All the best oil, all the best wine and grain, the Israelites’ firstfruits which they give to the Lord, I have given them all to you. ¹³ The first ripe produce from everything that is in their land, all that they bring to the Lord, will be yours. Everyone who is ceremonially clean in your house may eat it.

¹⁴ Everything permanently devoted by the Israelites will be yours. ¹⁵ The firstborn from every living thing, human or animal, whatever they present to the Lord, will be yours. However, you must redeem the firstborn of any human. You must also redeem the firstborn of an unclean animal. ¹⁶ When they are one month old, you must redeem them at the set redemption price, five shekels of silver, according to the sanctuary shekel, which weighs twenty gerahs.

¹⁷ However, you may not redeem the firstborn of the cattle, sheep, or goats. They are set aside as holy. You will splash their blood on the altar and turn their fat into smoke as an offering made by fire, with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. ¹⁸ Their meat will be yours. It will be yours just like the breast of the wave offering and the right thigh. ¹⁹ All the elevated offerings of holy things, which the Israelites lift up to the Lord, I have given to you and to your sons and daughters with you as a permanent allotment. It is a permanent covenant of salt ^[2] before the Lord for you and your descendants with you.

²⁰ The Lord also said these things to Aaron:

You will not have any allotment of land among them in the land, and you will not have any share among them. I am your share and your possession among the people of Israel.

²¹ See, I have given all the tithes in Israel to the Levites as a possession in return for their work which they are doing, the work at the Tent of Meeting. ²² The Israelites will never again come near the Tent of Meeting. If they do, they will become responsible for sin and die. ²³ But the Levites are to do the work at the Tent of Meeting, and they will bear their guilt. It will be a permanent regulation throughout your generations to come: They will not have any possession among the Israelites. ²⁴ For the tithe from the Israelites, which they lift up as an elevated offering for the Lord, I have given to the Levites as a possession. Therefore I have said to them, “They will not have any possession among the Israelites.”

²⁵ The Lord told Moses ²⁶ to speak to the Levites and tell them this:

When you receive from the Israelites the tithe, which I have given to you as your possession, you will lift up an elevated offering from it for the Lord, a tenth of the tithe. ²⁷ Your elevated offering will be credited to you, as if it were grain from the threshing floor and abundance from the winepress. ²⁸ In this way you also are to lift up an elevated offering for the Lord from every one of the tithes which you receive from the Israelites. From the tithes, you will give the elevated offering for the Lord to Aaron the priest. ²⁹ You will lift up every elevated offering for the Lord from the things given to you, from all the best, the holiest part of it.

³⁰ Tell the Levites this:

When you lift up the best part of the offering, it will be credited to the Levites as if it were produce from the threshing floor and the winepress. ³¹ You may eat it anywhere, with your household, for it is your wages in return for your work at the Tent of Meeting. ³² You will not become responsible for sin in regard to it when you lift up the best part of it. You will not defile the holy things from the Israelites, and you will not die.

Purification Rites

Numbers 19

¹ The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron:

² These are requirements of the law which the Lord has commanded.

Tell the Israelites to bring you a red heifer without blemish, one that has no defect and that has never been under a yoke. ³ You are to give it to Eleazar the priest. He is to have it taken outside of the camp and slaughtered in his presence. ⁴ With his finger Eleazar the priest is to take some of its blood and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the Tent of Meeting. ⁵ The heifer is to be burned in his sight. Its hide, flesh, and blood are to be burned along with its manure. ⁶ The priest will take cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet yarn and throw them onto the burning heifer. ⁷ Then the priest will wash his clothes and bathe his flesh in water. Afterward he will come into the camp, and the priest will be unclean until evening. ⁸ The one who burns the heifer is to wash his clothing in water and bathe his flesh in water. He will remain unclean until evening.

⁹ A man who is ceremonially clean is to gather up the heifer’s ashes and place them outside of the camp in a clean place. They will be kept for the Israelite congregation to use to make the water for removing impurity. ^[3] It is a sin offering. ¹⁰ The one who gathers the heifer’s ashes is to wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. This will be a permanent regulation for the Israelites and the aliens residing among them.

¹¹ Whoever touches the body of a dead person will be unclean for seven days. ¹² He is to purify himself with the water on the third day, and he will become clean on the seventh day. But if he does not purify himself on the third day, then he will not become clean on the seventh day. ¹³ Anyone who touches a dead human body but does not purify himself defiles the Lord’s Dwelling. That person must be cut off from Israel. He is unclean, because he has not sprinkled himself with the water for removing impurity. His uncleanness is still on him.

¹⁴ This is the law when someone dies in a tent: Everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent will be unclean for seven days. ¹⁵ Every open container without a lid on it is unclean.

¹⁶ Anyone in the open countryside who touches someone killed by a sword or someone who has died, or anyone who touches a human bone or a grave, will be unclean for seven days.

¹⁷ For the unclean person, take some of the ashes from the burnt sin offering, put them into a vessel, and add water from a flowing source ^[4] to the ashes. ¹⁸ A ceremonially clean person is to take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle the water on the tent, on all the items, and on the people who were there. He is also to sprinkle it on anyone who has touched someone who was killed or someone who has died and on anyone who has touched a grave or a human bone. ¹⁹ The ceremonially clean person will sprinkle the unclean person on the third day and on the seventh day. On the seventh day, after the ceremonially clean person has purified the unclean person, that person will wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and he will be clean at evening. ²⁰ But anyone who is unclean and refuses to purify himself will be cut off from the midst of the assembly, because he has defiled the sanctuary of the Lord. The water for removing impurity was not sprinkled on him, so he remains unclean. ²¹ This will be a permanent regulation for them. The one who sprinkles the water for removing impurity shall wash his clothing, and whoever touches the water for removing impurity will be unclean until evening.

²² Everything that the unclean person touches will be unclean, and the person who touches those things will be unclean until evening.