1 The LORD said to Aaron, "You, your sons, and your father's house with you will bear the iniquity connected with the sanctuary, and you and your sons with you will bear the iniquity connected with your priesthood.
2 Bring with you also your brothers of the tribe of Levi, your father's tribe, so they may be joined to you and assist you while you and your sons with you are in front of the tent of the testimony.
3 They are to carry out their duty to you and to the whole tent, but they must not come near the utensils of the sanctuary or the altar, or both they and you will die.
4 They are to be joined to you and carry out the duties of the tent of meeting, all the work of the tent; no outsider may come near you.
5 You are to carry out the duties of the sanctuary and the altar, so that wrath will not fall on the children of Israel again.
6 I myself have taken your brothers the Levites from among the children of Israel; they are a gift to you, given to the LORD, to do the work of the tent of meeting.
7 But you and your sons with you are to attend to your priesthood in everything concerning the altar and what is inside the veil, and you are to serve. I give you your priesthood as a service that is a gift; any outsider who comes near shall be put to death."
8 The LORD said to Aaron, "I myself have put you in charge of the contributions made to me, all the holy gifts of the children of Israel. I have given them to you and your sons as a portion, a lasting due.
9 Of the most holy things kept back from the fire this is to be yours: every offering of theirs—every grain offering, every sin offering, and every guilt offering they render to me—is most holy for you and your sons.
10 You are to eat it in a most holy place; every male may eat it. It is holy to you.
11 This too is yours: the contribution from their gifts, from all the wave offerings of the children of Israel. I have given them to you and to your sons and daughters with you as a lasting due. Anyone in your household who is clean may eat it.
12 All the finest of the oil, and all the finest of the new wine and the grain, the first part they give to the LORD, I give to you.
13 The first fruits of everything in their land that they bring to the LORD will be yours. Anyone in your household who is clean may eat it.
14 Everything in Israel that is devoted will be yours.
15 Every firstborn of all flesh, man or animal, that they present to the LORD will be yours. But you must redeem the firstborn of man, and redeem the firstborn of unclean animals.
16 Their redemption price, from a month old, you are to set at five shekels of silver by your valuation, by the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs.
17 But you must not redeem the firstborn of a cow, of a sheep, or of a goat; they are holy. Sprinkle their blood on the altar and burn their fat as a food offering, a pleasing aroma for the LORD.
18 Their meat will be yours, just as the breast of the wave offering and the right thigh are yours.
19 All the contributions from the holy things that the children of Israel set aside for the LORD I give to you and to your sons and daughters with you as a lasting due. It is an everlasting covenant of salt before the LORD for you and your descendants with you."
20 The LORD said to Aaron, "You will have no inheritance in their land, nor any share among them. I am your share and your inheritance among the children of Israel.
21 "See, to the descendants of Levi I have given every tithe in Israel as an inheritance in exchange for the work they do, the work of the tent of meeting.
22 From now on the children of Israel must not come near the tent of meeting, or they will incur sin and die.
23 The Levites are to do the work of the tent of meeting and bear their iniquity. It is a lasting statute throughout your generations. They will have no inheritance among the children of Israel,
24 for I have given the Levites as an inheritance the tithe that the children of Israel set aside as a contribution to the LORD. That is why I have told them they will have no inheritance among the children of Israel."
25 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
26 "Speak to the Levites and tell them: When you receive from the children of Israel the tithe I have given you from them as your inheritance, you are to set aside from it a contribution for the LORD, a tenth of the tithe.
27 Your contribution will be credited to you as if it were grain from the threshing floor or the full yield of the winepress.
28 In this way you too are to set aside a contribution for the LORD from all the tithes you receive from the children of Israel, and from them give the LORD's contribution to Aaron the priest.
29 From all the gifts you receive you are to set aside the whole contribution due to the LORD, taking the holy portion from the finest of them.
30 "Tell them also: When you have set aside the finest part, the rest will be credited to the Levites like the yield of the threshing floor and the yield of the winepress.
31 You and your households may eat it anywhere, for it is your pay for your work at the tent of meeting.
32 Once you have set aside the finest part, you will incur no sin on account of it. But do not profane the holy gifts of the children of Israel, or you will die."