Numbers 18:21-29
New English Translation
21 See, I have given the Levites all the tithes in Israel for an inheritance, for their service that they perform—the service of the tent of meeting. 22 No longer may the Israelites approach the tent of meeting, or else they will bear their sin[a] and die. 23 But the Levites must perform the service[b] of the tent of meeting, and they must bear their iniquity.[c] It will be a perpetual ordinance throughout your generations that among the Israelites the Levites[d] have no inheritance.[e] 24 But I have given[f] to the Levites for an inheritance the tithes of the Israelites that are offered[g] to the Lord as a raised offering. That is why I said to them that among the Israelites they are to have no inheritance.”
Instructions for the Levites
25 The Lord spoke to Moses: 26 “You are to speak to the Levites, and you must tell them, ‘When you receive from the Israelites the tithe that I have given you from them as your inheritance, then you are to offer up[h] from it as a raised offering to the Lord a tenth of the tithe. 27 And your raised offering will be credited[i] to you as though it were grain from the threshing floor or as new wine[j] from the winepress. 28 Thus you are to offer up a raised offering to the Lord of all your tithes that you receive from the Israelites; and you must give the Lord’s raised offering from it to Aaron the priest. 29 From all your gifts you must offer up every raised offering due[k] the Lord, from all the best of it, and the holiest part of it.’[l]
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Numbers 18:22 tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive construct of the verb “to bear” with the preposition ל (lamed) to express the result of such an action. “To bear their sin” would mean that they would have to suffer the consequences of their sin.
- Numbers 18:23 tn The verse begins with the perfect tense of עָבַד (ʿavad) with vav (ו) consecutive, making the form equal to the instructions preceding it. As its object the verb has the cognate accusative “service.”
- Numbers 18:23 sn The Levites have the care of the tent of meeting, and so they are responsible for any transgressions against it.
- Numbers 18:23 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Levites) has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
- Numbers 18:23 tn The Hebrew text uses both the verb and the object from the same root to stress the point: They will not inherit an inheritance. The inheritance refers to land.
- Numbers 18:24 tn The classification of the perfect tense here too could be the perfect of resolve, since this law is declaring what will be their portion—“I have decided to give.”
- Numbers 18:24 tn In the Hebrew text the verb has no expressed subject (although the “Israelites” is certainly intended), and so it can be rendered as a passive.
- Numbers 18:26 tn The verb in this clause is the Hiphil perfect with a vav (ו) consecutive; it has the same force as an imperfect of instruction: “when…then you are to offer up.”
- Numbers 18:27 tn The verb is חָשַׁב (khashav, “to reckon; to count; to think”); it is the same verb used for “crediting” Abram with righteousness. Here the tithe of the priests will be counted as if it were a regular tithe.
- Numbers 18:27 tn Heb “fullness,” meaning the fullness of the harvest, i.e., a full harvest.
- Numbers 18:29 tn The construction is “every raised offering of the Lord”; the genitive here is probably to be taken as a genitive of worth—the offering that is due the Lord.
- Numbers 18:29 tn Or “its hallowed thing.”
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