Numbers 18: The duties and the share of the priests and the Levites

In plain English: Yahweh said to Aaron, "You, your sons, and your father's family with you are to carry the guilt (or: be answerable) for wrongs against the sanctuary. You and your sons with you are to carry the guilt for wrongs against your priesthood.

The Hebrew word: "Iniquity" is avon, which the dictionary gives as "perversity, i.e. (moral) evil". It can mean the wrong itself, the guilt for it, or the punishment it brings.

How it is translated: This Bible says "iniquity" in all 9 verses of Numbers that use avon. In the whole Bible it says "iniquity" or a longer form in 193 of its 215 verses, and a form of "punish" in 21.

What changes: Read as "carry the guilt", Aaron's family must answer for any wrong done to the holy things. Read as "carry the punishment", they would bear the penalty for it. The people's cry in 17:13 comes just before: here the priests and Levites are set between the people and the holy things.

In plain English: Bring near with you your brothers too, the tribe of Levi, your father's tribe, so that they may be joined to you and serve you, while you and your sons with you are before the Tent of the Testimony.

In plain English: They are to keep their duty to you and the duty of the whole Tent. But they must not come near the things of the sanctuary (literally: the vessels of the holy place) or the altar, or they will die, and you too.

In plain English: They are to be joined to you and keep the duty of the Tent of Meeting, for all the work of the Tent. No outsider (this Bible: stranger) is to come near you.

In plain English: You are to keep the duty of the sanctuary and the duty of the altar, so that there will be no more anger against the Israelites.

In plain English: Look, I myself have taken your brothers the Levites from among the Israelites. They are a gift to you, given to Yahweh, to do the work of the Tent of Meeting.

In plain English: You and your sons with you are to keep your priesthood in everything to do with the altar and with what is inside the veil (curtain). You are to serve. I give you the service of your priesthood as a gift. Any outsider who comes near is to be put to death."

Good to know: "Inside the veil" is the Most Holy Place, where the ark stands. Leviticus 16:2 says Aaron may not go in at just any time. "Stranger" here means anyone not of Aaron's family, as in 16:40.

In plain English: Yahweh spoke to Aaron, "Look, I myself have put you in charge of the offerings given to me (this Bible: my wave offerings), all the holy gifts of the Israelites. I have given them to you because you are anointed (or: as your share), and to your sons, as a portion forever.

The Hebrew word: "By reason of the anointing" is one word built on mishchah, which the dictionary gives as "unction (the act); by implication, a consecratory gift".

How it is translated: This Bible says "anointing" or "anointed" in 23 of the 24 verses that use mishchah.

What changes: Read as "because of the anointing", the gifts belong to Aaron because he was anointed as priest. Read as "as a portion", the word simply means the share given to him.

In plain English: This is to be yours of the most holy things, from the fire (or: kept back from the fire): every offering of theirs, every meal offering, every sin offering, and every trespass (or: guilt) offering that they give back to me. It is most holy for you and for your sons.

In plain English: Eat it as most holy things (or: in a most holy place). Every male may eat it. It is to be holy to you.

The Hebrew words: "Like the most holy things" is beqodesh haqodashim, literally "in the holy of the holy things". Qodesh is "a sacred place or thing", so the words can mean a most holy place or most holy things.

What changes: Read as "in a most holy place", the verse says where the priests are to eat it, as Leviticus 6:16 says "in a holy place". Read as "as most holy things", it says how they are to treat the food.

In plain English: This is yours too: the offering set apart from their gifts, with all the wave offerings of the Israelites. I have given them to you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a portion forever. Everyone in your household who is clean may eat it.

In plain English: I have given you all the best (literally: the fat) of the oil, and all the best of the new wine and of the grain, the first part that they give to Yahweh.

In plain English: The first ripe fruits of all that is in their land, which they bring to Yahweh, are to be yours. Everyone in your household who is clean may eat them.

In plain English: Everything in Israel that is devoted (given over completely) is to be yours.

The Hebrew word: "Devoted" is cherem, which the dictionary gives as "usually a doomed object": something given over to Yahweh completely, which no one may sell or buy back (Leviticus 27:28).

How it is translated: This Bible says "devoted" in 18 of the 31 verses that use cherem. In some other places the same word is a fishing net (Ezekiel 47:10).

In plain English: Every firstborn (literally: everything that opens the womb) of all living things (literally: all flesh) that they bring to Yahweh, of people and of animals, is to be yours. But you must redeem (buy back) the firstborn of people, and you are to redeem the firstborn of unclean animals.

Good to know: Yahweh first claims the firstborn in Exodus 13:2, and Exodus 13:13 says the firstborn sons are to be redeemed. The price of five shekels is also in Numbers 3:47.

Church tradition: Jewish families still hold a redemption of the firstborn son when he is a month old, with five silver coins given to a priest. Luke 2:22 and 23 tell of Jesus being presented to the Lord in Jerusalem as a firstborn son.

In plain English: Those to be redeemed you are to redeem from a month old, at your valuing, for five shekels of silver, by the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs.

In plain English: But you must not redeem the firstborn of a cow, a sheep, or a goat. They are holy. Sprinkle their blood on the altar and burn their fat as an offering made by fire, a pleasant aroma to Yahweh.

In plain English: Their meat is to be yours, like the breast that is waved and the right thigh. It is to be yours.

In plain English: All the holy offerings that the Israelites set apart for Yahweh I have given to you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a portion forever. It is a covenant of salt forever before Yahweh, for you and your descendants with you."

Good to know: "A covenant of salt" also comes in 2 Chronicles 13:5, and Leviticus 2:13 speaks of "the salt of the covenant". The text does not explain why salt is used. Many readers take it as a sign of a covenant that lasts, since salt keeps food from spoiling.

In plain English: Yahweh said to Aaron, "You will have no inheritance in their land, and no share among them. I am your share and your inheritance among the Israelites.

Good to know: The same is said of Levi in Deuteronomy 10:9 and Joshua 13:33: Yahweh is their inheritance.

In plain English: To the sons of Levi, look, I have given every tithe (tenth) in Israel as their inheritance, in return for the work they do, the work of the Tent of Meeting.

The Hebrew word: "Tithe" is maaser, which the dictionary gives as "a tenth; especially a tithe".

How it is translated: This Bible says "tithe" or "tithes" in 24 of the 27 verses that use maaser. In Genesis 14:20 Abram gives "a tenth of all".

Church tradition: Many churches teach that believers should give a tenth today, and others teach that the tithe belonged to the law given to Israel. Here the tithe is the Levites' wages for their work (verse 31).

In plain English: From now on the Israelites are not to come near the Tent of Meeting, or they will carry sin and die.

In plain English: But the Levites are to do the work of the Tent of Meeting, and they are to carry their guilt (or: the people's guilt). It is a rule forever through your generations. They will have no inheritance among the Israelites.

In plain English: For the tithe of the Israelites, which they set apart as an offering to Yahweh, I have given to the Levites as their inheritance. That is why I have said to them, 'They will have no inheritance among the Israelites.'"

In plain English: Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

In plain English: "Speak to the Levites and tell them, 'When you receive from the Israelites the tithe that I have given you from them as your inheritance, you are to set apart from it an offering for Yahweh, a tenth of the tithe.

In plain English: Your offering will be counted to you as if it were grain from the threshing floor and the full yield of the winepress.

In plain English: So you too are to set apart an offering to Yahweh from all the tithes you receive from the Israelites, and from it give Yahweh's offering to Aaron the priest.

In plain English: From all your gifts you are to set apart every offering due to Yahweh, from the best of it, the holy part of it.'

In plain English: Tell them too, 'When you have set apart the best of it, the rest (literally: it) will be counted to the Levites like the yield of the threshing floor and the yield of the winepress.

In plain English: You and your households may eat it anywhere, for it is your wages in return for your work in the Tent of Meeting.

In plain English: You will carry no sin because of it, once you have set apart the best of it. But you must not treat as common (this Bible: profane) the holy gifts of the Israelites, or you will die.'"