Numbers 18:7

7 And thou and thy sons after thee shall keep up your priestly ministration, according to the whole manner of the altar, and that which is within the veil; and ye shall minister in the services as the office of your priesthood; and the stranger that comes near shall die.

Numbers 18:7 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 18:7

Therefore thou and thy sons with thee shall keep your priest's
office
Observe all the duties of it, and keep out others from intruding into it: for everything of the altar:
both of incense and of burnt offering with respect to burning incense on the one, and offering sacrifices on the other; both were to be done by priests, and by no other: and within the vail;
in the most holy place, where the high priest entered but once a year, and he only with incense, and the blood of sacrifices, see ( Hebrews 9:7 ) ; and ye shall serve;
do all the business that is to be done at either altar, whether in the court, or in the holy place, and whatsoever is to be done in the most holy place within the vail: I have given your priest's office [unto you] as a service of gift;
it was not what they had taken to themselves of their own will, or had thrust themselves into, but what the Lord had called them to, and had freely invested them with, see ( Hebrews 5:4 ) ; and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death;
any common person, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan; any Israelite, one that is a stranger from the priests, though a Levite, as Aben Ezra; such an one might not come either to the altar of burnt offering to offer any sacrifice upon it, or the altar of incense, to burn incense on that, or trim the lamps, or put the shewbread in order, or to do anything peculiar to the priest's office.

Numbers 18:7 In-Context

5 And ye shall keep the charges of the holy things, and the charges of the altar, and there shall not be anger among the children of Israel.
6 And I have taken your brethren the Levites out of the midst of the children of Israel, a present given to the Lord, to minister in the services of the tabernacle of witness.
7 And thou and thy sons after thee shall keep up your priestly ministration, according to the whole manner of the altar, and that which is within the veil; and ye shall minister in the services as the office of your priesthood; and the stranger that comes near shall die.
8 And the Lord said to Aaron, And, behold, I have given you the charge of the first-fruits of all things consecrated to me by the children of Israel; and I have given them to thee as an honour, and to thy sons after thee for a perpetual ordinance.
9 And let this be to you from all the holy things that are consecrated the burnt-offerings, from all their gifts, and from all their sacrifices, and from every trespass-offering of theirs, and from all their sin-offerings, whatever things they give to me of all their holy things, they shall be thine and thy sons'.

The Brenton translation of the Septuagint is in the public domain.