Numbers 18:16-26

16 When the firstborn is a month old it must be redeemed at the redemption price of five shekels of silver, using the standard of the Sanctuary shekel, which weighs twenty gerahs.
17 "On the other hand, you don't redeem a firstborn ox, sheep, or goat - they are holy. Instead splash their blood on the Altar and burn their fat as a Fire-Gift, a pleasing fragrance to God.
18 But you get the meat, just as you get the breast from the Wave-Offering and the right thigh.
19 All the holy offerings that the People of Israel set aside for God, I'm turning over to you and your children. That's the standard rule and includes both you and your children - a Covenant-of-Salt, eternal and unchangeable before God."
20 God said to Aaron, "You won't get any inheritance in land, not so much as a small plot of ground: I am your plot of ground, I am your inheritance among the People of Israel.
21 "I'm giving the Levites all the tithes of Israel as their pay for the work they do in the Tent of Meeting.
22 Starting now, the rest of the People of Israel cannot wander in and out of the Tent of Meeting; they'll be penalized for their sin and the penalty is death.
23 It's the Levites and only the Levites who are to work in the Tent of Meeting and they are responsible for anything that goes wrong. This is the regular rule for all time. They get no inheritance among the People of Israel;
24 instead I turn over to them the tithes that the People of Israel present as an offering to God. That's why I give the ruling: They are to receive no land-inheritance among the People of Israel."
25 God spoke to Moses:
26 "Speak to the Levites. Tell them, When you get the tithe from the People of Israel, the inheritance that I have assigned to you, you must tithe that tithe and present it as an offering to God.

Numbers 18:16-26 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO NUMBERS 18

This chapter gives an account of the distinct work and service of the priests and Levites, Nu 18:1-7; and of several things given to the priests for their maintenance, Nu 18:8-19; and of the tithes the Levites should have to live upon, since they were to have no inheritance in the land of Israel, Nu 18:20-24; and of the tenth out of those tithes they were to give to the high priest, Nu 18:25-32.

Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.