NUMBERS 18
Responsibility of Priests and Levites
1The LORD said to Aaron: You and your sons and your ancestral house with you shall bear responsibility for offenses connected with the sanctuary, while you and your sons alone shall bear responsibility for offenses connected with the priesthood. 2So bring with you also your brothers of the tribe of Levi, your ancestral tribe, in order that they may be joined to you, and serve you while you and your sons with you are in front of the tent of the covenant.a 3They shall perform duties for you and for the whole tent. But they must not approach either the utensils of the sanctuary or the altar, otherwise both they and you will die. 4They are attached to you in order to perform the duties of the tent of meeting, for all the service of the tent; no outsider shall approach you. 5You yourselves shall perform the duties of the sanctuary and the duties of the altar, so that wrath may never again come upon the Israelites. 6It is I who now take your brother Levites from among the Israelites; they are now yours as a gift, dedicated to the LORD, to perform the service of the tent of meeting. 7But you and your sons with you shall diligently perform your priestly duties in all that concerns the altar and the area behind the curtain. I give your priesthood as a gift;b any outsider who approaches shall be put to death.
The Priests’ Portion
8The LORD spoke to Aaron: I have given you charge of the offerings made to me, all the holy gifts of the Israelites; I have given them to you and your sons as a priestly portion due you in perpetuity. 9This shall be yours from the most holy things, reserved from the fire: every offering of theirs that they render to me as a most holy thing, whether grain offering, sin offering, or guilt offering, shall belong to you and your sons. 10As a most holy thing you shall eat it; every male may eat it; it shall be holy to you. 11This also is yours: I have given to you, together with your sons and daughters, as a perpetual due, whatever is set aside from the gifts of all the elevation offerings of the Israelites; everyone who is clean in your house may eat them. 12All the best of the oil and all the best of the wine and of the grain, the choice produce that they give to the LORD, I have given to you. 13The first fruits of all that is in their land, which they bring to the LORD, shall be yours; everyone who is clean in your house may eat of it. 14Every devoted thing in Israel shall be yours. 15The first issue of the womb of all creatures, human and animal, which is offered to the LORD, shall be yours; but the firstborn of human beings you shall redeem, and the firstborn of unclean animals you shall redeem. 16Their redemption price, reckoned from one month of age, you shall fix at five shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary (that is, twenty gerahs). 17But the firstborn of a cow, or the firstborn of a sheep, or the firstborn of a goat, you shall not redeem; they are holy. You shall dash their blood on the altar, and shall turn their fat into smoke as an offering by fire for a pleasing odor to the LORD; 18but their flesh shall be yours, just as the breast that is elevated and as the right thigh are yours. 19All the holy offerings that the Israelites present to the LORD I have given to you, together with your sons and daughters, as a perpetual due; it is a covenant of salt forever before the LORD for you and your descendants as well. 20Then the LORD said to Aaron: You shall have no allotment in their land, nor shall you have any share among them; I am your share and your possession among the Israelites.
21To the Levites I have given every tithe in Israel for a possession in return for the service that they perform, the service in the tent of meeting. 22From now on the Israelites shall no longer approach the tent of meeting, or else they will incur guilt and die. 23But the Levites shall perform the service of the tent of meeting, and they shall bear responsibility for their own offenses; it shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations. But among the Israelites they shall have no allotment, 24because I have given to the Levites as their portion the tithe of the Israelites, which they set apart as an offering to the LORD. Therefore I have said of them that they shall have no allotment among the Israelites.
25Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 26You shall speak to the Levites, saying: When you receive from the Israelites the tithe that I have given you from them for your portion, you shall set apart an offering from it to the LORD, a tithe of the tithe. 27It shall be reckoned to you as your gift, the same as the grain of the threshing floor and the fullness of the wine press. 28Thus you also shall set apart an offering to the LORD from all the tithes that you receive from the Israelites; and from them you shall give the LORD’s offering to the priest Aaron. 29Out of all the gifts to you, you shall set apart every offering due to the LORD; the best of all of them is the part to be consecrated. 30Say also to them: When you have set apart the best of it, then the rest shall be reckoned to the Levites as produce of the threshing floor, and as produce of the wine press. 31You may eat it in any place, you and your households; for it is your payment for your service in the tent of meeting. 32You shall incur no guilt by reason of it, when you have offered the best of it. But you shall not profane the holy gifts of the Israelites, on pain of death.
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a Or treaty, or testimony; Heb eduth
b Heb as a service of gift
18.1–7 See also 1.50–53; 3.5–10, 14–38; 16.
18.1 A distinction is made in this chapter between Aaron and his descendants, on the one hand, and the rest of the tribe of Levi, on the other. See notes on 3.5–10; 16.3; 16.40; cf. Ezek 44.10–16. Bear responsibility for offenses, i.e., suffer the consequences for any offense. This charge is meant to allay the fears expressed in 17.12–13. For offenses connected with the priesthood, see, e.g., v. 3; Ex 28.38, 42–43; 30.20–21; Lev 10.8–9; 16.2; 21.16–23.
18.2 The Levites are joined to Aaron and his descendants, a pun in Hebrew on the name Levi (see Gen 29.34), and they serve them; see 3.5–10; 8.14–22. Tent of the covenant. See 17.7–8.
18.3 The altar is the bronze altar; see notes on 3.29, 31; 4.13–14; 16.38–39. Both they and you will die, i.e., the priests will die along with the trespassers, because the priests did not guard the sanctuary properly. See also 4.5–15.
18.4 It is the duty of the Levites to keep nonlevitical people from the most sacred areas; see 1.51.
18.5 For ritual as a means of avoiding the Lord’s wrath, see 16.46.
18.6 For the Levites as a gift to the Aaronites, see 3.9; 8.19.
18.7 The area behind the curtain is where the holy of holies is, with the ark and the gold altar; see note on 3.29, 31.
18.8–20 The Aaronite priests’ portion. This section stipulates that the priests are to receive, except for those portions that are burned on the altar, all of the grain offerings, sin offerings, and guilt offerings, which may be eaten by any Aaronite males (vv. 9–10). Further, the contributed part of the offerings of well-being, the best of the oil, wine, and grain, the first-fruit offerings, “devoted” things, and the firstborn of clean animals can be eaten by any ritually clean member of an Aaronite household, male or female. Finally, the redemption price for firstborn human beings and unclean animals also is to go to the priests (vv. 15–16). See 1 Sam 2.12–17 for a narrative involving the misuse of this provision.
18.8 The Lord has ordained that part of the Israelites’ offerings is to be a means of support for the priesthood and the sanctuary. The word translated charge here might also be translated “that which is kept back” from the fire, i.e., held back for the priests.
18.9–10 The most holy things include the offerings listed in v. 9; see Lev 6.14–17. Note the absence of the burnt offering, of which only the skin goes to the priest (Lev 7.8). For that which is not reserved from the fire, see, e.g., Lev 2.2, 9, 16; 3.3–5; 5.12; 6.15–16; 7.3–5.
18.11 Whatever is set aside, i.e., contributed to the priests. Elevation offerings. See 8.13. For the parts set aside from elevation offerings, see, e.g., 18.18; Lev 7.28–36; Num 6.19–20; and the offerings of well-being listed in 6.17–18. Everyone who is clean. See Lev 22.3–7; 1 Sam 21.1–6. In your house. See Lev 22.10–16.
18.14 Devoted thing. See Lev 27.21, 28. Here it is devoted to the service of the Lord, but something “devoted” is often “devoted to destruction” or “put to the ban,” including in other circumstances human beings (see, e.g., Lev 27.29; Deut 13.12–18; Josh 6.15–21).
18.15–16 On the firstborn and redemption of firstborn males, see 3.12, 15, 40–51. Here in Num 18 there is no specification of the sex of the firstborn human being who is to be redeemed. Their redemption price refers to the redemption of human beings. The redemption price of unclean animals depended on the valuation by the priest (see Lev 27.11–13, 27). Shekel of the sanctuary. See note on 3.46–48.
18.17–18. Cf. the description of offerings of well-being in Ex 29.26–28; Lev 7.28–36; 10.14–15. The firstborn of all clean animals belong to the Lord (Lev 27.26) and they are here assigned to the priests as part of their portion. A pleasing odor to the LORD. See 15.3.
18.19 The phrase covenant of salt apparently refers to an ancient custom of sharing food as part of a covenant ceremony (see Gen 31.54; Ex 24.9–11; cf. Ezra 4.14). Salt was to be added to all sacrifices according to Lev 2.13; see also Ezek 43.18–24. A covenant of salt was perhaps one that could not be broken (see 2 Chr 13.5).
18.20 The Aaronite priests are supposed to have no tribal inheritance; see 26.62; Josh 14.3. Their only support is cultic donations. Cities are provided for all those of the tribe of Levi, however, so that they will have homes and pasture land (but no agricultural land); see 35.1–8; Josh 21.1–42; 1 Chr 6.54–81. Cf. 1 Kings 2.26.
18.21–32 Those Levites other than the Aaronite priests have as their portion the Israelites’ tithes, here of agricultural products only; see also Neh 10.37; 13.5, 12. Cf. Lev 27.30–33; 2 Chr 31.6; Deut 14.22–29; 26.12–15.
18.22 Approach. See 17.12–13; also 1.51.
18.23–24 See 18.20.
18.25–29 The Levites themselves must tithe and pay their offering to the Aaronite priests.
18.30–32 Once the Levites have tithed, their “income” is like any other Israelite’s. Even though the tithes are technically offered to the Lord and are therefore sacred, the Levites may eat their portion without incurring guilt as long as they have first offered their tithe to the priests. If, however, they have not been faithful in their treatment of their “income,” its essentially sacred nature will ensure their deaths.
NUMBERS 19
Ceremony of the Red Heifer
1The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: 2This is a statute of the law that the LORD has commanded: Tell the Israelites to bring you a red heifer without defect, in which there is no blemish and on which no yoke has been laid. 3You shall give it to the priest Eleazar, and it shall be taken outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence. 4The priest Eleazar shall take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle it seven times towards the front of the tent of meeting. 5Then the heifer shall be burned in his sight; its skin, its flesh, and its blood, with its dung, shall be burned. 6The priest shall take cedarwood, hyssop, and crimson material, and throw them into the fire in which the heifer is burning. 7Then the priest shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterwards he may come into the camp; but the priest shall remain unclean until evening. 8The one who burns the heifera shall wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water; he shall remain unclean until evening. 9Then someone who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place; and they shall be kept for the congregation of the Israelites for the water for cleansing. It is a purification offering. 10The one who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening.
This shall be a perpetual statute for the Israelites and for the alien residing among them. 11Those who touch the dead body of any human being shall be unclean seven days. 12They shall purify themselves with the water on the third day and on the seventh day, and so be clean; but if they do not purify themselves on the third day and on the seventh day, they will not become clean. 13All who touch a corpse, the body of a human being who has died, and do not purify themselves, defile the tabernacle of the LORD; such persons shall be cut off from Israel. Since water for cleansing was not dashed on them, they remain unclean; their uncleanness is still on them.
14This is the law when someone dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent, and everyone who is in the tent, shall be unclean seven days. 15And every open vessel with no cover fastened on it is unclean. 16Whoever in the open field touches one who has been killed by a sword, or who has died naturally,b or a human bone, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days. 17For the unclean they shall take some ashes of the burnt purification offering, and running water shall be added in a vessel; 18then a clean person shall take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, on all the furnishings, on the persons who were there, and on whoever touched the bone, the slain, the corpse, or the grave. 19The clean person shall sprinkle the unclean ones on the third day and on the seventh day, thus purifying them on the seventh day. Then they shall wash their clothes and bathe themselves in water, and at evening they shall be clean. 20Any who are unclean but do not purify themselves, those persons shall be cut off from the assembly, for they have defiled the sanctuary of the LORD. Since the water for cleansing has not been dashed on them, they are unclean.
21It shall be a perpetual statute for them. The one who sprinkles the water for cleansing shall wash his clothes, and whoever touches the water for cleansing shall be unclean until evening. 22Whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean, and anyone who touches it shall be unclean until evening.
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a Heb it
b Heb lacks naturally
19.1–22 31.19–24 assumes this chapter; see also Lev 5.3–6; 21.1–4, 10–11; 22.3–7; Num 5.1–3; 6.6–12; 9.6–7, 10–11. The need for ritual after contact with a corpse is felt in many cultures, including other ancient Near Eastern ones.
19.2 The heifer here is simply a cow and not necessarily a young one that has not yet calved, as is generally implied by the English term “heifer.” Cf. the use of the same Hebrew word in 1 Sam 6.7, 10; Job 21.10. It is not clear why the animal should be red (or brownish-red, cf. Gen 25.29–34) unless it is the color of blood and so, like the crimson material in v. 6, symbolically increases the purifying blood in the ritual. Red is a common color choice for sacrificial animals in the ancient world. Without defect…no blemish (see also, e.g., Lev 4.28; 14.10; 22.20; 21.17–23 for the priests themselves). The cow to be used is one on which no yoke has been laid; certain special animals in biblical rituals were to be those that had never been used for profane work; see Deut 15.19; 21.3–4 (a different word for “heifer,” meaning a young cow); 1 Sam 6.7.
19.3 Eleazar, Aaron’s son. See, e.g., Ex 6.23; Num 3.1–4; 16.37–40. That the entire ceremony of this cow is to take place outside the camp makes it something other than ordinary sacrifice, which was performed at the altar. The uniqueness of this ritual must lie in its connection with the pollution associated with corpses. In his presence, i.e., the priest must officiate.
19.4 Seven times. Seven is often a sacred number in the Bible (e.g., Gen 2.3; 7.2; Lev 4.6; 8.11; Num 23.1–2). Towards the front of the tent of meeting (the eastern side), i.e., towards the Lord.
19.5 The dung and skin of a sacrificial animal are sometimes burned (Ex 29.14; Lev 4.11–12; 8.17; 16.27), but never its blood. See 19.2.
19.6 On cedarwood, hyssop, and crimson material, see Lev 14.4–6, 49–53; cf. Num 19.18. Cedarwood is perhaps a symbol for endurance since it preserves. Hyssop may not be a correct translation for the next term since hyssop is not native to Palestine, but some aromatic, climbing plant is meant (1 Kings 4.33; see also Ex 12.22; Ps 51.7). The crimson material may simply be another symbol of purifying blood; see note on 19.2. Similar materials (aromatic woods, crimson yarn) were used in rituals elsewhere in the ancient world.
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9.7–10a The priest who burns the cow and the person who gathers its ashes must cleanse themselves and remain ritually unclean until evening; see, e.g., Lev 11.24–25, 28, 40; 15; 16.26, 28; 22.3–7.
19.9 The cow’s ashes have been made sacred because the cow was an offering (a purification offering; see 8.6–7); no one unclean may deal with the ashes and the ashes should be kept ritually clean. Water for cleansing, sometimes translated “water of impurity,” but here correctly identified as water to cleanse from impurity (see 8.6–7; also 31.23; Zech 13.1). On special mixtures of water used for ritual purposes, cf. also Ex 32.20; Num 5.16–28.
19.10 Contact with the sacred can make one “unclean.” See 16.26. Both pollution and holiness are outside everyday life and so both require ritual attention before the people in question are once more “clean,” i.e., before they can reenter their usual, mundane life for which they must be untouched by the unusual. Holiness can be dangerous (see Ex 19.10–15, 21–24; Num 16.26) and, like pollution, can even be considered contagious, though this is rare (Lev 6.25–29; Ezek 44.19; 46.20; cf. Hag 2.12–13). See 16.37–39, where only Eleazar the priest is to touch the censers made holy by the fire. A perpetual statute. See also 19.21; 10.8; 15.15; 18.23.
19.11–22 Uses of the water for cleansing, for people defiled by contact with a corpse or other vestige of human death. See also 31.19–24.
19.11 For people unclean through contact with a corpse, see note on 19.1–22. For a seven-day period of “uncleanness,” see also the birth of a male child, Lev 12.2; skin disease, Lev 14.9; menstruation and bodily discharges, Lev 15.
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