God’s Provision

The Priests’ Portion

⁸ Then the Lord spoke to Aaron, “Now behold, I Myself have put you in charge of My offerings, all the holy gifts of the sons of Israel I have given to you as a portion and to your sons as a permanent allotment. ⁹ This shall be yours from the most holy gifts reserved from the fire; every offering of theirs, namely every grain offering, every sin offering, and every guilt offering, with which they shall make restitution to Me, shall be most holy for you and for your sons. ¹⁰ As the most holy gifts you shall eat it; every male shall eat it. It shall be holy to you. ¹¹ This also is yours, the offering of their gift, that is, all the wave offerings of the sons of Israel; I have given them to you and to your sons and daughters with you as a permanent allotment. Everyone of your household who is clean may eat it. ¹² All the best of the fresh oil and all the best of the fresh wine and of the grain, the first fruits of what they give to the Lord, I have given them to you. ¹³ The first ripe fruits of all that is in their land, which they bring to the Lord, shall be yours; everyone of your household who is clean may eat it. ¹⁴ Everything banned from secular use in Israel shall be yours. ¹⁵ Every firstborn of the womb of all flesh, whether human or animal, which they offer to the Lord, shall be yours; however you must redeem the human firstborn, and the firstborn of unclean animals you shall redeem. ¹⁶ As to their redemption price, from a month old you shall redeem them, by your assessment, five shekels in silver by the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs. ¹⁷ But the firstborn of an ox, the firstborn of a sheep, or the firstborn of a goat, you shall not redeem; they are holy. You shall sprinkle their blood on the altar and offer up their fat in smoke as an offering by fire, for a soothing aroma to the Lord. ¹⁸ However, their meat shall be yours; it shall be yours like the breast of a wave offering and like the right thigh. ¹⁹ All the offerings of the holy gifts, which the sons of Israel offer to the Lord, I have given to you and your sons and your daughters with you, as a permanent allotment. It is a permanent covenant of salt before the Lord to you and your descendants with you.” ²⁰ Then the Lord said to Aaron, “You shall have no inheritance in their land nor own any portion among them; I am your portion and your inheritance among the sons of Israel.

²¹ “To the sons of Levi, behold, I have given all the tithe in Israel as an inheritance, in return for their service which they perform, the service of the tent of meeting.²² And the sons of Israel shall not come near the tent of meeting again, or they will bring sin on themselves and die. ²³ Only the Levites shall perform the service of the tent of meeting, and they shall bear their own guilt; it shall be a permanent statute throughout your generations, and among the sons of Israel they shall have no inheritance. ²⁴ For the tithe of the sons of Israel, which they offer as an offering to the Lord, I have given to the Levites as an inheritance; therefore I have said concerning them, ‘They shall have no inheritance among the sons of Israel.’”

²⁵ Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ²⁶ “Moreover, you shall speak to the Levites and say to them, ‘When you take from the sons of Israel the tithe which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then you shall present an offering from it to the Lord, a tithe of the tithe. ²⁷ Your offering shall be credited to you like the grain from the threshing floor or the full produce from the wine vat. ²⁸ So you shall also present an offering to the Lord from all your tithes, which you receive from the sons of Israel; and from it you shall give the Lord’s offering to Aaron the priest. ²⁹ Out of all your gifts you shall present every offering due to the Lord, from all the best of them, the sacred part from them.’ ³⁰ And you shall say to them, ‘When you have offered from it the best of it, then the rest shall be credited to the Levites like the product of the threshing floor, and like the product of the wine vat.³¹ You may eat it anywhere, you and your households, for it is your compensation in return for your service in the tent of meeting. ³² And you will bring on yourselves no sin by reason of it when you have offered the best of it. But you shall not profane the sacred gifts of the sons of Israel, so that you do not die.’”

Ordinance of the Red Heifer

19 Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, ² “This is the statute of the law which the Lord has commanded, saying, ‘Speak to the sons of Israel that they bring you an unblemished red heifer in which there is no defect and on which a yoke has never been mounted. ³ And you shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and it shall be brought outside the camp and be slaughtered in his presence. ⁴ And Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle some of its blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times. ⁵ Then the heifer shall be burned in his sight; its hide, its flesh, and its blood, with its refuse, shall be burned. ⁶ And the priest shall take cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet material, and throw it into the midst of the burning heifer. ⁷ The priest shall then wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward come into the camp; but the priest will be unclean until evening. ⁸ The one who burns the heifer shall also wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water, and will be unclean until evening.⁹ Now a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and put them outside the camp in a clean place, and the congregation of the sons of Israel shall keep them for water to remove impurity; it is purification from sin. ¹⁰ And the one who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes and will be unclean until evening; and it shall be a permanent statute for the sons of Israel and for the stranger who resides among them.

¹¹ ‘The one who touches the dead body of any person will also be unclean for seven days. ¹² That one shall purify himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day, and then he will be clean; but if he does not purify himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not be clean. ¹³ Anyone who touches a dead body, the body of a person who has died, and does not purify himself, defiles the tabernacle of the Lord; and that person shall be cut off from Israel. Since the water for impurity was not sprinkled on him, he will be unclean; his uncleanness is still on him.

¹⁴ ‘This is the law when a person dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent will be unclean for seven days. ¹⁵ And every open container, which has no cover tied down on it, will be unclean. ¹⁶ Also, anyone who in the open field touches one who has been killed with a sword or one who has died naturally, or touches a human bone or a grave, will be unclean for seven days.¹⁷ Then for the unclean person they shall take some of the ashes of the burnt purification from sin and running water shall be added to them in a container.¹⁸ And a clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, on all the furnishings, on the persons who were there, and on the one who touched the bone or the one who was killed or the one who died naturally, or the grave. ¹⁹ Then the clean person shall sprinkle on the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day; and on the seventh day he shall purify him, and he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and will be clean by evening.

²⁰ ‘But the person who is unclean and does not purify himself, that person shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly, because he has defiled the sanctuary of the Lord; the water for impurity has not been sprinkled on him, so he is unclean.²¹ So it shall be a permanent statute for them. And the one who sprinkles the water for impurity shall wash his clothes, and the one who touches the water for impurity will be unclean until evening. ²² Furthermore, anything that the unclean person touches will be unclean; and the person who touches it will be unclean until evening.’”

New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation