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Chapter 18

Priests. The levitical priests, the whole tribe of Levi, shall have no hereditary portion with Israel; they shall eat the fire offerings of the Lord and the portions due to him.(A) They shall have no heritage among their kindred; the Lord himself is their heritage, as he has told them.(B) This shall be the due of the priests from the people: those who are offering a sacrifice, whether an ox or a sheep, shall give the priest the shoulder, the jowls and the stomach. The first fruits of your grain, your wine, and your oil,(C) as well as the first shearing of your flock, you shall also give him. For the Lord, your God, has chosen him out of all your tribes to be in attendance to minister in the name of the Lord, him and his descendants for all time.(D)

When a Levite goes from one of your communities anywhere in Israel in which he has been residing, to visit, as his heart may desire, the place which the Lord will choose, and ministers there in the name of the Lord, his God, like all his fellow Levites who stand before the Lord there, he shall receive the same portions to eat, along with his stipends and patrimony.[a]

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Footnotes

  1. 18:8 His stipends and patrimony: meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.

20 (A)Then the Lord said to Aaron:[a] You shall not have any heritage in their land nor hold any portion among them; I will be your portion and your heritage among the Israelites.

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Footnotes

  1. 18:20 The priests and Levites were forbidden to own hereditary land such as the other Israelites possessed; therefore in the allotment of the land (chap. 34) they did not receive any portion of it. Certain cities, however, were assigned to them for their residence; cf. 35:1–8.