Instructions to the Levites

(Book of Numbers 18:1 - 18:32)
Jehovah then told Aaron, "You and your sons and members of the Levite tribe are to be responsible for offenses concerning the Sanctum, but you and your sons alone are responsible for offenses involving the priesthood.  So you may bring in your fellow Levites, members of your ancestral tribe, to join you and assist you when you and your sons minister before the Inner Sanctum.  They may perform duties for you in the Tabernacle, but must have no contact with the sacred furnishings of the Sanctum or the altar.  If they do, both they and you will die.  They are to assist you in the maintenance of the Tabernacle and any work that needs to be done there, but no unauthorized person may come near you.  You yourself are to officiate in the Sanctum and before the altar, so that my wrath may never again be vented upon the Israelites.  It is I who have chosen your fellow Levites from among the Israelites to be your assistants; I present them to you as a gift that they may dedicate themselves to Jehovah and serve in the Tabernacle.  But it is you and your sons, as priests, who will perform the rituals at the altar and the priestly duties behind the veil of the Sanctum.  The priesthood is proffered to you as a privilege.  Any other, unauthorized person that violates the Sanctum will be put to death.

Jehovah also told Aaron, "I have given you charge of the offerings made to me, all the sacred gifts from the Israelites, and make them over to you and your sons as a perpetual share.  You are to be allotted a portion of the sacred offerings that are not burned.  That portion of the sacred offerings, whether they be grain offerings, sin offerings, or guilt offerings, will be considered holy and belong to you and your sons.  Consume it as a holy offering.  Every male in your household must eat it.  You must regard it as holy.  Also belonging to you are all the sacred offerings of the Israelites that are raised and waved above the altar.  I give these as a perpetual share to your sons and daughters.  Everyone in your household who is ritually pure may partake of them.  And I give to you all the finest olive oil and new wine and grain that are the offered to Jehovah as first fruits of the harvest.  All the first fruits of the land offered to Jehovah will thus belong to you.  Everyone in your household who is ritually pure may partake of them.

"Everything in Israel given over to Jehovah belongs to you as well.  Whether human or animal, the firstborn issue of every womb offered to Jehovah is yours, but the firstborn of every human and the firstborn of every ritually impure animal you will redeem.  They should be redeemed when they are a month old, the redemption price being 5 silver shekels (a shekel weighing 20 gerahs, according to the weights of the Sanctum).

"But you must not redeem the firstborn of a cow, a sheep, or a goat, for they are holy.  Dash their blood upon the altar, burn their fat into smoke -- a burnt offering creating an aroma pleasing to Jehovah.  Their meat, though, belongs to you, just like the breast and right thigh that are raised and waved above the altar as offerings.  All the offerings the Israelites make to Jehovah I make over to you, with your sons and daughters, as a perpetual share.  This a permanent and unbreakable contract between Jehovah and you and your descendants."

Jehovah said this as well to Aaron, "You will have no legacy of land, nor will you any share in real property.  I am your share, your legacy among the Israelites.  To the Levites I have given all of Israel's tithes in recompense for serving and ministering in the Tabernacle.  From now on the Israelites must not approach the Tabernacle; for this offense they will suffer death.  It is the Levites who are to serve in the Tabernacle and they must answer for any offenses made against it.  This will be a permanent law, in force throughout the generations: the Levites will have no allotment of land among the Israelites, because I have given them as their share the tithes the Israelites present to Jehovah as sacred offerings.  That is their share and that is why I have said, ‘They have no allotment of land among the Israelites’.”

To Moses Jehovah then said. "Tell the Levites that when they receive from the Israelites the tithes I have given to you as your share, they should set aside a portion of it as an offering to Jehovah -- a tithe of the tithe.  Jehovah will consider this as a harvest offering like the first grain from your threshing floor or the first juice from your wine press.  You must therefore present a tenth of the tithes you receive from the Israelites as sacred offerings to Jehovah.  From the tithes received you must turn over Jehovah's portion to Aaron the priest.  You must reserve for Jehovah the best and the holiest of the offerings you receive.  Tell the Levites that when they present this best part it should be treated like an offering from the threshing floor or the wine press.  You Levites, you and your households may eat the remainder anywhere you wish, for it is your recompense for serving in the Tabernacle.  You will not considered guilty of any offense by accepting the tithes of Jehovah, if you turn over the best portion to the priests.  But take care not to profane the holy gifts from the the people of Israel -- on pain of death.

Notes
1. Much of Jehovah's instructions to the Levites have already been recorded in Leviticus, but we have seen that redundancy is pretty common in the biblical texts, likely owing to the fact of their being compiled from multiple sources over a period of time.

2. The god-priest arrangement presented here is a standard one.  The god authorizes the priesthood to represent him to his worshipers.  The priests are rewarded with the sacrifices that are offered to the god.  They invariably defend their prerogatives and the uniqueness of their role.  And they are able to justify everything they say and do as being the will of the god, since only they are able to communicate directly with the divine and, therefore, may define that will.  The arrangement has always been a racket, and throughout history few have been the priests that have not exploited it.  Here, as part of the deal, the Levites do not get a piece of the Promised Land along with the other tribes, because their share is the priesthood itself -- more than ample compensation.  This is attested to over and over again as if members of the priestly class, who are writing the texts, have a continual need to confirm and justify their position.

3. It is never quite clear how the punishment of death is enacted against those who violate the Sanctum, that is, go anywhere near it.  Does Jehovah personally strike them down as he did the supporters of Korah or, earlier, the sons of Aaron?  Is there something deadly about the Chest of Sacred Records itself?  Or is the violator merely apprehended by the priests and executed in some conventional manner?

4. One wonders how onerous and unpopular might have been the provision that the priests claim all the firstborn.  Your wife has her first baby, you have to pay the priests 5 shekels.  Your dog has a puppy, you pay the priests 5 shekels.  You cow has a calf, you have to take it to the priest so he can slaughter and eat it.  Isn't that a bit much?  And, since the firstborn is considered the most desirable, what effect might it have had on the breeding stock when every firstborn animal was always being killed?

5. The Sanctum shekel would be about .8 ounces, that makes the price of redemption of 5 shekels (2 ounces of silver) about $32 (as of this writing).