For Teaching

Numbers 18: What the Passage Says

106 claims across 32 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Numbers 18 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

The LORD tells Aaron who may do what at the worship tent: Aaron's family carries the responsibility for the holy place and for the priesthood, the Levites are given to them as helpers, and any outsider who comes near is put to death. God then lists what the priests are to live on (portions of the offerings, the firstfruits, devoted things, and firstborn animals) because Aaron's family will receive no land in Israel. The Levites receive the people's tenth instead of land, and are told to present a tenth of that tenth to the priests, taking it from the best part.

Claim by Claim

18:1
- The LORD said to Aaron.
- Aaron, his sons, and his father's house with him shall bear the iniquity connected with the sanctuary.
- Aaron and his sons with him shall bear the iniquity connected with their priesthood.
18:2
- The LORD told Aaron to bring near with him his brothers, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of his father.
- The Levites are to be joined to Aaron.
- The Levites are to serve Aaron.
- Aaron and his sons with him are to be before the tent of the testimony.
18:3
- The Levites shall keep Aaron's charge.
- The Levites shall keep the charge of the whole tent.
- The Levites shall not come near the vessels of the sanctuary or the altar.
- If they come near, both the Levites and the priests will die.
18:4
- The Levites shall be joined to Aaron.
- The Levites shall keep the charge of the tent of meeting.
- The Levites shall do all the service of the tent.
- No outsider shall come near to them.
18:5
- Aaron and his sons shall keep the charge of the sanctuary.
- Aaron and his sons shall keep the charge of the altar.
- Keeping these charges is so that there will be no more wrath upon the children of Israel.
18:6
- The LORD has taken the Levites from among the children of Israel.
- The Levites are given as a gift to the priests.
- The Levites are given to the LORD.
- The Levites are given to do the service of the tent of meeting.
18:7
- Aaron and his sons with him shall keep their priesthood for everything concerning the altar.
- Aaron and his sons shall keep their priesthood for what is within the veil.
- Aaron and his sons are to perform that service.
- The LORD gives them their priesthood as a service of gift.
- Any outsider who comes near shall be put to death.
18:8
- The LORD spoke to Aaron.
- The LORD has given Aaron the charge of the LORD's contributions.
- The LORD has given Aaron all the hallowed things of the children of Israel.
- The LORD has given them to Aaron as a portion due to the anointing.
- The LORD has given them to Aaron's sons as a perpetual statute.
18:9
- This shall belong to Aaron from the most holy things, reserved from the fire.
- Every offering of theirs belongs to Aaron.
- Every grain offering of theirs belongs to Aaron.
- Every sin offering of theirs belongs to Aaron.
- Every guilt offering of theirs that they render to the LORD belongs to Aaron.
- It is most holy for Aaron and for his sons.
18:10
- Aaron shall eat it in a most holy place.
- Every male may eat it.
- It shall be holy to Aaron.
18:11
- This also belongs to Aaron: the contribution of their gift.
- It includes all the wave offerings of the children of Israel.
- The LORD has given them to Aaron, and to his sons and his daughters with him.
- This is by a perpetual statute.
- Everyone who is clean in Aaron's house may eat of it.
18:12
- All the best of the fresh oil belongs to Aaron.
- All the best of the new wine and the grain belongs to Aaron.
- These are the firstfruits of them which the Israelites give to the LORD.
- The LORD has given them to Aaron.
18:13
- The first ripe fruits of everything in their land, which they bring to the LORD, shall be Aaron's.
- Everyone who is clean in Aaron's house may eat of it.
18:14
- Every devoted thing in Israel shall be Aaron's.
18:15
- Everything that opens the womb of all flesh, which they offer to the LORD, whether of man or of beast, shall be Aaron's.
- Aaron shall surely redeem the firstborn of man.
- Aaron shall redeem the firstborn of unclean animals.
18:16
- Those to be redeemed shall be redeemed from one month old.
- The redemption is according to Aaron's valuation.
- The redemption price is five shekels of silver.
- The shekel used is the shekel of the sanctuary.
- The shekel of the sanctuary is twenty gerahs.
18:17
- Aaron shall not redeem the firstborn of an ox, or the firstborn of a sheep, or the firstborn of a goat.
- They are holy.
- Aaron shall sprinkle their blood upon the altar.
- Aaron shall burn their fat as an offering made by fire.
- It is a pleasing aroma to the LORD.
18:18
- Their flesh shall belong to Aaron.
- It shall be Aaron's just as the breast of the wave offering and the right thigh are his.
18:19
- All the contributions of the holy things which the children of Israel offer to the LORD, the LORD has given to Aaron, and to his sons and his daughters with him.
- This is by a perpetual statute.
- It is an everlasting covenant of salt before the LORD.
- It is for Aaron and for his offspring with him.
18:20
- The LORD spoke to Aaron.
- Aaron shall have no inheritance in their land.
- Aaron shall have no portion among them.
- The LORD is Aaron's portion and inheritance among the children of Israel.
18:21
- The LORD has given the children of Levi all the tithe in Israel as an inheritance.
- The tithe is given in return for their service, the service of the tent of meeting.
18:22
- The children of Israel shall no longer come near the tent of meeting.
- If they come near they will bear sin and die.
18:23
- The Levites shall do the service of the tent of meeting.
- The Levites shall bear their iniquity.
- This is a perpetual statute throughout their generations.
- The Levites shall have no inheritance among the children of Israel.
18:24
- The LORD has given to the Levites as an inheritance the tithe of the children of Israel, which they offer to the LORD as a contribution.
- For that reason the LORD has said to the Levites that they shall have no inheritance among the children of Israel.
18:25
- The LORD spoke to Moses.
18:26
- Moses is to speak to the Levites and say to them.
- The Levites will take from the children of Israel the tithe which the LORD has given them from the Israelites as their inheritance.
- The Levites shall offer from it a contribution to the LORD.
- That contribution is a tenth part of the tithe.
18:27
- The Levites' contribution shall be reckoned to them as the grain of the threshing floor.
- It shall be reckoned as the fullness of the winepress.
18:28
- The Levites also shall offer a contribution to the LORD from all their tithes which they receive from the children of Israel.
- From it they shall give the LORD's contribution to Aaron the priest.
18:29
- Out of all their gifts the Levites shall offer every contribution of the LORD.
- The contribution shall be from all the best of it.
- The contribution is the hallowed part of it.
18:30
- Moses is to say to the Levites.
- When the Levites have offered up the best of it, it shall be counted to them as the produce of the threshing floor.
- It shall be counted as the produce of the winepress.
18:31
- The Levites and their households may eat it in any place.
- It is their wages in return for their service in the tent of meeting.
18:32
- The Levites shall bear no sin because of it, once they have offered up the best of it.
- The Levites shall not profane the holy things of the children of Israel.
- If they profane them they will die.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

18:1: "Bear the iniquity" is a legal expression: to carry the liability for an offense, including its punishment. Aaron's family is being made answerable for anything done wrong at the sanctuary or in the priests' work, whoever does it. "Your father's house" means Aaron's wider family line within the tribe of Levi, as distinct from "you and your sons," who are the priests proper. The instructions follow the rebellion of Korah in chapters 16-17, where unauthorised men approached the sanctuary and died.
18:2: The Levites were the descendants of Levi, one of the twelve tribes of Israel, set apart to work at the sanctuary rather than farm land of their own. Within that tribe, only the descendants of Aaron were priests; the rest were assistants. The Tent of the Testimony (also called the Tent of Meeting, or tabernacle) was the portable tent-sanctuary the Israelites carried through the wilderness. The "testimony" was the pair of stone tablets inscribed with the covenant terms, kept in a chest inside it.
18:3: The "vessels of the sanctuary" are the sacred furnishings and equipment of the tent, the lampstand, the table, the incense altar, and the utensils used with them. The altar was the raised structure in the courtyard where animals and grain were burned as offerings.
18:4: The King James "stranger" translates a Hebrew word meaning an unauthorised person, any Israelite who was not a priest or a Levite on duty. It does not mean a foreigner.
18:5: "That there be no wrath any more" refers back to the plague that struck the people after Korah's rebellion (chapter 16), and to their panic in 17:12-13 that anyone who came near the sanctuary would die. These rules are the answer to that fear.
18:6: The Levites were the men from Levi's family. They set up the tent, carried it, and helped the priests with the work.
18:7: "Within the vail" means behind the curtain, in the innermost room of the tent where the chest holding the covenant tablets stood. Only the high priest entered it, and only on prescribed occasions.
18:8: "Heave offering" translates a Hebrew word for a portion lifted off a larger amount and set aside for the sanctuary; in 1611 "heave" simply meant to raise or lift. To be anointed was to be installed in office by having perfumed olive oil poured over the head, the ceremony that made Aaron and his sons priests.
18:9: The categories named here are distinct types of sacrifice: the grain offering (King James "meat offering", in 1611 "meat" meant food of any kind, not flesh), a gift of flour, oil and incense; the sin or purification offering, which cleansed the sanctuary of defilement; and the trespass or guilt offering, which made reparation for a wrong. "Reserved from the fire" means the portion not burned on the altar; that remainder fed the priests.
18:10: The Hebrew can mean either "in the most holy place" or, more likely, "in a most holy place": that is, within the sacred precinct of the sanctuary rather than at home. No one ate inside the innermost room. Only males of the priestly family could eat this class of offering.
18:11: A "wave offering" translates a Hebrew term for a portion formally presented, traditionally understood as lifted or moved before the altar, and then assigned to the priests. "Ceremonially clean" describes a ritual status, not physical cleanliness: contact with a corpse, certain illnesses, childbirth and other conditions made a person temporarily unfit to handle holy things until the prescribed waiting and washing were complete.
18:12: Firstfruits were the first and best part of each harvest, handed over before the household used any of the crop itself.
18:14: A "devoted thing" translates the Hebrew *herem*: something irrevocably handed over to God. Unlike other gifts it could never be bought back, sold, or returned to ordinary use.
18:15: "Openeth the matrix" means opens the womb, the first male offspring of a mother. By the rule given in Exodus 13, every firstborn male, human and animal, belonged to God, in memory of the night the Israelites left Egypt. To "redeem" is to buy back: a payment released the child or animal from that claim. "Unclean" animals were species not permitted for sacrifice or food, such as donkeys and camels; since they could not be offered, they had to be bought back instead.
18:16: A shekel was a weight of silver, roughly 11.5 grams, so five shekels came to about two ounces. Coined money did not yet exist; silver was weighed out. The "shekel of the sanctuary" was the official standard weight, guarding against short measure. A gerah was one twentieth of a shekel, a little over half a gram.
18:17: "A sweet savour unto the LORD" is a fixed idiom in these texts, meaning a pleasing smell, the standard way of saying an offering was accepted.
18:18: The breast and the right thigh were the fixed portions the priests received from the shared offerings that worshipers ate with their families (Leviticus 7:31-34). The point is that this meat comes to the priest by the same standing right.
18:19: "A covenant of salt" draws on salt's ability to preserve food and its resistance to spoiling. Salt accompanied offerings, and sharing salt sealed an agreement, so the phrase marks an arrangement meant to be permanent and unbreakable.
18:20: When the land of Canaan was divided, each tribe received a defined block of territory to hold and pass on to its heirs: that is what "inheritance" means throughout this chapter. The priests and Levites received no such territory. They were given towns to live in (chapter 35) and lived on the offerings and tithes instead.
18:21: The tithe was a tenth of the year's produce (grain, wine, oil, and the increase of the flocks) handed over as a standing due.
18:22: "Come nigh" means encroach on the restricted area around the tent. The Levites camped between the ordinary Israelites and the sanctuary, acting as a buffer so that no one strayed in by accident.
18:23: The Levites now carry the liability: if an outsider encroaches, or a duty is neglected, the penalty falls on them rather than on the people at large.
18:26: The Levites received a tenth of the nation's produce, and then paid a tenth of that to the priests, so the priests' income came out of the Levites' income, not from a separate collection.
18:27: The comparison matters because the Levites owned no fields. Their tenth of the harvest is to be treated, for legal purposes, exactly as if it were grain and wine they had grown themselves, so the same rules about setting aside a portion apply to them as to everyone else.
18:31: "In every place" means anywhere at all, not only within the sanctuary precinct. Once the priests' share had been separated out, the remainder counted as ordinary food and could be eaten at home by the whole household.
18:32: The holy gifts were set aside for God alone. Using them like ordinary food would be treating them as common.

Read Numbers 18