Numbers 18:11-19
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
11 This also you shall have: the contributions that are their gifts, including the elevated offering[a] of the Israelites; I assign them to you and to your sons and daughters with you as a perpetual due.(A) All in your household who are clean may eat them. 12 I also assign to you all the best(B) of the new oil and of the new wine and grain that they give to the Lord as their first produce that has been processed. 13 The first-ripened fruits of whatever is in their land, which they bring to the Lord, shall be yours; all of your household who are clean may eat them. 14 Whatever is under the ban[b] in Israel shall be yours. 15 Every living thing that opens the womb, human being and beast alike, such as are to be offered to the Lord, shall be yours;(C) but you must redeem the firstborn of human beings, as well as redeem the firstborn of unclean animals. 16 For the redemption price of a son, when he is a month old, you shall pay the equivalent of five silver shekels according to the sanctuary shekel, that is, twenty gerahs. 17 But the firstborn of cattle, or the firstborn of sheep or the firstborn of goats you shall not redeem; they are holy. Their blood you must splash on the altar and their fat you must burn as an oblation of pleasing aroma to the Lord. 18 (D)Their meat, however, shall be yours, just as the brisket of the elevated offering and the right thigh belong to you. 19 As a perpetual due I assign to you and to your sons and daughters with you all the contributions of holy things which the Israelites set aside for the Lord; this is a covenant of salt[c] to last forever before the Lord, for you and for your descendants with you.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 18:11 Elevated offering: this included the brisket and right thigh (v. 18), the shoulder of the peace offering (Lv 7:30–34), and portions of the nazirite sacrifice (Nm 6:19–20). With you: see note on v. 1. Aaron had no daughters; see also v. 19.
- 18:14 Under the ban: in Hebrew, herem, which means here “set aside from profane use and made sacred to the Lord.” Cf. Lv 27:21, 28.
- 18:19 A covenant of salt: cf. 2 Chr 13:5. The reference may perhaps be to the preservative power of salt (cf. Mt 5:13); but more likely the phrase refers to the custom of eating salt together to render a contract unbreakable. See note on Lv 2:13.
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