NUMBERS XVIII-THE REWARDS OF THE PRIESTHOOD

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bring thou with thee, that they may be joined unto thee, and minister unto thee: but thou and thy sons with thee shall minister before the tabernacle of witness.

3 And they shall keep thy charge, and the charge of all the tabernacle: only they shall not come nigh the vessels of the sanctuary and the altar, that neither they, nor ye also, die.

4 And they shall be joined unto thee, and keep the charge of the tabernacle of the congregation, for all the service of the tabernacle: and a stranger shall not come nigh unto you.

5 And ye shall keep the charge of the sanctuary, and the charge of the altar: that there be no wrath any more upon the children of Israel.

6 And I, behold, I have taken your brethren the Levites from among the children of Israel; to you they are given as a gift for the LORD, to do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation.

7 Therefore thou and thy sons with thee shall keep your priest's office for every thing of the altar, and within the vail; and ye shall serve: I have given your priest's office unto you as a service of gift: and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death.

8 ¶ And the LORD spake unto Aaron, Behold, I also have given thee the charge of mine heave offerings of all the hallowed things of the children of Israel; unto thee have I given them by reason of the anointing, and to thy sons, by an ordinance for ever.

9 This shall be thine of the most holy things, reserved from the fire: every oblation of theirs, every meat offering of theirs, and every sin offering of theirs, and every trespass offering of theirs, which they shall render unto me, shall be most holy for thee and for thy sons.

10 In the most holy place shalt thou eat it; every male shall eat it: it shall be holy unto thee.

11 And this is thine; the heave offering of their gift, with all the wave offerings of the children of Israel: I have given them unto thee and to thy sons and to thy daughters with thee by a statute for ever: every one that is clean in thy house shall eat of it.

12 All the best of the oil, and all the best of the wine, and of the wheat, the firstfruits of them which they shall offer unto the LORD, them have I given thee.

13 And whatsoever is first ripe in the land, which they shall bring unto the LORD, shall be thine; every one that is clean in thine house shall eat of it.

14 Every thing devoted in Israel shall be thine.

15 Every thing that openeth the matrix in all flesh, which they bring unto the LORD, whether it be of men or beasts, shall be thine: nevertheless the firstborn of man shalt thou surely redeem, and the firstling of unclean beasts shalt thou redeem.

16 And those that are to be redeemed from a month old shalt thou

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are thine.

NUMBERS XVIII—THE INHERITANCE OF LEVI redeem, according to thine estimation, for the money of five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs.

17 But the firstling of a cow, or the firstling of a sheep, or the firstling of a goat, thou shalt not redeem: they are holy: thou shalt sprinkle their blood upon the altar, and shalt burn their fat for an offering made by fire, for a sweet savour unto the LORD.

18 And the flesh of them shall be thine, as the wave breast and as

19 All the heave offerings of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer unto the LORD, have I given thee, and thy sons and thy daughters with thee, by a statute for ever: it is a covenant of salt for ever before the LORD unto thee and to thy seed with thee. tance in their land, neither shalt thou

20 | And the LORD spake unto Aaron, Thou shalt have no inheriI am thy part and thine inheritance among the children of Israel. Israel for an inheritance, for their service which they serve, even the service of the tabernacle of the congregel henceforth come nigh the tabernacle of the congregation, lest they bear sin, and die.

23 But the Levites shall do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they shall bear their iniquity: it shall be a statute for ever have no inheritance. throughout your generations, that among the children of Israel they heave offering unto the LORD, I have

24 But the tithes of the children of Israel, which they offer as an therefore I have said unto them, Amo the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.

given to the Levites to inherit: 25 4 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

26 Thus speak unto the Levites, and say unto them, When ye take for your inheritance, then ye shall offer up of the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them though it were the corn of the threshingfloor, and as the fulness of

28 Thus ye also shall offer an heave offering unto the LORD of all your tithes, which ye receive of the give thereof the LORD's heave offering to

of Israel; and ye shall LORD, of all the best thereof, even the hallowed part thereof out

29 Out of all your gifts ye increase of the threshingfloor, and as the increase of the winepress. best thereof from it, then it shall be counted 30 Therefore thou shalt say unto them. When ye have heaved the

unto the Levites as the the

have any part among them;

heave offering of it for reckoned unto you, as

the . heave offering of the

ra

the LORD, even a tenth part of the tithe.

27 And this your heave offering shall

an

the winepress.

be

receive of the children

Baromethe priest

shall offer

every

The Rain of Manna

BY GIOVANNI ROMANELLI, THE ITALIAN ARTIST,

DIED 1662. THE ORIGINAL IS IN

THE LOUVRE GALLERY.

+

"And Moses said unto them, this is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat."-Ex., 16, 15.

S

UFFERING makes men strong. It is by sor

row that God teaches and uplifts us. But the Israelites, as yet, did not realize this; they did not desire to be uplifted, but to be pampered. They had cursed Moses in Egypt; they despaired by the Red Sea; they murmured at Marah. There God turned the water sweet for them; but as Moses led them still southward into the wilderness, they found fresh cause of discomfort and even of fear. Food began to fail. As gaunt famine crept ever closer

the people's path, they broke down again, crying, "Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full." And they clamored against Moses.

Again God gave them means of deliverance. First he sent a host of quails, which covered the camp and proved excellent food. Then through the night he sent a rain of manna, so that in the morning, "when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the willerness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoarfrost on the ground."

"And when the children of Israel saw it,
they said one to another, It is manna;

for they wist not what it was."