Numbers 18:7Easy To Read VersionBut, Aaron, only you and your sons may serve as priests. You are the only ones that can go near the altar. You are the only ones that can go inside the curtain {into the Most Holy Place}. I am giving you a gift—your service as a priest. Anyone else that comes near {my} holy place must be killed.” See the chapter |
“The priests are all from the family group of Levi. But only priests from Zadok’s family took care of my holy place when the people of Israel turned away from me. So only Zadok’s descendants will bring offerings to me. They will stand before me to offer me the fat and the blood from the animals they sacrifice.” The Lord my Master said those things!
The Lord said, “Talk to your brother Aaron. Tell him that he cannot go behind the curtain into the Most Holy Place [263] anytime he wants to. The Holy Box [264] is in the room behind that curtain. The special cover [265] is on top of that Holy Box. And I appear in a cloud over that special cover. If Aaron goes into that room, he might die!
The Levite people do not get a share of the land. Their share is to serve the Lord as priests. Gad, Reuben, and half the family group of Manasseh have already received the land that was promised to them. They are on the east side of the Jordan River. Moses, the Lord’s servant, already gave them that land.”
I chose your family group from all the family groups of Israel. I chose your family group to be my priests. I chose them to offer sacrifices on my altar. I chose them to burn incense [29] and wear the ephod. [30] I also let your family group have the meat from the sacrifices that the people of Israel give to me.