See, I have given all the tithes in Israel to the sons of Levi as an inheritance in return for all the work of the service they are doing in the Tent of Meeting.
During the harvest you must give a fifth part to Pharaoh and four-fifths will be for you, for seed for the field and for your food, and for those in your houses, and for food for your little ones.”
So Joseph set it as a statute until this very day concerning the land of Egypt: a fifth-part goes to Pharaoh. Only the priests’ land did not become Pharaoh’s.
They faithfully brought in the offerings and the tithes and the consecrated gifts. Conaniah the Levite was the leader in charge over them and Shimei his brother was next in rank.
“Now the rest of the people —the kohanim, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the Temple servants, and all who had separated themselves from the peoples of the lands for the sake of the Torah of God, along with their wives, their sons and their daughters who were able to understand—
and the firstborn of our sons and our livestock as written in the Torah; the firstborn of our cattle and our sheep to the House of our God—to the kohanim ministering in the House of our God;
and the first of our coarse meal, along with our offerings—the fruit from every kind of tree, new wine and oil—to the kohanim at the storerooms of the House of our God, as well as a tenth of the crop of our land to the Levites, for they, the Levites, receive tithes in all the towns where we labor.
On that day men were appointed over the storehouses for the offerings, firstfruits and tithes. They were to gather into them the portions from the fields of the cities required by the Torah for the kohanim and the Levites. For Judah delighted in the kohanim and in the Levites who were ministering.
So in the days of Zerubbabel and of Nehemiah, all Israel gave daily portions for the singers and the gatekeepers. They also set apart the portion for the Levites, and the Levites set apart the portion for the sons of Aaron.
He was closely associated with Tobiah and provided him with a large chamber previously used to store the offerings, frankincense, and the Temple vessels, and also the tithes of grain, wine and oil prescribed for the Levites, singers and gatekeepers, along with the offerings for the kohanim.
Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse. Then there will be food in My House. Now test Me in this”—says Adonai-Tzva’ot—“if I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out blessing for you, until no one is without enough.
“See, I have personally taken your kinsmen, the Levites, from among Bnei-Yisrael as a gift for you and your sons with you, dedicated to Adonai to serve in the work of the Tent of Meeting.
Indeed, those sons of Levi who receive the priesthood have, according to Torah, a command to collect a tithe from the people—that is, from their kin, although they have come out of the loins of Abraham.