Numbers 18:25–32, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Numbers 18:25–32
Levites Give a Tithe of the Tithe
Levites must heave the best tenth of the tenth to Aaron
The LORD tells Moses to speak to the Levites: When you take of the children of Israel the tithes I have given you from them for your inheritance, then you shall offer up a heave offering of it for the LORD, a tenth of the tithe. This your heave offering shall be reckoned as the corn of the threshingfloor and as the fulness of the winepress. You shall offer every heave offering of the LORD of all your gifts, of all the best thereof, even the hallowed part.
Say to them, When you have heaved the best, then it shall be counted to the Levites as the increase of the threshingfloor and as the increase of the winepress. You shall eat it in every place, you and your households, for it is your reward for your service in the tent of meeting.
After the best is given, the rest is ordinary food—under a remaining warning
You shall bear no sin by reason of it, when you have heaved from it the best, neither shall you pollute the holy things of the children of Israel, lest you die. Levites are not a dead end in the flow of gifts. They give the best tenth onward, then their households may eat the remainder as if it were their own harvest.
A tithe of tithes is not a financial pyramid, not a hereditary wealth engine, and not permission for leaders to set their own compensation without oversight. The 'best' clause blocks skimming. The household-eating clause blocks treating all food as untouchable sacred stock. Both need an account someone besides Aaron's house can read.
How this should shape us
Pass the best on; then eat your wages without drama. Do not build a pyramid of tithes, do not let a caste write its own paycheck in the dark, and do not call ordinary household food too holy to use or too holy to audit.
Teach it back
Explain Numbers 18:25–32 in your own words. Include its place in Numbers' movement from Sinai to Moab, both movements within this thought unit, one material uncertainty, one affected person or group, and one use the complete context rules out.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: Interpreters dispute the historical development of priests and Levites, relationships among Torah traditions, motives of competing groups, ritual sequence, and the compositional setting of authority stories. Office does not settle moral evaluation. For “Levites Give a Tithe of the Tithe,” confidence is strongest in the received unit's stated sequence and literary function; source, date, demography, geography, mechanism, archaeology, and historical reconstruction remain probable, plausible, or uncertain as the evidence warrants.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Numbers 18:25–32, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, numbers, speeches, poems, legal clauses, older-English controls, and translation limits.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Num.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 18:25–32
Supports: Unit-bounded translation, syntax, lexical, ritual, legal, number, name, poetic, and selected textual notes; silence is not evidence.
NET Bible Numbers PDF, complete 134-page PDF, translation and translator notes attached to 18:25–32
Supports: Final-form movement, wilderness setting, census and camp, complaint, leadership, composition, and ethical framing.
Yale Bible Study, Numbers Part 1, complete study guide sections “Introduction,” “At Sinai (1:1–10:10),” “From Sinai to Moab (10:11–22:1),” and “Composition,” applied to Numbers 18:25–32
Supports: Nonchronological placement of Numbers 1 and 9, sanctuary-centered opening, and source-critical alternatives.
TheTorah, “The Message of the Non-Chronological Opening of Numbers,” complete sections “Tabernacle Chronology,” “Why Doesn't Numbers Begin with Passover?,” and proposed source-order discussion, applied to Numbers 18:25–32
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: Numbers 18:25–32, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Numbers
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project
Open Scriptures, release 2.2, 2021
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, numbers, speeches, poems, legal clauses, older-English controls, and translation limits.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Num.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 18:25–32
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Numbers with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
eBible.org distribution of the NET Bible, source files dated 2026-08-08
Supports: Unit-bounded translation, syntax, lexical, ritual, legal, number, name, poetic, and selected textual notes; silence is not evidence.
Exact location: NET Bible Numbers PDF, complete 134-page PDF, translation and translator notes attached to 18:25–32
Open source ↗modern critical open study guide
Numbers Part 1
Yale Bible Study
Yale Divinity School, 2023 course edition
Supports: Final-form movement, wilderness setting, census and camp, complaint, leadership, composition, and ethical framing.
Exact location: Yale Bible Study, Numbers Part 1, complete study guide sections “Introduction,” “At Sinai (1:1–10:10),” “From Sinai to Moab (10:11–22:1),” and “Composition,” applied to Numbers 18:25–32
Open source ↗modern jewish scholarly open literary study
The Message of the Non-Chronological Opening of Numbers
TheTorah.com named scholarly contributor
TheTorah.com, 2017
Supports: Nonchronological placement of Numbers 1 and 9, sanctuary-centered opening, and source-critical alternatives.
Exact location: TheTorah, “The Message of the Non-Chronological Opening of Numbers,” complete sections “Tabernacle Chronology,” “Why Doesn't Numbers Begin with Passover?,” and proposed source-order discussion, applied to Numbers 18:25–32
Open source ↗