tithe

⁸If a man will afflict God, then you greatly afflict me. And you have said, “In what way, do we afflict you?” In tithes and in first-fruits. ⁹And you have been cursed with privation, and you greatly afflict me, even your entire people. ¹⁰Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, and let there be food in my house. And test me about this, says the Lord, as to whether I will not open to you the floodgates of heaven, and pour out to you a blessing, all the way to abundance.

⁹Honor the Lord with your substance, and give to him from the first of all your fruits,

⁷each one giving, just as he has determined in his heart, neither out of sadness, nor out of obligation. For God loves a cheerful giver.

³⁸Give, and it will be given to you: a good measure, pressed down and shaken together and overflowing, they will place upon your lap. Certainly, the same measure that you use to measure out, will be used to measure back to you again.”

²³Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! For you collect tithes on mint and dill and cumin, but you have abandoned the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, while not omitting the others.

³⁵I have revealed all things to you, because by laboring in this way, it is necessary to support the weak and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”

²²Each year, you shall separate the tithes out of all your crops which spring forth from the earth. ²³And you shall eat these in the sight of the Lord your God, in the place which he will choose, so that his name may be invoked there: the tenth part of your grain and wine and oil, and the firstborn from the herds and your sheep. So may you learn to fear the Lord your God at all times. ²⁴But when the way and the place which the Lord your God will have chosen is further away, and he will have blessed you, so that you are not able to carry all these things to it, ²⁵you shall sell them all, so as to turn them into money, and you shall carry it in your hand, and you shall set out for the place which the Lord will choose. ²⁶And you shall buy with the same money whatever pleases you, either from the herds or from the sheep, and also wine and liquor, and all that your soul desires. And you shall eat in the sight of the Lord your God, and you shall feast: you and your household. ²⁷As for the Levite, who is within your gates, take care that you do not abandon him, for he has no other portion within your possession.

¹And looking around, he saw the wealthy putting their donations into the offertory. ²Then he also saw a certain widow, a pauper, putting in two small brass coins. ³And he said: “Truly, I say to you, that this poor widow has put in more than all the others. ⁴For all these, out of their abundance, have added to the gifts for God. But she, out of what she needed, has put in all that she had to live on.”

⁹Honor the Lord with your substance, and give to him from the first of all your fruits, ¹⁰and then your storehouses will be filled with abundance, and your presses shall overflow with wine.

³⁰All the tithes of the land, whether from the grain, or from the fruits of trees, are for the Lord and are sanctified to him.

⁴²But woe to you, Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, but you ignore judgment and the charity of God. But these things you ought to have done, without omitting the others.

¹⁷Whoever possesses the goods of this world, and sees his brother to be in need, and yet closes his heart to him: in what way does the love of God abide in him?

¹For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham, as he was returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him. ²And Abraham divided to him a tenth part of everything. And in translation his name is first, indeed, king of justice, and next also king of Salem, that is, king of peace. ³Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life, he is thereby likened to the Son of God, who remains a priest continuously. ⁴Next, consider how great this man is, since the Patriarch Abraham even gave tithes to him from the principal things. ⁵And indeed, those who are from the sons of Levi, having received the priesthood, hold a commandment to take tithes from the people in accord with the law, that is, from their brothers, even though they also went forth from the loins of Abraham. ⁶But this man, whose lineage is not enumerated with them, received tithes from Abraham, and he blessed even the one who held the promises.

²⁰And then he made a vow, saying: “If God will be with me, and will guard me along the way by which I walk, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, ²¹and if I will return prosperously to my father’s house, then the Lord will be my God, ²²and this stone, which I have set up as a monument, will be called ‘the House of God.’ And from all the things that you will give to me, I will offer tithes to you.”

²¹But I have given, to the sons of Levi, all the tithes of Israel as a possession, for the ministry by which they serve me in the tabernacle of the covenant,