Under the Law Covenant. When the Israelites were in slavery in Egypt, Jehovah sanctified to himself every firstborn son of Israel at the time that he destroyed Egypt’s firstborn in the tenth plague. (Ex 12:29; Nu 3:13) These firstborn ones accordingly belonged to Jehovah, to be used exclusively in special service to him. God could have designated all of these firstborn males of Israel as the priests and caretakers of the sanctuary. Instead, it suited his purpose to take male members of the tribe of Levi for this service. For this reason he permitted the nation to substitute the Levite males for the firstborn males of the other 12 tribes (the offspring of Joseph’s sons Ephraim and Manasseh being counted as two tribes). In a census there proved to be 273 more firstborn non-Levite sons from a month old and upward than there were Levite males, so God required a ransom price of five shekels ($11) for each of the 273, the money being turned over to Aaron and his sons. (Nu 3:11-16, 40-51) Prior to this transaction Jehovah had already set apart the male members of the family of Aaron of the tribe of Levi as constituting the priesthood of Israel.​—Nu 1:1; 3:6-10.

For a long period of time Israel had the exclusive opportunity to supply the members of “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” (Ex 19:6) But that opportunity ceased to be exclusively theirs because of the national rejection of God’s Son.​—Compare Mt 21:43; 1Pe 2:7-10.

Initially, Israel’s King was Jehovah. Later Jehovah directed that the kingship be vested in the line of David. Jehovah was still their invisible King but used the Davidic line as his representatives, as to secular rulership. As such, these earthly kings were said to sit on “Jehovah’s throne.” (1Ch 29:23) But the priesthood was still kept separate, in the line of Aaron. Therefore to that nation alone belonged both the kingdom and the priesthood of Jehovah God with its “sacred service.”​—Ro 9:3, 4.

Inauguration of the priesthood. The appointment of a priest must come from God; a man does not take the office of his own accord. (Heb 5:4) Accordingly, Jehovah himself appointed Aaron and his house to the priesthood “to time indefinite,” separating them from the family of the Kohathites, one of the three main divisions of the tribe of Levi. (Ex 6:16; 28:43) First, however, Moses the Levite, as mediator of the Law covenant, represented God in the sanctification of Aaron and his sons and the filling of their hands with power to serve as priests, the procedure being described at Exodus chapter 29 and Leviticus chapter 8. Their installation apparently occupied the seven-day period of Nisan 1-7, 1512 B.C.E. (See INSTALLATION.) The newly installed priesthood began their services toward Israel the next day, Nisan 8.

Qualifications. Jehovah laid down the qualifications for those of Aaron’s family line who would serve at God’s altar. To be a priest, a man had to be physically sound and of normal appearance. Otherwise he could not approach the altar with offerings and he could not come near to the curtain between the Holy and Most Holy compartments of the tabernacle. Such a one was entitled, however, to receive support from the tithe and could partake of “the holy things” provided as food for the priesthood.​—Le 21:16-23.

The age for entering upon the priesthood is not specifically stated, although the census of the Kohathites, taken at Mount Sinai, included those from 30 to 50 years old. (Nu 4:3) The service of the Levites at the sanctuary began at age 25 (reduced in King David’s time to 20). (Nu 8:24; 1Ch 23:24) Retirement of nonpriestly Levites from obligatory service at the sanctuary was at 50 years, but there was no retirement provided for priests.​—Nu 8:25, 26; see RETIREMENT.

Maintenance. The tribe of Levi was not given a block of land as an inheritance, but they were ‘scattered in Israel,’ receiving 48 cities in which to live with their families and cattle. Thirteen of these cities went to the priests. (Ge 49:5, 7; Jos 21:1-11) One of the cities of refuge, Hebron, was a priestly city. (Jos 21:13) The Levites received no region as a tribal inheritance because, as Jehovah said, “I am your share and your inheritance in the midst of the sons of Israel.” (Nu 18:20) The Levites did the assigned work of their ministry and maintained their houses and the pasture grounds of the cities allotted to them. They would also care for other land that the Israelites might devote to sanctuary use. (Le 27:21, 28) Jehovah provided for the Levites by arranging for them to receive a tithe of all the produce of the land from the other 12 tribes. (Nu 18:21-24) Of this tithe, or tenth, the Levites were, in turn, to give a tenth of the very best as a tithe to the priesthood. (Nu 18:25-29; Ne 10:38, 39) The priesthood would thereby receive 1 percent of the national produce, enabling them to devote all their time to their assigned service of God.

This provision for the priesthood, though abundant, was in contrast to the luxury and financial power attained by the priesthood of pagan nations. In Egypt, for example, the priests owned portions of the land (Ge 47:22, 26) and by crafty maneuvering eventually were the richest and most powerful men in Egypt. James H. Breasted, in A History of the Ancient Egyptians (1908, pp. 355, 356, 431, 432), records that during the so-called Twentieth Dynasty the Pharaoh was reduced to a mere puppet. The priesthood had possession of the Nubian gold country and the great province of the Upper Nile. The high priest was the most important fiscal officer of the state, next to the chief treasurer himself. He commanded all the armies and held the treasury in his hands. He is represented more prominently in the monuments than the Pharaoh.

It was only when Israel became lax in their worship and negligent in paying their tithes that the priesthood suffered, along with nonpriestly Levites, who had to look for other work to provide for themselves and their families. In turn, this bad attitude toward the sanctuary and its maintenance caused the nation to suffer still further for lack of spirituality and knowledge of Jehovah.​—Ne 13:10-13; see also Mal 3:8-10.

The priesthood received: (1) The regular tithe. (2) The redemption money for a firstborn male child or beast. In the case of a firstborn bull, male lamb, or goat, they received the flesh for food. (Nu 18:14-19) (3) The redemption money for men and things sanctified as holy and also the things devoted to Jehovah. (Le 27) (4) Certain parts of the various offerings brought by the people, as well as the showbread. (Le 6:25, 26, 29; 7:6-10; Nu 18:8-14) (5) Benefit from the offerings of the best of the first ripe fruits of grain, wine, and oil. (Ex 23:19; Le 2:14-16; 22:10 [“stranger” in the latter text means one not a priest]; De 14:22-27; 26:1-10) Except for certain specified portions that only the priests could eat (Le 6:29), their sons and daughters and, in some cases, the priest’s household​—even slaves—​could lawfully share. (Le 10:14; 22:10-13) (6) No doubt a share in the third-year tithe for the Levites and the poor. (De 14:28, 29; 26:12) (7) The booty taken in war.​—Nu 31:26-30.

Dress. In performing their official duties, the priests served barefoot, in harmony with the fact that the sanctuary was holy ground. (Compare Ex 3:5.) In the instructions for making the special garments for the priests, sandals were not mentioned. (Ex 28:1-43) They wore linen drawers extending from the hips to the thighs for moral propriety, “to cover the naked flesh . . . that they [might] not incur error and certainly die.” (Ex 28:42, 43) Over this they wore a fine linen robe tied about the body by a linen sash. Their headgear was “wrapped” upon them. (Le 8:13; Ex 28:40; 39:27-29) This headdress seems to have been somewhat different from the turban of the high priest, which may have been sewn into a wraparound form and set on the high priest’s head. (Le 8:9) It appears that it was in later times that the underpriests on occasion wore ephods of linen, though these were not richly embroidered as was the ephod of the high priest.​—Compare 1Sa 2:18.

Regulations and functions. The priests were required to maintain personal fleshly cleanliness and high moral standards. When entering the tent of meeting and before presenting an offering at the altar, they were to wash their hands and feet at the basin in the courtyard “that they [might] not die.” (Ex 30:17-21; 40:30-32) With similar warning they were commanded not to drink wine or intoxicating liquor when serving at the sanctuary. (Le 10:8-11) They could not defile themselves by touching a corpse or mourning for the dead; this would make them temporarily unclean for service. The underpriests (but not the high priest) might do so, however, for one in very close family relationship: mother, father, son, daughter, brother, or virgin sister who was close to (apparently, living with or near) him; also the wife was possibly included as one close to him. (Le 21:1-4) Any priest who became unclean, by leprosy, by a running discharge, or by a corpse or other unclean thing, could not eat of the holy things or perform sanctuary service until cleansed, otherwise he must die.​—Le 22:1-9.

The priests were commanded not to shave their heads or the extremities of their beards, or to make cuttings in themselves, practices common among pagan priests. (Le 21:5, 6; 19:28; 1Ki 18:28) While the high priest could marry only a virgin girl, the underpriests could marry a widow, but not a divorced woman or a prostitute. (Le 21:7, 8; compare Le 21:10, 13, 14.) Evidently, all the members of the high priest’s family were to uphold the high standard of morality and the dignity due the priest’s office. Thus, a priest’s daughter who became a prostitute was to be put to death, being burned afterward as something detestable to God.​—Le 21:9.

When in the wilderness, at the time of moving camp, it was the duty of Aaron and his sons to cover the holy furniture and utensils in the tent of meeting before the other Kohathites were allowed to come in to carry them, so that the Kohathites would not die. Likewise they uncovered and set up these things in the tent at the new location. (Nu 4:5-15) On the march, the priests carried the ark of the covenant.​—Jos 3:3, 13, 15, 17; 1Ki 8:3-6.

The priests were responsible for blowing the holy trumpets, thus giving definite leadership to the people, whether in the matter of setting up or breaking camp, assembling, engaging in battle, or celebrating some festival to Jehovah. (Nu 10:1-10) The priests and Levites were exempt from military conscription, though they did serve as blowers of the trumpets and singers before the army.​—Nu 1:47-49; 2:33; Jos 6:4; 2Ch 13:12.

When the priests were on assignment at the sanctuary, their duties included the slaughtering of sacrifices brought by the people, sprinkling the blood on the altar, cutting up the sacrifices, keeping the altar fire burning, cooking the meat, and accepting all other offerings, such as the grain offerings. They were to take care of matters dealing with uncleannesses contracted by individuals, as well as their special vows, and so forth. (Le chaps 1-7; 12:6; chaps 13-15; Nu 6:1-21; Lu 2:22-24) They took care of the morning and evening burnt offerings and all other sacrifices regularly made at the sanctuary except those that it was the high priest’s duty to offer; they burned incense on the golden altar. (Ex 29:38-42; Nu 28:1-10; 2Ch 13:10, 11) They trimmed the lamps and kept them supplied with oil (Ex 27:20, 21) and took care of the holy oil and the incense. (Nu 4:16) They blessed the people at the solemn assemblies in the manner outlined at Numbers 6:22-27. But no other priest could be in the sanctuary when the high priest went into the Most Holy to make atonement.​—Le 16:17.

The priests were primarily the ones privileged to explain God’s law, and they played a major role in Israel’s judiciary. In the cities allotted to them the priests were available to assist the judges, and they also served with the judges in extraordinarily difficult cases beyond the ability of local courts to decide. (De 17:8, 9) They were required to be on hand along with the older men of the city in cases of unsolved murder, to assure that the proper procedure was followed to remove bloodguilt from the city. (De 21:1, 2, 5) If a jealous husband charged his wife with secret adultery, she had to be brought to the sanctuary, where the priest carried out the prescribed ceremony in which Jehovah’s knowledge of the truth of the woman’s innocence or guilt was appealed to for His direct judgment. (Nu 5:11-31) In all cases, judgment rendered by the priests or appointed judges was to be respected; deliberate disrespect or disobedience brought the death penalty.​—Nu 15:30; De 17:10-13.

The priests were teachers of the Law to the people, reading and explaining it to those coming to the sanctuary to worship. Also, when not on assigned duty, they would have wide opportunity for such teaching, whether in the area of the sanctuary or in other parts of the land. (De 33:10; 2Ch 15:3; 17:7-9; Mal 2:7) Upon returning to Jerusalem from Babylon, Ezra the priest, assisted by other priests along with the Levites, gathered the people and spent hours reading and explaining the Law to them.​—Ne 8:1-15.

The priestly administration served as a safeguard to the nation in religious cleanness as also in physical health. The priest was to judge between the clean and the unclean in cases of leprosy of a man, a garment, or a house. He saw to it that the legal quarantine regulations were carried out. He also officiated in the cleansing of those who had been defiled by a dead body or were unclean from morbid discharges, and so forth.​—Le 13-15.

How were the assignments of temple service for the priests in Israel determined?

Of the 24 divisions, or courses, of the priests established by King David, 16 were made up from the house of Eleazar and 8 from the house of Ithamar. (1Ch 24:1-19) However, at least initially, priests from only four of the divisions returned from the Babylonian exile. (Ezr 2:36-39) Some suggest that, in order to continue the former organizational arrangement, the four families returning were divided so that there were again 24 courses. Alfred Edersheim, in The Temple (1874, p. 63), suggests that this was accomplished by each family’s drawing five lots for those who had not returned, thereby forming from their groups 20 more courses to which they gave the original names. John the Baptizer’s father Zechariah was a priest of the eighth division, that of Abijah. However, if the above view represents the true case, he may not have been a descendant of Abijah​—he may have merely belonged to the division which carried his name. (1Ch 24:10; Lu 1:5) Absence of full information does not allow for firm conclusions on these points.

In the temple service the priests were organized under various officers. Lots were drawn in assigning certain services. Each of the 24 divisions served one week at a time, being on assigned duty twice a year. Evidently the entire priesthood served at festival seasons when thousands of sacrifices were offered by the people, as they did at the temple dedication. (1Ch 24:1-18, 31; 2Ch 5:11; compare 2Ch 29:31-35; 30:23-25; 35:10-19.) A priest might serve at other times as long as he did not interfere with the allotted services of the priests on assigned duty. According to rabbinic traditions, in the time of Jesus’ earthly life, the priests were numerous, so that the service of the week was subdivided among the various families making up the division, each family serving one or more days according to their number.

Probably considered the most honorable of the daily services was the burning of incense on the golden altar. This was done after the sacrifice was offered. During the burning of incense, the people would be gathered outside the sanctuary in prayer. Rabbinic tradition is that lots were drawn for this service but that one who had previously officiated was not allowed to participate unless all present had performed the service before. (The Temple, pp. 135, 137, 138) If this is so, a priest would usually have the honor only once in a lifetime. It was this service that Zechariah was performing when the angel Gabriel appeared to him to announce that Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth would have a son. When Zechariah came out of the sanctuary, the crowd gathered there could discern by his appearance and his inability to speak that Zechariah had seen a supernatural sight in the sanctuary; thus the event became public knowledge.​—Lu 1:8-23.

Each Sabbath day, it appears, the priests had the privilege of changing the showbread. It was also on the Sabbath that the priestly division for that week completed its service and the new course began duty for the following week. These and other necessary duties were performed by the priests without constituting a breaking of the Sabbath.​—Mt 12:2-5; compare 1Sa 21:6; 2Ki 11:5-7; 2Ch 23:8.

Loyalty. When the ten tribes broke away from the kingdom under Rehoboam and established the northern kingdom under Jeroboam, the tribe of Levi remained loyal and stuck with the two-tribe kingdom of Judah and Benjamin. Jeroboam appointed non-Levite men to be priests serving in the worship of golden calves, and he drove out the priests of Jehovah, the sons of Aaron. (1Ki 12:31, 32; 13:33; 2Ch 11:14; 13:9) Later on in Judah, although many of the priests became unfaithful to God, the priesthood at times exercised strong influence to keep Israel faithful to Jehovah. (2Ch 23:1, 16; 24:2, 16; 26:17-20; 34:14, 15; Zec 3:1; 6:11) By the time of the ministry of Jesus and the apostles, the high priesthood had become very corrupt, but there were many priests with good hearts toward Jehovah, as is evidenced by the fact that not long after Jesus’ death “a great crowd of priests began to be obedient to the faith.”​—Ac 6:7.

Other applications of “priest.” Moses was called a priest, at Psalm 99:6, because of his mediatorship and his being designated to perform the sanctification service at the sanctuary, in which Aaron and his sons were inducted into the priesthood. Moses interceded for Israel, calling upon Jehovah’s name. (Nu 14:13-20) The word “priest” was also used occasionally to denote a “lieutenant” or “chief minister or official.” In the list of the chief officers serving under King David the record reads: “As for the sons of David, they became priests.”​—2Sa 8:18; compare 2Sa 20:26; 1Ki 4:5; 1Ch 18:17.

Not the pattern for Israel’s priesthood. In spite of these facts, there are some who claim that the priesthood of Israel and the formulation of many of its regulations were patterned after those of Egypt. They argue that Moses, the mediator of the Law covenant, was deeply influenced by his life in Egypt, his training in the court of Pharaoh, and his instruction “in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.” (Ac 7:22) Their line of argument, however, ignores the fact that Moses, though used to deliver the Law to Israel, was in no sense the lawmaker. Israel’s Lawgiver was Jehovah God (Isa 33:22), who used angels to transmit the Law by the hand of the mediator Moses.​—Ga 3:19.

Every detail of Israel’s worship was outlined by God. The plans for the tent of meeting were given to Moses (Ex 26:30), and it is written that he was commanded: “See that you make all things after their pattern that was shown to you in the mountain.” (Heb 8:5; Ex 25:40) All the service at the sanctuary was of Jehovah’s origination and direction. The record repeatedly assures us of this by saying that Moses and the sons of Israel “kept doing according to all that Jehovah had commanded Moses. They did just so.” “According to all that Jehovah had commanded Moses, that was the way the sons of Israel did all the service. And Moses got to see all the work, and, look! they had done it just as Jehovah had commanded. That was the way they had done.” “And Moses proceeded to do according to all that Jehovah had commanded him. He did just so.”​—Ex 39:32, 42, 43; 40:16.

According to Egyptologists, in some things the dress of the Egyptian priests was similar to that of the priests of Israel, such as their use of linen; there was a shaving of the bodies of the Egyptian priests, as with the Levites (though the priests of Israel did not; Nu 8:7); there were washings. But do these few similarities prove that they had the same origin, or that one came from the other? Similar materials and methods are used worldwide in making clothing, houses, and buildings and in performing daily duties, such as washing, but there is great divergence also in style and methods. We do not say that one came from the other, or that the dress or the act has the same religious or symbolic significance.

In most features of their dress and functions there was no similarity whatsoever between the Israelite and the Egyptian priests. For example, while the Israelite priests served barefoot, the Egyptian priests wore sandals. The robes of the Egyptian priests were entirely different in design, and their dress and appurtenances bore symbols of the worship of their false gods. They shaved their heads, which Israel’s priests did not do (Le 21:5), and used wigs or wore headgear totally unlike that of Israel’s priests, according to inscriptions found on monuments in Egypt. Furthermore, Jehovah made it clear that Israel was not to adopt any of the practices of Egypt or the other nations, either in worship or in judicial practice.​—Le 18:1-4; De 6:14; 7:1-6.

The argument made by supporters of the theory that Israel’s priesthood borrowed from Egypt has, therefore, no foundation. We must remember that the idea of sacrifice and priesthood came originally from God and, from the beginning, was expressed by faithful men such as Abel and Noah; in patriarchal society it was carried out by Abraham and others. All nations therefore had an inheritance of this knowledge, though it was distorted into many forms because they forsook the true God and pure worship. Having the inborn desire to worship but lacking the guidance of Jehovah, the pagan nations developed many unrighteous and even degrading rites, all of which brought them into opposition to true worship.