This verb specifically refers to the practice of collecting or paying tithes—the ten percent offering prescribed in Mosaic law. Hebrews 7 uses it twice in discussing Melchizedek's superiority to the Levitical priesthood: once for Melchizedek collecting tithes from Abraham (7:6), and once in the remarkable statement that Levi himself 'was tithed' through Abraham (7:9). The passive voice in the second instance creates a theological point about representation and superiority. The term appears exclusively in this Hebrews passage, where the author builds a sophisticated argument about priestly orders through careful analysis of the Genesis 14 encounter.