Numbers 1:47–53

⁴⁷But the Levites after the tribe of their fathers were not numbered among them. ⁴⁸For Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, ⁴⁹Only the tribe of Levi thou shall not number, neither shalt thou take the sum of them among the children of Israel; ⁵⁰but appoint thou the Levites over the tabernacle of the testimony, and over all the furniture thereof, and over all that belongeth to it: they shall bear the tabernacle, and all the furniture thereof; and they shall minister unto it, and shall encamp round about the tabernacle. ⁵¹And when the tabernacle setteth forward, the Levites shall take it down; and when the tabernacle is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up: and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death. ⁵²And the children of Israel shall pitch their tents, every man by his own camp, and every man by his own standard, according to their hosts. ⁵³But the Levites shall encamp round about the tabernacle of the testimony, that there be no wrath upon the congregation of the children of Israel: and the Levites shall keep the charge of the tabernacle of the testimony.