15 After that the Levites may come to serve at the tent of meeting, once you have ceremonially cleansed them and presented them as a presentation offering.l 16 For they have been exclusively assigned to me from the Israelites.m I have taken them for myself in place of all who come first from the womb, every Israelite firstborn.n 17 For every firstborn among the Israelites is mine, both man and animal. I consecrated them to myselfo on the day I struck down every firstborn in the land of Egypt. 18 But I have taken the Levites in place of every firstborn among the Israelites.