¹⁴The Lord spoke to Moses in the Wilderness of Sinai: ¹⁵“Register the Levites by their ancestral families and their clans. You are to register every male one month old or more.” ¹⁶So Moses registered them in obedience to the Lord as he had been commanded:

¹⁷These were Levi’s sons by name: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. ¹⁸These were the names of Gershon’s sons by their clans: Libni and Shimei. ¹⁹Kohath’s sons by their clans were Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. ²⁰Merari’s sons by their clans were Mahli and Mushi. These were the Levite clans by their ancestral families.^c

²¹The Libnite clan and the Shimeite clan came from Gershon; these were the Gershonite clans. ²²Those registered, counting every male one month old or more, numbered 7,500. ²³The Gershonite clans camped behind the tabernacle on the west side,^d ²⁴and the leader of the Gershonite families was Eliasaph son of Lael. ²⁵The Gershonites’ duties^e at the tent of meeting involved the tabernacle, the tent, its covering, the screen for the entrance to the tent of meeting,^f ²⁶the hangings of the courtyard, the screen for the entrance^g to the courtyard that surrounds the tabernacle and the altar, and the tent ropes—all the work relating to these.

²⁷The Amramite clan, the Izharite clan, the Hebronite clan, and the Uzzielite clan came from Kohath; these were the Kohathites. ²⁸Counting every male one month old or more, there were 8,600^D responsible for the duties of the sanctuary. ²⁹The clans of the Kohathites camped on the south side of the tabernacle,^h ³⁰and the leader of the families of the Kohathite clans was Elizaphan son of Uzziel. ³¹Their duties involved the ark, the table, the lampstand, the altars, the sanctuary utensils that were used with these, and the screenⁱ—and all the work relating to them.^j ³²The chief of the Levite leaders was Eleazar^k son of Aaron the priest; he had oversight of those responsible for the duties of the sanctuary.

³³The Mahlite clan and the Mushite clan came from Merari; these were the Merarite clans. ³⁴Those registered, counting every male one month old or more, numbered 6,200. ³⁵The leader of the families of the Merarite clans was Zuriel son of Abihail; they camped on the north side of the tabernacle.^l ³⁶The assigned duties of Merari’s descendants involved the tabernacle’s supports, crossbars, pillars, bases, all its equipment, and all the work related to these,^m ³⁷in addition to the posts of the surrounding courtyard with their bases, tent pegs, and ropes.

³⁸Moses, Aaron, and his sons, who performed the duties of^B the sanctuary as a service on behalf of the Israelites, camped in front of the tabernacle on the east,ⁿ in front of the tent of meeting toward the sunrise. Any unauthorized person who came near it was to be put to death.^o

³⁹The total number of all the Levite males one month old or more that Moses and Aaron^C registered by their clans at the Lord’s command was 22,000.

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Footnotes

D reads 8,300
BOr who guarded
CSome , , omit and Aaron

Cross references

c Ex 6:17–19; 1Ch 6:1,16,20–29
d Nm 2:18–24
e Nm 4:24–26
f Ex 26:7,14,36–37; 35:11,15
g Ex 27:9–19; 35:17–18; 38:9–31
h Nm 2:10–16
i Ex 35:12
j Ex 25:10–27:21
k Ex 6:23–25; 28:1; Lv 10:6,12,16; Nm 3:2,4
l Nm 2:25–31
m Ex 35:1–13; Nm 4:31–32
n Nm 2:3–9
o Nm 1:51; 3:10; 8:19; 18:7