Numbers 3:23–38

²³The families of the Gershonites encamped behind the tabernacle westward. ²⁴And the prince of the father’s house of the Gershonites was Eliasaph the son of Lael. ²⁵And the charge of the sons of Gershon in the tent of meeting was: the tabernacle and the tent, its covering, and the curtain of the entrance to the tent of meeting. ²⁶And the hangings of the court, and the curtain of the entrance to the court, which surrounds the tabernacle and the altar, and the cords thereof for all its service. ²⁷And of Kohath, the family of the Amramites, and the family of the Izharites, and the family of the Hebronites, and the family of the Uzzielites: these are the families of the Kohathites. ²⁸According to the number of all the males, from a month old and upward, there were eight thousand six hundred, who kept the charge of the sanctuary. ²⁹The families of the sons of Kohath encamped on the side of the tabernacle southward. ³⁰And the prince of the father’s house of the families of the Kohathites was Elizaphan the son of Uzziel. ³¹And their charge was the ark, and the table, and the candlestick, and the altars, and the utensils of the sanctuary with which they ministered, and the curtain, and all that belongs to its service. ³²And the prince of princes of the Levites was Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest: he had the oversight of them that kept the charge of the sanctuary. ³³Of Merari was the family of the Mahlites, and the family of the Mushites: these are the families of Merari. ³⁴And those that were numbered of them, according to the number of all the males, from a month old and upward, were six thousand two hundred. ³⁵And the prince of the father’s house of the families of Merari was Zuriel the son of Abihail. They encamped on the side of the tabernacle northward. ³⁶And the charge of the sons of Merari consisted in the oversight of the boards of the tabernacle, and its bars, and its pillars, and its bases, and all its furniture, and all that belongs to its service, ³⁷and the pillars of the court round about, and their bases, and their pegs, and their cords. ³⁸And those who encamped before the tabernacle eastward, before the tent of meeting toward the sunrising, were Moses, and Aaron and his sons, who kept the charge of the sanctuary for the charge of the children of Israel; and the stranger that cometh near shall be put to death.