Numbers 3:5–37

⁵And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

⁶Bring the tribe of Levi, and make them stand in the sight of Aaron the priest to minister to him, and let them watch,

⁷And observe whatsoever appertaineth to the service of the multitude before the tabernacle of the testimony,

⁸And let them keep the vessels of the tabernacle, serving in the ministry thereof.

⁹And thou shalt give the Levites for a gift,

¹⁰To Aaron and to his sons, to whom they are delivered by the children of Israel. But thou shalt appoint Aaron and his sons over the service of priesthood. The stranger that approacheth to minister, shall be put to death.

¹¹And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

¹²I have taken the Levites from the children of Israel, for every firstborn that openeth the womb among the children of Israel, and the Levites shall be mine.

¹³For every firstborn is mine: since I struck the firstborn in the land of Egypt: I have sanctified to myself whatsoever is firstborn in Israel both of man and beast, they are mine: I am the Lord.

¹⁴And the Lord spoke to Moses in the desert of Sinai, saying:

¹⁵Number the sons of Levi by the houses of their fathers and their families, every male from one month and upward.

¹⁶Moses numbered them as the Lord had commanded.

¹⁷And there were found sons of Levi by their names, Gerson and Caath Merari.

¹⁸The sons of Gerson: Lebni and Semei.

¹⁹The sons of Caath: Amram, and Jesaar, Hebron and Oziel:

²⁰The sons of Merari, Moholi and Musi.

²¹Of Gerson were two families, the Lebnites, and the Semeites:

²²Of which were numbered, people of the male sex from one month and upward, seven thousand five hundred.

²³These shall pitch behind the tabernacle on the west,

²⁴Under their prince Eliasaph the son of Lael.

²⁵And their charge shall be in the tabernacle of the covenant:

²⁶The tabernacle itself and the cover thereof, the hanging that is drawn before the doors of the tabernacle of the covenant, and the curtains of the court: the hanging also that is hanged in the entry of the court of the tabernacle, and whatsoever belongeth to the rite of the altar, the cords of the tabernacle, and all the furniture thereof.

²⁷Of the kindred of Caath come the families of the Amramites and Jesaarites and Hebronites and Ozielites. These are the families of the Caathites reckoned up by their names:

²⁸All of the male sex from one month and upward, eight thousand six hundred: they shall have the guard of the sanctuary,

²⁹And shall camp on the south side.

³⁰And their prince shall be Elisaphan the son of Oziel:

³¹And they shall keep the ark, and the table and the candlestick, the altars, and the vessels of the sanctuary, wherewith they minister, and the veil, and all the furniture of this kind.

³²And the prince of the princes of the Levites, Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, shall be over them that watch for the guard of the sanctuary.

³³And of Merari are the families of the Moholites, and Musites, reckoned up by their names:

³⁴All of the male kind from one month and upward, six thousand two hundred.

³⁵Their prince Suriel the son of Abihaiel: they shall camp on the north side.

³⁶Under their custody shall be the boards of the tabernacle, and the bars, and the pillars and their sockets, and all things that pertain to this kind of service:

³⁷And the pillars of the court round about with their sockets, and the pins with their cords.