Numbers 3:5–37

⁵The Lord spoke to Moses: ⁶“Bring the tribe of Levi near and present them to Aaron the priest to assist him. ⁷They are to perform duties for ^ohim and the entire community before the tent of meeting by attending to the service of the tabernacle. ⁸They are to take care of ^pall the furnishings of the tent of meeting ^qand perform duties for ^rthe Israelites by attending to the service of the tabernacle. ⁹Assign the Levites to Aaron and his sons; they have been assigned exclusively to him ^sfrom the Israelites. ^t10You are to appoint Aaron and his sons to carry out their priestly responsibilities, but any unauthorized person who comes near the sanctuary must be put to death.” ^u

¹¹The Lord spoke to Moses: ¹²“See, I have taken the Levites from the Israelites in place of every firstborn Israelite from the womb. ^vThe Levites belong to Me, ¹³because every firstborn belongs to Me. At the time I struck down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, ^wI consecrated every firstborn in Israel to Myself, both man and animal. They are Mine; I am Yahweh.” ^x

The Levitical Census

¹⁴The Lord spoke to Moses in the Wilderness of Sinai: ¹⁵“Register the Levites by their ancestral houses 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 houses. ^y

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, ^z24and the leader of the Gershonite family was Eliasaph son of Lael. ²⁵The Gershonites’ duties ^aat the tent of meeting involved the tabernacle, the tent, its covering, the screen for the entrance to the tent of meeting, ^b26the hangings of the courtyard, the screen for the entrance ^cto 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 ^dresponsible for the duties of ^ethe sanctuary. ²⁹The clans of the Kohathites camped on the south side of the tabernacle, ^f30and the leader of the family 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 screen ^gh—and all the work relating to them. ⁱ³²The chief of the Levite leaders was Eleazar ^json of Aaron the priest; he had oversight of those responsible for the duties of ^kthe 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 family of the Merarite clans was Zuriel son of Abihail; they camped on the north side of the tabernacle. ^l36The assigned duties of Merari’s descendants involved the tabernacle’s supports, crossbars, posts, bases, all its equipment, and all the work related to these, ^m37in addition to the posts of the surrounding courtyard with their bases, tent pegs, and ropes.