Numbers 8:5–26

Moses Consecrates the Levites

⁵Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ⁶“Take the Levites from the midst of the Israelites^c and purify them. ⁷So you will do to them, to purify them: sprinkle on them waters of purification, and they will shave their whole body^d and wash their garments. ⁸And they will take a young bull^e and its grain offering of finely milled flour mixed with oil, and you will take a second young bull^f as a sin offering. ⁹You will bring the Levites before^g the tent of assembly, and you will summon the entire community of the Israelites.^{h 10}And you will bring the Levites before Yahweh,ⁱ and the Israelites^j will lay their hands on the Levites, ¹¹and Aaron will offer^k the Levites as a wave offering before Yahweh^l from the Israelites,^m and they will do the work of Yahweh. ¹²And the Levites will lay their hands on the head of the one bull and offer it as a sin offering and the other one as a burnt offering to Yahweh, to make atonement for the Levites. ¹³And you will present the Levites beforeⁿ Aaron and before^o his sons, and he will offer^p them as a wave offering to Yahweh.

¹⁴“And you will separate the Levites from the midst of the Israelites,^q and the Levites will be for me. ¹⁵And after this the Levites will come to serve at the tent of assembly, and you will purify them, and you will offer^r them as a wave offering. ¹⁶For they are given to me exclusively from the midst of the Israelites.^s I have taken them for myself in place of the firstborn of every womb, every firstborn from the Israelites.^{t 17}For every firstborn among the Israelites^u is mine, both humankind and animal. On the day I destroyed every firstborn in the land of Egypt I consecrated them to me, ¹⁸and I have taken the Levites in the place of every firstborn among the Israelites.^{v 19}And I have given the Levites; they are given to Aaron and his sons from the midst of the Israelites^w to do the work of the Israelites^x in the tent of the assembly and to make atonement for the Israelites,^y so a plague will not be among the Israelites^z when the Israelites^a come near the sanctuary.”

²⁰And Moses and Aaron and the entire community of the Israelites^b did to the Levites; everything that Yahweh commanded Moses concerning the Levites, the Israelites^c did to them. ²¹And the Levites purified themselves, and they washed their garments, and Aaron offered them^d as a wave offering before Yahweh;^e and Aaron made atonement for them to purify them. ²²After this the Levites came to do their work in the tent of assembly before Aaron and his sons. Just as Yahweh commanded Moses concerning the Levites, so they did to them.

²³Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ²⁴“This is what is for the Levites: those twenty-five years old^f and above will^g come to help with the service in the work of the tent of assembly; ²⁵and those fifty years old^h willⁱ return from the service of the work and will serve no longer. ²⁶They^j can attend^k their brothers in the tent of assembly to keep their responsibilities, but they^l will not do work. This is what you will do concerning the Levites and their responsibilities.”