Numbers 4:21–32

Duties of the Gershonites

²¹Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

²²“Take ¹a census of the sons of Gershon ²also, by their fathers’ households, by their families;

²³from ^athirty years and upward to fifty years old, you shall ¹number them; all who enter to perform the service to do the work in the tent of meeting.

²⁴“This is the service of the families of the Gershonites, in serving and in carrying:

²⁵they shall carry ^athe curtains of the tabernacle and the tent of meeting with its covering and ^bthe covering of porpoise skin that is on top of it, and the screen for the doorway of the tent of meeting,

²⁶and ^athe hangings of the court, and the screen for the doorway of the gate of the court which is around the tabernacle and the altar, and their cords and all the equipment for their service; and all that is to be done, ¹they shall perform.

²⁷“All the service of the sons of the Gershonites, in all their loads and in all their work, shall be performed at the ¹command of Aaron and his sons; and you shall assign to them as a duty all their loads.

²⁸“This is the service of the families of the sons of the Gershonites in the tent of meeting, and their duties shall be ¹under the direction of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest.

Duties of the Merarites

²⁹“As for the sons of Merari, you shall number them by their families, by their fathers’ households;

³⁰from ^athirty years and upward even to fifty years old, you shall number them, everyone who enters the service to do the work of the tent of meeting.

³¹“Now this is the duty of their loads, for all their service in the tent of meeting: the boards of the tabernacle and its bars and its pillars and its ¹sockets,

³²and the pillars around the court and their ¹sockets and their pegs and their cords, with all their equipment and with all their service; and you shall assign each man by name the items ²he is to carry.