Numbers 3:5-37 — Legacy Standard Bible

⁵Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ⁶“^aBring the tribe of Levi near and have them stand before Aaron the priest, that they may minister to him. ⁷“And they shall keep his responsibility and the responsibility for the whole congregation before the tent of meeting, to perform the ^aservice of the tabernacle. ⁸“They shall also keep all the furnishings of the tent of meeting, along with the responsibility of the sons of Israel, to perform the service of the ¹tabernacle. ⁹“You shall thus ^agive the Levites to Aaron and to his sons; they are wholly given to him from among the sons of Israel. ¹⁰“So you shall appoint Aaron and his sons that ^athey may keep their priesthood, but ^bthe ¹outsider who comes near shall be put to death.”

¹¹Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ¹²“Now, behold, I ^ahave taken the Levites from among the sons of Israel instead of every ^bfirstborn, the first offspring of the womb among the sons of Israel. So the Levites shall be Mine. ¹³“For ^aall the firstborn are Mine; on the day that I struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I sanctified to Myself all the firstborn in Israel, from man to beast. They shall be Mine; I am Yahweh.”

¹⁴Then Yahweh spoke to Moses ^ain the wilderness of Sinai, saying, ¹⁵“¹^,^aNumber the sons of Levi by their fathers’ households, by their families; every male from a month old and upward you shall ²number.” ¹⁶So Moses numbered them according to the ¹word of Yahweh, just as he had been commanded. ¹⁷^aThese then are the sons of Levi by their names: Gershon and Kohath and Merari.

¹⁸And these are the names of the ^asons of Gershon by their families: Libni and Shimei; ¹⁹and the sons of Kohath by their families: Amram and Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel; ²⁰and the sons of Merari by their families: Mahli and Mushi. These are the families of the Levites according to their fathers’ households.

²¹Of Gershon was the family of the Libnites and the family of the Shimeites; these were the families of the Gershonites. ²²Their numbered men, in the numbering of every male from a month old and upward, even their numbered men were 7,500. ²³The families of the Gershonites were to camp behind the tabernacle westward, ²⁴and the leader of the fathers’ households of the Gershonites was Eliasaph the son of Lael.

Responsibilities of the Priests

²⁵Now ^athe responsibility of the sons of Gershon in the tent of meeting involved the tabernacle and ^bthe tent, its covering, and ^cthe screen for the doorway of the tent of meeting, ²⁶and ^athe hangings of the court, and ^bthe screen for the doorway of the court which is around the tabernacle and the altar, and its cords, according to all the service ¹concerning them.

²⁷Of Kohath was the family of the Amramites and the family of the Izharites and the family of the Hebronites and the family of the Uzzielites; these were the families of the Kohathites. ²⁸In the numbering of every male from a month old and upward, there were 8,600, keeping the responsibility of the sanctuary. ²⁹The families of the sons of Kohath were to camp on the southward side of the tabernacle, ³⁰and the leader of the fathers’ households of the Kohathite families was ¹Elizaphan the son of Uzziel. ³¹Now ^atheir responsibility involved ^bthe ark, ^cthe table, ^dthe lampstand, ^ethe altars, and the utensils of the sanctuary with which they minister, and the screen, and all the service ¹concerning them; ³²and Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest was the chief of the leaders of Levi and had the oversight of those who keep the responsibility of the sanctuary.

³³Of Merari was the family of the Mahlites and the family of the Mushites; these were the families of Merari. ³⁴And their numbered men, in the numbering of every male from a month old and upward, were 6,200. ³⁵And the leader of the fathers’ households of the families of Merari was Zuriel the son of Abihail. They were to ^acamp on the northward side of the tabernacle. ³⁶Now the appointed responsibility of the sons of Merari involved the boards of the tabernacle, its bars, its pillars, its bases, all its equipment, and the service concerning them, ³⁷and the pillars around the court with their bases and their pegs and their cords.